‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
It’s tough to bring something fresh to the alien invasion genre; the story of nasty extraterrestrial types taking a liking to our planet is one that has been tackled so many times before, via a variety of filmmakers and with budgets big and small.
‘Run’s finances may be on the slimmer side, but its creative team makes it work, delivering compelling characters even as the alien effects might not quite be at the same level.
Script and Direction
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
With a script from director Chris Stokes, working alongside Marques Houston (who appears in the movie), ‘Run’ boasts plenty of good character development, giving space early on for the central girl group to be painted as real people as opposed to disposable alien fodder.
The dynamics between the central girl friends in particular crackle with authentic energy, and as a whole this feels like a Will Packer relationship drama that is suddenly invaded by a Roland Emmerich movie.
Stokes and Houston get plenty of mileage out of their characters, and while and the screenplay sets things on a solid footing before the running, hunting, shooting and screaming starts.
As director (and cinematographer/producer), Stokes is one of those filmmakers who keeps as busy as possible, pumping out movies for a relatively low budget.
‘Run’s style is fairly basic and makes good use of its cabin location. The budget can’t always keep up with the demands of the genre, and some of the extraterrestrial action (smartly kept brief early on) moments towards the end do look goofy rather than truly scary. Still, there is tension and energy aplenty.
Cast and Performances
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
Much as with the screenplay and direction, the acting is best in the early going, when we’re being introduced to Melissa (Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh) and her friends as Melissa’s cold feet on the day of her wedding has them planning a girls’ trip to get away from it all.
The group feels real and entertaining as friends who have known each other for a long time –– it helps that Stokes works with a revolving ensemble, so the connections come across as truthful. And though the reactions to the alien that occasionally verge into the histrionic, ask yourself how you’d deal with the same situation?
Final Thoughts
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
‘Run’ is a movie of two halves –– a good friendship/relationship drama that also wants to function an apocalyptic sci-fi thriller but sometimes stumbles, relying on familiar genre tropes.
You may sometimes find yourself wishing Stokes and co. had stuck to the realistic side of things and found some other way to test friendship/relationship dynamics, but ‘Run’ goes the distance.
‘Run’ receives a score of 60 out of 100.
‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.
What’s the story of ‘Run’?
After leaving her fiancé at the altar, Melissa (Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh) joins friends at a cabin.
When Jenny (Claudia Jordan) is found mutilated in the woods and aliens attack the nation, the girls must fight to survive.
Available to purchase on digital June 30th and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and in a collectible 4K Ultra HD SteelBook on October 8th is the box office hit ‘A Quiet Place: Day One,’ which is a prequel to John Krasinski’s ‘A Quiet Place’ and was directed by Michael Sarnoski (‘Pig’).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with writer and director Michael Sarnoski about his work on ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’, taking on the franchise, the challenge of directing a movie with little to no dialogue, showing the aliens, Lupita Nyong’o’s performance, Sam and Eric’s friendship, Djimon Hounsou’s return, recreating and destroying New York City, and what it’s like to direct a cat.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
(L to R) Joseph Quinn as “Eric” and Director Michael Sarnoski in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
Moviefone: To begin with, coming off the success of ‘Pig’, can you talk about taking on a big franchise like this and developing the screenplay based on a story you created with John Krasinski?
Michael Sarnoski: Initially, ‘Pig’ was well received. That was very exciting. It was a very small movie, it very much felt like a piece of my soul, and I think there was a part of me that was like, I don’t want to do the whole jump into a franchise studio project. I want to be very cautious about that. But then this came along. John had loved ‘Pig’ and he really was asking, “Hey, can you bring some of that ‘Pig’ feeling to the ‘Quiet Place’ universe?” He gave me just a lot of freedom to be like, “All we need is New York on day one. What characters do you want? What story do you want? Make this your own.” So, it just felt like a unique opportunity to play in this big sandbox but do it with my own voice. It was kind of scary to jump into something like that, but it seemed like a unique opportunity and something that I would really love. Thankfully, it really worked out and I count myself very lucky. But it was intimidating and exciting and all those things.
