A great sci-fi idea elevates Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland’s bumpy YA adventure Chaos Walking
Film Reviews Daisy Ridley
Note: The writer of this review watched Chaos Walking on a digital screener from home. Before making the decision to see it—or any other film—in a movie theater, please consider the health risks involved. Here’s an interview on the matter with scientific experts.
In the distant future of Chaos Walking, Doug Liman’s long-delayed, would-be science fiction blockbuster, human settlers live like cowboys on another planet. New World, as they’ve christened it, is pretty similar to Earth, save for some unfamiliar fauna, a sun that never sets, and one unusual metaphysical anomaly: Every man or boy that sets foot on the surface of this foreign terra firma finds their most private thoughts publicly amplified. The phenomenon, which they call The Noise, manifests as a holographic halo swirling around everyone’s head—their stream of consciousness vaporized into projected images, their inner monologue made involuntarily outer. Some have learned to control and even mute the running commentary airing from their smoking noggin. Others find themselves over-sharing every hour of every day.
That’s the special hell endured by Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland), an orphan living in the frontier outpost Prentisstown. We learn his name quickly because his Noise is constantly blurting it out—it’s a mantra the boy runs through his head on repeat when trying to avoid broadcasting all his painfully teenage thoughts and feelings. There are, as it turns out, no women or girls in Prentisstown. (The plot ends up hinging on an explanation for their absence.) So when a spaceship crashes into the nearby woods, stranding one Viola (Daisy Ridley) on this hostile frontier of babbling male pathology, Todd isn’t just instantly smitten but also incapable of hiding it. He’s a lovesick adolescent with literally no filter—and unfortunately for Viola, her only option of escort across the treacherous terrain of New World and to another settlement where she hopes to make contact with the mothership hovering in the stratosphere.
A mental microphone is an idea that could have grown straight out of the tangled imagination of Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman, in fact, wrote an early draft of Chaos Walking, and whether a single line of his script made it into the film, one can certainly see what drew him to the material. Isn’t the Noise just an inconveniently out-loud version of the maddening voice-over that hounds Nic Cage in Adaptation or Jessie Buckley in last year’s I’m Thinking Of Ending Things? The far-out notion actually comes from a trilogy of well-regarded YA novels by Patrick Ness, who’s helped bring the first installment of his series, The Knife Of Never Letting Go, to the screen. Some of the problems endemic to bestselling teen lit, including an ellipses in place of an ending, plague this adaptation. But the premise is genuinely clever, and it gives the film a dramatic and comedic engine its dystopian peers could only dream of possessing.
After years of reshoots, bad test screenings, and delays, Chaos Walking arrives now bearing the mark of a troubled production: a failed franchise launcher awaiting its inevitable drubbing. There’s a choppiness, certainly, to its first act, which leaps through the expository setup at a pace that betrays the phantom limbs of excised scenes. Watching the film, one can understand why Liman, who’s spent most of his career at the helm of big-budget star vehicles, felt the urge to follow it with a quick, cheap palate cleanser like Locked Down, which hit HBO Max just six weeks ago. Yet in its blemished way, Chaos Walking is the better movie—and even with a $100 million budget, a relatively fleet and modest Hollywood spectacle. Liman leans perhaps more heavily into the Western half of his space-Western equation, sparingly deploying the towering, faceless extraterrestrials that function as an analogue for the native victims of manifest destiny. The plot is elementally straightforward: a man and woman pushing through the wilderness, gunslingers in hot pursuit.
It helps that Liman has assembled a uniformly overqualified cast, filling stock roles with the likes of David Oyelowo, Cynthia Erivo, Demián Bichir, and—as the sheriff of Prentisstown— the imposing Mads Mikkelsen, who can probably do unflappable paternal menace by muscle memory at this point. The film mostly hinges on its leads, who seem faintly grateful for a vacation from plucky star-making duty in much bigger Disney fantasias, even as Chaos Walking keeps them at least partially in their wheelhouse. Repurposing and hardening qualities honed in a galaxy farther away, Ridley becomes a pillar of no-nonsense resolve—her exasperation (and its eventual softening) come through loud and clear, even without a gaseous entity vocalizing those emotions. Holland, so woefully miscast just a week ago in Cherry, meanwhile proves a perfect fit for an imperfect boy hero at war with his own constantly aired doubts and neuroses; he’s like Spider-Man if everyone could read his thought balloons. The two forge a likably uneasy chemistry not too far removed from the quasi-romance at the heart of Liman’s Edge Of Tomorrow, in this case reinforced by the reliable punchline of Todd telling on himself ad nauseam, as if strapped into a supernatural lie detector. It’s consistently amusing—and thanks to the largely chaste nature of Todd’s adoration, never too creepy, either.
