This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on September 3, 2026.
Director: Ridley Scott.
Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, Allison Janney.
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| Not pictured: the stars. |
Ridley Scott knows a thing or two about survival - Alien and The Martian are among two of the best survive-against-all-odds movies of all time.
But rarely has surviving the end of the world seemed so languid, bucolic and rural as it does in The Dog Stars, Scott's adaptation of the post-apocalyptic novel of the same name by Peter Heller.
There are moments of terror (including a truly creepy end to the second act), but for an end-of-days situation it's surprisingly chill. What this leaves room for are some thoughtful takes on whether kindness and goodwill can survive the apocalypse.
Aussie actor Elordi stars as Hig, a pilot/mechanic who is one of the few survivors of a killer pandemic. He lives in a self-sustaining compound in Colorado with a former soldier named Bangley (Brolin) and a dog called Jasper.
While Bangley is content to see out the post-doomsday days in their easily defendable ranch, Hig wonders if civilisation still exists, and whether it's even worth carrying on.
This post-armageddon world seems fairly pleasant and survivable. There's fishing trips with your dog, flying your plane over beautiful landscapes, hanging out with the nearby Mennonite community, and visiting your oddly untouched family home. Yes, there are marauding hordes and some truly abominable horrors out there, but in The Dog Stars they tend to feel like they've been dropped in from a different film. The horrors of survival are not the major danger - it's the yearning that'll get ya.
The film kinda ambles along until it hits its truly messed up section, which tips proceedings into horror territory briefly. These moments are the ones that are going to stick with you the longest after the credits have rolled.
That's partly because everything else is weirdly nice. In between the psychotic gangs roaming the landscape, this is a futuristic film yearning for a simpler time, in a roundabout way. It enjoys its beautiful landscapes (Italy standing in for Colorado) and wonders what it's all about. At its heart it questions whether survival is compatible with kindness.
Elordi carries the film well, Brolin is great in slightly one-note roll of the grizzled war vet, while Pearce and Qualley add a spark to things when they turn up.
The Dog Stars is Scott's 30th film as director. He's made some real stinkers from time to time (The Counsellor remains one of the worst films I've ever seen), but this ain't one of them. It's mid-tier Ridley - not his best work, not his worst. Just nicely in the middle. And oddly pleasant for a post-apocalyptic vision.
