Jackass: Best and Last is the 2026 comedy film directed by Jeff Tremaine and produced by Tremaine, Spike Jonze, and Johnny Knoxville, released by Paramount on 26 June. It is the fifth and, we are told definitively, final film in the Jackass franchise, arriving twenty-five years after the crew first appeared on MTV. The regulars are all here, Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Dave England, and Danger Ehren, alongside the newer additions from Jackass Forever. The film blends new stunts with a quarter century of previously unseen archival footage, including material featuring the late Ryan Dunn and the long-estranged Bam Margera. I came out of it with genuinely mixed feelings, and I think that is because there are two entirely different films here depending on how you choose to watch it.

Let me start with the first way, judging it purely as a Jackass film. At its core, this is a series about people doing things that make you gag, wince, or recoil in sympathetic pain, and by that measure Best and Last is a step down from what came before. There simply was not as much here that landed with the same force as the earlier entries. In every previous film, there was at least one moment where you genuinely believed someone might not survive the stunt. I never felt that here. Nothing truly insane happens.

To be fair, there is a very good reason for that. These men are approaching fifty, and the film is honest about it. More specifically, Knoxville has stated openly that he had to limit his own participation this time because he is well past his safe concussion limit and cannot risk another head injury. That is not a failure of nerve, it is twenty-five years of accumulated damage presenting its bill. The film also leans heavily on archival material, which drew criticism before release, and I understand why, even if I ultimately think the choice is defensible.

The newer cast members are the other sticking point for me. They are game, and they commit, but they do not carry the same personalities we associate with this crew. Although I will concede that may say more about me than about them. We grew up with these specific idiots. They shaped an entire generation of goofballs. Nobody arriving now is going to replicate that, and it may be unfair to expect it.

Now the second way to watch it, which I think is how it is actually intended. This is not really a stunt film at all. It is a homage. It is a farewell to everything this group went through together, to the laughs they shared, and to the people they have lost along the way.