Chaos Walking: A Sci-Fi Experience 10 Years in the Making

Last week, I went to see a movie called Chaos Walking, starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland. When I watched the trailer, it didn’t look like something I’d particularly enjoy. It seemed to have a lot of sci-fi themes, which personally I’m not a fan of, but I like movies as a whole, and I was in the mood for some popcorn and a pop, so I went to give it a shot. Who knows? Maybe my expectations would be blown out of the water.

Now that I’ve seen the film, I can definitely say that the trailer sells it short. Again, it doesn’t focus on the exact themes that I usually prefer, but it’s still a good movie. Furthermore, while I probably wouldn’t see it again, I can definitely understand why other people might.

It follows the story of a civilization made up of only men. The main character, Todd, has been led to believe that long ago, the alien life on the planet had released some kind of virus that attacked only women, killing them all. There is one more change to normal life: every man has something known as “noise” floating around in his head. This noise is a sort of blue fiery sphere that floats around in men’s heads, playing all of their thoughts out loud to the world, meaning that you really can’t think to yourself, and all your honest opinions are audible.

Everything seems normal here until a spaceship crashes into a forest near the town, and all but one person on it die. The survivor is a girl. As anyone would, she leaves the wreckage and tries to find help. She stumbles into Todd’s backyard, and when he spots her, she runs. He chases her but ultimately can’t catch her. He goes to tell the town’s sheriff, who then sets a huge search in place. Todd realizes that telling the town was a mistake and tries his best to save the girl from trouble, taking her to another town miles away through a dense forest.

This movie started production way back in 2011, going through tons of script rewrites to try and make the best experience possible, and I think it achieves the purpose. The movie has been criticized for underdeveloped characters, which is true in some aspects. The girl, Viola, is very quiet initially, and she doesn’t open up until the film is almost over. We don’t get to see much character development in the townspeople, either, because they appear very little, usually only during the scenes where a mob is following Todd from far behind. Regardless, the movie is still a great watch, especially if you like science fiction or adventure movies.