Film / The Mercy

A man alone on a boat is more alone than any man alive.

The Mercy is a biographical drama film about Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth), a middle-aged business and family man with a dream: To win the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, which means circumnavigating the world, completely alone in a sailboat, without making any stops on land. He does it for the glory, adventure, and money to secure the future of his wife Clare (Rachel Weisz) and their family. But while his status as an underdog makes for a inspiring read for the newspapers and ever-growing fan base, the harsh reality of being isolated on the open ocean is something else entirely.

The trailer can be found here.

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This film provides examples of:

• The Ace: Two experienced sailors, for whom Crowhurst becomes a tragic and pathetic foil:
  • Francis Chichester, the first man to circumnavigate the world alone via the clipper route, and with the fastest time. He serves as the inspiration for the Golden Globe Race, which replicates his journey, but without any stops along the way. He returned home a national hero, an international celebrity, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
  • As for the race itself, Robin Knox-Johnston qualifies the most, as he is the frontrunner and only one to finish the race. Once it's all over, he gives the prize money to Clare.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Several reporters and acquaintances described Donald Crowhurst and even more so his wife Clare as rather stuck up, with an attitude of upper class entitlement even though they were barely scraping by financially. The film doesn't really show this aspect of their personalities - Donald is a likeable if naive and irresponsible man, and Clare's one angry outburst towards the press is largely justified.
• Apocalyptic Log: What begin as proper sailing and video logs gradually turn into this, starting from the moment Crowhurst decides to start reporting fake positions. By the end of the race, he's devolved into philosophical, barely coherent rants about divinity, time travel, and life being a game. The last entry (in the film, but penultimate in real life) simply says: It is finished It is finished IT IS THE MERCY.
• Cool Boat: The Teignmouth Electron is a trimaran that is designed based on Crowhurst's specifications, focusing on speed and stability. It's also equipped with extensive communication and navigational equipment, perfectly suited for a race around the world. It fails mere weeks into the race because Crowhurst and the builders cut corners due to the rushed production and limited funds. The ship repeatedly takes on water in the relative calm currents of the Atlantic, and Crowhurst knows it won't stand a chance in the Roaring Forties past the Cape of Good Hope.
• Cosmic Plaything: Crowhurst refers to himself as this almost verbatim once he starts losing his mind.
• Crew of One: The Golden Globe Race is for solo sailors, sailing their boats entirely alone.
• Deadpan Snarker: Rodney Hallworth (Crowhurst's publicist) is cynical and sarcastic.
• Despair Event Horizon: His nerves were already frayed from everything that happened, but once Tetley dropped out of the race, he loses what's left of his sanity.
• Didn't See That Coming: While Crowhurst is the obvious underdog and highly unlikely to win, no one could've predicted that all of his competition for the speed record would either break down or give up, leaving him the winner by default.
• Disqualification-Induced Victory: Played with. There are several contenders in the Golden Globe Race. But by the end, everyone aside from Crowhurst and Knox-Johnston either breaks down or quits, leaving them the only ones left in the race with Crowhurst set to take the prize for fastest time... Which is exactly what Crowhurst doesn't want. Finally played straight when Knox-Johnston, the only one to actually complete the non-stop circumnavigation, wins the prize money by default.
• Driven to Suicide: What ends up happening to Crowhurst, once he becomes the only one left in the race and knows that his deception will be discovered.
• Endurance Duel: The Golden Globe Race is one by design. The contenders have to circumnavigate the world, with no crew, without ever docking in port once. Several of them are hardened, experienced sailors, but give up because it's simply too much.
• Failure Gambit: Crowhurst's plan to get out of his situation involves waiting for the other sailors to make it back to his area, rejoin the race without anyone noticing, and come in last place so no one will bother looking into his fake records.
