After finding himself in a world he didn’t want to survive in, a man must embark on a journey, traversing elements that seek to kill her, along with a girl who is roughly the same age as his dead daughter. If this plot reminds you of The Last Of Us heading towards the final episode of the first season, you weren’t wrong. Swap the post-apocalyptic world for an Earth 65 million years ago, riddled with dinosaurs and where every flora and fauna wants to kill you, much like the clickers from the video game/tv series and we have 65.
Mills (Adam Driver), the sole pilot of a spaceship, crashes on an uncharted planet after rogue asteroids hit their ship. As expected, the mishap kills almost all of the crew who were in cryosleep, with the exception of the young Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). While trying to assess the situation and plan a way home, the two suffer the shock of their lives when they learn they have landed on prehistoric Earth. With rescue entailing a long trek through uncharted territory, the unlikely duo must face all odds in order to survive.
65 (English)
Directed by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Cast: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt
Running time: 93 minutes
Storyline: A pilot who crashes his spaceship on an uncharted planet must save himself and another survivor, a young girl, from the planet’s terrifying denizens
On paper, this looks like an exciting proposition, and The Last of Us has proven it’s a tried-and-true template. But the film fails due to its inability to recreate the character development and the connection between the main cast that develops over time, which was the reason we worried about Joel and Ellie. The biggest shortcoming of 65 is its unoriginality. The film reeks of “oh wait, I know what movie this is from” moments during its fortunately short run. Aside from The Last of Us and the obvious resemblance to the Jurassic Park movies, tropes like shooting monsters, protecting the unarmed child at the very last moment, and even hordes of people dying in cryosleep remind us of countless monster and space movies .
What could be singled out as one of 65’s few positives is the jumpscares, and given how directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods wrote the brilliant A Quiet Place, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Although the film has very little to offer its main cast, the ever-reliable Adam Driver tries his might to save this film. 65 does a decent job of explaining Mills’ past and the traumas he bears, but the film doesn’t show why that matches the efforts he goes to to save a stranger like Koa. The technology, the weapons and the gadgets are fascinating, but also reminiscent of video games like Halo. Thanks to all these missteps, what should be a slick action-thriller with cool monster action on the surface and pent-up emotion at its core becomes a predicament, and despite a running time of 90 minutes, 65 feels like it will run 65 million years.
65 is currently in cinemas
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