Jackass: Best – Johnny Knoxville insists the fifth “Jackass” film is truly the last, and the movie plays like a farewell: new stunts, classic gags, and “unseen” material, stitched together with archival clips that make Bam Margera and Ryan Dunn’s absence hit harder. It’s prof
For decades, “Jackass” has asked something back from the people watching: intestinal fortitude. The cast has shown it first—bruises, scars, and a willingness to try things most sane humans can’t even describe without wincing.
In “Jackass: Best and Last,” that demand lands in a different place. Johnny Knoxville doesn’t just deliver another grin-and-groan finale. He tears up—twice—over the course of the series’ purported swan song. including when he’s asked if this fifth film is truly the last. Knoxville insists that it is. and with the grey hair and the scars he and his colleagues have collected over the last two and a half decades. it’s hard to see how anyone could argue.
The movie. switching things up in format. moves between new material. classic gags. and unseen stunts that were previously too dangerous—physically or legally—to broadcast. That structure matters because it turns the film into something bigger than a collection of hits. It becomes a requiem, a victory lap, and an envelope-pusher all at once.
One of the very first stunts Knoxville ever filmed is recalled in the unseen stretch: he shoots himself point-blank with a pistol. The film also includes a moment where Knoxville, dressed as an escaped inmate, bargains for a hacksaw in a West Hollywood hardware store.
The new stunts keep the same spirit but push into newer territory. Sean “Poopies” McInerney gets his lips injected—graphically—with botox. There’s also an “office party” segment in which Knoxville, Chris Pontius, and Jasper Dolphin try to cheer up their coworker: a predictably grumpy billy goat.
Between all of it, the connective tissue is archival footage from earlier films. Knoxville and Ehren McGhehey sneak onto a golf course and fire an airhorn in the midst of golfers’ backswings—an image that doesn’t just land as a gag. it underscores the passage of time for the core “Jackass” crew. That crew includes Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Jason “Wee Man” Acuna, Preston Lacy, Dave England, and Knoxville.
The archival choices also sharpen the gaps where the franchise has already changed. Bam Margera appears as an absence that viewers are plainly made aware of. because he was fired from “Jackass Forever” for drug and alcohol abuse. The film also marks the absence of the late Ryan Dunn, Margera’s friend and bandmate.
Those missing pieces matter because “Jackass” has never been just about stunts—it’s about personalities and chemistry. Margera, described here as having a slightly mopey heartthrob quality, was especially vulnerable to Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine’s torment. Over the years. he was subjected to repeated bits where he was either going to get bitten by snakes. or believed that he was. Dunn was Margera’s best friend. and though he was apparently the cast member most picked on. his participation carried an innate sweetness that stood out against the group’s mischievousness bordering on meanness. The film makes it clear that both are missed.
Yet even with those shadows, “Jackass: Best and Last” keeps returning to the thing it does best: unfettered joy. It plays as entertainment, as a group of friends, and as a platform for immaturity and silliness. Every skit ends with a raucous round of laughter from everybody involved, sometimes the loudest from its “victim.”.
The word “victim” barely fits in practice. Recipients may end up with painful. awkward. excrement-covered. vomit-inducing activity—like a prostate exam given by an autonomous robot—but the film rarely plays as coercion. Even after expressing trepidation, they go through with it. McGhehey. repeatedly targeted across years of bits. may be the one viewers come to feel needs it the least. but the movie’s spirit stays intact: they keep choosing to participate.
Behind the chaos, director Jeff Tremaine shows a clear evolution from the days of recording stunts with camcorders. He frames the film with cinematic bookends. including opening credits that recreate the gliding floors of Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity” music video. complete with face punches and cactus impalement. The finale calls back to their “giant shopping cart” bit from “Jackass: The Movie,” amplifying the explosions. The irony is that those segments don’t always need to be especially polished—often the behind-the-scenes footage. which the film frequently shows. is funnier than what’s finished on screen. Still, the trying is part of the charm, and Tremaine oversees it with a careful, winking eye.
And then there’s Knoxville himself. present so early in “Jackass” incubation that he’s referred to by his real name. P.J. Clapp, more than once. The achievement can feel almost too lowbrow to praise—especially when so much of the work involves men being hammered in the groin. But the film points to the quick-witted improvisations while he’s dressed as “Bad Grandpa. ” and to the visual or audio references dropped into their gags over the years. It lands on a specific kind of pop-culture literacy—less pandering. more a game played with the knowledge of a real junkie. It’s also work that, in its own reckless way, includes everyone.
That’s why these tears land differently. This is described as the first time “Jackass” induces tears that aren’t from either laughter or disgust. Watching Knoxville get emotional. the feeling is framed as the length of the journey—and the gratitude that he took it on for the audience. even as the film makes the physical cost obvious. The image is of a 55-year-old spun like a top—twice—by an angry bull.
By the end. “Jackass: Best and Last” is presented as a worthy and satisfying resting point for the franchise. even if it doesn’t quite reach the level of “Jackass Number Two. ” named here as the superlative installment. It doesn’t have to. The film treats the franchise’s measuring stick—crushed testicles, concussed heads, shattered pants—as almost beside the point.
What the latest batch of brutality ultimately demonstrates is how tough aging can be when the job is risking your life. What elevates the movie after four others and 26 years—and enough injuries to occupy a fleet of ambulances—is the way the film finds an unexpectedly poignant spotlight on what has kept the series enduring: it never gets any wiser.
“Jackass: Best and Last” opens exclusively in theaters on June 26.
Jackass: Best and Last Johnny Knoxville Jeff Tremaine Sean Poopies McInerney Bam Margera Ryan Dunn Steve-O Wee Man Preston Lacy Dave England Chris Pontius Jasper Dolphin review