Jack Quaid’s Novocaine looks like one of the gnarliest action movies of 2025

If you thought The Boys was violent, get ready for Novocaine, an original new action movie starring Jack Quaid as a man with an extraordinary power: he can’t feel pain. 

You’ve probably been asked at some point in your life, “If you could have any superpower, what would you choose?” 

Most people say flight, others may say super-strength, super-speed, or invisibility. In The Boys, Quaid’s Hughie meets people with amazing and bonkers abilities (at one point, he’s even able to teleport himself… but only if he’s naked). 

This year, he’ll star in an action movie about a man with a real-life medical condition – and when his girlfriend is kidnapped, he uses it for bloody carnage. 

Jack Quaid can’t feel pain in first brutal Novacaine trailer 

As Nathan Caine (Quaid) explains, he’s just a regular guy with a boring job. “But I have this condition… where I don’t feel pain,” he explains to the girl of his dreams (Prey’s Amber Midthunder). 

If you’re a James Bond fan, this will sound familiar: Robert Carlyle’s bad guy in The World is Not Enough couldn’t feel pain either. However, while his nerve endings were numbed by a bullet in his brain, Nathan Caine has a real condition: congenital analgesia. In short, he’s immune to any pain – no matter how much someone may try. 

That’s a tantalizing set-up for an action movie, and the trailer gives us a taste of what to expect (and gag at): Nathan grabs a scalding hot cast iron pan, dips his hand in a deep-fat fryer, and stabs a man in the foot… with a knife through his palm. 

It comes from directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (Villains and Significant Other), and it appears to be more inspired by Nobody than John Wick. 

“What makes Novocaine unique is that the action scenes don’t feel like John Wick, where your protagonist is kicking everybody’s ass the whole time. Nova is getting his ass kicked for the majority of the fight until he figures out some way to win,” they explained to JoBlo. 

Novocaine premieres in cinemas on March 14, 2025. Until then, check out other 2025 movies you should be excited about.