In Adam Driver’s new movie, 65, an astronaut crash-lands on Earth, millions of years in the past, and tries to keep himself and a young girl alive on a planet crawling with terrifying dinosaurs. The relationship between Driver’s character and the girl is one that we’ve seen quite a lot of in recent years. This type of “found family” story, featuring a weary warrior trying to keep a young stranger safe, is the basis for two of the most popular TV shows in the world: The Last of Us and Star Wars: The Mandalorian.
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Something about these accidental families resonates with audiences around the world. The themes are universal, but timing could also have a lot to do with it, according to Driver. While speaking with ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis ahead of 65‘s theatrical debut, Driver alluded to the experience of the pandemic as a reason people might be more drawn to a story about strangers looking out for another another.
“Maybe the idea of ‘found family’ is something that are resonating with over facing this big thing like COVID, maybe,” Driver said. “With COVID it’s this invisible thing, which makes it a different level of terrifying. But it’s an enemy that there’s no precedent for, which is exactly what these people in our story find themselves facing. They couldn’t be from a more diverse background, and they are facing this common enemy that they have not seen before. And they’ve lost people in different areas, and grief is kind of the thing that binds them together and inevitably gives them hope.”
So maybe that’s something, this idea of families that you have, but also these found families that you acquire,” he continued. “It’s always kind of a resonant theme, I think.”
You can watch our full interview with Adam Driver here.
65 is written and directed by the duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the screenwriters behind John Krasinski’s smash hit horror film A Quiet Place. The film is being released in theaters everywhere on March 10th.
