Jacob Elordi is an actor who knows a thing or two about survival on-screen. He survived being an Aussie POW as The Narrow Road To The Deep North‘s Dorrigo Evans. His Creature made it out of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein in one piece (just about), too. Elordi even managed to emerge from the wreckage of Euphoria Season 3 unscathed, somehow. And Ridley Scott’s upcoming post-apocalyptic sci-fi joint The Dog Stars, adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 bestseller, is about to put the Oscar nominee through the wringer again — this time as Hig, a civilian pilot holed up in an abandoned air hangar and trying to survive in a pandemic ravaged America. This time at least, Elordi does have back-up — as you will see in the trailer below;
There you go! When Reapers (basically murderous, marauding packs of scavengers) come a-knocking, who you gonna call? No, not Ghostbusters. How about a medic named Cima played by Margaret Qualley, a gruff ex-marine called Bangley brought to gravelly-toned life by Josh Brolin, and a good boy doggo called Jasper? Sounds pretty good to us. And the movie — which finds Elordi’s Hig looking to break Bangley’s “wake up, defend, survive” routine and take to the skies in pursuit of an enigmatic transmission — looks pretty good, too. With Scott back in familiar speculative genre territory after the wild ride that was 2024’s Gladiator II, The Dog Stars finds the 88-year-old filmmaker tapping into both his penchant for pulsating set pieces (Hig and co’s Reaper encounters are frenetic to say the least!), as well as a more melancholy and a meditative métier that is perhaps a little less often seen from Sir Ridders in more recent works. In other words, the trailer teases a very faithful adaptation of Heller’s book.
Also glimpsed here are Guy Pearce, who plays former Navy SEAL — and Cima’s father — Pops, and Allison Janney, whose role has yet to be revealed but who very much seems to be dressed as an air hostess in this trailer. Will Elordi make it out of yet another survival story alive? What awaits at the other end of that transmission? And how does an air hostess Allison Janney factor into the equation? We don’t know yet! But we very much look forward to finding out when The Dog Stars hits cinemas on 28 August.
