REVIEW — “The Dog Stars”

A suspenseful-but-tender post-apocalyptic thriller with tense scares and gentle romance, Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars feels more like an episodic end-of-the-world series condensed into a feature length film.

While the film looks like a zombie movie, it isn’t. Set in 2035, The Dog Stars follows survivors of a deadly pandemic as they traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape encountering tribal bands of murderous roaming savages, cynical survivalists, Mennonite communities and disturbingly deceptive cannibals.

Protagonist Hig (Jacob Elordi), a young pilot still struggling with the loss of his pregnant wife, is still holding onto hope for humanity. On the other side of the argument is Bangley (Josh Brolin), a jaded military survivalist who fits right in with the apocalypse, sniper’s perch and everything. Together with Hig’s loyal dog Jasper, the pair have carved out an efficient but isolated homestead in the mountains of Denver, Colorado.

While we’ve seen Brolin in similar roles before, he always brings a welcome charisma when playing gruff and wounded warriors. Elordi, meanwhile, steadies his Hig with the stoic calmness of an early Ryan Gosling, delivering an emotionally wounded hero who still believes there is a way back for civilization.

What starts out with strong I Am Legend vibes, The Dog Stars reveals itself to be a more thoughtful and emotional post-apocalyptic thriller about trust and human nature that’s more Station Eleven meets The Last of Us than Fallout or The Walking Dead. The Dog Stars also features a critically acclaimed ensemble cast that includes Allison Janney and Benedict Wong, and Guy Pearce. While he doesn’t get enough screentime to be anything more than a slightly-drunk protective father, Pearce is more-than-capable (if not slightly wasted) in the role of Pops.

He plays dad to his farmer’s daughter Cima (Margaret Qualley), a widowed former medical student who forms a quick bond with Hig after he emergency lands near her family farm on his way to Grand Junction to find the origin of a mysterious radio transmission. As Cima, Qualley’s performance is raw and her lonliness feels real. She’s a standout in the film.

Throughout a montage of tender scenes, the two grieving survivors find comfort in each other in an unforgiving postapocalyptic world, one where survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice. Based on the captivating bestseller by Peter Heller, the film asks: When the world ends does our humanity end with it, or can there be life again after so much death?

Director Ridley Scott uses sweeping landscapes and cinematic aerial shots to reflect the deep and expansive loneliness of the film’s characters. However, the characters are constantly moving, so the film never lingers long enough in one place to establish roots. Instead, it just skips from scene-to-scene and action beat-to-action beat. The pacing suggests The Dog Stars was originally built for streaming. And I agree that the film could have been more effective as an episodic series on a prestige streamer, like Disney+/Hulu, that allows audiences more time to sit with the characters and care about their backstories.

While the gentle end-of-days drama is beautifully shot, dramatically compelling and filled with strong performances from its all-star cast, the film’s story could have benefited from a more drawn-out tension-build-up to some of its most engaging-but-rushed scenes. It also could have benefitted from way more Jasper. Unfortunately, The Dog Stars is heavy on the stars and light on the dog. 3/5

Rating R with a running time of 1 hours and 58 minutes, The Dog Stars opens in theaters and IMAX on August 28, 2026.