Ridley Scott, as of the writing of this review, is 88 years old. I just want to get that out of the way before I offer up any criticism about his latest film, The Dog Stars, because despite the post-apocalypse movie often feeling like a speed-run through tropes of the genre, it’s frankly stunning that the legendary director is offering up stories at this high a level, nearly nine decades into being alive. Like a lot of late stage Scott movies, Dog Stars isn’t perfect; but it’s a wonder it exists at all.
Based on the book by Peter Heller, the story is mostly set in 2035, years after an influenza epidemic killed most of the world. Right off you have shades of The Stand, and while in 2026 it’s hard not to see the mild commentary of what could have happened with COVID – and what could still happen – as the impetus for this movie existing, Heller published the novel in 2012. In any case, the early going of the movie follows Hig (Jacob Elordi), a former mechanic and full-time Dead Wife Guy who is going through the motions of survival with his pet dog Jasper and survivalist “friend” Bangley (Josh Brolin). When things go array on their remote compound outside Denver, Hig decides to take his propeller plane and track down a signal he’s been sporadically hearing from Grand Junction.
Literally none of this is new… The discussions of survival versus hope, the apocryphal safe haven, and the multiple killer groups that range from Mad Max “zombies” to military cannibals and even just some straight up “Cowboys vs. Indians” for good measure? You’ve seen it a million times before, and over the 118 minute runtime of the movie (including credits), this can occasionally feel like 11 seasons of The Walking Dead jammed into under two hours, minus the actual zombies and plus some really stunningly filmed mountain footage (Italy stands in for Colorado).
It’s also a little odd because the book itself is so quiet, filled with punctuations of violence but none of the epic action scenes that pop up every 30 minutes or so in the movie. Massive explosions, Allison Janney as an insane former flight attendant running some sort of brainwashed Fallout-esque cult, a sequence where Bangley goes full on Apocalypse Now… These all seem like concessions to Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking, and lessen the impact of the quieter sections.
In particular, the beginning of the movie which merely has Elordi going through his tasks with his dog, or moments when he opens up to Cima (Margaret Qualley), a Dead Husband Girl who he bonds with after his plane crash lands near her cabin, really work. They’re moments of simple human observation, and Elordi uses his soulful eyes on a jacked Slenderman body to maximum effect… He’s like the Scarecrow come to life, but a little less goofy, and watching him and Qualley giggle and bond with a gruff Guy Pearce (he plays Cima’s cowboy dad, Pops) as they clear a runway to get his plane back in action has more life than a bunch of crazed maniacs doing their best World War Z impression.
Would a younger Scott have excised these unnecessary action scenes? Maybe, maybe not. He’s certainly expert at eking out human performances from his actors, and it doesn’t hurt that you have performers like Brolin who can find the soul in your requisite survivalist tough guy, or Benedict Wong in a thankless role as the leader of the salt-of-the-Earth Mennonites who Hig provides Sprite to sometimes (the kids love Sprite). Definitely, when Scott started back in the ‘70s this could have been a sparse, man and his dog survival film mostly characterized by silence.
But hey, the movie is what it is. There’s nothing new here, necessarily, but Elordi does continue to prove he has the chops to be a movie star beyond his toxic take as Nate Jacobs on HBO’s Euphoria, Qualley is mostly on autopilot in this supportive girlfriend role, and Brolin is charmingly gruff before he poignantly softens. There’s also the dog stars of the title: Jasper is a good boy, and there are whole packs of dogs running wild throughout the movie (though you may be less than happy about what happens to him).
The Dog Stars doesn’t necessarily add anything to the post-apocalypse genre, but it also doesn’t take anything away from the still very vibrant legacy of Ridley Scott as director. We should all be this good at what we do, 88 years in.
The Dog Stars hits theaters on August 28, 2026.
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