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65’s twist makes the dino-fighting movie just a little more interesting
Adam Driver explains his character, and why he was thinking more about Alien than Jurassic Park
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Is a twist a twist if it twists right in the first five minutes of a movie? According to Sony Pictures, yes — which is why marketing for 65 has emphasized the part where Adam Driver fights dinosaurs on a prehistoric planet Earth rather than answering the question of how he got there in the first place. But the truth left me absolutely giddy.
“After a cataclysmic crash on an unknown planet,” reads Sony’s carefully worded plot description for 65 , “pilot Mills (Adam Driver) quickly discovers he’s actually stranded on Earth… 65 million years ago.”
But here is the thing: Mills does not discover that he’s actually stranded on Earth 65 million years ago!
[ Ed. note: The following interview contains spoilers for 65 .]
That’s because Mills has never been to Earth, or even heard of the planet. There is no time travel in 65 ; the pilot’s crash was simply a work accident during a routine shipping mission across the galaxy, coordinated by beings from another planet. Driver isn’t “human” — he’s an alien!
Finding an organic way back to the time of the dinosaurs was a naturally tricky endeavor, according to writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, and even more so when they landed on the idea that Mills would arrive on Earth from an entirely different civilization.
“We needed it to feel grounded,” Beck says of the challenge. “There were wild ideas that were left on the page, like Adam speaking another language, or different facial modifications [to make him look more alien]. But we needed to find a blend where we didn’t lose the audience in the first five minutes. We were always pressure-testing.”
The duo spent a good portion of preproduction on 65 weighing world-building options with production designer Kevin Ishioka. The questions ranged from basic — Has this civilization embraced digital technology, or do they rely on analog? — to the fantastical. At one point, Beck and Woods considered a design of Mills’ galactic freighter that would have been made entirely out of rock, unlike anything the average moviegoer might immediately detect as a spaceship.
“We talked a lot about how the technology in the film should both be at times futuristic — meaning more advanced than our technology — and at other times regressed,” Woods says. “We wanted to run that line between futuristic and retro, a hybrid of ancient and future. That was the benchmark for us.”
The opening scenes of the film, set on an alien beach speckled with spiraling vertical rock formations, only give us traces of a larger world established in the far reaches of space. The focus is more on Mills’ soul-searching: The only reason he took his shipping job was to earn enough money for a medication that might or might not save his terminally ill daughter. When it all goes wrong (thanks to an ill-timed chunk of space rock that sends his ship spiraling down to Earth, a precursor of a much bigger meteor headed toward the planet), Mills’ fight for survival is immediately pressurized by a need to get home to his child, and to protect another survivor, a young girl named Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), who has also been stranded in the Cretaceous Era.
“We try to show more than explain,” Driver tells Polygon, “but you know what the relationship means to him in his unwillingness to talk, when he’s faced with someone who, in every detail, reminds him of his past.”
Mills isn’t a conventional hero. While Jurassic Park comes up as an obvious sci-fi touchstone for the film, Driver compares Mills to Harry Dean Stanton in Alien . He’s just a blue-collar guy punching a time clock. “It could almost be considered the equivalent to a truck driver. It’s not a planet where being a pilot is foreign to them. There isn’t some kind of hierarchical thing [because he’s an alien]. This is what he does.”
While 65 does get pulpy, Beck and Woods also cite Alien as a way of rooting the potentially far-fetched setup in something real. While they created a new planet and sculpted a world where aliens like Mills ship cryogenically frozen people as cargo, they ultimately take him to a familiar planet, where he faces creatures the audience knows a great deal about already. That meant respecting the known science about dinosaurs while also diving into science fiction.
“We had a Venn diagram, where one circle was all about science,” Woods says, “And then in the other Venn diagram circle, we had Ridley Scott’s Alien , one of the scariest movies ever made. And so we just wanted to kind of combine interesting science and also something that’s frightening.”
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What is 65 Even About? Attempting to Explain the Adam Driver vs. Dinosaurs Movie
Wait, is Adam Driver an alien?
65, the newest film from writer-director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods ( Haunt ) is finally roaring into theaters. But with its vague title (65 what?!) and mysterious setting, you’d be forgiven for having no idea what it’s about.
The Adam Driver-starring thriller is an efficiently told sci-fi yarn about a pilot with futuristic technology trying to save one young passenger from their crash on a planet full of, well, dinosaurs. But if this premise makes you think this is a new-age spin on Planet of the Apes , you’d be dead wrong.
There’s more than a little confusion around some of the movie’s central plot elements, so here’s a brief (largely spoiler-free) explainer of what you should know about 65 .
What the heck does 65 even mean?
This one’s the easiest. The title 65 signifies 65 million years ago, the era of the film’s setting, and most of it takes place on Mesozoic-era Earth.
65 million years ago? Is this a time travel movie?
This seems to be a point of confusion , as humanoids with sci-fi tech typically scream “from the future!” Our heroes are actually from far, far in the past.
There’s literally no suggestion of time travel in 65 (recently confirmed by Adam Driver ), even of the accidental Planet of the Apes variety. Their advanced extraterrestrial civilization existed 65 million years ago, it was just more technologically advanced than we are. Driver explains that the characters are in a “parallel universe,” but you should probably forget that — it’s not needed to understand the film.
Wait, Adam Driver’s playing an alien?
Yep, Mills (Adam Driver) and young passenger Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) are both extraterrestrials. Mills is from a planet called Somaris, and Koa is from elsewhere in his space-faring civilization.
65 ’s intro title cards confirm that “before the advent of mankind … a visitor crash landed on Earth,” so it’s clear that the pair are aliens, just humanoid ones.
Why does Mills have an Earth name and seemingly speak English? Not clear. Maybe both our planet and theirs evolved the name Mills in the same way the Earth keeps independently making crabs . He’s definitely never stepped foot on Earth prior to the movie, and it’s best to think of them as aliens that really look like us, but which aren’t connected to humanity beyond their fateful crash in our galactic neighborhood.
Adam Driver is not of this world — literally.
So why are they traveling through space?
Your usual space travel reasons. Mills agreed to pilot the long interstellar voyage in order to make enough money for the healthcare of his ill daughter on Somaris. Koa was traveling with her family, who were lost in the crash.
Why can’t we understand what Koa is saying? What language is that?
One from within the boundaries of their extraterrestrial civilization, but it’s a working language that was invented for the movie . It’s not an Earth language, we’re not supposed to understand it, and Mills can’t speak it either. That said, if you really, really wanted to translate it, it’s not gibberish: you might be able to!
Who is the “bad guy” in 65? Is it an evil dinosaur?
There’s no Chris-Pratt-in- Passengers humanoid villain, no: it’s a simple survival tale, where the main antagonist is mostly the comet, somewhat the dinosaurs. In a way, it’s also Somaris’ for-profit healthcare system, which is why Mills took on the trip to begin with. Is it somewhat soul crushing that a high-tech spacefaring civilization still has bottom-barrel capitalist healthcare? Yes, yes it is.
Adam Driver is not a time traveler, probably.
What’s up with that time-lapse ending? What does it mean?!
There’s definitely credits footage worth watching, but it’s not a sequel tease. As the credits roll, there’s a time lapse of the area where the comet struck the Earth. We watch the progression through the planet’s recovery into the modern skyscraper era. That’s it.
The time lapse does not mean Adam Driver travels to the future. It’s just a pretty cool shot — even if it might have been badass to see Future Us hit the stars in a perfect moment of circularity. That said, realistically it would double the confusion people have, and this article would need to be SO MUCH LONGER, so perhaps it’s for the best.
65 is playing in theaters now.
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Wait, What Is ’65’ Actually About?
The new Adam Driver film has an enigmatic title and seemingly straightforward log line … or does it?
If you’ve seen the marketing materials for “65,” Sony’s upcoming sci-fi action thriller, one thing is made abundantly clear: futuristic spaceman Adam Driver is in the muck, battling dinosaurs using a laser gun. And for most, that is all that you need to know about the movie, which is both written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, whose screenplay for “A Quiet Place” launched a hugely profitable franchise. Dinosaurs, space travel and a movie star fighting for his life make pretty good excuses to buy a ticket for “65.”
