After rescuing his son, Alton, from a fundamentalist sect who are convinced his supernatural abilities are the key to their salvation, Roy (Michael Shannon), Alton, and their bodyguard Lucas (Joel Edgerton) go on the run for their lives. But what starts as a desperate escape from a fearless cult soon attracts the attention of the FBI who believe the boy to be a threat to mankind’s very existence. With the trio’s fate hanging in the balance, Roy will stop at nothing to keep his son from harm and uncover the truth behind his powers, a discovery which could change the world forever…
Jeff Nichols // US 2016 // 12 // 112mins
“Jeff Nichols’s gripping cosmic thriller has it all – a superb cast, gritty realism and a final-act reveal that will amaze you.”
-Guardian
“It builds slowly through wrenching family drama to imaginative sci-fi sustained as much by heart and emotion as thrilling special effects.”
-Radio Times
“Nichols has managed to combine that Spielbergian feel of something magical we’ll never quite understand with a family story that is utterly involving and moving. This is something special.”
-SciFiNow
“Director Jeff Nichols and star Michael Shannon team up to deliver a modern science fiction classic.”
-Little White Lies
“Soulful sci-fi. A tribute to ’80s classics, but with a 21st-century twist: Close Encounters of a new kind.”
-Empire
The film will be preceded by a talk from Emeritus Professor Chris French, Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, who will discuss the ways in which the members of a small UFO religion reacted when the apocalypse failed to occur as predicted, and its relevance to modern movements such as QAnon.
Where: The Castle Cinema, First Floor, 64-66 Brooksby’s Walk, E9 6DA
When: Friday 12th August // 1830
Science Fiction Theatre 