Irreversible

"Time destroys everything."

2002 1h 37m FR

👍

7.2

SOLID

🍅

60%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

7.3

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 3,447🍅60%Rotten Tomatoes●51Metacritic★7.3IMDB · 164,713

DramaThrillerCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.

“Time destroys everything.”

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Cast

Monica Bellucci
Alex
Vincent Cassel
Marcus
Albert Dupontel
Pierre
Jo Prestia
The Tapeworm
Philippe Nahon
Man
Stéphane Drouot
Stéphane
Jean-Louis Costes
Fistman
Mick Gondouin
Mick

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Gaspar Noé
Writers: Gaspar Noé
Languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish
Countries: France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 24 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Gaspar Noé, shot by Benoît Debie. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Thomas Bangalter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Gaspar Noé shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Time destroys everything.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Gaspar Noé directs. Benoît Debie behind the camera. Thomas Bangalter scores. Gaspar Noé cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in France. Dialogue in English, French, Italian, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Released 24 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish.
4Directed by Gaspar Noé, shot by Benoît Debie. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Thomas Bangalter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Gaspar Noé shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Time destroys everything.".
9IMDB entry: tt0290673 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 35 themes, including "prostitute", "rape", "paris, france", "police".
11Released under 18 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Benoît Debie
Original score: Thomas Bangalter
Editing: Gaspar Noé
Production design: Alain Juteau
Costume design: Laure Culkovic
Makeup / hair: Ghislaine Tortereau
VFX supervisor: Rodolphe Chabrier
Sound: Cyril Holtz
Runtime: 97 min · 1h 37m
Status: Released
Budget: $3,500,000
Box office: $6,500,000
Return: 186% of budget
Original language: FR
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Irreversible (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes: 60% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 51/100
IMDB rating: 7.3/10 · 164,713 votes
MPAA: Not Rated

Awards

3 wins & 13 nominations total

Also by

Gaspar Noé

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Segfault2024-09-15
Deceived by 7+ rating I started watching. After 15 minutes I still forced myself to keep watching. After 30 minutes I had seen nothing worth to see, wasted half an hour of my life. What a dull obnoxious movie. Even the camera work is irritating.
akarta2025-04-19
★ 10/10
Firstly this is one of the best films of 2000-10 period, the film is in reverse order concerning its story, so the opening really is the ending of the film, and the ending is actually the start of the film, so please be aware when watching this film its in reverse order story wise and, its camera work is certainly one of the best ever produced, the sound work mirrors the camera work, and is very hypnotic, and is meant to create a state of nausea and anxiety, it is very gritty gay scene in france and its hyper realistic violence and rape scenes within this film, which very few people will enjoy actually watching it, because of that or the reverse order of the story, if your going to watch it only watch the first version of it. do not watch the Straight Cut version of the film that was made afterwards, because it tries to place things in the correct chronological order for the small brained people out there, which also simply removes the deeper level of the film, and once again it is not a film for everyone, why very few people will actually understand it or enjoy it, or even the deeper level its trying to show, concerning life. life is time and time destroys everything (Le temps détruit tout). And for fans of I Stand Alone, Butcher makes an appearance in the start, i would also recommended watching Enter the Void (2010) also excellent.
CinemaSerf2025-12-05
★ 7/10
Now depending on when you watched this film, you might notice that the original version and the more recent one are structured in an almost clockwise and anti-clockwise manner. In this version we work our way backwards from the frenetic activities of “Marcus” (Vincent Cassel) and his friend “Pierre” (Albert Dupontel) as they race round Paris in the early morning vengefully trying to track down a brute who gruesomely attacked his girlfriend “Alex” (Monica Bellucci) in a city underpass as she walked home. Auteur Gaspar Noé spares us little, visually or audibly, as the two men react with violent anger uncontrollably attempting to trace the culprit; nor is much left to our imagination during the assault itself which in many ways almost mitigates the behaviour of “Marcus” as his boundaries completely evaporate into a sea of fury. It’s a tale of revenge, but also of the futility of that revenge. Nothing can undo what has been done, even if the men they hire to help them identify this assailant deliver, this pair are going to have to live with this as best (or worst) they can. Cassel offers us something visceral with his performance here and that is well tempered by a Dupontel whose character (himself an ex-boyfriend of “Alex”) tries to curtail the worst excesses of his friend’s off-the-rails behaviour whilst coming to terms with his own grief. Creepily worthy of note, too, is the effort from the character committing not just one, but a whole series of heinous and demeaning offences on this defenceless woman and though this is most definitely not an easy film to watch, it’s a strangely compelling one that does invite us to consider just how approaches to vigilanteism might alter if this happened to someone we loved.