The Woman In Cabin 10

2025 Netflix

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 32min

Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Starring: Keira Knightley, Guy Pearce, David Ajala, Art Malik, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Kaya Scodelario, David Morrissey, Daniel Ings, and Hannah Waddingham.

They Don’t Want You To Believe What She Saw

The Book:

The Woman in Cabin 10 is a New York Times Best-Selling Novel by Ruth Ware published April 11, 2017. CBS initially acquired the film rights in 2017 and began developing a film, but in May 2024 it was announced that Netflix had bought the rights and Simon Stone was slated to direct with Kiera Knightley playing the lead role of Laura Blacklock.

Reminiscent of a classic whodunit, this “pulse-quickening” instant New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller follows a journalist searching for a missing woman on a cruise ship, a woman that everyone else insists doesn’t exist.

Travel magazine writer Lo Blacklock has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: one week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the elite guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea.

At first, Lo’s voyage is perfect, with a plush cabin, elegant dinner parties, and plenty of relaxation. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for, and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

With surprising twists, spine-tingling turns, and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up a taut and intense read in The Woman in Cabin 10, proving, once again, her place as “the Agatha Christie of her generation”.

The Movie:

Journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock (Keira Knightley) is looking for a career boost when she’s offered the chance to cover a luxury cruise on a billionaire’s yacht, the Aurora Borealis. The trip, arranged by wealthy philanthropist Anne Bullmer (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and her husband Richard (Guy Pearce), is a lavish journey to Norway under the pretense of Anne’s final charitable act. Guests on board include not only the couple’s high-society friends, like the shrewd socialite Heidi (Hannah Waddingham) and glamorous influencer Grace (Kaya Scodelario), but also Lo’s old flame, photographer Ben (David Ajala). The yacht’s gleaming hallways and endless drinks disguise underlying tensions, while Lo, though grateful for the invitation, remains unsettled by lingering anxiety and a run-in with a mysterious woman next door.

On her first night, Lo is startled to meet a frightened woman (Gitte Witt) in the supposedly empty adjacent Cabin 10, who begs her for help before vanishing into the bathroom. Later, after a night of heavy drinking, Lo hears a violent commotion from Cabin 10, followed by the unmistakable splash of something or someone falling overboard. Racing to her balcony, Lo sees a body in the water and a bloody mark next door, but when she raises the alarm, the yacht’s crew and passengers insist that nobody ever checked into Cabin 10. Shocked and isolated, Lo finds herself the only person convinced a crime has taken place.

Her efforts to investigate put her at odds with Richard Bullmer (Guy Pearce), whose slick demeanor and evasiveness turn increasingly sinister, as well as with the rest of the guests, who seem eager to believe Lo is imagining things. Undeterred, Lo pursues clues with the help of Ben (David Ajala) and challenges the eerie silence of the luxury cruise, discovering suspicious details, disappearing belongings, threatening notes, and evidence that someone is tampering with her cabin. As pressure mounts and her paranoia spirals, Lo begins to question not just the loyalties of those around her, but her own grasp on reality, all while someone clearly wants her to drop her search for the “woman in Cabin 10” at any cost.

With danger closing in and the yacht cut off from the outside world, Lo fights to piece together the truth behind the woman’s disappearance. Her only allies seem to be her stubborn sense of right and the slim trail of clues the mystery woman left behind. As secrets are exposed through the stormy, claustrophobic voyage, Lo’s investigation turns into a desperate game of survival—proving that even surrounded by luxury, no one is safe from the darkness lurking just out of sight.

The Review:

This was a good movie, a classic whodunit on board a luxury yacht. Keira Knightley was easy to like and made her character, Laura “Lo” Blacklock, feel real and relatable right away. The story kept me on the edge of my seat with its twists and surprises, and the fancy, cramped yacht setting made everything feel even more tense. It’s the kind of mystery that’s exciting but also easy to follow, and I enjoyed watching it from start to finish. If you are a fan of the whodunit’s or a good mystery thriller, you’re going to like this one!

Following the watching of Netflix’s thriller “The Woman in Cabin 10,” starring Keira Knightley as journalist Lo Blacklock, it felt ripe for a sequel. Ruth Ware, the original novel’s author, released the follow-up book “The Woman in Suite 11” in July 2025, continuing Lo’s story as she navigates a perilous investigation at a luxury Swiss hotel. While Netflix has yet to officially announce a film adaptation of the sequel, industry buzz and positive reception of the first movie make it a natural next step. Ware expressed enthusiasm for seeing Lo’s story continue on screen, though she has also mentioned an interest in adapting other novels first. If Netflix moves ahead, we can likely expect Knightley to reprise her role as Lo, diving back into a world of secrets, power, and danger beyond Cabin 10’s yacht.

New Movie The Woman In Cabin 10 Debuts Friday October 10, 2025 On Netflix

FROM NETFLIX:

There’s nothing more relaxing than a trip on a super yacht — unless you happen to witness a murder. That’s the predicament facing Keira Knightley in The Woman in Cabin 10, a new thriller coming to Netflix Friday October 10, 2025. While on a luxury yacht for a travel assignment, a journalist witnesses a passenger tossed overboard late one night, only to be told that she must have dreamed it, as all passengers are accounted for. Despite not being believed by anyone onboard, she continues to look for answers, putting her own life in danger.

