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 that 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 the violent scavengers known as the Reapers. The film was released in theaters on August 28, 2026.

And while that setup sounds like the beginning of another familiar survival thriller, 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 does not spend much time showing us the apocalypse itself.

There is no endless parade of collapsing skyscrapers or armies fighting for the last can of beans. Civilization is already gone. The panic has already happened. 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 routines: fly, hunt, protect, return home, repeat.

That kind of existence is arguably more unsettling than watching the world burn.

Because once the explosions stop, someone still has to wake up the next morning.

Scott understands that.

At 88, the director has spent decades building worlds where humanity is usually fighting something bigger than itself, from Alien to Blade Runner to The Martian. But The Dog Stars takes a surprisingly restrained approach to that tradition. The film is less interested in spectacle than in what happens to people when there is almost nothing left to distract them from themselves.

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

Jacob Elordi's Hig is not your typical post-apocalyptic hero.

He isn't trying to rebuild America, looking for a cure or leading a rebellion.

He's mostly trying to keep himself, Jasper and Bangley alive.

That makes his character 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 is continuing because stopping would be easier for everyone except himself.

And 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.

A dog still expects you to come home.

That simple relationship gives the film some of its emotional weight. In a world where almost every human connection has disappeared, Hig's bond with Jasper becomes one of the few things keeping him connected 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 perfectly.

Trust nobody. Stay armed. Keep your supplies. Kill before you get killed.

It is difficult to argue with that philosophy 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.

That's what makes their relationship work.

Hig wants to believe there is still something worth protecting beyond survival. 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. There isn't a supernatural monster hunting the survivors. The biggest threat is often another human being.

That is hardly a new idea, but Scott approaches it with a kind of old-fashioned western mentality.

The world has become a frontier.

There are people defending their territory, people passing through dangerous territory, people who want what others have, and people trying to convince themselves that they are still civilized.

Some critics have actually found this approach too familiar, arguing that the film leans heavily on established post-apocalyptic conventions and lacks the energy expected from Scott. The Guardian called it a lethargic misfire, while other reviews have praised its quieter, 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 are willing to sit with it, the slower pace starts to make sense.

There isn't much left in Hig's world.

Why should his life move quickly?

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

Whatever you think of the movie itself, there is one thing Scott has never really lost: the ability to make a world feel lived in.

The Dog Stars turns empty landscapes, abandoned spaces and isolated settlements into part of the story. The Colorado setting isn't just a backdrop for the characters to run around in. The emptiness is the point.

There is something almost beautiful about seeing a world without crowds.

And then you remember why there are no crowds.

That contrast gives the film some of its strongest imagery.

The world is quieter, but it is not 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.

Several critics have argued that the movie's 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 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.

And that's probably why the reaction has been so divided.

Some people will see a thoughtful survival drama.

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 comes after.

• When there is no government.
• No internet.
• No supermarket.
• No ambulance.
• No easy way to call someone you love.
• When every stranger becomes a potential threat and every familiar place becomes a memory.

At that point, staying alive is relatively simple.

The difficult part is finding a reason to stay human.

That is what Hig's relationship with Jasper represents. It is what his conflict with Bangley represents. And it is ultimately what makes the film more interesting than its familiar premise suggests.

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 it.

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.

Not because Jasper can save the world.

But because in a world where almost everything has disappeared, loving something might be the last proof that you are still part of humanity.

And just maybe surviving isn't the same thing as living.
— Sushi