You wouldn't necessarily think it from the damage he sustains over the course of "Novocaine," but Nathan Caine ranks among the most risk-averse action heroes the genre has ever seen. That's because the junior manager of a San Diego bank has a rare disorder known as congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (or CIPA).

Action movie junkies are going to be fed well as the 2025 movie schedule continues, and a fresh title is just about to hit theaters. The film in question is Novocaine, a wild new flick starring Jack Quaid of The Hunger Games,

Novocaine star Jack Quaid has carved himself a niche by playing the everyman archetype with a genre twist. In The Boys, he's a nobody thrust into a world of superheroes. In Star Trek: Lower Decks, he's an ambitious worker bee on a starship.

SXSW: His Nathan Caine might not be able to feel pain, but oh, the audience will be wincing by the time Dan Berk and Robert Olson's initially clever feature lands its final blow.

Building a strong narrative clearly took a backseat to inventing fun ways to take advantage of the hero’s rare medical condition.