The Last Temptation Of Becky

The third film in the Becky franchise and the first to be directed by a woman, Last Temptation, which premièred at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival, combines the righteous fury of its teenage killing machine protagonist with the action prowess of Jenn Wexler, resulting in a whole new level of mayhem.

Since the last instalment, our heroine has found a new home for her beloved dog Diego (some fans will miss him, but no-one will miss endless kidnap plots, and he had become something of a distraction). She has taken up fencing (at which she is not the best-behaved student) and has got a job working for the CIA, This means living in New York, which she loves, but she’s not always the most reliable agent, partly due to her fondness for improvisation and partly because of her, ahem, ‘anger management issues’. This leads to some stern talking-tos from well groomed women in suits. She’s back on their favourites list, however, when it emerges that the key she lost back in the day has been found by a gang of escaped convicts in a hidden part of the basement underneath her family’s lake house (who has a basement in a lake house?), and her bosses now believe that it’s connected to a secret Nazi base called The Wolf’s Lair, deep in a Polish forest. Will she investigate?

“You had me at Nazi,” she says.

Of course, Becky is told that she should only investigate. Agent Jeffrey Fox (Desmond Eastwood) has already disappeared after going undercover there. Under no circumstances should she try to rescue him. She is absolutely not to kill anyone. Dressed up as a nerdy ski tourist, she is dispatched to a hotel where it is immediately clear that something dodgy is afoot. From there, events spiral rapidly out of control.

Becky is many things, but subtle is not on the list. This means that there are few surprises in what follows, but that doesn’t really matter. It’s all in the delivery. Here, Lulu Wilson’s impatient energy and Wexler’s panache are perfectly matched. The action is well-paced, allowing space to breathe between set-pieces, but the tension never lets up because we know that Becky won’t. Taking this as an opportunity to avenge her father, she will stop at nothing. Nazi characters used to facing a different sort of hero are not prepared for this.

The plot is fairly simple – one might even say clichéd. This is a strength because it gives Wexler room to have fun sending up past films which would have been much shorter if somebody had only taken Becky’s approach. She shows a better understanding of Becky’s physicality than the previous series directors, recognising where her short stature, with the low centre of gravity and better leverage it provides, gives her an advantage over larger opponents. Becky is not a martial arts genius. Her power comes from her energy, her relentlessness and her ability to seize the initiative. She has a range of opponents to take on here, not all of whom are easy to overcome like this; and in turn, this lets us see a different aspect of her toughness. As she reaches the end of her teens, she’s moving out of the novelty bracket and is on her way to becoming a fully fledged action hero (albeit with a distinctive punk flair).

Like its predecessor, this film feels like it’s making way for more, yet it has a complete arc and satisfying conclusion of its own. Most importantly, it’s tremendous fun.

Reviewed on: 26 Jul 2026