• Fan Disservice: Legions of Colin Firth's fans remember him playing Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (1995), especially the iconic scene where he goes swimming in his underclothes. Such fans would likely go into this expecting another scene of brooding, wet Colin Firth. What they wouldn't expect is him vomiting due to seasickness, accidentally stabbing his hand, getting thrown around in a storm, slowly going insane from isolation and paranoia, and devolving into a haggard, suicidal madman.
• Fan of Underdog: Crowhurst becomes a media darling because he is such a long shot to win the race. He only gets a modest amount of local attention when he leaves, but things take off once mainstream London newspapers start writing about him. By the end of the race, he's become a household name throughout England and beyond.
• Foreshadowing: Early on, Crowhurst explains to his kids about the rope tied to the boat; it's there in case he falls overboard and needs to use it to get back on. It's easy to assume that he'll fall off the boat at some point later on. He ends up cutting the rope once he's lost his mind and starts contemplating suicide.
• Foregone Conclusion: Those who have heard of Donald Crowhurst's attempt to sail around the world know how the story will end.
• From Bad to Worse: From the moment Crowhurst clumsily boards his sailboat to start the race, things start to go badly. It's clear that everything was put together in the last minute (loose wires and tangles of rope everywhere, supplies that haven't been organized or unpacked). Shortly after he gets seasick and cuts himself while trying to loosen a line, and notices that his hull is taking in water due to having skimped on a proper seal. From then on, his problems start going from nuisances to life-threatening situations.
• Gone Horribly Right: Crowhurst gets fame and attention, but for faking his journey, going insane from sheer isolation and paranoia, and committing suicide.

  Hallworth: Donald Crowhurst wanted to be famous. Now he's about to be.

• Go Mad from the Isolation: Circumnavigating the Earth without a crew and never stopping is an absolutely grueling mental undertaking, and a few contenders drop out because they can't handle it. Crowhurst suffers severely from this, exacerbated by paranoia of someone figuring out his ruse, and guilt for failing so utterly. By the end, he's wrapping himself in seaweed, having audio and visual hallucinations, taking a knife to his hair, speaking incoherently into the recorder, and writing nonsensical musings about life being a game, time travel, and divinity.
• Hope Spot: Though the outcome is a Foregone Conclusion for those who know the real-life story, the film offers false hope for Crowhurst at several points:
  • The night before his trip, Crowhurst, aware of the fact that neither he nor his boat is ready, tries to bow out of the sailing race before Hallworth and Best tell him that it's too late to back out.
  • There is also one briefly when Crowhurst manages to get a phone call through to Clare near the end of the race. He's clearly exhausted and deeply shaken, but at least he has that moment with her. Then the camera pans down, revealing that he'd cut the phone cord and has been talking to a hallucination.
• I Just Want to Be Special: After hearing Chichester talk about his experiences as the first man to sail solo around the world, Crowhurst feels like a nobody by comparison. He tells Clare that embarking on his voyage is something that nobody else in his town or county would even think of, and that he hopes his children will look up to him as a hero for doing it.
• Loser Protagonist: Downplayed. Crowhurst's business isn't going well and he's not an experienced sailor, but his wife and four kids love him. He just wants to provide better for them and take a chance at being a hero.
• Never Trust a Trailer: If you just go with the trailer and don't know anything about the real-life story, it'd be easy to assume that this movie is just about a guy going on epic race around the world alone, a testament to the willpower and survival instinct of an unlikely champion. It's actually about an inexperienced sailor who gets in way over his head, tries to cover it up by making fake reports and dropping contact for over 8 months, and ends up going insane.
• Ocean Madness: Being alone on the ocean with no face-to-face contact with another human for 8 months is enough to wear down anyone's sanity, even experienced sailors. This hits Crowhurst extremely hard due to the paranoia about his ruse being discovered, guilt over failing, and the stress of keeping his deteriorating boat afloat.
• Oh, Crap!: Several examples as things go increasingly wrong for Crowhurst aboard his boat, most notably:
  • The moment Crowhurst realizes that the hull is taking in water because of his failure to install a proper seal.
