The Dog Stars with Jacob Elordi as Hig, Margaret Qualley as Cima, Josh Brolin as Bangley and Guy Pearce as “Pops” (Courtesy of IMDB / 20th Century Studios)
Screen Time gives The Dog Stars a Melodious Thumbs Up
Ridley Scott’s film adaptation of the novel The Dog Stars premiered to U.S. audiences on August 28 as a mirror to a divided America, with mixed reviews from critics.
Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars” is his first post-apocalyptic film and a return to sci-fi following “Blade Runner” (1982) and “Blade Runner 2049″ (2017). The character-driven thriller adapted by Mark L. Smith from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel of the same name follows Hig, played by Jacob Elordi and Bangley, played by Josh Brolin, as they struggle to survive in a violent and unpredictable Road Warrior world set on the North Slope of Colorado.
Filmed in the gentle Italian countryside near Rome, the movie opens to composer Harry Gregson-Williams emotionally sweeping tune, ”Hig’s First Flight,” as “The Beast,” a 1956 Cessna 182, cruises above the conifer-filled canyons, sweeping meadows, and the much older limestone layers of the Dolomites that evoke the ancient bedrock and terrain of the Rocky Mountains.
The Dog Stars with Jacob Elordi as Hig, with his dog Jasper (Fabio Lovin / 20th Century Studios)
Hig, a pilot, cohabitates at the abandoned Erie, Colorado, airport with his German shepherd, Jasper, and paranoid survivalist Bangley. Nine years after a flu pandemic has killed Hig’s wife and wiped out most of the world’s population, the two men spend their time shooting strangers and debating whether their chances of survival are better by staying in Erie or flying to Grand Junction.
Unlikely friends Jacob Elordi as Hig and Josh Brolin as Bangley in The Dog Stars. (Fabio Lovin / 20th Century Studios)
A central theme of the film is zero tolerance toward strangers. The only people they trust are the Mennonites, whom Bangley continually confuses with Mormons and Druids. The invisible border around their homestead and the rejection of case-by-case consideration of newcomers are an allegory for America’s immigration debates, which fail to distinguish between asylum seekers and bad actors.
The pairing of Hig and Bangley is fitting as it symbolizes a divided American stance on preemptive violence versus restraint. Hig values human connections, while Bangley is a cold, hyper-survivalist whose nature is perfectly tailored for a violent post-apocalyptic reality. Hig believes there is salvation in community, while Bangley sees all outsiders as “roaches” whom he shoots on sight.
Colorado Public Radio Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner interviews The Dog Stars author Peter Heller at the Denver Press Club (CU Independent / Melodie Miller)
Both the novel and movie tell the story of a monstrous character “sweeping across the landscape and coming towards us,” Heller told Ryan Warner of CPR Colorado Matters at the Denver Press Club. The only thing the characters can do is “try and beat it. And it’s roaring in [their] back. It’s roaring tremendously.”
According to “The New York Times” and “The Daily Beast,” no amount of talent or cinematic beauty can save this movie. Rotten Tomatoes considers the film “full of hope, but…unfocused and too familiar” giving it a Tomatometer of 40%. Anything below 60% is marked rotten.
“That doesn’t hurt my feelings. I didn’t make the movie,” Heller said. Film is a “completely different medium and I am so honored that another artist, a great artist, is inspired by my book.”
The film is “new, a separate work of art.” “I think a lot of the critics, a lot of them haven’t read the book. I can tell a lot of them were expecting Mad Max, some real post-apocalyptic sort of thing,” Heller said.
The Dog Stars with Jacob Elordi as Hig, Margaret Qualley as Cima, (Fabio Lovin / 20th Century Studios)
Hig and Cima’s desire for human connection shadows the lingering effects of the 2020 COVID pandemic and the isolation the world endured. Hig hears a faint radio transmission from the Grand Junction airport, symbolic of the desire to re-tether with civilization, even with strangers. Amid Hig’s quest to confirm the radio transmission’s trustworthiness, he meets Cima, played by Margaret Qualley, and her father, “Pops,” played by Guy Pearce. After a turbulent initiation process, Pops finally accepts Hig, giving him a chance to find love again with Cima.
Hig’s obsession with the Grand Junction airport embodies the allure of a better life elsewhere. The film’s must-see sequence unfolds inside the 1950s doomsday billionaire bunker departure lounge, full of bizarre elite occupants partying while the outside world is in freefall. Without Bangley’s steady presence, Hig’s compulsion drives him to take a dire risk at human connection when he meets airport cult leader Darlene (Allison Janney of The Diplomat and The West Wing fame). This sequence, with its allusion to the depravities of the moneyed class, cautions the audience to be careful what they wish for.
While the film does not duplicate the events of the 2012 novel The Dog Stars, it feels unnervingly timely in 2026. Hig’s risky desire for connection, Bangley’s violent intolerance of strangers, and the garbled radio transmissions that echo misinformation reflect the fractured trust and difficult choices moviegoers face in everyday life.
Contact CU Independent Writer Melodie Miller at Melodie.Miller@colorado.edu
