caretaker from a film student named Craig Luck.
He wanted it to be a calling card and despite
some initial rejections, his last name proved apt
since his idea charmed Ivor Powell, the associate
producer on “Blade Runner” and “Alien,” who
co-wrote the feature, Robert Zemeckis, who
produced, Hanks, “Game of Thrones” director
Miguel Sapochnik and a major Hollywood studio
(although Universal ended up selling the film to
Apple TV+ during the pandemic).
Here, Earth has been rendered a dusty
wasteland after a solar event destroyed the
ozone layer now direct sunlight is the most
dangerous thing in the world. It cooks any living
thing within moments of being exposed.
Unlike the stranded, solitary men of “Cast Away”
and “The Martian,” Finch has no family or home
to get back to. He’s dying and the world is dying
around him and he just wants to do everything
he can to make sure the dog can live without
him. The solution is rushed and imperfect —
a robot who he’s going to have to train on
the go and is only at 72% completion—but
they’re running out of time and have to make a
treacherous journey to San Francisco in an RV
from the ’80s.
This robot is impressively strong and book smart
but is more teenager than obedient servant.
And his accent is a cross between Russian and
the “Twin Peaks” Black Lodge backwards speak.
This is the choice made by actor Caleb Landry
Jones (a nod to his appearance in the “Twin
Peaks” revival?), who also did motion capture
work to play the robot. And, well, I’m not sure if
it’s the voice or how the character was written,
but this robot is hard to root for. Sometimes