(L to R) Alex Wolff as “Reuben”, Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira”, Producer John Krasinski, and Director Michael Sarnoski in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: This is of course a prequel to the first two movies, but in release order is the third in the franchise. In the first movie, Krasinski was careful to not show the aliens too early in the film, but you show them in full very early in ‘Day One’. Did you feel like you had the freedom to do that because as an audience we already know what they look like from the other two movies?
MS: It was a balance that we were always talking about, because even with things like the rules and all of that, everyone knows all the rules already, so you need to show them a little bit, but if you suddenly make that a huge part of the story, it’s just going to be like, “We’ve seen all of this twice before.” So, finding that right balance of feeling like you’re seeing fresh stuff and your expanding things was important. We still tried to space out the aliens properly so that initially, you’re not seeing too much, and then it gradually as it builds and builds, you’re seeing more and more, and part of that comes with this scope of this New York invasion. This isn’t in the farmland with a couple of creatures wandering around. This is a hotbed of where the aliens landed, so you need to carry a heft of that. But we still tried to do it in ways that wasn’t too in your face. I liked this idea of these creature stampedes that just made the ground shake and you’re not as focused on specific things, it’s just these passing shadows. So, we tried to find ways to keep it exciting and keep it feeling like there was a progression to the reveals of these creatures, but you do still have to give a little more because of the scale and because of it being the third movie in the franchise. But it was just always something we were talking about and playing with.
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: As a filmmaker, can you talk about the challenges of making a movie with little to no dialogue? Was it restraining or freeing in a sense?
MS: It’s a little bit of both. I love dialogue. I love a long dialogue scene where you really get to understand these characters and their nuances, but then at the same time, I think you rely on having really good actors like Joe and Lupita, but just watching these two people navigate silently together and their expressions also brings out a ton of stuff that in some ways, you wouldn’t be focused on as much in a more dialogue heavy movie. So, you’re just trading one tool for another. You do have to lean on your actors a lot more to be able to convey these characters and convey these moments, but I was lucky to have amazing actors.
(L to R) Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” and Director Michael Sarnoski in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about centering the movie on the character of Sam, and what Lupita Nyong’o brought to the role?
MS: I think Lupita brings a lot to every role she does. She’s incredible. She’s extremely intelligent, she’s very thoughtful and is willing to dive in and talk about these characters and figure out what’s driving them, what their history is. All of the nuances of these characters, she spends a lot of time on, and I think Sam, on paper, she’s kind of prickly and standoffish and has separated herself from her past life, and to be able to play that character in a way that doesn’t alienate the audience but actually makes the audience lean in is really difficult, and she did an amazing job with that. You get that she’s got a chip on her shoulder, but it makes you care about her more, and you want to know more how this story is going to play out for her and how she’s going to develop. I think that just comes from creating a very full, realized character that she does so beautifully.
(L to R) Joseph Quinn as “Eric” and Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you also talk about Sam and Eric’s unusual friendship, and Lupita and Joseph Quinn’s onscreen chemistry?
MS: I think we really lucked out with both together because Joe’s wonderful, and I think there was something about it being such a silent film with not a lot of dialogue, that the two of them really had to lean in and engage with each other. So, they’re watching each other’s performances a lot. They really connected on a silent but beautiful level, and I think it made a dynamic that you just felt like these two people were really seeing each other and really trying to understand each other because that’s what they were doing on set every day. I think it came across on screen better than I could have hoped.
Djimon Hounsou as “Henri” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about the decision to bring back Djimon Hounsou’s Henri from ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ and flesh out that character’s backstory?
