The Dog Stars

Based on the titular novel by Peter Heller, The Dog Stars imagines a world in which a pandemic did not gradually fizzle out, but endured, metastasised and decimated life as we know it, ultimately forcing humanity into subsistence. And it asks: would that really be such a bad thing? Returning to his sci-fi roots, Ridley Scott’s latest film looks at how a post-pandemic society would function without its present power structures.

Survivors of an influenza pandemic that ravaged the majority of the population, Hig (Jacob Elordi) and Bangley (Josh Brolin) live among the ruins of a former airport. Bangley remains pre-emptively armed out of fear of being attacked by “invaders”, survivors who have been seemingly driven to madness in the virus’s aftermath. Hig is less inclined to insularity, using an old aircraft to deliver food to a Mennonite commune alongside his beloved dog, Jasper. When Hig meets fellow survivors Cima (Margaret Qualley) and her father, “Pops” (Guy Pearce), he sets out to find an elusive community apparently still living a pre-pandemic life.

While Brolin seamlessly assumes the role of the grizzled Bangley, Elordi’s performance does not veer from his similarly brooding personas in Euphoria, Saltburn and Wuthering Heights. Nonetheless, it works for the subject matter, and his scenes with Qualley enable both actors to show their emotional range.

The film’s tone is somewhat muddled, darting between dystopian sci-fi, reflective drama and horror (there’s even a stomach-churning Get Out-esque segment). When it does lean into the dramatic, it’s infused with a sentimentality that runs counter to what one might expect from the veteran filmmaker who birthed Alien.

But for all its tonal issues, it provides a glimpse into what a post-Covid world could have looked like. There’s been much discourse over how surviving a global pandemic made people more selfish rather than altruistic. With the cessation of lockdowns came a special kind of self-centredness, an overconsumption to compensate for being deprived for so long. But with that capitalist system no longer in existence in the film’s universe, its survivors embrace social egalitarianism. Cima and Pops, for instance, are perfectly happy living a simple agrarian life before Hig arrives with the prospect of returning to the old ways.

The Dog Stars is an insightful and pertinent look at the post-Covid landscape. With twists when least expected, the film is a slow burner – but one with a worthwhile payoff.

Antonia Georgiou

The Dog Stars is released nationwide on 28^th August 2026.

Watch the trailer for The Dog Stars here: