Ruthless Bastards
A partnership that could be the death of them.
At a Glance
| Title | Ruthless Bastards |
| Genre | Action / Crime / Dark Comedy |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Year | 2025 |
| Runtime | Feature, 90 min |
| Format | Digital, 2.39:1, 5.1 surround |
| Director | Bruce Fontaine |
| Writers | Varinder Jhattu, Andrei Kovski |
| Producers | Alex Bogomolov, Wai Sun Cheng |
| Production company | APL Film, Pandapix Pictures, Early Ignition Entertainment |
| US release | VOD, Nov 11, 2025 (Dark Star Pictures) |
| Sales | 40+ countries |
The story
Two former hitmen with a bitter past must overcome their hatred for each other to rescue a kidnapped girl and take down a rising crime lord, proving they are still the most ruthless bastards in the game.
Nico and Rick were once unstoppable. Fixers and hitmen for the criminal organization of Benjamin Rothstein, until Nico slept with Rick's fiancée and the partnership exploded. Years later, a new kingpin named Sunny Gill is moving drugs through Vancouver in partnership with the Russian Sergeev brothers. Benjamin sees his chance for revenge and pulls Nico and Rick back together for one last job. They take down the operation, save a kidnapped girl and dismantle a money-laundering scheme — if they can stop trying to kill each other first.
Full synopsis
Years ago, Nico (Casper Van Dien) and Rick (Sean Patrick Flanery) were the most feared team in Benjamin Rothstein's criminal organization. Fixers, when the work called for it. Hitmen, when it called for that. Their partnership ended the day Nico took Rachel, Rick's fiancée, and Rick walked out of the business.
Today, Vancouver belongs to a new kingpin. Sunny Gill (Parmish Verma) is well-educated, photogenic and ruthless. He moves drugs at scale, runs extortion and prostitution out of a stable of legitimate fronts, and has just opened a partnership with the Sergeev brothers, the top Russian gangsters operating in North America. Benjamin and Sunny share history, the kind that demands a reckoning, and Sunny has handed Benjamin the opening he has waited years for.
Benjamin makes Nico and Rick an offer neither can refuse: take down Sunny, dismantle the Russian deal, and the payday is large enough to retire on. Rick has his own reason to say yes, a personal vendetta against Sunny that runs deeper than money. Nico says yes because he is who he is.
The reunion is brutal. The two of them cannot stand to be in a room together, and the job keeps putting them in rooms together. As they pull on threads they discover a banker named Treyton Jones is being coerced into laundering large sums of cash to accounts in the Middle East. Treyton's daughter Emma has been kidnapped to make sure he plays along. Suddenly a contract job is also a rescue.
The body count climbs. The Sergeev brothers send a small team of female assassins to clean up loose ends. A corrupt detective working both sides of the line tries to put Nico and Rick in a cell. Old grievances surface in the worst possible moments. Every time the mission demands they trust each other, the betrayal between them gets louder.
In a final showdown that runs from a money-drop to a hostage extraction, Nico and Rick are forced to choose: kill each other and let the job die with them, or finish what they started together and decide later who deserves the bullet. They are still the most ruthless bastards in the game. The only question is whether the game ends with them.
Director's statement
I wanted to make a gangster film with the engine of Rush Hour and the rhythm of Guy Ritchie. Two men who hate each other, forced to share a frame for ninety minutes, with enough action and mayhem to never let the audience exhale. Vancouver gave us a city that can play global, an international cast that can carry the comedy and the violence in the same beat, and a producing team that fought for every dollar to land on screen.
The Punjabi-Canadian thread, with Parmish Verma as Sunny, was not decoration. It is one of the largest underserved crime audiences in North America and the most underused criminal world in Western film. Ruthless Bastards is built to play in Surrey, Mumbai, Los Angeles and Moscow with the same crowd reaction.
— Bruce Fontaine, DirectorPrincipal cast
- Nico Casper Van Dien Lead of Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, Sleepy Hollow opposite Johnny Depp, Tarzan and the Lost City, Daredevils, S.W.A.T.: Under Siege. Three decades of action lead-man credibility.
- Rick Sean Patrick Flanery The Boondock Saints (Connor MacManus) and its sequel, the title role in George Lucas's Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, recent recurring role in Amazon's The Boys, the modern Western The Outsider, Born A Champion (co-writer and lead opposite Dennis Quaid), Nefarious, Assault on VA-33. Trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt; does his own fights.
- Sunny Gill Parmish Verma Punjabi superstar. Singer-actor with over a billion combined YouTube views. Lead of Rocky Mental, Dil Diyan Gallan, Singham, Munda Faridkotia. Ruthless Bastards is his first major English-language crossover, and the engine of the film's South Asian distribution play.
- Hasleen Kaur Former Pantaloons Femina Miss India (2011). Recent credits include Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (with Ranbir Kapoor, directed by Luv Ranjan), Mili (with Janhvi Kapoor, produced by Boney Kapoor), and CAT (Netflix, with Randeep Hooda). Brand ambassador, magazine covers across Femina, Vogue India, Grazia, Harper's Bazaar, GQ, L'Officiel.
- Sydney Scotia Lead of the Crave series Pillow Talk. Best known as Geneva in YTV/Netflix's Some Assembly Required (two Joey Awards, Leo Award nominee). Recent: It's a Wonderful Knife, Frank & Penelope, Reboot: The Guardian Code, The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Director of the documentary This Hits Home (audience choice, Boston Film Festival).
- Supporting cast Harj Nagra, Theresa Lee Yee Hung, Alex Bogomolov, Max Rositsan.
Stills, posters & trailer
Hi-res production stills, posters, and the official trailer are available in the asset library: