The Dog Stars, 2026.
Directed by Ridley Scott.
Starring Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce, Allison Janney, Benedict Wong, Ewen Bremner, James Craze, Sam Spruell, Sai Bennett, Sebastian Rokison-Woodall, and Alara-Star Khan.
SYNOPSIS:
In a post-apocalyptic world, a virus wipes out humanity. Survivors face roaming scavengers called Reapers. Protagonist Hig, a pilot, survived the flu but lost his wife.
Living in a fortified Colorado airport hangar, civilian pilot Hig (Jacob Elordi) accuses former Marine Bangley (Josh Brolin) of not only being prepared for an apocalyptic scenario, but also being gleeful about it in the sense of the American dream as a wish-fulfillment murder fantasy come true. Considering that Bangley is convinced that Hig’s cautious hope that there is still life thriving somewhere beyond (it is unclear how much of the world has been affected, other than that all communications are down) is a misplaced pipe dream, his assessment of the gun-crazy, shoot-first, ask-questions-later soldier is accurate. It is alarming, then, that Ridley Scott’s adaptation of The Dog Stars (with Mark L. Smith adapting Peter Heller’s novel) feels the need to prove that ugliness right.
Perhaps if the rest of the film weren’t a stew of bland clichés (even the above debate of whether or not to accept and trust strangers seeking survival assistance has been explored to death in every similar type of story) and awkward forced-in action scenarios that feel more in place in a Bioshock game rather than what is ostensibly supposed to be a narrative about moving on from loss and foraging new connections in a new world, the above would be disappointing. No, by the time the uneasy right-wing messaging is being broadcast loud and clear, one is dog-tired and already checked out of The Dog Stars.
In the opening moments, the infected (apparently from a flu-like disease that will draw several other parallels more fascinating than anything that’s actually in the movie) are dubbed as Reapers; it just does not get any more derivative than this (which in itself would not be an issue if the film were actually doing something compelling). When the Reapers are seen, they resemble war boys from Mad Max; it’s also entirely possible those were just savage scavengers and raiders. It’s difficult to say definitively, since the film largely doesn’t care about the virus, exposition, or establishing who any of these factions are.
There is also reason to believe that such a thing would be an advantage for The Dog Stars, a film that, at its core, is about Hig clinging to his dog as the last remaining connection to the before times, when he was in a relationship and expecting a child. Whenever he isn’t flying into empty rundown cities, scraping for supplies, and delivering them to a nearby village of Mennonites (at times this feels like cinematic Mad Libs), he wonders what lies beyond the mountains at the Grand Junction airport after hearing scrambled chatter on the radio some time ago that resurfaces every now and then, with tragedy giving him the extra push to venture into the unknown, whether or not he will have enough fuel to return.
This is where the father-daughter duo of Cima and the aptly nicknamed Pops (played by Margaret Qualley and Guy Pearce) enter the story, with the latter sharing some of the same perspectives as Bangley. Realistically, Hig is played by Jacob Elordi, which means these two impossibly attractive survivors are going to connect romantically, even if the former’s performance amounts to reading every line in an intense, heavy whisper. Once an aspiring medic, Cima has her own experiences with loss, yet also not much to do here. Despite that, it’s the moments when these two talk and bond that almost make for a dynamic worth investing in, until the third act undercuts it.
The Dog Stars transitions into something more spectacle and action-heavy. Regarding the execution, this works, provided Ridley Scott remains an efficient, competent craftsman working with reliable below-the-line collaborators (a sequence back at the hangar with Josh Brolin battling the infected alone is a standout, as is one in which our protagonists try to take off in a four-seat airplane surrounded by enemies). However, it comes at the cost of wiping out whatever interesting story there could be to tell about these two characters in the most generic of scenarios and environments. On top of that, it’s overstaffed and often feels as if three of these novels were crammed into one film.
SEE ALSO: 7 Underrated Ridley Scott Movies
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
