Science Fiction, Adventure, Thriller  •  2026  •  119 min  •  Adults (18+)

The Dog Stars (2026)

The Dog Stars poster

The Dog Stars (2026)


Rating & Dimensions

Bias Rating
Analyzing...
Leans Traditional
Political: Center
Diversity: Low
Family Values: Leans Traditional

Viewer Rating
7.1

Overview

Based on Peter Heller's novel and directed by Ridley Scott, this post-pandemic survival story follows a pilot living out of a Colorado hangar with his dog and a gruff armed companion. When a radio signal breaks the silence, he sets out to find its source. The Leans Traditional label follows the story's emotional center: a man shaped by grief over a lost wife and child, driven by the hope of rebuilding something like family. Mennonite communities and a new romantic partnership reinforce that pull. The film carries no political agenda or identity-politics framing. It treats survival as a personal, relational struggle, which is about as classic a genre posture as you can get.


Starring Cast

Jacob Elordi  •   Margaret Qualley  •   Josh Brolin

Detailed Bias Analysis

Analyzing...
Leans Traditional

Primary

Political: Center
Confidence: Low

The Dog Stars centers on personal endurance and makeshift alliances in a collapsed society after a pandemic, presenting familiar survival struggles without endorsing any ideological framework or systemic critique.

Diversity: Low
Confidence: Low

The Dog Stars centers on a conventional ensemble navigating a post-apocalyptic world, with casting and storytelling that follow established genre conventions without foregrounding diversity initiatives or critiques of traditional identities.

Secondary

Family Values: Leans Traditional
Confidence: Medium

The Dog Stars centers on a protagonist who has lost his wife and child to a pandemic and forms a new romantic partnership, framing the drive to build families and restore what was lost as essential to human renewal amid Mennonite communities that reference scripture.

LGBTQ: N/A
Confidence: Low

The Dog Stars centers on a post-apocalyptic journey and survival relationships without any LGBTQ+ characters or themes.

Trans: N/A
Confidence: Low

The Dog Stars centers on a post-apocalyptic survival story with no transgender characters or themes woven into its narrative.

Female Combat: No
Confidence: Medium

Margaret Qualley's character Cima appears in the post-apocalyptic setting of The Dog Stars alongside male survivors but engages in no close-quarters physical combat victories against male opponents. All action descriptions center on group survival against external threats without depicting her winning hand-to-hand or melee fights.

Gender Swap: No
Confidence: Low

The Dog Stars adapts Peter Heller's novel without altering the established genders of its main characters Hig, Cima, and Bangley.

Race Swap: No
Confidence: Low

The film adaptation features Jacob Elordi as Hig, Josh Brolin as Bangley, Margaret Qualley as Cima, and supporting players including Guy Pearce and Benedict Wong. No character receives a portrayal that alters a canonically established race from the source novel or prior depictions.

Hinduism: N/A
Confidence: Low

Not depicted.


Viewer Rating Breakdown

7.1

Viewer Rating

Combines user and critic ratings from four sources

User Ratings

IMDB logo
N/A
The Movie Database logo
7.1

Critic Ratings

Rotten Tomatoes logo
N/A
Metacritic logo
N/A

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