But if your mind is stuck on the big questions — Who does Adam Driver play? Why is a human being interacting with dinosaurs, a species that, as the title suggests, went extinct 65 million years? And is there time travel involved? — we have answers. Just be warned – heavy spoilers for “65” follow .
What is Adam Driver’s Deal?
As it turns out he’s an alien from another planet.
Wait, what?
Yeah, you briefly see him with his family on the beach of an alien world. It’s somewhat Pandora-ish except way less expressive (or expensive). He’s some kind of space trucker, who is driving a cargo of human colonists (or something) to a new world. That’s when disaster strikes.
He’s an Alien?
Yes. We just said that.
But He’s Not Blue or Anything?
No, he’s just Adam Driver.
Is Adam Driver a Human Being?
In real life, yes. Adam Driver is a human being. As far as we know.
How is This Conveyed to the Audience?
Through a series of weird title cards about 20 minutes into the movie (which is also pretty awkward). “65 million years ago a visitor crash-landed on Earth …” and some such. It’s extremely odd.
But What About Time Travel?
Here’s the other interesting thing about the plot of “65:” the whole thing takes place 65 million years ago.
But Adam Driver has a laser gun? You already said that he did.
Yes, that is true. He does have a laser gun. 65 million years ago, on a distant world populated with humans or at least human-like creatures, Adam Driver is a space trucker and he crash lands on ancient Earth, still populated by dinosaurs.
No time travel then?
Yeah. Driver’s spaceship runs into what turns out to be the asteroid field that winds up wiping out the dinosaurs. Smaller asteroids destroy his ship and maroon him on the planet with a young girl. He realizes that a giant asteroid, the one we know as the one that slammed into the earth and killed all the dinosaurs, is actually on its way. Which gives the movie a nifty ticking clock story mechanic and also reminds us of Countdown to Extinction (aka Dinosaur), the ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom where you travel back in time for a million but wind up trying to outrun the asteroid. It seems like the attraction and the movie “65” are both going for a similar mixture of genuine thrills and more lighthearted escapism. And both feature plenty of dinosaurs.
Seems like it maybe would have been easier if Driver was just a space traveler in the future who went back in time a la “Planet of the Apes” and used his knowledge of both dinosaurs and the extinction-level event that wiped them out to his advantage.
Anything else we should know about “65”.
Not really. The little girl Driver pals around with on ancient earth doesn’t speak English (or whatever language he speaks on the planet where he comes from) so there’s a failure to communicate that is ringed for some comedy and drama and will remind you a bit of “A Quiet Place.” Other than that, it’s pretty straightforward… besides all that we’ve already covered.
“65” is in theaters now.
What Earth Would Have Really Looked Like in Adam Driver’s ‘65’
If you were to travel back in time you’d find a mix of the familiar and strange on our planet
Riley Black
Science Correspondent
If you were to travel back to when dinosaurs walked the Earth, it might take you a little while before realizing that you had slipped into another time. A wandering Tyrannosaurus or a shovel-beaked Edmontosuarus chewing a rotting log would be immediate giveaways, of course, but the forests, floodplains and other landscapes of the time would not be so alien as to immediately arouse your suspicion. We still inhabit the same planet as our favorite saurians, after all, and the world of the dinosaurs was not quite like what we often see in the movies.
The trick almost every dinosaur movie tries to perform is how to bring us in contact with the terrible lizards. Sometimes the creatures live on a lost world—a plateau or island where the Age of Reptiles never ended. Jurassic Park popularized another method: genetic reinvention, returning dinosaurs to the world they supposedly ruled. Time travel is another favorite, either bringing the scaly stars to the present or throwing humans back into the past. The latest prehistoric romp, 65 , in theaters this weekend, attempts something a little different, with future humans seeming to drift through both space and time to crash land on Earth just before the Cretaceous come to a fiery close .
First thing’s first—the title 65 is a dino-sized mistake. In 2012 the International Commission for Stratigraphy, or geologists who determine Earth’s timescales, revised the end of the Cretaceous Period to be about 66 million years ago rather than the previous estimate of 65.5. If you were to visit Earth about 65 million years ago, during a time called the Paleocene, you would find thick forests where the descendants of mammals that survived the asteroid impact were starting to get big . Triceratops would have been extinct for a million years.
But when did accuracy ever stop Hollywood? From the trailers released so far, 65 follows the struggle of a pilot (Adam Driver) and a child (Ariana Greenblatt) as they stumble through Cretaceous forests and past ancient geysers as they’re chased by Tyrannosaurus , Velociraptor -like carnivores and other prehistoric terrors. The question the movie invites viewers to entertain while munching on their popcorn like an enthusiastic Edmontosaurus munches on leaves is how humans could survive in a forest primeval inhabited by creatures that could gobble us up in two bites. Before considering a stroll through the Late Cretaceous forest, or to the theater, you should know a few things.
We have a relatively incomplete view of the Late Cretaceous world. That’s because the fossil and geologic records are uneven, preserved in some places but not others. Much of what paleontologists have studied comes from places where sediment was being laid down—like sand in oceans or silt carried by streams. Still, all the individual pieces help outline the bigger picture. “If a time traveler should be lost in the latest Cretaceous of North America,” says Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, a paleontologist with the University of Vigo in Spain, they would see “lush tropical forests covering the lowlands to an abundance of streams running through them from nearby mountains.” The range wouldn’t look like it does today, but would be lower and still be in the process of being pushed up. “The Late Cretaceous Earth would be a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar,” says Caleb Brown, a paleontologist with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Canada. Despite the impression that the Late Cretaceous was the peak of the “Age of Dinosaurs,” the great reptiles wouldn’t necessarily be around every other tree. “The iconic dinosaurs would be rare on the landscape,” Brown says, “so you would likely see many more turtles, frogs, birds and lizards cross your path before you stumbled into a lumbering ankylosaur or tyrannosaur.”
Even the arrangement of the Earth itself would look like an altered version of what we now know. What we’d eventually name North America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica would all have recognizable outlines. Still, plenty of notable differences existed 66 million years ago. India was an island continent, sitting near prehistoric Madagascar, and Australia was still connected to Antarctica. The Americas wouldn’t touch for tens of millions of years, and what’s now Europe was largely an archipelago flooded by shallow seas. The world was warmer than it is now, with an average summer temperature of about 82 degrees, but ice had once again begun to build at the poles. Earth was still very much a greenhouse world, with high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere but relatively lower amounts of oxygen than today. A time-traveling human would be able to breathe without difficulty, even lacking the specialized air sacs that allowed dinosaurs to breathe more efficiently than any mammal.
The obligatory presence of T. rex in 65 indicates that the story unfolds in what’s now western North America, one of the areas of the Cretaceous world we’ve come to know quite well. The lowlands where the tyrant dinosaur stalked might have resembled parts of the modern Gulf Coast, with forests of conifers growing among swampy habitats dotted with ancient relatives of willows, magnolias and sassafras. You wouldn’t find fields of grass, though. Vast, grassy plains only spread about 36 million years later, so much of the low-growing groundcover of the Late Cretaceous was ferns, cycads and similar plants. For that reason, many production companies often shoot their prehistoric films in places like British Columbia, where mossy forests of redwoods at least approximate the Cretaceous look.
Many of the perils a Cretaceous traveler would face would be familiar to anyone who’s stumbled through the backcountry or gone camping far away from roads and fire pits. Thunderstorms and heavy rains would likely pose a problem. Chiarenza notes that a time traveler would have to contend with fierce seasonal storms not unlike those seen in the southeastern United States each hurricane season. And, much like these hot and humid areas now, biting insects would likely present a hassle, too. The scene might recall someplace in Florida, wet and buzzing with bugs. Turtles, crocodile relatives, birds, lizards, fish and small mammals would be everywhere. Still, sooner or later you’d see a dinosaur and realize that you’d traveled far from 2023.
