The Cannes sensation Hope finally has a trailer and release date! Premiering this past May at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, the Na Hong-jin film tells the story of a mysterious discovery made on the outskirts of a remote harbor town and the fight for survival that comes after. And if you didn’t go to to Cannes all you knew was that and that it was written and directed by the same man who wrote The Wailing and The Yellow Sea. But thanks to the official trailer we now know that there’s something more than a mysterious monster hunting these people. They’re aliens…
In the official trailer for Hope we’re introduced to the people of Hope Harbor. And they waste no time showing that something is wrong with two hunters standing over the body of a dead animal with claw marks in it. That’s followed by cops (Hwang Jung-min and Hoyeon) racing down destroyed streets, hunters (Zo In-sung and Eum Moon-suk) battling mysterious creatures in the forest, and evidence of a violent struggle everywhere. And then we see the ship breaking through the clouds.
That’s when you realize it’s not monsters. It’s aliens. But there’s something off about these vastly different aliens.
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There’s an obvious alien invasion and a story of humans struggling against an unknown force like in A Quiet Place. But there’s also an intelligence to these aliens like in Independence Day. That comes in the form of a tall and bipedal alien hunting those in the forest in the trailer. Combine that with the aliens looking different and the synopsis saying “What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions.” there is something wrong here. Something the humans don’t understand.
Oh let’s not forget Michael Fassbender here. He’s the last one listed on the poster for Hope. You don’t hire someone like him for a movie like this unless there’s something bigger at play. And I’m not talking about Fassbender being the head of a secret organization that got into the business of these aliens and started this mess alongside Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton. Bets are on that alien that finds the hunters in the forest having a voice. And I bet Fassbender has something to do with it….
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Read the official synopsis below:
In the remote South Korea village of Hope Harbor, police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung- min) and officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon) are called to find a mysterious creature that has wreaked havoc on the village. In the nearby forest, a coterie of hunters, including Sung- ki (Zo In-Sung) set out to track the beast and find themselves hunted instead. But all is not as it seems, and perceptions can be misleading. What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions.
Watch the official trailer below:
Hope hits theaters on September 9th.
