If you’ve been missing Ridley Scott’s particular brand of “beautifully filmed misery,” you’re in luck. The first trailer for The Dog Stars just dropped.
Based on the bestselling novel by Peter Heller, the film stars the internet’s favorite brooding protagonist, Jacob Elordi (fresh off his Frankenstein stint), Josh Brolin, and Margaret Qualley.
Hope is a Dangerous Thing
A catastrophic flu plagues the world. It has turned “survival” into a full-time job and “humanity” into a luxury. We meet Hig (Elordi), a civilian pilot who spends his days patrolling the skies and his nights trying not to get murdered by scavengers.
Hig lives in a fragile, isolated peace with Bangley (Brolin), a grizzled military survivalist who is essentially a human “No Trespassing” sign. Their efficient little fortress is working out just fine. However, when a mysterious radio transmission crackles through the static, things get chaotic. Against Bangley’s better judgment, Hig decides to follow the signal into the unknown. They are chasing a sliver of hope that there’s something more out there than just more dirt.
An Elite Survival Squad
Ridley Scott didn’t just stop at the leads. He’s filled this post-apocalyptic landscape with some heavy hitters, including Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, and Allison Janney.
With a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Overlord), you can expect the dialogue to be as sharp as the survival knives and the atmosphere to be thick enough to choke on.
Why It Matters
While the “post-apocalypse” genre is a bit crowded these days, The Dog Stars leans more into the psychological toll of isolation than into explosions. It’s a story about the desperate, irrational need for connection when everything else has been stripped away.
If you want to see Jacob Elordi trade his designer suits for a pilot’s jacket and Josh Brolin do what he does best (looking intensely annoyed while holding a gun), this is your must-watch of the summer.
Check out the trailer below and maybe start working on your own “isolated homestead” skills just in case.