Small dinosaurs lived in the Late Cretaceous, including carnivores such as Acheroraptor . But the average dinosaur would be much larger, an animal closer to three tons. Most of these were herbivores such as Edmontosaurus and Triceratops , great plant eaters that changed their habitats through where they walked and what they ate. In one area of the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation in Montana, for example, about 40 percent of the fossils found were attributed to Triceratops . The infamous T. rex was still fairly common—about 24 percent of the sample—but still significantly scarcer than any of the plant-eating species. And those herbivores were far from harmless. We know from damaged bones that Triceratops fought each other with their impressive horns, and injuries sustained by visitors who try to get too close to bison at our modern national parks are a reminder of how dangerous herbivores can be.
Almost certainly mysteries and dangers existed in the Late Cretaceous of North America that we don’t know yet. “We know only a small fraction of extinct animals due to the vagaries of fossil preservation,” Chiarenza says. “An unexpected predator, or a big, dangerous kind of horned dinosaur, might represent a physical threat to anyone wandering this terra incognita.” We know practically nothing of dinosaurs in upland, more mountainous habitats, and so anyone who wandered upslope would start encountering organisms paleontologists have never seen.
Of course, the question hanging over all of 65 is whether the inhabitants of the Cretaceous world would chase down a human morsel just for the novelty of it. We’ll never know the answer for certain. But given the behavior or large carnivores, T. rex would probably not stalk a human given how much energy would be required for a relatively lean payoff. Paleontologists have estimated that an adult T. rex would need about 200,000 calories a day, or roughly an adult human and a half. Raptors probably wouldn’t be too enticed, either, as their curved claws evolved to pin down modest morsels like mammals and smaller dinosaurs rather than taking on big prey.
Sorry, Adam Driver, but to a T. rex , at least, you’re not really a snack.
Editors' Note, March 22, 2023: Due to a math error this article misstated the daily caloric intake of a T. rex. It should be 200,000 calories a day, not 2,500 calories a day.
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Riley Black | | READ MORE
Riley Black is a freelance science writer specializing in evolution, paleontology and natural history who blogs regularly for Scientific American .
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Adam Driver’s new film 65 blasts dinosaurs into extinction. What’s not to love?
This time-travelling sci-fi thriller has massive flop written all over it. Or it could be the greatest piece of cinema ever created
L et’s cast our minds back to early February. This is when Moonfall , Roland Emmerich’s latest sci-fi disaster film, was released to a near-deafening shrug of apathy from the general public. Moonfall cost almost $150m to make, but in the months since its release has only managed to recoup $67m. It is currently the 13th biggest flop in the entire history of cinema (almost certainly).
Moonfall was a film about the moon threatening to plummet out of the sky and crash into Earth. And yet, somehow, the film failed to find an audience. I am telling you this because soon there will be a film about Adam Driver accidentally going back in time and shooting a load of dinosaurs with some sort of space gun. And, by God, we must protect this film with our lives.
The film is called 65 (because dinosaurs lived on Earth until 65 million years ago) and nobody has high hopes for it; not least because many scientists now believe that dinosaurs actually became extinct 66 million years ago, so by rights this should really just be a film about Adam Driver accidentally going back in time and finding a bunch of million-year-old dinosaur corpses.
And yet the 65 trailer was released yesterday and, by God, try to stop yourself from rooting for it. The whole thing looks preposterous: the premise is hokey, the special effects look rubbish, and Adam Driver appears to be capital-A Acting with enough ferocious intensity to make Marriage Story look like Digby the Big Red Dog. But at the same time I sort of want to watch it a hundred times in a row with everyone I’ve ever met.
It helps that 65 has enormous pedigree. As well as Driver being on board, the film is being produced by Sam Raimi, has Danny Elfman as a composer and is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Beck and Woods, you’ll remember, wrote A Quiet Place . But they didn’t write A Quiet Place Part II , and given how that turned out you have to assume they were the ones who made the first film good.
So maybe 65, a film where – and let’s be clear – Adam Driver from Marriage Story goes back in time and blasts a ton of dinosaurs in the face with what to all intents and purposes is a laser gun, could beat the odds and become the best film that has ever been made. The trailer certainly suggests that this might be a possibility. It bristles with so much confidence that it doesn’t even bother to hide the plot’s biggest twist. Most trailers would hide the fact that, although he thinks he is on an alien planet, Adam Driver is actually on Earth. Of course they would. That would rob the film of its surprise, gaspworthy ending. But not 65. Within the first two minutes of the trailer, some text pops up onscreen and basically says “Nah, just messing, they’re on Earth”. And you really have to admire chutzpah of that magnitude.
It also helps that Adam Driver has a companion on his quest to, I don’t know, kill all of the dinosaurs in the world. The companion is one of those wide-eyed, near-mute children that sci-fi occasionally likes to fling at us. The child here only has a few lines in the trailer, and they mostly consist of her repeating the last word of whatever Adam Driver has just said to her, which makes her sound a bit like an irreparably traumatised Beastie Boy. Anyway, she barely does anything, which gives Adam Driver lots of opportunities to make the veins in his neck stick out, which is always a visual prompt to help the audience understand that he is doing good acting.
Plus, I really think I was right with that quest thing. The movie is called 65. Not 75. Not 103. It is named after the year when the dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the planet. Call me a crazy dreamer, but I am now convinced that 65 will be a Tarantino-style piece of revisionist history, where Adam Driver murders thousands of dinosaurs to the point of extinction.
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You’d go and see that, wouldn’t you? I would, multiple times. And this is why, while on paper it has “Moonfall-level flop” written all over it, we must all find it within ourselves to make 65 the hit it deserves to be.
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‘65’ Is ‘The Last of Us’ With Adam Driver, Dinosaurs, and Zero Thrills
By David Fear
Attention, anyone who’s ever said they’d gladly watch Adam Driver in anything: You’re about to have that statement put to the test.
The “twist” is, Mills has actually landed on Earth during the Cretaceous Period, and those monsters are dinosaurs . The title refers to how many million years ago Mills landed on our big blue marble. It also happens to be a larger number than the amount of minutes it takes for you to completely lose your patience with this mess. Can’t that ominous comet they keep cutting to in the sky — you know the one — come any sooner?
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And even if 65 didn’t have the misfortune of coming on the heels of The Last of Us ’ first season, the idea of this father figure leading a surrogate daughter to safety doesn’t have quite the emotional drive here that it needs to either rocket past plot holes or the nagging sense of overfamiliarity. As for the Chariots of the Gods notion of “alien” visitors landing on our prehistoric shores with futuristic technology, any potential for exploiting that age-old myth in the name of B-movie thrills goes the way of the ammonites. It’s not schlocky enough to be so-bad-it’s-good and nowhere near good enough to be taken even a tiny bit seriously.
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65’s first trailer leaves Adam Driver stuck millions of years in the prehistoric past
Sony’s upcoming time traveling survival thriller from scott beck and bryan woods pits futuristic humans against dinosaurs from the cretaceous period..
By Charles Pulliam-Moore , a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.
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The idea of the modern-day world becoming overrun by genetically engineered dinosaurs is only but so alarming because, at the end of the day, they’re just animals who probably aren’t well-suited to survive on the planet as it currently exists. But the situation in Sony’s upcoming sci-fi survival thriller 65 from co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods is far, far more unsettling as it flings humans from the distant future into the prehistoric past and leaves them with nothing but their wits (and a few guns) to battle against T. rexes.
65 tells the story of pilot Mills (Adam Driver) and his passenger Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) as the pair fight to survive on what at first appears to be an alien planet after their spaceship collides with an asteroid, forcing it to crash-land. For all of their advanced technology and knowledge of interplanetary, neither Mills nor Koa have a solid understanding of where they are as they first begin to explore the strange, new planet with its lush forests and surprisingly breathable air. But as raptors and other dinosaurs begin to sniff the humans out, it becomes clear to them that they’ve somehow ended up on Earth as it existed 65 million years ago — a prospect that’s even more terrifying than the fact that creatures that should be extinct are trying to hunt them down.
65 ’s teaser trailer makes it hard to tell how fast and loose the movie’s going to play with its depiction of the Cretaceous Period, but the raptor featured here doesn’t exactly look like the species thought to have lived during the era . Of course, these kinds of movies are meant to be entertaining rather than concerned about historical accuracy, and what’s probably going to end up determining 65 ’s success is whether there’s more of a twist to its story than this first trailer’s letting on.
65 hits theaters on January 10th, 2023.
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You’d think a movie in which Adam Driver fights a bunch of dinosaurs couldn’t possibly be boring, but that’s exactly what “65” is.
This is a movie that would have benefitted from being a whole lot stupider. The big-budget sci-fi flick—which reportedly cost $91 million to make and was featured in a Super Bowl ad—should have embraced its inherent B-movie roots. Instead, it tries to juggle a wild survival story with a poignant family drama, but both elements feel so rushed and underdeveloped that neither ends up registering. There’s nothing to these characters, and the action sequences quickly grow repetitive and wearisome. There’s a jump scare, insistent notes from an overbearing score, some running and screaming, the gnashing of teeth, and maybe an injury before a narrow escape. Over and over and over again.
But the film from the writing-directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods , whose credits include co-writing “ A Quiet Place ” with John Krasinski , offers an intriguingly contradictory premise. It takes place 65 million years ago, but suggests that futuristic civilizations existed back then on planets throughout the universe. On one of them, Driver stars as a space pilot named Mills. He’s about to embark on a two-year exploratory mission in order to afford medical treatment for his ailing daughter ( Chloe Coleman from “ My Spy ,” who’s featured in the film’s prelude and sporadic video snippets).
On the way to his destination, the ship Mills is flying enters an unexpected asteroid field, gets torn to shreds, and crashes. All of the passengers in cryogenic sleep are killed—except one, who just happens to be a girl around the same age as his daughter. Her name is Koa, and she’s played by Ariana Greenblatt . And the planet, which has swampy terrain reminiscent of Dagobah, just happens to be—wait for it—Earth.
“65” requires Mills and Koa to schlep from the wreckage to a mountaintop so they can commandeer the escape pod that’s perched there and fly out before dinosaurs can stomp and chomp on them. The creatures can be startling at times, but at other times they look so cheesy and fake, they’re like the animatronics you’d see at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. And yet! It almost would have been better—or at least more entertaining—if “65” had leaned harder into that silliness if it had played with the basic ridiculousness of mixing complex technology with the Cretaceous period. They rarely use Mills’ advanced gadgets in any inspired ways within this prehistoric setting. The few attempts at humor fall flat—they mainly consist of Koa making fun of Mills for being uptight—and moments of peril wrap up too tidily for us to luxuriate in their anxiety.
Worst of all, Driver doesn’t get to ham it up nearly enough here. He’s an actor of great intensity, which can be both thrilling and amusing if he’s amping it up in a knowing way. Imagine him screaming “More!!!” as he’s blasting Luke Skywalker in “ Star Wars: The Last Jedi ,” or punching a wall during an argument in “ Marriage Story .” But the man he plays in “65” is blandly heroic and just seems generally annoyed. Greenblatt, meanwhile, does the best she can with a character we know absolutely nothing about. Koa speaks a language that’s not English, so most of her exchanges with Mills consist of mimicking the basic words he says to her, including “family.” There’s no real bond between them, but neither is there any sort of prickly tension since they’re stuck with each other. “The Last of Us,” this is not.
Beck and Woods offer some clever camerawork here and there, but also some erratic editing choices. And they borrow quite a bit from the “ Jurassic Park ” franchise: a giant footprint in the mud or a dinosaur’s yellow eye leering menacingly through a window. But maybe that’s inevitable at this point. Their film only gets truly enjoyably nutty toward the end, with its climactic combination of a sneaky quicksand patch, a ravenous Tyrannosaurus rex, a well-timed geyser eruption, and a catastrophic asteroid shower. But by then, it’s too late for us—and the planet.
Now in theaters.
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .
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Film credits.
Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi action and peril, and brief bloody images.
Adam Driver as Mills
Ariana Greenblatt as Koa
Chloe Coleman as Nevine
Nika King as Alya
- Bryan Woods
Cinematographer
- Salvatore Totino
- Chris Bacon
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The Ending Of 65 Explained
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of the first "A Quiet Place" film, deliver their third directed feature together with "65," a sci-fi action thriller that sees the future collide with the past. The film follows Mills ( Adam Driver ), a pilot whose mission to transport people is upended after asteroids damage his ship, causing him to crash on an unknown planet. Although Mills has no idea where he is, the film tells us that he has landed on Earth — albeit 65 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the land and human civilization was nowhere in sight. With few options, Mills grabs Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) -– a young girl who's the only other survivor -– and begins traversing these dangerous lands in the hopes of reaching the other half of his ship to possibly escape.
"65" does its best to make dinosaurs scary again through its intense action and some of the creepier creatures that Mills and Koa come across. Along with some thrilling sci-fi action, the film delivers some interesting story beats for Mills and Koa as their personal struggles are touched on and they gain a stronger connection with one another. The film's finale is especially rich with story moments and action as the pair attempts to escape before a cataclysmic event keeps them in this prehistoric prison. With a lot happening in the film's final moments, let's delve into the fast-paced finale and nail-biter ending of "65."
Future meets past
While it might seem strange to see a futuristic soldier like Mills stuck in the middle of a prehistoric world, the film does delve into how he got there. Mills is actually from a distant planet whose people act and speak like human beings. The film never clarifies what species or race Mills people exactly are, so it's safe to assume that they must be humans too. Either way, Mills is tasked with transporting people to an undisclosed location, but his ship suffers severe damage from a cluster of asteroids, forcing him to crash-land on Earth.
So rather than Mills arriving on Earth through some kind of time-traveling or universe jumping, he simply exists 65 million years before our time. Mill's people are just so advanced that they've been able to develop the sophisticated technology and weapons that ultimately help him survive. Even with these tools, though, Mills faces fierce opposition from both the environment and creatures he's forced to fight against, leading to him nearly losing his life on more than one occasion. "65" is truly a future meets past scenario that pits futuristic tech against prehistoric beasts to see who's really dominant.
The meteor that killed the dinosaurs
Throughout the film, there is an obscure red-looking entity in the sky that seems like it's drifting closer to Earth. Koa is the first to see it when she notices a weird light phenomenon above her. However, when Mills sees it sometime later, it looks much more ominous and massive. At first, you can't help but hope that maybe it's just the rescue transport Mills called for coming down to Earth, but once Mills is able to get an actual read on what this strange entity is, it's much worse than expected.
Mills' scanner says that it's actually a gigantic meteor with the mass to cause cataclysmic destruction once it impacts Earth. Perhaps you are familiar with the idea that the dinosaurs were killed by a massive asteroid that caused a mass extinction event ? Well, this is that meteor — and it surprisingly has a stronger connection to Mills' current situation.
The asteroid cluster that Mills encountered earlier, which ultimately caused the ship to crash, actually came from this world-ending meteor, and it looks like it's coming to finish the job. This meteor adds new stakes to Mills and Koa's escape and plays a big role in making the finale of "65" super intense and visually stunning.
Brought to the edge
Mills crashing into this rough survival situation has a deeper effect on him than initially expected and hints at a secret he hides throughout the film. Once he's able to get up after the crash, he sees that nearly all the passengers are dead and that half of his ship is missing. Even worse is that the part of the ship containing the escape pod is nowhere in sight, which means that there's virtually no way off the planet. After his first few steps outside, Mills also sees how dangerous the environment truly is. Rather than try to survive, he looks like he's ready to end things.
While he attempts to call for help at first, he eventually just tells them that he isn't worth looking for and prepares to end his own life right then and there. However, he soon finds Koa, and she gives him a reason to keep going. Given how harsh this environment is and how vicious the creatures are, it's hard not to blame Mills for thinking that things are over.
It later becomes clear that Mills' hopelessness stems from the death of his daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman). Mills' willingness to accept his fate after the crash is the first moment that hints at that.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by callin g 1 -800-273-TALK (8255).
Seeing something more
Mills' relationship with Koa starts on some rocky ground. Their inability to communicate — because they don't speak the same language — makes for some frustrating moments between the two, with Koa sometimes doing her own thing, which really gets under Mills' skin. However, Mills eventually warms up to Koa because he sees her as something more than just a helpless survivor — he almost begins to see her as a surrogate daughter. While it at first appears to annoy Mills, he definitely appreciates Koa's interest in learning about his daughter through video messages. They watch a hologram of her together in the cave and it feels like a real bonding moment between them.
Ultimately, Mills and Koa have some real father/daughter energy in some of their more light-hearted moments together. It's these moments, which connect back to Mills' daughter and the way that he does everything he can to protect her, that make it clear that he sees his daughter in Koa. Plus, once we learn that Mills already knows that his daughter is dead, it becomes obvious that he's trying to make up for what he couldn't do for Nevine.
Mills and Koa's bond is a central part of the film's heart and arguably the main thing that keeps them going over the course of their survival adventure.
Environmental horrors
The vicious dinosaurs in "65" are certainly enough to make surviving in this world a daunting task for Koa and Mills, but it's far from the only thing they have to worry about. While the big creatures are tough to deal with on their own, there are also some big nasty bugs that cause the pair some trouble in their journey. There's a gut-wrenching moment when one of the bugs crawls down Koa's throat while she's sleeping that is sure to leave a massive knot in your stomach. Beyond that, just looking at the sticky goo that comes from one of the bugs that Mills crushes makes you not want to touch an insect ever again.
Unfortunately, the environment is just as deadly as the creatures they find in it. As Mills learns, it's very easy to walk into deadly tar fields or quicksand. Mills and Koa's cave exploration nearly proves fatal when a cave-in occurs. Of course, there's also the geyser field that Mills first comes across after landing on the planet spews water so hot that it could melt skin.
"65" makes viewers thankful that Earth isn't like this anymore since it looks like a genuinely nightmarish world to try and survive.
Is there help?
Almost as soon as he crashes on Earth, Mills attempts to contact his people to try and organize a rescue for him and the other passengers. However, after realizing that all the passengers are dead, he deletes the help message and calls off help — largely because he thinks it's hopeless anyway. Once Mills finds Koa still alive, though, he creates a message that once again signals the need for assistance, and he's left wondering if anyone will come. So, does anyone pick up Mills' distress signal?
Luckily for him and Koa, his message manages to reach someone, but they're not exactly within easy reach. Based on what his scanner says, a ship will meet him at an interception point in space to take him and Koa home. However, the only way for Mills and Koa to get back to space is by finding a distant escape pod before the fast-approaching meteor strikes Earth.
It's a shame that no one can come and just scoop up Mills and Koa from this horrific situation, but the realization that there is a way home at least drives them to survive and push forward.
Koa's realization
Koa's main concern throughout the film is finding her parents. Mills initially tells her that her parents are at the top of the mountain where the escape pod is, but he only tells her this to get her to go on the journey with him. In reality, Mills knows that her parents are dead and only tells her otherwise to keep her motivated as they journey toward the escape pod. There's even a point where Mills becomes so frustrated by their situation and language barrier that he tells her that he lied. Unfortunately, since Koa can't understand him, she still doesn't know that her parents are dead until she finds the destroyed escape pods.
This realization that Mills has lied about her parents being dead understandably hurts her and she becomes furious with him. For Koa, the journey to the ship likely feels like it was for nothing now, and part of her would rather just stay on the planet and die rather than go on without her parents. It's a tough moment for Koa, and it almost seems like she's not going to go along with Mills to leave Earth.
However, he's able to get her back on his side by deeply opening up to her about what happened to his daughter.
The truth behind Mills' daughter
When Koa gets angry at Mills for lying about her parents, he decides it's a good time to tell her about what really happened to his daughter Nevine. When Mills first left, his daughter was set to go through a procedure that would cure her of a mysterious illness. This procedure would be paid for by this transport job Mills was completing when he crashlanded on Earth. Although he would be away from his daughter for two years while completing the trip, at least she would be healthy when he returned. Unfortunately, Nevine died while he was out doing this job — which means Mills never got to see her again after he left.
The death of Mills' daughter is hinted at throughout the film, and there are some key moments that show Mills' frustration. As noted earlier, his willingness to accept his fate at the start of the film shows the lingering pain he has from his daughter's death. The video messages from her also start to take a dour turn that matches the gut-wrenching feelings of some of the dreams Mills has about her. Further, the way Mills views Koa as a daughter and how he protects her also make more sense once it's clear that his daughter is gone.
Mills opens up to Koa about his lingering pain and how he felt that protecting her was a way for him to feel like he did something right. This admission helps Koa forgive Mills, and she decides to continue on with him to try and return to their home.
Botched launch
Now that Koa and Mills have unpacked some of their emotional baggage with one another, they have little time to spare. Fragments of the meteor are crashing all over the place, and there isn't much time left until the meteor collides with Earth. They quickly hop into the escape craft and start the launch sequence. Unfortunately, the fragments begin to impact the mountain they're on and cause the terrain to collapse, sending the ship hurtling toward the ground.
Miraculously, not only are Koa and Mills somehow not dead from that violent crash, but the escape pod is also still seemingly operable. However, they can't launch it right away because the ship has been flipped upside-down. As they scramble to deal with the inverted spacecraft, they soon realize they have bigger problems on their hands — two giant dinosaurs are approaching them, creating a deadly predicament. Although safety seems right in their grasp, this meteor once again causes Mills and Koa problems that could put the final nails in their coffins.
Sacrifices and rescues
Mills and Koa have a lot on their plate — an unflyable ship, a giant meteor racing towards them, and two dinosaurs looking to gobble them up — so Mills springs into action. He's able to distract the two dinosaurs away from the ship, but his gun is malfunctioning which leaves him a sitting duck. Everything seems hopeless for once again, but Koa is able to show him a hologram of his daughter that motivates him to kill the two dinosaurs. Even better, one of the dinosaurs has actually reoriented the ship by slamming into it, which means it can fly again.
However, before they can escape, the dinosaur Mills has wounded approaches them seeking revenge. To protect Koa, Mills sacrifices himself to lead the dinosaur away from the ship towards the hot geysers he came across at the start of the film.
At first, the geysers don't seem to do much damage to the dinosaur, and Mills' wounded leg makes him easy prey. Luckily, Koa is there to rescue him by stabbing the dinosaur in the eye with the makeshift weapon she crafted earlier. This causes the beast to fall into the geyser, where the intense heat causes its skin to melt and ultimately kills it. The big finale action sequence of "65" is full of emotional sacrifices and rescues that show how Mills and Koa have come together.
Having killed the dinosaur, Mills and Koa have one last thing to do -– escape!
With the world-ending meteor nearing impact and Mills severely injured, there's no time to waste. Koa helps Mills back to the escape ship and Mills launches the ship. They narrowly fly into space, just missing the meteor, and make their escape from this prehistoric hellscape. Mills and Koa even get some satisfaction knowing that all the dinosaurs that have been hunting them down have been wiped out by the meteor and will no longer roam Earth.
Mills and Koa's fates are never truly revealed, but they should be heading to the interception point, which implies that they will be rescued. Throughout the end credits, the film even shows what happens after the meteor causes the extinction of the dinosaurs and the evolution that eventually leads to human civilization. Although the climax of "65" kept Mills and Koa on the run and near death the entire time, they finally have a moment of well-earned rest.
Could there be a sequel?
There's no news on a sequel for "65" going into development and there likely won't be one. The film ends on a pretty conclusive note, with Mills and Koa escaping Earth before the meteor hits and the end credits show how humanity developed over time. The dinosaurs are gone and there are no hints that someone else crash-landed there beforehand, so a prequel isn't likely either. Not to mention, the box office predictions for "65" aren't looking too hot. The film faces stiff competition in "Scream VI" and is projected to earn just shy of $10 million in its opening weekend — which isn't great considering its $45 million budget.
If the film does better than expected or becomes a hit on streaming, there's certainly a chance that a sequel could happen. Although there are no hints that someone landed on Earth before Mills, it's possible that a prequel could go back further to show someone else having to fight for their life. In this case, "65" could turn into a bit of an anthology series that sees futuristic soldiers having to face off against dinosaurs in a battle for survival.
Sequel ambitions for "65" will likely be snuffed out by lackluster opening weekend box office results, but a cult following could change things.
Adam Driver's 65 Is Not a Time Travel Movie - But It Should've Been
Despite the trailer's implication, Adam Driver's 65 doesn't involve the concept of time travel, but time travel could've made 65 a better film.
The following contains spoilers for 65 , now in theaters.
Since the Adam Driver-led 65 hit the theaters, many viewers have expressed confusion around the film's missing time-travel arc. Taking place on Earth 65 million years ago, Driver plays a pilot named Mills, who crashes his spaceship on Earth. The only surviving passenger is a little girl named Koa, who speaks a different language . The film revolves around Mills protecting Koa as they escape to a nearby crash site. At the end of the film, viewers get to see Mills fighting two giant dinosaurs. But despite what the movie's marketing implies, Mills and Koa aren't time travelers; they're aliens that look human.
65's Alien Arc Proves To Be Problematic
Before the premiere, many outlets advertised 65 as a time-travel movie . And even after the premiere, many articles online still refer to events in 65 as time travel. 65 's synopsis, which wrote, "After a catastrophic crash on an unknown planet, pilot Mills quickly discovers he's actually stranded on Earth -- 65 million years ago," is also misleading. However, the concept of time travel is not present in the film. Although Mills and Koa look very human-like and have advanced technology, they are not time-traveling humans, but aliens, who are exploring space at the time.
RELATED: 65's Creepiest Dinosaur Tease Never Made It to the Movie
Additionally, 65 barely put any effort into explaining what project Mills was involved in and why he was making space trips with passengers stored in capsules. The only explanation viewers received was that they were "exploring other planets in space." Other than a few details suggesting Mills has enhanced healing, there's nothing to indicate whether he is human. The alien arc lacks proper setup, and the crash on Earth during the late Cretaceous Period lacks significance.
How Time Travel Could Have Fixed 65's Plot Holes
In film, time travel usually has a significant impact on the timeline itself. Movies like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban explain time travel as a necessity of the future. Films like The Tomorrow War and Avengers: Endgame uses time travel to save/alter the future.
RELATED: 65 Goes Beyond Jurassic Park With Its Terrifying Dinosaurs
If in 65 , Mills and Koa were to travel back in time, the film would have addressed the significance of their trip, which then would make many viewers less confused. One interesting concept from viewers links Mills and Koa's presence on Earth to the start of humans. After all, there have been theories that humans might actually be aliens who immigrated to Earth from another part of the universe.
On the other hand, if Mills and Koa were humans from the future, their escape would be much more complex. The scene where Mills was able to pop his arm back and immediately use his weapon would be moot, and their survival on Earth after the asteroid impact in 65 's finale is also questionable. The movie would also need to explain how and why they traveled back to the past and how to make it back.
To see how time travel could've improved the story, 65 is currently in theaters.
- by Dan Zinski
- ScreenRant.com
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'65' and 9 Other Non-traditional Time Travel Movies, Ranked by IMDb Score
Travel through time to enjoy these amazing movies again for the first time.
The time travel genre has come long since H.G. Wells first coined the term "time machine" in his 1895 novella. For example, on March 10, the movie 65 crash-landed into theaters, throwing us 65 million years into the past. Despite their perceived scientific complexity, time travel stories provide a rich canvas for artists to tell human stories of regret, hope, and personal development.
RELATED: The 15 Best Time Travel Movies, Ranked
Time travel doesn't always go according to plan. Actually, it rarely does. Not everyone can hop in a TARDIS . Sometimes, it even happens by accident. Regardless, there is more than one way to get where you want. Here is a list of films with more unorthodox methods of leaving the sacred timeline.
1 The Undead (1957)
IMDb Score: 4.6
Directed by the legendary Roger Corman , The Undead follows a psychic researcher accessing the past life of a woman he has recruited off the street. Operating under the impression that she won't be missed should anything go wrong, he plunges her into her own subconscious. It is every bit as wild as you would expect a Roger Corman film to be.
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Clocking in at a brisk 75 minutes, The Undead feels like a glorified and incredibly bonkers episode of The Twilight Zone ; the time travel is achieved via hypnosis and psychic links. The Undead tries to pack a lot into that short runtime, including hypnosis, witches, and a run-in with Satan. Ultimately, it's too much for such a short film, so it scores low.
2 Detention (2011)
IMDb Score: 5.6
In Detention , by director Joseph Khan , a killer is on the loose at Grizzly Lake High School. Modeling their crimes after the notorious local, "Cinderhella," the killer begins targeting the student body. It's up to a misfit group of students in detention to figure out a way to stop the murderer. Oh, and they have to figure out how to keep the world from ending in 1992.
Detention is a mishmash of genres and homages that works surprisingly well, moving at an impressive pace for a movie with so much going on. And if you thought that the psychic links in The Undead were wild, the students in Detention utilize a time machine inside a stuffed grizzly bear. If you're a fan of Scream 's meta humor, this might be the time travel flick for you.
3 65 (2023)
IMDb Score: 5.7
Just when you thought the "attractive, reluctant dad" genre was going the way of the dinosaur, 65 decides to add the dinosaurs. Scott Beck and Bryan Wood , directors of the hidden gem Haunt and writers of A Quiet Place , drop space piolt Mills, played by Adam Driver, 65 million years into the past.
65 utilizes a fun twist in the "time travel" trope, and to say any more would spoil the film. But with space being the final frontier, we know very little about how it works. For example, the Star Trek reboot in 2009 saw two different characters enter the same black hole and come out years apart from one another.
4 Synchronic (2019)
IMDb Score: 6.2
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are making some of the most exciting science fiction films lately, and Synchronic is no exception. Two best friends, played by Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan , are working as paramedics in New Orleans. They respond to a string of bizarre injuries and deaths, eventually discovering that they are all linked to a new designer drug called Synchronic.
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Utilizing the pineal gland and its chemicals, the drug allows users to travel to specific, uncontrollable points in the past. The pineal gland has a long history associated with esoteric and spiritual principles, with H.P. Lovecraft suggesting the pineal gland could be used to view alternate realities. This is the high-concept filmmaking Benson and Moorhead have become known, and they aren't stopping anytime soon .
5 Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
IMDb Score: 6.8
In the rare case of the movie being as good as the book, Slaughterhouse-Five earned praise not only from critics but from the author of the original novel. That is no small feat in an arena that routinely botches adaptations. The film went on to win multiple awards and is remembered fondly to this day.
Billy Pilgrim has become "unstuck in time" and now simultaneously experiences the past, present, and future. There is some debate in interpretations. Is he traveling, or is this all in Billy's head? Regardless, Slaughterhouse-Five is an emotional study of war, its effects on those that experience it, and a sharp examination of religion.
6 Palm Springs (2020)
IMDb Score: 7.4
You all remember 2020, right? Aside from the obvious, 2020 gave us this Andy Samberg -led comedy-drama. Nyles, played by Samberg, and Sarah, played by Cristin Milioti , are attending a wedding and eventually are trapped in a time loop. Weddings, am I right?
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For all its barren appearances, the desert is full of strange things. If you don't believe that, ask anyone from The Outwaters . Or Sarah and Nyles in Palm Springs . Quantum physics and cave-dwelling aside, Palm Springs is a fun little movie that asks deceptively big questions. You can stream it now on Hulu.
7 Army of Darkness (1992)
Army of Darkness is the looniest film in the entire Evil Dead canon. As a result of a magic spell and not a scientific advancement, ash is transported to the Middle Ages with a chainsaw, a shotgun, and a sedan.
Typically, magic lets you see the future or past but not physically visit. But the Necronomicon has never met a rule it didn't want to break. Be sure to catch the next installment of the series this Spring. It will not be this funny, but I will be a welcome return to the world of the Deadites.
8 Deadpool 2 (2018)
IMDb Score: 7.7
Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto. Captain American and Bucky Barnes. Ant-Man and The Wasp. Marvel Comics has its fair share of dynamic duos. Few are more entertaining than Deadpool and the time traveler Cable. They are a great team when they aren't trying to kill each other.
Cable's method of time travel is vague, a change from other movies' overwrought and over-explained time travel. The reasons why are always more important than the reasons how. Cable travels back in time out of love for and a desire to save his family. Cable's motivations, though they'll also save the world, are grounded and intimate, humanizing the cyborg character.
9 Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
IMDb Score: 7.9
Edge of Tomorrow , or Live. Die. Repeat. or Live. Die. Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow was directed by Doug Liman and released in 2014. It follows the survivors and soldiers of an alien invasion doomed to fail. It was a critical and commercial success, utilizing an invigorating mix of action and science fiction with a stellar cast. It was one of the top films of the year.
Part of that success is because of the time travel mechanic's ingenuity. The aliens, known as mimics, can manipulate time as a part of their connected neural network. William Cage, played by a refreshingly vulnerable Tom Cruise , is injured and covered in alien blood and wakes up able to utilize the ability. Cage uses the mimics' strategy against them until a final showdown. Edge of Tomorrow is sci-fi action at its best.
10 La Jete (1962)
IMDb Score: 8.2
La Jetée might be the best film on this list that you have never seen, though its unique presentation might not be for everyone. La Jetée is set in Paris in the aftermath of World War III. Scientists use prisoners to send back and forth to our past and present, but only one subject can withstand the trip mentally. Will he be our savior or collateral damage?
Thematically, La Jetée is ambitious and moving, posing questions like: are our pasts ever as good as we remember them? Are the answers to our current problems in advancement or simply better utilizing our existing resources and situations? The more impressive feat is its bold creative choice in visual style and its ability to do all of this in under half an hour confidently.
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The Best Movies About Time Travel
F or ages, the fascinating and perplexing concept of time travel has captivated our attention. Because we are inherently curious about life, the idea of going back in time, seeing historical periods, or looking into the far future piques our interest. Over the years, filmmakers have played around with this idea, producing amazing movies that surprise and challenge our preconceptions. In this carefully curated selection, we delve deeper into the world of time-traveling movies that have left a lasting influence on the history of cinema.
Back to the Future (1985)
Hoverboards, DeLoreans, and lightning strikes—welcome to the exhilarating world of Back to the Future. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, this movie is not just about time travel . It's about understanding the delicate fabric of time and the ramifications of tampering with it. When Marty McFly, played by the impeccable Michael J. Fox, finds himself stranded in the past, he inadvertently alters the course of his parents' love story. The stakes? His very existence! This film is a thrilling rollercoaster packed with humor, action, and a lot of 80s nostalgia.
12 Monkeys (1995)
In a bleak, post-apocalyptic world where a deadly virus has decimated most of the population, 12 Monkeys presents a cerebral puzzle. Bruce Willis plays James Cole, a convict chosen to embark on a dangerous mission to the past. He's tasked with unearthing the origins of this virus and preventing its outbreak. But as the narrative unfolds, so do layers of intricate twists, turning the entire storyline on its head. This film, directed by Terry Gilliam, questions our understanding of reality and time's cyclical nature.
Primer (2004)
Primer is not your run-of-the-mill time travel flick. Directed and starring Shane Carruth, it's a complex, cerebral tale that will make you question everything you think you know about the topic. Two engineers stumble upon the unthinkable—a contraption allowing time travel. However, with each leap, they discover the cascading complications of their actions. It's a mind-bending experience that might require multiple viewings to grasp fully, but it's a rewarding journey for those who love a challenge.
The Terminator (1984)
James Cameron's dystopian vision in The Terminator gave rise to an iconic antagonist—an emotionless killing machine sent from the future with a single-minded mission. Arnold Schwarzenegger's portrayal of the Terminator remains unforgettable. Sent back in time to assassinate Sarah Connor, the birth-giver to a future resistance leader, this film isn't just about action—it questions the idea of destiny and whether we're ever truly in control of our futures.
Interstellar (2014)
Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is an odyssey on a grand scale. Venturing through black holes, fifth dimensions, and time dilation, this film explores humanity's survival instinct. With the Earth on the brink of environmental collapse, a crew of astronauts (led by Matthew McConaughey) seeks new planets for habitation. The film is a visual masterpiece and explores love's transcendence through space and time.
Wrapping it up
The dance of time—so mysterious and multifaceted—continues to inspire filmmakers to weave stories that pull at our heartstrings and challenge our intellect. From poignant lessons about cherishing moments to thrilling adventures through alternate timelines, the movies above offer a perfect gateway to the expansive world of time travel. Whether you're a die-hard sci-fi fan or a casual moviegoer, these films promise an experience that transcends the boundaries of time, urging viewers to ponder the intricate weave of past, present, and Future. So, grab some popcorn, dim the lights, and embark on these.
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Pbs kids sets spring slate with new series ‘tiny time travel’ and ‘milo,’ movies based on ‘wild kratts’ and ‘nature cat’ (exclusive).
The lineup also includes new episodes of 'Molly of Denali' and 'Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood' along with new series 'Milo' and 'Donkey Hodie Bedtime Stories.'
By Kimberly Nordyke
Kimberly Nordyke
Managing Editor, Digital
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PBS Kids has lined up a slate of new series, movies and shorts for spring.
The slate includes the premiere of Tiny Time Travel, a series of live-action shorts, along with new Wild Kratts and Nature Cat movies. In addition, PBS Kids will debut season four of Molly of Denali, along with new series Milo , new shorts series Donkey Hodie Bedtime Stories and new episodes of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
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“This spring, PBS Kids provides an opportunity for families to embark on exciting adventures with kids’ favorite characters, and a chance to meet some new ones, too,” said Sara DeWitt, senior vp and general manager of PBS Kids. “Our content this season aims to nurture an appreciation of the natural world among our young audiences while also sharing important life lessons and reinforcing some of the key social skills kids need for success in school and beyond.”
Kicking off the spring lineup on March 15 is Tiny Time Travel, a new series of “funny and fast-paced” live-action shorts. The series follows an 11-year-old inventor, Tyler, and his outgoing best friend, Tony, as they use their time machine to go back in time a tiny bit (sometimes just a few minutes or hours) to solve problems in their neighborhood, like stopping a friend from spoiling a movie or giving a customer a re-do after an ordering mistake at a restaurant.
The show, aimed at kids ages 5-8, teaches social language skills, like understanding nonverbal communication; taking others’ perspectives into account; and resolving miscommunication. The series is created by Tim McKeon ( Odd Squad, Gravity Falls ) and produced by Marobru Productions and Easy as Pie Productions.
Meanwhile, the Wild Kratts and Nature Cat movies, derived from the two series, premiere April 1 and April 22, respectively. A new Wild Kratts game, “World Rescue,” will be available on the PBS Kids Games app and pbskids.org, with new episodes of the show premiering April 2. Meanwhile, the Nature Cat movie features three original songs written by Tony, Grammy and Emmy winner Bill Sherman and performed by the cast: Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon, Bobby Moynihan and Kate Micucci. Chris Parnell is also in the voice cast. In addition, a new short-form series, Nature Chat With Nature Cat, will debut digitally on April 22. Watch a sneak peak of the Nature Cat movie below.
Another new series, Milo , will premiere across PBS Kids streaming platforms on May 13. The show, co-produced by Fourth Wall and DeAPlaneta Entertainment, follows an adventurous cat who loves to use role-play to explore the amazing world of jobs and vocations with his best friends, Lofty and Lark. Milo, who loves meeting all of the different people who come into his parents’ dry-cleaning shop, is curious about what it would be like to be a fireman, detective, astronaut and many other kinds of jobs when he grows up.
Meanwhile, new episodes of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood premiere May 6, exploring concepts like putting things away and finding surprises wherever we are.
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Screen Rant
Relax, mcu fans - the fantastic four skipping the infinity saga is already comic accurate.
The Fantastic Four has yet to make their official debut in the MCU, with their absence since the Infinity Saga began being a comic-accurate detail.
- The Fantastic Four's absence in the Infinity Saga can be explained by their being "snapped" during the epic battle against Thanos, according to comic lore.
- The team's exploration of the multiverse post-Secret Wars and their temporary hiatus from Earth-616 could also explain their absence during the Infinity Saga.
- The Fantastic Four's history of disappearing for extended periods provides an easy way for the MCU to explain where they were during the events of the Infinity War.
