"The Dog Stars" is a post-apocalyptic film that fails to convince Ridley Scott's film starring Jacob Elordi blends drama, irony, and western ambition without making any of it add up

It is difficult to give a passing grade to a film like The Dog Stars when 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple came out at the beginning of 2026. It is even harder considering that Danny Boyle's revival of the saga in 2025 brought hypnotic visual choices and memorable sequences  such as Ralph Fiennes set to metal music in the sequel  while Ridley Scott's effort is bland and anonymous. 

The story is based on Peter Heller's 2012 novel of the same name. The screenplay is entrusted to Christopher Wilkinson and Mark L. Smith, the latter already known for writing The Revenant. But none of these potentially interesting elements, including Scott's direction, manage to emerge with any real energy from a work that arrives defanged despite playing in the explosive genre of post-apocalyptic fiction.

Scott's Pessimism

It was a deadly plague that wiped out humanity. Few survivors still roam the Earth, often endangered by predators or psychotic gangs who shave their heads and paint their bodies white  and here too it is impossible not to think back to the scene with Fiennes and his sabbath.

It is 2035, and young Hig, Jacob Elordi, has bigger ambitions than his companion Bangley, the veteran Josh Brolin. The young man, haunted by the memory of his late wife and a quiet life that no longer exists, wants to seek out a kind of promised land. But what awaits us when everything seems to be over? Is there truly still hope beyond what we know? 

Ridley Scott seems pessimistic as he directs The Dog Stars as he himself has admitted  and the film's ending can only be described as bordering on a conservatism that belongs to cynics and to advancing age. The filmmaker seems to be telling audiences that it is better to settle and stay home rather than aspire to something more, now that the abyss has revealed itself. Of course, the reward for an adventurous outing might be a chance encounter with Margaret Qualley, another Hollywood face in the film but it is best not to tempt fate too much, especially if you are already among the survivors of a global catastrophe. 

A Film That Doesn't Know What Tone to Strike 

Beyond the defeatism inherent in the work, what The Dog Stars truly lacks is a spark that, when it does appear, is completely disconnected from the catastrophic fate Ridley Scott has constructed. The film has ironic moments and even allows itself to drift into lightness, but these comic interludes only muddy the tone further.

As a result, the film seems to have failed to properly calibrate all the registers it draws upon, layering them on top of one another and letting them clash — including its western ambitions. The outcome is consequently a shambles, though not in any positive sense. The wild, unruly spirit that The Dog Stars might have had is actually the result of a screenplay left without a firm hand, particularly during the third act, as are the performances of the cast.

Elordi and Scott: A Wasted Meeting

Leading the cast is Jacob Elordi, the young actor not yet thirty who has recently worked with Sofia Coppola, Paul Schrader, Guillermo Del Toro and who now adds the master Ridley Scott to his résumé. It is a shame that the film does little justice to either of them  the promise of a grand journey that ends up going nowhere.

A failed mission for Ridley Scott, who nevertheless, despite his venerable age of eighty-eight, could soon make amends if he keeps up his pace of one film every one or two years. Though it has now been five years since his last truly great work, The Last Duel.