Whilst it’s rare to start a review with as-yet unqualified praise, needs must in this case: Terrestrial (2025) is such an incredibly clever, ambitious project. This tale for our times is filled with surprises, and it’s a huge credit to director Steve Pink and to writers Connor Diedrich and – good name for a writer – Samuel Johnson, that those surprises keep on coming. Don’t be fooled by the title, or the opening scenes: science fiction is incredibly important to Terrestrial, but our film is steadfastly grounded in the real world, despite the fact that we start by seeing some clips from a retro sci-fi film called The Neptune Cycle, before panning back to see a roomful of Neptune Cycle memorabilia: the film is playing in what seems to be a room dedicated to the book and film. We’re obviously dealing with a fan, but something traumatic has clearly happened in this house: there’s blood and glass everywhere, and our protagonist Allen (Jermaine Fowler) is all alone amongst it: we can’t yet see if he’s hurt, or where, but there’s a fractured timeline coming: we step back in time, meeting three of Allen’s old friends, newly engaged couple Maddie (Pauline Chalamet) and Ryan (James Morosini) and Vic (Edy Modica), who are on their way to Allen’s new place.
It’s clearly been a while since they last got together, so the impromptu visit is about to turn into a celebration of Allen’s recent good fortune. He’s now a successful author, or at least he has a very lucrative book deal nailed down; he has a big house (which we’ve already seen), a vintage car, and everything is seemingly going his way. Yet, before the car pulls up, Allen’s friends are expressing some concerns about his wellbeing; the fact that he’s now wealthy hasn’t assuaged those worries, and to be fair, when we catch up with Allen, he does seem a little…off. This impression is extended by the clever audience positioned achieved by the camerawork in the film, which allows us to see a little more – but not much more – than Allen’s guests. We don’t follow him everywhere, but we see that something is on his mind, and he’s behaving nervously.
There’s plenty on the guests’ minds, too. Sure, the drink starts flowing and these people, who were once so close, get the chance to talk over what’s been going on in each of their lives, but with Ryan in particular there’s a level of cynicism about Allen’s new life. Yes, authors can do amazingly well, but Allen, already? Can he really have gone from zero to hero so quickly? Can he really be doing everything he claims? This seed of doubt soon extends to the house itself; Allen isn’t great at excusing where he’s going or what he’s doing, either, as he keeps absenting himself and making excuses. However, things are about to get a whole lot stranger…
Whilst Terrestrial does signpost – fairly clearly – that something isn’t right here, it doesn’t give the game away as to what this might be (and as a reviewer, it’s really enjoyable to be sent down the wrong path from time to time, as happened here). Rather, the film is clear that there’s a mystery, but unfolds the mystery in a sequence of smart, complex ways. This isn’t just a film which starts midway along, backfills and moves past the start point to a predictable ending – far from it. There are overlapping timelines, but it’s rare to see them brought together so skilfully. A lot of the credit for this must go to Jermaine Fowler in the lead role: what he isn’t saying is always as important as what he is saying, but whether explaining himself or otherwise, he’s an incredibly magnetic character. His hypervigilance is well counterbalanced by his friends’ interested, but somewhat detached reactions to his new crazy. The narrative then expands around this group of people, adding in other, sometimes shock complications and achieving some impressive world-building, too.
As such, the inclusion of science fiction is really interesting here. Once again, Terrestrial is not a science fiction film, but sci-fi provides context for everything that happens, particularly with regards to the act of writing itself. Writing can be aspirational, and for a select few people, it’s immensely lucrative. In other ways, though, any writing – even sci-fi – can be simply a means to an end, but it just so happens that sci-fi, with its utopias and its escapism, offers the ultimate contrast to the very worldly concerns of modern creators, fighting either to survive or to thrive right here and right now, in a very real world which is growing less and less inclined to reward creatives. This alone makes the title Terrestrial such a suitable one. But sci-fi is a big part of Allen’s personal story, too: The Neptune Cycle, with its ultimate fantasy of being ‘chosen’ by a higher power, informs so much about him. Self-perception is a key idea in the film, and this is the case throughout Ryan’s invasive questions, or the old friend group’s somewhat competitive attitude towards Allen: after all, everyone wants to be getting on, getting ahead.
An exhilarating, tangled web of deception, double-crossing and questioning, it wouldn’t do to say too much more about this title. This makes it slightly tricky to review, but if a review is at least partly there to help people decide whether to see a film or not, then I hope this one has said enough to make people want to watch. Go in with as few preconceptions as possible, and just allow this creative, humane, modern moral tale to do its thing.
Terrestrial (2025) received its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 20th.