‘The Dog Stars’ Review: Jacob Elordi in Ridley Scott’s Apocalypse Tale
The lovable dog in Ridley Scott‘s The Dog Stars isn’t actually the star of film, despite the title. Sadly, Jasper is only a supporting player in the first half hour of the movie. The real star here is Jacob Elordi, who is continuing to show genuine chops as a leading man. He does it again here as a guy who has lost just about everything except his humanity and belief that in a world decimated by a killer virus there can still be hope for us, maybe just beyond the mountain ridges he flies around in his yellow Cessna plane, ruling the empty skies in his devastated corner of the planet.
It is 2035, the last vaccines were gone years ago, and most people have been wiped out. There are exceptions and one is Hig (Elordi), who before the virus hit was a mechanic living a good life with his pregnant wife and new puppy. The baby didn’t make it, and neither did the wife, who died a year later, a victim of the horrendous pandemic that swept the planet clean. Now his base is on a deserted airstrip in Eerie, CO, where he banters with good friend and military survivalist Bangley (Josh Brolin), the complete opposite of optimistic Hig. Bangley doesn’t trust what is left of “humanity,” his powerful weapons pointed into the vast wilderness at bands of roving Reapers, bald tattooed gangs out for a pound of flesh wherever they may find it. No, they are not zombies but they might as well be, living examples of the human race gone very dark and very violent.
Bangley, sharpshooter that he is, doesn’t miss an opportunity to gun them down, or cut their throats with the precision of Rambo. He is a crotchety but likable man who knows there are no good people left beyond the mountain range despite Hig’s belief that there are. “The world as it was just doesn’t exist,” he tells Hig. But in fact Hig is convinced that if he can just get enough gas in his plane to make it to Grand Junction, it just might be the “lost horizon” he thinks still exists; the voice on his radio indicates life as it used to be is still out there. Meanwhile, he has used his plane to drop supplies to the nearby Mennonite community of young children, most born after the pandemic and seemingly immune. They love his visits with Jasper in the co-pilot seat.
On one trip Hig runs out of gas and lands in a desolate area where he comes upon a donkey leading him to a farmhouse. where another protective survivor, Pops (Guy Pearce), and his daughter Cima (Margaret Qualley) now live, also wary of intruders. At first skeptical of Hig, Pop and Cima start to form a bond with him, especially Cima who welcomes the strapping young man to warm up to at night. As Bangley encounters a virtual invasion he must fight on his own, Hig and his new friends have their own battles to contend with. This leads to Scott’s most impressive action sequence in which the three of them attempt to take off in the now-repaired Cessna as the baddies, out for blood, attempt to keep them from lifting off.
Their destination? Grand Junction. What they find there is mind-boggling and the source of The Dog Stars’ weirdest destination.
Based on Peter Heller’s 2012 bestseller, screenwriter Mark L. Smith, who seems to specialize in desolate locations via movies like The Revenant and The Midnight Sky, has created a stunning backdrop for the end of it all (Italy doubles for Colorado on the shoot). But first and foremost despite a pair of crackerjack action sequences, this is a movie where character development takes the front seat. Elordi is terrific as Hig, a man whose personal tragedies and grief do not erase his belief there is still something out there worth saving despite all the evidence that good no longer exists. Brolin is cranky, colorful and memorable as a survivor who didn’t get that way by accident. He and Elordi are the perfect pairing. Pearce also has some fine moments, particularly one where he convinces the Grand Junction control tower he is a longtime local who fondly remembers Sandy’s Pancake House. Qualley, who keeps getting better with each role, makes for an engaging companion for Hig, both not ready to give up on life. Allison Janney, queen bee of Grand Junction, gets a juicy extended cameo that she plays to the hilt.
Erik Messerschmidt’s gorgeous cinematography, using Scott’s usual multi-camera setups, is a star unto itself, as is the work of the three dogs used to play Jasper. Harry Gregson-Williams contributes another solid musical score that fits the mood perfectly.
For the remarkable 88-year-old Scott, The Dog Stars represents a change of pace, a more deliberate one than recent epics like Napoleon and Gladiator II. He is slowing it down here, particularly in the film’s more leisurely first half, letting the characters and story breathe before a strong payoff for the kind of movie Hollywood used to make a lot more often than they do now. Hopefully, audiences find it.
Producers are Scott, Michael Pruss, Smith and Cliff Roberts.
Title: The Dog Stars
Distributor: 20th Century Studios
Release date: August 28, 2026
Director: Ridley Scott
Screenwriter: Mark L. Smith
Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Benedict Wong, Guy Pearce
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 58 mins