MS: He’s an incredible actor and he’s so easy and fun to work with, and so, A, I’m just happy I did that, but B, I liked the idea of in the second one, we see a glimpse into his stable society that he’s helped create, and I wanted to explore the difficult decisions that were made in order to get to that place and hint at this wasn’t all happy living on an island stuff. He must have made some really hard decisions to protect his family and to lead this group of people. So, I wanted to glimpse that, but then I also wanted to use that as a, okay, this is his story and he’s going to go off and live that story, and this is where Sam diverges from that. So, it’s also used as a foil to her personal journey, going to get pizza story, and he’s going to escape the island and try and survive in this apocalyptic world. So, I use it as something to just compare her story, so we understand, that’s not what she’s engaged with. He was wonderful.
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about New York City as a character in the film?
MS: When I first got this project and when I was working on the script, I rented an apartment in New York for a month, just to steep myself in this place because I knew that that needed to be a part of it. This was a New York day one invasion movie, which we’ve seen a lot of, and I felt like if I was going to do it, I wanted to do it right with New York City. I think the thing I ended up landing on was exploring the different meanings of New York City to different characters, and for Sam, she’s someone that was raised here but then had to leave it behind. For Eric, he’s someone that came here with dreams. He’s the classic immigrant story to New York, and they all mean different things, but we all have this common understanding and cultural meaning of New York. So, I wanted that to just be felt so that we could all relate to that, but then also understand the kind of nuanced differences between each character’s relationship with the city. I just spent a lot of time wandering around New York, reading books about New York, and just thinking about what it meant to these characters. I think as a society, we have a very charged relationship with this city, and especially the idea of the destruction of this city. Without putting too fine a point on it, I wanted to tap into that so that people could feel like they were there with these characters, and they recognize these images and these ideas and these feelings.
Lupita Nyong’o as “Samira” in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ from Paramount Pictures.
MF: Finally, how difficult is it directing a cat?
MS: It is impossible. You’re not directing a cat, you just are casting your wishes to the winds and hoping for the best. Once you get the hang of it, after a couple of weeks of shooting, then you know, okay, this is what the cat can do. This is what the animal trainers can help us with, and these are the things that we can aim for, and you adjust certain actions based on that. So, it’s like once you have an understanding with the cat and the trainers, then it becomes a lot easier. But I think that initial sniffing out period of like, okay, so he’s not going to want to do this action, and if we want him to do this, there’s going to have to be food involved or something like that, and then you just start figuring out creative compromises and solutions to all that stuff. So it wasn’t that hard. I think it’s telling that by the end of the movie, the cast and crew all adored Nico and Schnitzel who played Frodo, whereas if it had been a real pain, everyone would’ve been like, “Thank God Nico and Schnitzel aren’t on set anymore.” I think it really worked out wonderfully.
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What is the plot of ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’?
On the first day of an invasion by aliens that hunt living things by sound, a woman dying of cancer (Lupita Nyong’o ) tries to make her way uptown in Manhattan while befriending a fellow survivor (Joseph Quinn) who’s lost and alone as the world crashes down around them.
In addition to Kaluuya and Palmer, the cast also includes Oscar-nominee Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, and Keith David. The result is a truly thrilling, original, and at times funny take on the alien invasion genre featuring standout performances from Kaluuya and Palmer.
The film begins with an odd side-story about a 90’s sitcom starring a chimpanzee, who during a taping killed most of the cast and crew. We then meet Otis Haywood (David) and his son OJ (Kaluuya), who own a ranch outside of Los Angeles and also train horses for film and TV. When strange objects begin to fall out of the sky, Otis is killed by the falling debris.
Months later, OJ is working on the set of a commercial with his unreliable sister Emerald (Palmer), and a cinematographer named Antlers Holst (Wincott). When the shoot doesn’t go as planned, OJ begins selling some of his horses to a carnival owner named Ricky “Jupe” Park (Yeun), with the intent on eventually buying them back. But Emerald recognizes Park, and it is revealed that he was a child actor and the lone survivor of the doomed sitcom with the chimpanzee.