  • Perhaps even more so when the buoyancy bag breaks, which means it'd be impossible to bring the ship back up to its original position if it capsizes. It's at this moment that he knows he's screwed, and the lingering shot of the waves adds emphasis to it.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Played with. Crowhurst got the fame and attention he wanted, but actually winning the race was exactly what he didn't want, as it'd draw too much attention to his forged sailing logs. When his only viable remaining opponent drops out with barely a thousand miles left, he loses what was left of his sanity.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Clare delivers a scathing one to the media once Crowhurst's descent into desperation, lies, insanity and death are fully revealed, rightfully pointing out how much pressure they'd put on him just for the sake of a news story.
• River of Insanity: Circumnavigating the Earth in a boat, completely alone, would in itself be enough to wreck someone's sanity. It gets exponentially worse when Crowhurst realizes that he can't continue with the race, but can't return home because he'd be bankrupted. So he drifts in the Atlantic for months, reporting fake positions, and slowly loses his grip. By the end, his journal entries are nonsensical philosophical rantings about reality being a game, time travel, and his divinity.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: All the isolation and stress involved with Crowhurst's plan ends up being All for Nothing once all the remaining competitors drop out of the race, effectively putting everyone's focus on him and leaving him wide open to scrutiny. He suffers for 8 months alone on the ocean for nothing, goes insane, and commits suicide. But the reason he didn't continue the race past the Atlantic in the first place was because he knew it'd be suicidal, and didn't want to die. His family lost him, and had to live the rest of their lives knowing that he died a miserable failure, liar, and madman. The only silver lining is that Knox-Johnston donated the prize money to the family.
• Snowball Lie: This begins the moment Crowhurst starts lying about his position. His seemingly incredible speeds catch the attention of the media, who then spread it to the public, who start paying far more attention to him, necessitating him to keep it going with vague but plausible reports, thus drumming up even more attention. He becomes a household name, but also becomes paranoid that someone will figure it out. It all falls apart when his abandoned boat and log books are finally found.
• Spanner in the Works: As Colin Firth talks about in the bonus material, there are a lot of factors and little decisions that seem inconsequential at the time, but mark the line between life and death. The biggest factor is the boat's hull not getting fitted with the right protection due to time constraints, which makes it impossible for Crowhurst to survive in the Roaring Forties, and causes him to abandon the race. However, the most unexpected twist comes when Tetley - the only one left to viably challenge Crowhurst - drops out near the end of the race. He wrecks his boat while trying to catch up to Crowhurst's fake position. This makes Crowhurst the winner by default for the fastest time, which completely derails his plan of returning to England in last place to avoid attention.
• Springtime for Hitler: An infamously non-comedic example. Crowhurst enters the contest in the hopes of winning the £5000 (worth over £91,000 in 2021) prize, which would go a long way towards helping his family, bring attention to his failing business, and give him a taste of fame and glory. But to finance the boat, he has to put up his house and business as collateral; if he doesn't finish the race, he'll lose everything. Once he finally makes it out on the ocean, he quickly realizes that his ship can't handle the Roaring Forties past the Cape of Good Hope, and continuing the race is tantamount to suicide. But he can't go back home, either. So he drifts around the Atlantic for months, creating a fake log book and reporting false positions to make it seem like he's still in the race. He knows that his records will be double checked by officials when he makes it back, and so he's dug himself deeper into a hole of lies. He decides to drop all radio contact and go undetected, and then rejoin the race once the other sailors are passing by his area. No one will bother checking the logs if he comes in last. This plan would have worked, except for one unforeseen factor: all of the other contenders break down or quit. With the race nearly over, Tetley - his only remaining opponent for the fastest time record - pushes himself too hard to catch up to Crowhurst's fake position and capsizes his boat. As a result, Crowhurst wins by default, giving him everything he sought to get, but leaving him open to scrutiny and financial ruin.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Donald Crowhurst joins the race to win money for his family, drum up attention for his business, and take his chance at fame and glory. He's an inexperienced sailor, but has a lot of technical knowledge and invented some navigational equipment, designs his own ship, and is charming enough to talk the talk and get investors and the public interested. His wife has some misgivings, but is ultimately supportive, and the kids are of course behind him. It has all the makings of a great underdog story, and under different circumstances, could've been a testament to a man's determination, sense of adventure, and devotion to his family. As this movie is based on the true story, however, what really happens is far starker:
  • Boats are very expensive. Crowhurst's business is failing, and he has a wife and four kids to support. To afford the boat, he has to put his house and business on the line, and it takes a lot of convincing for Stanley Best to come on as an investor.