The cast of the MCU’s Fantastic Four film was recently revealed to great enthusiasm across Hollywood and fandom alike, with the team’s official entrance into Marvel’s sprawling live-action universe arriving in theaters just over a year from now on July 25, 2025. And despite them being a cornerstone of Marvel Comics as its “First Family,” The Fantastic Four weren’t seen at all in the Infinity Saga — a problem that can be addressed by taking cues from their countless comic adventures!
A team consisting of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm, The Fantastic Four have been fighting the good fight ever since their inception in 1961, a time period their upcoming MCU film has been hinted to be set in.
If this is the case, then the MCU’s version of these characters were already in-universe when the Infinity Saga happened but were nowhere to be found, with The Fantastic Four's absence during these events being something that’s as comic-accurate as Reed and Sue falling in love and Johnny and Ben being best buddies.
Fantastic Four: This Early Multiverse Story Is the Perfect Way to Bring Marvel's First Family Into the MCU (Without Doing an Origin Story)
The fantastic four were technically "snapped" during the i nfinity gauntlet event.
Confirmed to have been “snapped” during the epic struggle against Thanos as seen in the seminal Marvel Comics story, The Infinity Gauntlet , by Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Ron Lim, this comic moment easily explains the FF’s non-existence in the MCU for the latter part of the Infinity Saga , as it can be said that they were somewhere in the MCU but had been erased along with half of the universe during “The Snap.” And while this is comic-accurate, it doesn’t cover where they were previously or where they were afterward. Luckily, that can also be explained via comic canon.
Seen traveling the multiverse post- Secret Wars when Reed, Sue, and their kids, Valeria and Franklin, went off on their own to quite literally rebuild universes, this temporary hiatus leaving Earth-616’s reality could easily carry over as the explanation for why the team didn't partake in the Infinity Saga — The Fantastic Four quite literally weren’t in their home universe . Furthermore, given their adventurer status, the team could also have been exploring other far-off places at the time, or even more plausible for the MCU, were trapped in the Quantum Realm , much like how the original Wasp was.
The Fantastic Four Might Have Been Exploring The MCU During Infinity War
Regardless of how or why it happens in comics, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm are known for going missing for extended periods of time, something the MCU can run with when trying to explain where they were during the Infinity Saga, while also acting as a built-in reason for how they eventually make the jump from the 1960s to present day. The Fantastic Four ’s MCU debut is swiftly approaching , so fans shouldn’t be surprised when the reason behind where they’ve been this whole time is revealed to be a truth ripped right from the comic panel.
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Movies Movie News 65 Is Not A Time Travel Movie (Despite Dinosaurs), Clarifies Adam Driver By Dan Zinski Published Mar 8, 2023 65 movie star Adam Driver clarifies that there is no actual time travel in the action-packed sci-fi movie, even though there are dinosaurs.
There is no time travel in 65; the pilot's crash was simply a work accident during a routine shipping mission across the galaxy, coordinated by beings from another planet. Driver isn't...
Feb. 20 When will 65 be released? Stream it now. Who's in the cast of 65? Adam Driver ( White Noise, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Marriage Story) as Mills, captain of the spaceship Ariana Greenblatt ( Barbie, Avengers: Infinity War) as Koa, Mills' only surviving passenger
There's literally no suggestion of time travel in 65 (recently confirmed by Adam Driver ), even of the accidental Planet of the Apes variety. Their advanced extraterrestrial civilization...
If you've seen the marketing materials for "65," Sony's upcoming sci-fi action thriller, one thing is made abundantly clear: futuristic spaceman Adam Driver is in the muck, battling dinosaurs...
Plot Sixty-five million years ago, on the planet Somaris, pilot Mills is convinced by his wife that he should take on a two-year space expedition to earn the money needed to treat their daughter Nevine's illness. During the journey, his spaceship, the Zoic, is hit by a mass of asteroids and crash-lands on the alien-to-him planet, Earth.
The latest prehistoric romp, 65, in theaters this weekend, attempts something a little different, with future humans seeming to drift through both space and time to crash land on Earth just...
65 2023 PG-13 1h 33m IMDb RATING 5.4 /10 86K YOUR RATING Rate POPULARITY 1,060 88 Play trailer 1:46 7 Videos 99+ Photos Action Adventure Drama An astronaut crash lands on a mysterious planet only to discover he's not alone. Directors Scott Beck Bryan Woods Writers Scott Beck Bryan Woods Stars Adam Driver Ariana Greenblatt Chloe Coleman
Movies This article is more than 1 year old Adam Driver's new film 65 blasts dinosaurs into extinction. What's not to love? This time-travelling sci-fi thriller has massive flop written all...
Driver is Mills, a spaceship pilot who's pulled duty on a long transport flight and soon finds himself marooned on a mysterious planet that turns out to be inhabited by giant, toothsome ...
Film 65's first trailer leaves Adam Driver stuck millions of years in the prehistoric past / Sony's upcoming time traveling survival thriller from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods pits futuristic...
65. You'd think a movie in which Adam Driver fights a bunch of dinosaurs couldn't possibly be boring, but that's exactly what "65" is. This is a movie that would have benefitted from being a whole lot stupider. The big-budget sci-fi flick—which reportedly cost $91 million to make and was featured in a Super Bowl ad—should have ...
At the time of this writing, the film has a 63% approval rating based on 500+ reviews. Perhaps their feelings are best summed up by critic Maria Lattila of WhyNow, who wrote, "Is '65' good? Debatable.
"65" does its best to make dinosaurs scary again through its intense action and some of the creepier creatures that Mills and Koa come across. Along with some thrilling sci-fi action, the film ...
Adam Driver's 65 Is Not a Time Travel Movie - But It Should've Been By Katrina Yang Published Mar 23, 2023 Despite the trailer's implication, Adam Driver's 65 doesn't involve the concept of time travel, but time travel could've made 65 a better film. The following contains spoilers for 65, now in theaters.
Jan 26 2023 • 7:42 AM Could we have a better word scramble to describe a trailer? I don't think so. But that is exactly what happens in the trailer for sci-fi thriller 65. Adam Driver's character...
One of the most obvious reasons that Mills and Koa aren't humans is that if they were, 65 would be more of a time travel movie, and they would very much know something about dinosaurs because of reading about them in school or watching the Jurassic Park movies.
65 has been spoken about for years now, with the film being announced back in 2020 and Adam Driver being cast in the movie shortly after the announcement. This gave ample time in this marketing ...
Published Dec 14, 2022 The first 65 movie trailer has been released by Sony, providing the first look at Adam Driver's new sci-fi film from the writers of A Quiet Place. The first look at Adam Driver's new sci-fi film has arrived as Sony releases the first 65 movie trailer.
65 star Adam Driver clarifies that there is no time travel in the movie, even though there are dinosaurs. After playing Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Driver makes his return to the science fiction genre in the action-heavy 65.
Essentially, Driver is playing a character named Mills who is on a two-year mission traveling through space. He is not human, living on a planet both far from Earth and long ago in the past ...
via Samuel Goldwyn Films IMDb Score: 5.6 In Detention, by director Joseph Khan, a killer is on the loose at Grizzly Lake High School. Modeling their crimes after the notorious local,...
For sci-fi fans, there's something ironic about time travel movies: after you watch enough of them, you may feel caught in your own time loop because all of the films feel more or less the same.
The best time travel movies, from About Time to Back to the Future, explore entertaining possibilities as characters move through the past, present, and future. Digital Trends. 10 best time travel ...
A film with perhaps the lowest budget on this list, Timecrimes is a Spanish-language movie that follows a typical time travel trope (many copies of one person causing major problems) but creates ...
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, this movie is not just about time travel. It's about understanding the delicate fabric of time and the ramifications of tampering with it. When Marty McFly, played by ...
PBS Kids has lined up a slate of new series, movies and shorts for spring.. The slate includes the premiere of Tiny Time Travel, a series of live-action shorts, along with new Wild Kratts and ...
The cast of the MCU's Fantastic Four film was recently revealed to great enthusiasm across Hollywood and fandom alike, with the team's official entrance into Marvel's sprawling live-action universe arriving in theaters just over a year from now on July 25, 2025. And despite them being a cornerstone of Marvel Comics as its "First Family," The Fantastic Four weren't seen at all in ...