Ridley Scott's latest film, The Dog Stars, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Jacob Elordi, hits UK cinemas this week, but it struggles to overcome one fundamental issue: its unsettling proximity to the 2020 Covid pandemic. The revered director of Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise and Alien is back less than two years after the clamour around Gladiator II in November 2024, yet this new release has flown under the radar.
At 88, Scott still has a remarkable drive and zest for movies, with a dedication and skill that many envy. He also still has plenty left to say, identifying himself as a newshound and warning that his latest film lays out world events that are just around the corner. But unfortunately, The Dog Stars could definitely be better as a film, as Scott is limited by the material.
A story too close to home
Based on Peter Heller's 2012 sci-fi novel of the same name, and adapted by Mark L. Smith, the film is set in 2035. Elordi's mechanic and pilot Hig is one of few survivors after a deadly flu outbreak has decimated the world's population, leading to the collapse of society as we recognise it. While Heller must be admired for his eerie prescience when writing the book, it seems a risky choice in 2026 to decide that this is what people want to watch on a big screen at the cinema.
Of course, as is clearly Scott's ambition here, audiences look to be challenged as well as entertained. But this film doesn't have enough substance – or distinct identity – to truly make an impact, and it's certainly not offering escapism.
Visuals and cast
It's not all doom and gloom though, with plenty of gorgeous visuals to admire. Scott is a dab hand at shooting majestic landscapes, and this time it's Italy standing in for Colorado in the United States. Elordi replaced Paul Mescal in the lead role here, after commitments to Sir Sam Mendes' four-part Beatles biopic forced him to step away.
Hig lives at an abandoned airstrip in Erie in 2035 with military survivalist Bangley (Josh Brolin) and his very good dog Jasper. While Bangley is a batten-down-the-hatches kind of guy, the more empathetic Hig is still hopeful of finding further signs of humanity. He still ventures out to deliver supplies to a Mennonite farming community, led by Aaron (Benedict Wong), while flying into the abandoned and overgrown Denver to stock up on dwindling medical kit and canned goods.
But it's quite a slow start with the world building and vagueness around what has actually happened in this dystopian landscape. And with Hig lingering outside a ruined Denver City Hall, before running into a scavenger, it's all a bit too much like a rehash of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and his franchise-building (and cinema trope defining) stark and empty cityscape of London.
A mixed bag
There's also not a clear enough answer as to the threats left behind, as some who managed to survive the influenza are left with a debilitating blood disease – which is only properly mentioned near the end of the film – but there are also deathly white and slightly crazed gangs of (what I assume used to be) normal humans lurking around. When Hig receives a mysterious radio transmission from Grand Junction, which feeds into his ongoing search for more signs of surviving humanity, an emergency landing sees him encounter the mistrustful Pops (Guy Pearce) and his daughter Cima (The Substance's Margaret Qualley) at a homestead in the middle of nowhere.
It's obvious that Hig and Cima develop a growing connection, but the deft handling of it, acknowledging that they are both coming to each other weighed down by their own grief, allows it to quietly and more realistically resonate. Hig does eventually get to Grand Junction, and without spoiling what's waiting there for him, it's a surreal section which introduces a terrifying Allison Janney and feels like it's from a completely different film. It's also where the movie makes its boldest departure from the book, and while completely understandable, it's a swing and a miss.
Verdict
The Dog Stars is a perfectly competent film, with Scott elevating the material as best he can alongside his cast of tried and tested actors offering decent performances with what they have. There are pockets of humour too, mostly provided by Pearce's distinctly unimpressed Pops and Brolin's slightly unhinged Bangley – someone's got to parade around in their underpants, after all – while Elordi and Qualley are left to be, perhaps, the more grounded grown-ups.
However, it doesn't have enough of its own personality to have a lasting impact in the way so many of Scott's previous films have – and he potentially hamstrung himself by deciding people would flock to see a rather low-key but too close to home pandemic movie. The Dog Stars never manages to quite overcome the fundamentally puzzling decision to make a movie about a deadly flu pandemic just years after a deadly flu pandemic – and not have it offer much more than that. The Dog Stars is in UK cinemas from today. It releases in the US and elsewhere on Friday, August 28.