OJ eventually confides in Emerald that he does not believe that falling debris from an airplane killed their father, and that he believes it was actually a UFO. Wanting to get proof, and thinking that will make them rich and famous, the two enlist Fry’s Electronics salesman Angel Torres (Perea), and Antlers Holst, to help them capture footage of the spaceship. But after a terrible tragedy at Park’s carnival, OJ begins to think that the object in the sky is not an alien spaceship, but rather a giant alien itself.
Actor and comedian Jordan Peele made the jump to directing with his surprise hit movie and Oscar nominated film ‘Get Out’ in 2017. Since then, he has won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and directed the acclaimed horror film ‘Us’ in 2019. In a few short years Peele has completely reinvigorated the horror genre and become one of the most original and interesting filmmakers working today. His latest outing is no different, delivering a fresh and original take on the “alien’s attack” theme, which is often quite funny in a very organic way.
Peele has also become a master at deconstructing the expectations of the horror genre, as well as moving the camera in an interesting way. The movie is filled with jump scares, but they never feel forced and in fact enhance the creepiness and mood of the film. Peele’s cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema beautifully captures the vast vistas of the ranch, while contrasting that with the horrors of the movie.
Peele also makes some brilliant choices with the pacing of the movie and the way he shows the terror of the alien moving through the open skies. While it doesn’t really connect till the end of the movie, I really enjoyed the side-story of the 90’s sitcom with the chimpanzee. It helps to illustrate the theme of the movie, which OJ actually says at one point, about how we as humans need to leave apex predators in nature alone.
Special credit should go to Peele and his team for their unique take on what an alien creature can look like. I’m so tired of seeing movies that feature aliens with the creatures often looking like copies of the Xenomorph from the ‘Alien’ franchise. The extra-terrestrials in this movie are completely original, and look like nothing we’ve seen before, adding to the originality of this film.
The acting in the movie is excellent, all the way down to supporting performances from Brandon Perea and Michael Wincott. As Angel, Perea plays the enthusiastic outsider and the eyes of the audience, but also layers in a very funny performance. Wincott, a veteran actor you will recognize from ‘The Crow,’ was perfectly cast as the grizzled Hollywood cinematographer who tries to help the Haywood’s get their photographic evidence.
Keith David also gives a nice performance as Otis Haywood, but I wish he had at least one more scene in the beginning of the movie to make his death resonate more with the audience. It’s also worth noting that motion capture actor Terry Notary (‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’) plays Gordy, the chimpanzee in flashbacks. Having played King Kong in ‘Kong: Skull Island,’ Notary was maybe the only actor that could play this role, and actually injects vulnerability and a sense of regret to the animal’s actions.
Rounding out the supporting cast is Steven Yeun, who gives a very good performance as Ricky “Jupe” Park. Although the character could have been more fleshed out in the present day, his flashback scenes tell you everything you need to know about why he is still chasing fame, and the overall fear that he has lived with since that traumatic event happened in his past.
The breakout performance award goes to actress Keke Palmer, who is an absolute delight to watch. Palmer plays Emerald as the annoying younger sister to OJ, more concerned with achieving fame and money than continuing her family’s legacy. But the actress is also very funny in the movie, in an organic way, that is in stark contrast to Kaluuya’s quiet and brooding performance. The two actors have fantastic chemistry together on screen and are completely believable as brother and sister.
But it is Daniel Kaluuya’s strong performance that really anchors the film. The actor, who has giving standout performances in ‘Sicario,’ ‘Get Out,’ ‘Black Panther,’ ‘Queen & Slim,’ and ‘Judas and the Black Messiah,’ for which he won his Oscar, demonstrates again in ‘Nope’ that he is one of the finest actors of his generation. Kaluuya is completely believable in the role and makes for an unlikely hero by the film’s end.
In the end, with ‘Nope’ Jordan Peele has delivered a stunningly beautiful movie, that transcends its own genre by telling a fresh take on the “alien invasion” theme with brilliant performances from the entire cast.
