Post-apocalyptic worlds remain perennially compelling movie settings because they offer an escapist fantasy of life after social order. Strip away the institutions, laws, and contemporary conveniences that contour our daily lives, and see what remains. Ridley Scott’s latest film, The Dog Stars, based on Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, revisits that harsh world. It does so against the incongruously gorgeous vistas of the Colorado Rockies and sprawling verdant fields.
Scott’s civilization has not been ravaged by flesh-eating zombies or dystopian technology. Its survivors preside over the comparatively unglamorous ruins left by a deadly flu pandemic. It is here that we meet Hig (Jacob Elordi), a former mechanic and pilot, and Bangley (Josh Brolin), a heavily armed former Marine with whom he shares an abandoned airfield.
