Absolute Dominion has a dynamite premise—all of the major world religions send representatives to an international MMA tournament, with all parties agreeing to henceforth follow the religious tenets of the fighter who wins and therefore end all global religious conflict—that could’ve yielded a thought-provoking movie. However, the execution is haphazard and sinks the enterprise.
Written and directed by Lexi Alexander, Absolute Dominion begins by establishing that in the mid-2040s, religious holy war has threatened humanity, while also leading to the destruction of several landmarks, including Fenway Park, although it’s good to know that Fenway at least made it into the middle of the 21st century.
A comedian/commentator/live streamer named “Fix Huntley” (Patton Oswalt) declares offhandedly and jokingly that the solution to the problem of religious wars is that… all the religions should agree to host a mixed-martial-arts competition, with the winner emerging as the world’s one true religion and therefore bringing the conflicts to an end. It’s the sort of thing a later-day George Carlin might’ve floated, but in this movie, the world’s religious leaders agree to it, although the tournament itself doesn’t take place until about 20 years later.
Why? What’s in it for the major world religions to gamble their existence on the outcome of a mixed-martial arts tournament? Is the Patton Oswalt livestream so popular in every corner of the globe that it supersedes everyone’s religious convictions? That isn’t how religious faith works. What was the process of agreeing to that? The movie just glides past all that. Also, for the most part, it doesn’t use real religions, which forfeits some fantastic opportunities for biting satire.
There are atheists and Satanists, but no Jews, Catholics, Muslims or Hindus. It takes place, for some reason, in a venue called “Shalom Stadium.” There’s not much blood drawn when it comes to the MMA world, in which some of the fighters have been known to have some bizarre beliefs. It would’ve been hard to avoid stereotypes, and the exercise might’ve resembled Dave Chappelle’s old Racial Draft bit. The “host” is a drag character (Alok Vaid-Menon), which I tend to think some of the more zealous religions might not approved of.
The film mostly focuses on a dark horse contender, Sagan Bruno (Désiré Mia), who’s acting as a representative of a secular humanist collective of scientists, led by his father (Bill & Ted alum Alex Winter). Get it? His name is “Sagan”? He was bred, Ivan Drago-style, for the purpose of winning this tournament, but then it turns out he’s not as secular or humanist as planned. Secular as he is, Sagan’s a messiah figure. The need to breed him is the only plot reason for the tournament to not start until 20 years after Oswalt’s broadcast.
The movie would’ve been better, even if it didn’t use real religions, if it mattered what the different factions believed, and established why that matters to their motivations. Instead, this plot in which the stakes are the future of humanity is small.