Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars explores survival after viral collapse
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Ridley Scott's new film The Dog Stars is a post-apocalyptic drama starring Jacob Elordi as Hig, a former mechanic who lost his pregnant wife and newborn to a devastating global pandemic and now survives on a remote Colorado airstrip in 2035 with his dog Jasper and his hardened, distrustful neighbour Bangley, played by Josh Brolin. Rather than relying on typical genre spectacle, the film uses this bleak setup to weigh whether hope and human decency can survive when society has effectively collapsed, with reviewers praising Elordi's performance and noting the film prioritises character over action.
Adapted from Peter Heller's 2012 novel by screenwriter Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, The Midnight Sky), the story follows Hig's search for a rumoured surviving community near Grand Junction, taking him from supply runs to an immune Mennonite settlement to an encounter with fellow survivors Pops (Guy Pearce) and his daughter Cima (Margaret Qualley). The narrative builds to a tense escape sequence involving marauding gangs known as Reapers, culminating in the group's flight by plane towards Grand Junction, where they find an unexpected and unsettling resolution; the Colorado setting was filmed in Italy.
- Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars stars Jacob Elordi as a pandemic survivor pilot
- Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley co-star as fellow survivors
- Critics praise character depth over action in this Peter Heller adaptation
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Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars is a new film adaptation of Peter Heller's 2012 novel, set in a near future where a virus has wiped out most of society. Jacob Elordi plays Hig, a man who has lost his family to the outbreak and now lives on an isolated Colorado airstrip with his dog and a heavily armed neighbour, played by Josh Brolin.
The story follows Hig as he ventures out in search of other survivors, encountering various groups along the way, including characters played by Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley. Rather than focusing on action, the film is being positioned as a character-driven meditation on whether hope and humanity can survive when civilisation has collapsed.
The film matters partly because of the pedigree involved: Scott directing, a script from the writer of The Revenant, and a cast built around Elordi, Brolin and Pearce. Early reaction has centred on whether Scott's slower, reflective approach works within the post-apocalyptic genre, alongside praise for the central performances.
Full account
Ridley Scott has turned his attention to the post-apocalyptic genre with The Dog Stars, a survival drama adapted from Peter Heller's 2012 novel of the same name. Released at the tail end of a crowded blockbuster summer, the film stars Jacob Elordi as Hig, a mechanic and pilot eking out an existence in the ruins of Colorado roughly a decade after a devastating flu pandemic wiped out most of humanity. The screenplay comes from Mark L. Smith, whose previous credits include The Revenant, The Midnight Sky and The Boys in the Boat, and the production reunites Scott with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, known for his work with David Fincher.
Set in a grim 2035, the story follows Hig as he shuttles between an abandoned airfield, where he lives alongside a wary former Marine named Bangley (Josh Brolin), and the bombed-out remnants of Denver, scavenging supplies in his battered Cessna. His closest companions are his dog, Jasper, and the memory of his late wife, while Bangley provides a more prickly, pragmatic form of companionship built around whiskey, cigarettes and armed patrols. Hig is drawn away from this uneasy routine by a faint radio signal apparently broadcast from a town called Grand Junction, eventually prompting a journey across the Rocky Mountains. Along the way he encounters other pockets of survivors, including a friendly Mennonite community, and a woman named Cima (Margaret Qualley) and her father, known as Pops (Guy Pearce), who are attempting to carve out a peaceful, pioneer-style existence of their own. Their fragile idylls are threatened throughout by roaming bands of hostile scavengers.
Much of the critical commentary singles out the film's visual craftsmanship, with reviewers praising the sweeping aerial photography of Elordi's small yellow plane against the Rocky Mountain scenery, as well as the eerie, atmospheric depiction of deserted towns and cities. Elordi's understated, brooding performance and Brolin's gruffer turn as Bangley are generally viewed as a strength, even where the surrounding material is judged uneven. Several reviewers note the film's tonal restlessness, describing it as shifting between grounded survival drama, Western-style storytelling reminiscent of a mysterious stranger arriving in town, and more explosive, almost war-film set pieces in its confrontations with unnamed raiders, with comparisons drawn to Scott's earlier Black Hawk Down. More than one critic suggests the film effectively demonstrates that Scott has an outright Western in him waiting to be made.
Coverage of The Dog Stars diverges most sharply on how well these disparate elements hang together. One review is unambiguously critical, calling the film a mess and attributing its problems chiefly to a screenplay that cannot reconcile its competing tones, at one point veering into territory the writer likens to a video game franchise. Others are gentler, describing an 'enjoyable but uneven' film that knows what it wants to say about love and connection amid catastrophe without quite finding a consistent way to say it, while a further review characterises the picture as surprisingly low-energy and short on incident, arguing that the deliberately understated mood of Heller's source novel does not translate well to screen without its first-person narration. Outlets also differ in emphasis: some dwell on the visual spectacle and Scott's directorial range, others on the thinness of the antagonists and world-building, and one situates the film within a wider recent trend of intimate, character-focused post-apocalyptic stories such as The Last of Us and 28 Years Later, contrasting it with the more bombastic disaster films of the 2000s.
Where outlets differ
One reviewer calls the film 'a mess' driven by a tonally inconsistent screenplay, while others describe it more charitably as 'enjoyable but uneven' or simply low-energy rather than outright poor.
Assessments of Jacob Elordi's performance vary: some praise his understated charisma as the film's glue, while another finds his portrayal of Hig 'a bit of a blank' and says the character remains dull despite sympathetic touches like the dog and flashbacks.
Reviews differ on how the film fits into Ridley Scott's broader body of work — some frame it as evidence he should direct a true Western, others focus on comparing it (unfavourably) to his sci-fi classics like Alien, Blade Runner and The Martian.
One outlet places the film within a wider cultural trend of intimate, small-scale post-apocalyptic storytelling (citing The Last of Us and 28 Years Later), a framing not raised by the other reviews.
There is disagreement over pacing and structure: one review highlights a sharp, unexpected tonal detour partway through, while another describes the film overall as low-incident and lacking dramatic momentum from the outset.
Coverage
- Consequence — What The Dog Stars’s Messy Failures Reveal About Ridley Scott
- Polygon — Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars reworks post-apocalyptic survival drama
- Collider — ‘The Dog Stars’ Review: Ridley Scott Gets Lost at the End of the World
- Variety — ‘The Dog Stars’ Review: Jacob Elordi’s Sensitive Survivalist Can’t Sustain a Dreary Dystopian Adventure
- The Hollywood Reporter — ‘The Dog Stars’ Review: Jacob Elordi and Margaret Qualley in Ridley Scott’s Subdued but Pleasingly Soulful Dystopian Western
- Deadline — ‘The Dog Stars’ Review: Jacob Elordi Searches For Last Gasp Of Humanity In Ridley Scott’s Sharp, Post-Apocalyptic Thriller