Michelle Yeoh’s The Surgeon Earns 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score After TIFF Premiere

Michelle Yeoh’s new action thriller The Surgeon has reached a 100% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes after its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. As of September 16, the film has 10 critic reviews listed on Rotten Tomatoes, while no audience score has been recorded yet.

The film premiered at TIFF on September 12 and has drawn attention for putting Yeoh in an unusual action role. She plays Eliza, a retired surgeon who is abducted and forced to perform an emergency operation on a criminal leader before using her medical knowledge to fight back.

The Surgeon Debuts to Strong Early Reviews

Rotten Tomatoes currently lists The Surgeon at 100% from 10 reviews. The score has placed the film at the top of Yeoh’s Rotten Tomatoes filmography by current Tomatometer percentage, ahead of films including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The early critical response has highlighted the film’s combination of medical drama, thriller elements and graphic action. The Hollywood Reporter described it as a genre-bending mix involving elements of The Pitt, crime thriller and action cinema, while Deadline’s Pete Hammond praised its use of human anatomy as part of the film’s action concept.

Other reviews have also focused on Yeoh’s performance and the unusual premise. The Playlist described the movie as a thriller built around the dangers of a character who has detailed knowledge of the human body, while additional TIFF reviews have praised its short runtime and emphasis on fast-moving action.

Michelle Yeoh Trained With Real Surgeons

The film’s medical detail comes in part from director and writer Roshan Sethi, a practicing physician who also co-created the television medical drama The Resident. Sethi worked with medical professionals to help make the surgical scenes more realistic.

Yeoh also underwent hands-on preparation for the role. Speaking to TheWrap at TIFF, Sethi explained that a surgeon at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin trained Yeoh in procedures and technique. He said, ‘She ran Michelle through everything, like how to scrub in, how to operate, how to do the knots, everything.’

Entertainment Weekly reported that Yeoh also took part in a dissection of a pig as part of her preparation. The training was intended to help her reproduce surgical movements and handling of medical instruments accurately during filming.

Martin Freeman Co-Stars in the Thriller

The Surgeon also stars Martin Freeman, with Laurie Davidson, Yuri Kolokolnikov and Joseph Mydell among the supporting cast. Freeman plays the criminal leader whose medical emergency forces Eliza back into a situation she had hoped to leave behind.

The project was produced by filmmakers and producers connected to the action genre, including Basil Iwanyk, known for producing the John Wick films. Despite that connection, The Surgeon centers its action on Eliza’s surgical knowledge rather than making her a conventional martial-arts or firearms specialist.

No Wider Release Date Has Been Announced

Although The Surgeon has now premiered at TIFF and has collected its first major reviews, a wider theatrical or streaming release date has not been announced. Current listings show the September 12 Toronto festival screening as the confirmed release event.

The film runs for approximately 92 minutes and is directed and written by Sethi. Its current Rotten Tomatoes standing reflects the first wave of reviews following the festival premiere and could change as additional critics review the movie.

For now, the latest confirmed status is that The Surgeon has completed its TIFF world premiere and is carrying a 100% Tomatometer score from 10 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, while its broader release plans remain unannounced.