Based on the bestselling novel by Ruth Ware, the film is directed by Simon Stone (The Daughter, The Dig), who also co-wrote the script with Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse (Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins). Even though the movie’s source material came out 10 years ago, Ware believes it’s still resonant because “the fear of not being believed is perennial, unfortunately, Cabin 10, at its heart, is about a woman who experiences something wrong, reports it truthfully, and isn’t taken seriously because of who she is. Too many people know what that feels like and I think we want vindication for ourselves as much as Lo.”

“I am not imagining this,” Lo Blacklock (Keira Knightley) insists in the trailer for The Woman in Cabin 10. A journalist assigned to cover the story of a luxury superyacht’s first voyage, Lo has just seen a woman fall to her death — but no one believes her. Not Richard Bullmer (Guy Pearce), the superyacht’s wealthy owner, nor her fellow passengers, played by the likes of Kaya Scodelario and Daniel Ings. Nevertheless, as you can see in the trailer below for this adaptation of Ruth Ware’s bestselling novel of the same name, Lo refuses to back down. She’s determined to uncover what happened to this mysterious woman even at the risk of her own life. What was supposed to be a cushy assignment for work turns into a twisty and thrilling excursion on the high seas.

Even though Lo is surrounded by naysayers on the boat, writer and director Simon Stone is adamant that there’s no ambiguity here: Something on this yacht isn’t quite right. “You never question whether or not she saw what she saw, you agree completely with her. It’s her struggle against the conspiracy.” You can get a glimpse at a few of the yacht’s other guests in the trailer. In addition to Pearce’s Bullmer, there’s gossipy Heidi (Hannah Waddingham), influencer Grace (Scodelario), media fortune heir Adam (Ings), and Lo’s photographer ally Ben (David Ajala), to name a few. “It’s an incredibly stacked cast,” Stone says. “Keira has led in an extraordinary way, and Guy as well. But the entire ensemble has been amazing.”

As touchpoints for the film, Stone looked at classic ’70s thrillers like Marathon Man, Klute, The Conversation, and Three Days of the Condor. He also cites the work of Alfred Hitchcock — the Master of Suspense’s film The Lady Vanishes shares a great deal of DNA with Ware’s original novel. “Finding that tradition, but with a different gender and a different energy, has been really exciting,” Stone adds.

The Woman in Cabin 10 stars Knightley, Pearce, Ajala, Art Malik, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Scodelario, David Morrissey, Ings, Waddingham, Gitte Witt, Christopher Rygh, Pippa-Bennett-Warner, John MacMillan, Paul Kaye, Amanda Collin, and Lisa Loven Kongsli.

Will Lo uncover the answers she’s looking for and make it back to shore alive? You’ll have to watch The Woman in Cabin 10 when it sails onto Netflix on Oct. 10.

Memory

2022 Open Road Films

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 54min

Action ~ Crime ~ Thriller

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Starring: Liam Neeson, Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, Harold Torres, Taj Atwal and Ray Fearon.

“His mind is fading. His conscience is clear.”

Liam Neeson as Alex Lewis, a hired hitman living in Mexico. He takes on an assignment for a double hit that will take him to El Paso, Texas. His brother has severe Alzheimer’s disease and lives in a nursing home there. Alex leaves for El Paso and stops off to see his brother before embarking on his two contract assignments. His brother is vacant minded and doesn’t acknowledge Alex’s presence. Alex talks to him anyway and presses an old quarter from 1969 into his hand. “Remember that year?, That was a good year.” Alex kisses him on the forehead and leaves for his two assignments.

The first is Ellis Van Camp, the manager of the central processing facility for immigrants in El Paso. Alex waits for him to be alone in his house before entering and forcing Ellis to open his home safe. Alex retrieves the flash drive from Ellis before shooting him and leaves. Alex’s next hit is a young female Mexican immigrant named Beatriz. She was taken from Ellis’s processing facility and placed in a foster home by the police officer that killed her pimp, Papa Leon. Upon entering in the night and seeing that she is a young girl, Alex leaves without killing her, drawing the line at “taking out” children.

He informs his client they need to “Cancel the contract” , but they won’t have it and put out a contract on Alex. So there are three stories going on here, and I’ll try not to give out any spoilers…….

There is the story of Alex dealing with the fast onset of Alzheimer’s Disease and losing his memory just like his brother. And his refusal to kill the girl and his desire to kill those who hired him to kill the girl. Also his desire to kill those who exploited the young girls in the prostitution ring as he watches what’s on the flash drive.
There is the story of the two El Paso police officers tracking the child prostitution ring where Beatriz came from and that Alex is also pursuing.
There is the story of the Police Officer assigned to the case in New Mexico, out of his jurisdiction, who is actually a vigilante seeking justice for the victims of the child prostitution ring who were mostly young girls abducted from Mexico.

It is a little difficult to follow in the beginning, as you watch different scenes unfold that seemingly have no common thread. As you watch remember they are all headed for the same child prostitution ring, they just don’t know it yet. And as the movie progresses their paths all cross. As Alex’s Alzheimer progresses he is forgetting things and having to write them on his forearm. And he is taking medication that has kept it at bay until now, but the pills are no longer being effective as the disease is very aggressive.

It is not one of Liam Neeson’s best but it isn’t his worst either. It was just alright. The storyline was pretty hard to follow, I didn’t put it all together until late in the movie. The action scenes weren’t that good, nor the plot. And some of the acting by the other actors wasn’t top notch. It felt pretty discombobulated as you jump from scene to scene not knowing what they have in common.

So yes, it’s worth a watch (maybe) but it is definitely a “One-off”. I wouldn’t watch it again.

One thumb up, the other down.