Although in his late 80’s, Ridley Scott shows no sign of slowing down. His latest is a post-apocalyptic drama, with a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Peter Heller.
It is set after a devastating flu pandemic that has almost eradicated the human race. Hig (Jacob Elordi), a former mechanic and amateur pilot and Bangley (Josh Brolin), a hardened former Marine have set up camp at a small airfield just outside Denver. They have enough supplies to survive indefinitely, with Hig able to make forays into the city, but, haunted by the death of his wife, he yearns for something more. Intrigued by a mysterious radio transmission, Hig sets out to find who else is out there.
I think the whole post-apocalyptic thing has been overdone in recent years but this works much better than most efforts. The opening scenes of Hig in a devastated Denver reminded me of The Omega Man, and his set up with Bangley was sufficiently different from the norm to keep me interested. Normally lives are unremmitingly grim but Scott and Smith sensibly show the lighter moments and how kindness can survive. There is though, plenty of hostile, in some cases feral, groups that Hig and Bangley have to deal with, in exciting scenes reminiscent of the 28 Years Later movies.
On his travels, Hig meets Jack (Guy Pearce) and his daughter Cima (Margaret Qualley). Initially wary, they form a bond, and when their home is attacked, they flee in Hig’s plane. That is a well staged sequence, but it does lead to the one big misstep in the film. Hig locates the source of the radio broadcasts, and they arrive at a bizarre community at an airport. Although it is presided over by a superbly unhinged Allison Janney, it feels like it belongs in a very different film.
As well as Janney, the performances all round are impressive. Pearce and Brolin are reliably good, with Elordi and Qualley, actors I have not warmed to in the past, surprisingly good.
This is not up there with Scott’s best work, but it is an entertaining, and at times, sobering story.
Rating: 7 out of 10