The Secret Weapon of 'Peaky Blinders' Isn't What You Think
The new, explosive movie Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is finally on Netflix, and for many, was probably one of the most satisfying binges of the weekend, if not the entirety of 2026. The Immortal Man does an excellent job of ending the story of the beloved Peaky Blinders series, giving Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby an epic battle to fight that results in a shocking conclusion. But The Immortal Man is also a movie that works on its own; if you're fuzzy about all six seasons of Peaky Blinders, you can still enjoy the hell out of this movie. The story stands on its own and lands its emotional punches just as effectively as its actual, physical blows.
But what's the Peaky Blinders secret weapon? It's tempting to say that it's all about unfliching, realistic gangster action, and in the case of The Immortal Man, some classic father-and-son tension between Tommy and Duke (Barry Keoghan). And yet, The Immortal Man has another narrative trick up its sleeve, something that writer Steven Knight used on the series before. In short, Peaky Blinders is special not just because it's realistic and gritty, but also because Tommy sees dead people. Spoilers ahead.
The Immortal Man finds Tommy Shelby (Murphy) retired and hiding from society as World War II heats up. The plot is relatively simple: Tommy's son, Duke (Keoghan), is now running the Peaky Blinders gang, and plans to betray all of Great Britain by helping the Nazis introduce millions in counterfeit currency into circulation, which will crash the economy and help the Nazis win the war. This scheme was based on a real historical event called Operation Bernhard, which wasn't entirely successful. Of course, the tension in The Immortal Man isn't really about whether or not the Nazis win the war; we know that they didn't. Instead, what we're invested in is whether or not Duke will really betray his country, his people, and the Peaky Blinders more broadly, and if Tommy can bring his son back from the brink of darkness.
And, while bravery, guts, and general badassery are among Tommy's chief weapons, he's also assisted by something else: Actual ghosts. As alluded to in the series, Knight makes ghosts and spirits very real, and crucial to the plot of The Immortal Man. Case in point, early in the film, as Tommy is working on his memoir, he reveals to the audience that the ghost of his deceased daughter, Ruby, haunts him in the nearby cemetery, leaving a red scarf on his brother's grave. Now, at first, you could chalk this up to metaphysical interpretation; maybe Tommy's grief is playing tricks on his mind?
But no. The red scarf is very real, and when Kaulo (Rebecca Ferguson) appears—the twin sister of Tommy's dead lover Zelda—her connection with ghosts and spirits literally drives the plot. If we don't accept the fact that Kaulo is channeling the spirit of Zelda, then nothing in the movie works. Kaulo has information that only ghosts could have, including the exact nature of how Tommy's brother, Arthur (Paul Anderson), was killed off-screen.
So, without Zelda's spirit speaking through Kaulo, without the physical evidence from Tommy's daughter Ruby, Tommy could not get motivated to head back into the fray, fight Nazis, and save Duke. On top of this, as Tommy is on his way back, he sees the ghost of his sister Ada (Sophie Rundle), who, as far as he knew up until that point, was alive. But the audience knows that Ada has just been shot by Nazi traitor Beckett (Tim Roth), and so, her ghost appearing to Tommy in that moment makes him know, for a fact, that things are going very, very wrong.
This plot device, while not entirely central to the story, nonetheless drives pretty much everything important in the film. The moment Tommy puts back on the suit, the coat, and, of course, that hat, is thrilling and perfect. The moment when he convinces Duke to fight with him side-by-side is perfect. And even the scene in which Tommy clacks away on his typewriter, just before riding into battle, is inspiring.
But none of it could have happened without a bit of ectoplasm and whispers from the other side. The Immortal Man might be about Tommy's fight against very real evil on Earth, but his backup clearly is rooted in the world of ghosts.