‘The Discovery’ Trailer: Robert Redford Has Gone And Discovered The Afterlife
Thefirst trailerforThe Discovery, which arrived shortly before the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last month, was all about unnerving imagery and unsettling questions without answers. The new trailer slows down just enough to explain what the movie is actually about…which only meansmoreunnerving imagery and even more unsettling questions. The film has a great hook: what if scientists discovered that the afterlife is real, leading millions of people to commit suicide to get there faster? What would the world look like? This new preview offers a few hints.
The Discoveryis the latest film from directorCharlie McDowell, who scored big with another small scale, high concept science fiction film,The One I Love, back in 2014. This one stars the greatRobert Redfordas the scientist who discovers a “new plane of existence” beyond our world, essentially throwing the entire population of Earth into an existential crisis.Jason Segelplays Redford’s son andRooney Maraplays the woman he meets after returning to his hometown for some serious self-reflection.
And it sounds like the film itself lives up to this compelling trailer, because it madeour team’s list of the best films they saw at Sundance this year.
Our own Ethan Andertonwas a big fan ofThe Discovery, comparing it toEternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindandFlatliners:
The Discoveryhas shades ofEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, both in its economical, practical production design, but also in its surprisingly simplistic approach to a high concept that is driven by carefully crafted characters. In addition, the path to the shocking, moving climax has plenty of influence fromFlatliners, and a bit from the indie favoritePrimer. Despite all these influences, the movie never feels like it’s overtly borrowing from them, but merely emulating certain thematic elements.