  • Streamlining a boat's design to focus on speed and new technology is great, but it shouldn't come at the cost of more practical things, like making your living quarters habitable. The Teignmouth Electron looks cool on the outside, but the interior is cramped to the point of claustrophobia. Crowhurst sometimes sleeps on the floor, and is clearly miserable right from the start.
  • Due to the limited time and funding of the production of the Teignmouth Electron, corners had to be cut, resulting in a boat that's not as good or safe as Crowhurst's design. This quickly comes back to haunt Crowhurst when he finds out some of the wiring isn't installed properly, the buoyancy bag falls apart, and the hull is compromised and regularly takes on water, even in the relatively calm Atlantic currents. The Teignmouth Electron gradually falls apart over the ensuing months, and Crowhurst even has to sneak ashore in Argentina for repairs.
  • Even before he leaves, Crowhurst knows the ship isn't ready, and wants to quit. On the night before launch, he takes Best and Hallworth out for drinks and tries to politely pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here. The other two men pressure him to stay on, with disastrous results.
  • Sailing a ship is hard work, especially when you don't have a crew backing you up. Crowhurst's plucky attitude, smooth talk, and navigational knowledge are no match for actual experience and physical capability. It's pointed out early on that just getting a boat out past his hometown bay would be a big accomplishment for him. One of the first things he does on the open ocean is throw up, as he's overwhelmed by sea sickness. He also struggles to climb a mast, injures his hand, and futilely bails water out of the hull that floods on a daily basis. He's also hopelessly outclassed by the other contenders, who have years of sailing under their belts and have massive leads due to him leaving on the very last day he could. Even if everything had gone perfectly after he left, it would've been impossible for him catch up with Knox-Johnston, who ended up becoming the first man to do a non-stop circumnavigation and winner of the race in both categories by default. Hence why Crowhurst is focusing on the fastest time record and its prize money.
  • Crowhurst attracts the attention of Rodney Hallworth, former Daily Mail reporter turned publicist. He takes on Crowhurst's cause with gusto, promising to make him famous. He uses his connections to drum up media support, and supplies him with a video and audio recorder so he can record entries for the BBC. As a result, Crowhurst is under more pressure to report in, talk about his journey, and create something for posterity. This becomes a massive liability when he starts reporting fake positions. Hallworth even notices that he's becoming increasingly vague, but doesn't realize it's deliberate until it's all over. Hallworth's tendency to sensationalize the reports leads to major newspapers following Crowhurst's journey, resulting in him becoming a household name across England and putting even more pressure on him. In the end, the video and audio recorder only preserves Crowhurst's descent into insanity.
  • No matter how meticulous of a navigator you are or what kind of instruments you're using, it's impossible to accurately write an entire sailing log about locations and coordinates where you've never been. This is 1968; navigation is barely better than it was during Captain Cook's time. There is no GPS, no satellites, and no Internet with real-time weather data. Crowhurst tries to make his reports sound like he's breaking speed records and making it just believable enough, but he knows that it'll never stand up under scrutiny.
