The Dog Stars Is a Post-Apocalyptic Movie About More Than Just Surviving

The Dog Stars Is a Post-Apocalyptic Movie About More Than Just Surviving

Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi thriller asks what humanity looks like when almost everything else is gone.

The apocalypse has been done to death. We have watched zombies overrun cities, nuclear bombs turn countries into wastelands, machines wipe out humanity, and mysterious viruses bring civilization to its knees more times than anyone can count. At this point, another movie about the end of the world should have a serious problem convincing us there is anything new left to see.

Then Ridley Scott enters the wasteland with a helicopter, a dog, a rifle and Jacob Elordi. The Dog Stars is not really interested in making the apocalypse bigger. It makes it quieter.

Based on Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, the film follows Hig, a pilot living in post-pandemic Colorado after a devastating flu has wiped out most of humanity. He lives with his dog Jasper and the heavily armed Bangley, played by Josh Brolin, while keeping an eye out for violent scavengers known as the Reapers. The film was released in theaters on August 28, 2026.

The setup sounds like the beginning of another familiar survival thriller, but The Dog Stars is ultimately asking a more uncomfortable question: what exactly are you surviving for?

The World Has Already Ended

The smartest thing about The Dog Stars is that it doesn't spend much time showing us the apocalypse itself. There is no endless parade of collapsing skyscrapers or armies fighting over the last can of beans. Civilization is already gone, the panic has already happened, and most of the people are already dead. What remains is the quiet afterward.

Hig flies his plane across an almost empty landscape, searching for supplies and watching for threats. His life has been reduced to a routine of flying, hunting, protecting and returning home, and that kind of existence can be more unsettling than watching the world burn because once the explosions stop, someone still has to wake up the next morning.

Scott understands that kind of aftermath. At 88, the director has spent decades building worlds where humanity is usually fighting something bigger than itself, from Alien to Blade Runner and The Martian. Yet The Dog Stars takes a surprisingly restrained approach to that tradition, focusing less on spectacle than on what happens when there is almost nothing left to distract people from themselves.

Hig Has Survived. That Doesn't Mean He's Living.

Jacob Elordi's Hig isn't your typical post-apocalyptic hero. He isn't trying to rebuild America, find a cure or lead a rebellion; he's mostly trying to keep himself, Jasper and Bangley alive.

That makes him interesting because survival has become almost mechanical. Hig has lost his wife and most of the world he knew, and there is a sense that he continues because stopping would be easier than figuring out what comes next. His existence has become less about living than maintaining the routine of being alive.

Then there is Jasper.

The dog is obviously important to the story, but not simply because the movie wants us to love a cute animal in a depressing wasteland. Jasper represents something Hig has managed to preserve that the apocalypse couldn't completely destroy: attachment. A dog doesn't care that civilization collapsed; it still expects you to come home, and that simple relationship gives Hig one of the few remaining connections to the person he used to be.

Then There's Bangley

If Hig represents whatever remains of humanity's softer side, Bangley represents the opposite. Josh Brolin's character understands the new world through a simple philosophy: trust nobody, stay armed, protect your supplies and kill before you get killed.

It is difficult to argue with that approach when violent scavengers are roaming around looking for anything they can take. But The Dog Stars isn't particularly interested in deciding whether Bangley is right or wrong, which is what makes the relationship work. Hig wants to believe there is still something worth protecting beyond survival, while Bangley believes survival itself is the only thing that matters.

Neither man is completely stupid, and neither man is completely right. Their relationship becomes one of the film's central conflicts because the real question isn't whether humanity can survive; it is whether humanity is still worth being after survival becomes the only priority.

The Apocalypse Doesn't Need Zombies

This is where The Dog Stars separates itself from a lot of modern post-apocalyptic fiction. There are no zombies coming through the windows or supernatural monsters hunting survivors. The biggest threat is often another human being, which gives the film the feeling of an old-fashioned western where the world has become a frontier.

There are people defending their territory, people moving through dangerous territory, people taking what others have and people trying to convince themselves they are still civilized. Some critics have found this approach too familiar, with The Guardian calling the film a lethargic misfire, while other reviews have praised its quieter and more contemplative approach.

That split is understandable. If you came looking for Mad Max with a Ridley Scott budget, The Dog Stars might feel frustratingly slow. But if you're willing to sit with it, the slower pace starts to make sense because there isn't much left in Hig's world that needs to move quickly.

Ridley Scott Still Knows How to Make a Dead World Look Beautiful

Whatever you think of the movie itself, Scott has never really lost his ability to make a world feel lived in. The Dog Stars turns empty landscapes, abandoned spaces and isolated settlements into part of the story, with the Colorado setting functioning as more than a backdrop for the characters.

There is something almost beautiful about seeing a world without crowds, until you remember why there are no crowds. That contrast gives the film some of its strongest imagery: the world is quieter, but it isn't peaceful. It is beautiful because humanity is gone and horrifying for exactly the same reason.

But Is the Movie Too Quiet?

This is where The Dog Stars becomes difficult to defend. The film has plenty of atmosphere, but atmosphere can only carry a story so far, and several critics have argued that its pacing and familiar survival beats work against it. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists a 40% critics score, while reviews have repeatedly described the film as slow, muted or overly familiar.

That criticism isn't completely unfair. There are moments when The Dog Stars feels like it is circling an interesting idea instead of attacking it directly. The ingredients are all there—grief, loneliness, masculinity, survival, companionship, violence and the possibility of rebuilding—but Scott doesn't always push those ideas as far as you might expect.

Sometimes the film seems more interested in showing us what the end of the world looks like than explaining what it means. That's probably why the reaction has been so divided: some people will see a thoughtful survival drama, while others will see nearly two hours of Jacob Elordi looking exhausted in the wilderness. Both readings make sense.

Maybe Surviving Was Never the Point

Still, there is something about The Dog Stars that sticks with you. The movie understands that the apocalypse isn't necessarily the most interesting part of an apocalypse story; the interesting part is what happens afterward, when there is no government, internet, supermarket, ambulance or easy way to reach someone you love.

When every stranger becomes a potential threat and every familiar place becomes a memory, staying alive is relatively simple. The difficult part is finding a reason to stay human, and that is what Hig's relationship with Jasper represents. It is also what his conflict with Bangley represents: two men who have survived the same catastrophe but reached very different conclusions about what survival should mean.

The Dog Stars may not reinvent the post-apocalyptic genre. In fact, there are moments when it feels like it is borrowing heavily from stories we've already seen. But perhaps it doesn't need to reinvent the genre to be worthwhile. Sometimes the apocalypse doesn't need another monster; sometimes it just needs to ask what happens to the people who are left.

And maybe that is why the dog matters. Jasper can't save the world, but in a world where almost everything has disappeared, loving something might be the last proof that Hig is still connected to humanity.

Because surviving isn't the same thing as living.

— Sushi

For a different survival premise, read Whalefall’s unusual survival premise.