Oscar-nominated Irish actors Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Little Women) and Paul Mescal (Aftersun) are “made for each other” in the first trailer for Foe. Set in the year 2065, the apocalyptic sci-fi marital thriller from filmmaker Garth Davis (Lion, Mary Magdalene) upends the rural farm life of couple Hen (Ronan) and Junior (Mescal) when a mysterious man named Terrance (Aaron Pierre, Old) shows up to acquire an “intimate understanding” of their marriage. “Do you want to live mundane lives,” the stranger asks, “or do you want to be part of something special and unique?”
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The stranger reveals that Junior — and Junior alone — has been selected to live in space. The catch: Junior’s replacement is a robot, who will accompany the lonely Hen on Earth. Based on the book by best-selling I’m Thinking of Ending Things author Iain Reid, Foe has released its first trailer, which you can watch below.
Amazon Studios describes Foe as “a haunting exploration of marriage and identity set in an uncertain world.” Per the synopsis, “Hen and Junior farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior’s family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal.” Co-written by Davis and Reid, “Foe‘s mesmerizing imagery and persistent questions about the nature of humanity (and artificial humanity) bring the not-too-distant future to luminous life.”
“There’s something that a lot of people can relate toin their own relationships, in their lives,” Davis told Vanity Fair of Foe, which will premiere at the 2023 New York Film Festival. “Each actor,as people, brought their own interpretation of that to the performances.There was a lot of pressure, and a lot of fuel.”
The not-too-distant future is one of advanced artificial intelligence and raging wildfires, existential threats to Hen and Junior’s isolated farm life.
“What I find really powerful about the movie is it asks us to be awakeand to be alive,” Davis said. “A lot of the problems we face inrelationships and with the environment and with all sorts of thingscoming our way is that we’re asleep at the wheel. This movie is reallysaying, ‘Wake up. Your life is precious, and if you take it for granted,you’re going to lose it.’”
Foe will open exclusively in theaters October 6th before eventually streaming on Amazon Prime Video.