  • Repairing a ship is impossible without extra materials, and you can't ignore the wear and tear of the elements. When the hull of the Teignmouth Electron breaks open, Crowhurst is forced to land in Brazil and sneak into town for supplies. He's quickly caught, and the coast guard initially thinks he's some kind of drug smuggler. Even after finding out who he is, he offhandedly calls Crowhurst a crazy Englishman. Judging by his ragged appearance and deteriorating mental state, it's an accurate description.
  • Months alone at sea with no human contact whatsoever will take a mental toll on anyone. Not only does Crowhurst have to deal with the isolation, but it's compounded by the paranoia and guilt over his failure. There is a noticeable decline in his speaking ability, and his writing goes on increasingly disjointed rants. By the end, he sees and hears hallucinations of his wife, wraps himself in seaweed, thinks the radio is talking to him about god, mutters into a phone with a severed cord, and hallucinates horses walking on the deck (and drowned horses drifting among the seaweed behind his boat). His writing has been reduced to philosophical ramblings about time travel and life being a game. And it's all saved for posterity in the log book and the audio and video recorders.
  • Clare does her best to keep up appearances due to her husband's newfound celebrity status. She's fully aware that the media - and most of his fans in general - don't care about his well-being, and comes to hate them for it once the truth gets out. Also, being married to a famous sailor doesn't pay the bills, especially when you're out of contact for months. Once the glamorous photo shoots and interviews are done, she has to rely on social services to keep the kids fed and dressed.
• Take a Third Option: Crowhurst is eventually faced with two options: 1) Keep going despite knowing full well that his boat is incapable of handling the Roaring Forties, which means certain death for him or 2) Give up and return to England a failure, lose his house and business, and leave him and his family in poverty. Instead, he chooses 3) Report fake positions to pretend he's still in the race, drop all radio contact, stay hidden in the Atlantic off the coast of Brazil, eventually rejoin the race when the other competitors pass through the area, and come in last place so no one will care about him.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Crowhurst's last hours alive at sea are shown from his point of view, including his hallucinations, both visual (horses walking on deck and drowning behind the boat) and auditory (talking to some supernatural entity about God and "cosmic beings", then talking to his wife on the receiver of a telephone with a torn cord).
• Underdogs Never Lose: Almost everyone thinks this trope is in effect, especially when the media put their spin on it. Crowhurst is not an experienced sailor, his ship has an unusual design but is packed with modern equipment, he's leaving on the last day of the race, and he's got confidence in spades. Reality is more complicated than that. Crowhurst fails miserably within weeks of leaving. He languishes for 243 days in the Atlantic because his ship isn't capable of going beyond, he reports fake positions to pretend he's still going, and tries to sneak back into the race at the end and get last place because no one would ever bother looking at the log books of a loser. But then all the other contenders for the fastest record either give up or break down, leaving him the only one left to cross the finish line^note Knox-Johnston technically completed the voyage first, but Crowhurst will be the one with the fastest time. But he can't do that without getting too much attention, which would result in his ruse being discovered and leaving him in financial ruin.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The night before his voyage, Crowhurst faces facts and recognizes that the boat isn't ready or safe for transoceanic travel and tries to tell Hallworth and Best that he wants to bow out of the competition and maybe give the solo trip a go next year. Hallworth talks him out of it because it's bad for his publicity campaign. Though the cynical Hallworth doubted Crowhurst's ability to finish the race, much less win it, he probably had no idea that things would go quite so badly for Crowhurst.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: We see Crowhurst throwing up from seasickness over the side of the boat early on in the voyage.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out what became of Clare and the children after Donald Crowhurst's death at sea. Were they forced out of their home and living in near-poverty afterwards? Crowhurst financed his boat with Stanley Best by mortgaging his house and business assetts, on the premise that he'd make enough money just by completing the circumnavigation to repay the loan. With Donald dead, the only way for Best to get his money back is to take the Crowhurst house and business - it's unlikely that the prize money donated by Robin Knox-Johnston would come close to paying off Donald's debts, and since his death was a likely suicide, they are unlikely to get any money from life insurance since most policies are null and void in the event of a suicide.