Chaos Walking doesn’t have much in the way of surprises or excitement. (Liman stages the horse-and-laser action scenes with proficiency but little ingenuity.) What it does have is an ingenious sci-fi hook, a conceit of great narrative and thematic utility. The Noise works as a metaphor for the vulnerability of youth, the way teenagers sometimes feel like open books, all their emotions on display. As the film begins to reveal its easily guessed secrets, it also doubles as a resonant tale of misogyny in the face of exposure: an allegory about how male rage grows directly out of male insecurity and is fortified by religious zealotry. Miss those themes announced like thoughts put into words, and there’s still the way Liman and his writers play their Philip K. Dick-worthy concept for screwball comedy and suspense. You don’t need to be a mindreader (or even an avid YA reader) to anticipate the whole arc of Chaos Walking’s story. But you also don’t need to be Charlie Kaufman, apparently, to get some inventive fun out of a premise this solid.
56 Comments
Goddamn, Mads Mikkelsen is a good-looking man.
And he makes a fine cowboy.
Using only the finest, ranch-grown ingredients.
Could anyone else have worn that giant fur coat in that screenshot and gotten away with it like he does? My guess is no.
I don’t really have a desire to see this film but it kinda makes me want to replay Death Stranding…
It’s consistently amusing—and thanks to the largely chaste nature of Todd’s adoration, never too creepy, either.I’ll be honest, this feels a little bit like a cop out — it’s a world where men’s thoughts are constantly being broadcast for everyone to hear, but fortunately the teenage boy falling in love with a young woman who looks like Daisy Ridley doesn’t have any truly gross or perverted thoughts to broadcast. I understand that’s probably necessary for a PG-13 YA movie, but still.
Maybe these future space orphans don’t have a Pornhub to get their DVDA kinks from Andrew
I think the description “largely chaste…never too creepy” is an important distinction. In the clip of their first meeting, among his first thoughts to be broadcast are “blond hair” and “date”. There’s even a scene where they have to keep quiet but his thoughts of having to prove himself to her during this situation betray their location.
Yeah, but ya know, it’s a teen boy. It’d be “Boobs. Boobs. Wanna touch. Pretty. Lips. Boobs. Butt. Boobs. Legs. Boobs. Wanna see naked. Boobs.”
Plus, this is a supposedly a society of all men. So the first woman he’s seen just happens to look like Daisy Ridley.
Wow, was not expecting to see a Wrestling With Wregret gif on the A.V. Club, kudos!
largely chaste, never too creepyThe A.V. Club
That’s a big ol’ lie.
Not to mention that this sort of conceptually blunt, gimmicky elevator-pitch is totally par for the course in YA films. Highfalutin concepts have no place in these here parts.
Has anyone pitched a movie where a plain (ie, brunette) high-school girl moves to a new school or something and feels totally unaccepted and ugly and alone but somehow catches the eye of not one, but two, smoulderingly interchangeable bad-boys, as well as the respect and admiration of the popular (ie blonde) girl and a quirky (ie, red, curly hair) BFF? And also she’s the only one who can Save The World?Has that been done before?
lol. bonus points for putting in a character that’s overweight and their size/obsession with good is their only arc.
Nah, it only works once she takes off her glasses and puts on a dress.
I was really hoping the YA craze ended with the divergence bomb. These stories are all “high concept” with terrible characters and plots. Frankly, reading this review the premise does not sound “intriguing” it sounds laughably bad
Dave Chappelle addressed this same issue some time ago.
My what?!
Yeah, for the love of God, the thoughts going on in a teen boy’s head are absolutely foul. Around a woman who looks like Daisy Ridley it’d just be constant unbidden mental porn.
You think cancel culture is bad on earth, get a load of this place.
Yeah. I’m a middle aged man and I doubt I’d be having chaste thoughts in Ridley’s presence.
Rick & Morty really need to take on this movie
My first few boyhood crushes were very chaste. I couldn’t even fantasize about sexual situations with them, although I was perfectly capable of doing so with random women.
wow, a dowd b-, i’m in.forgot this was liman, so i’m actually a bit looking forward to it now. how about that.
I’m mostly pretty interested in this, except that I remember readers getting upset about something happening to the dog? I’m going to check doesthedogdie.com before I see it, I think.
The dog part is upsetting, yes.
Not huge on the books (more of a middle grade librarian than YA) but met Patrick Ness a few times in my indie bookstore days when A Monster Calls was new and he was a delight. Hope this does well.Also, in terms of YA that I enjoy, The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a fantastic portrayal of what life is like as an ancillary character in a Chosen One story who has no aspirations for glory. Basically like if there was a book about a mutant at the Xavier Academy who sincerely just wanted to go to school and graduate on time and is unburdened by Main Character Syndrome forcing them to action.
Also, in terms of YA that I enjoy, The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a fantastic portrayal of what life is like as an ancillary character in a Chosen One story who has no aspirations for glory.That sounds marvelous. I’m going to have to put that one on my wish list. Thanks!
what life is like as an ancillary character in a Chosen One storyAfter seeing this comment, despite not really getting into Ness’ work in the past, just grabbed the ebook of this from my library. Authors have attempted this before in various flavors – Scalzi’s Redshirts is one that comes to mind – so I’m quite curious to see the take here. Thanks!
“Hey Kenny, come with me to the Danger Room. We need to be ready for an attack from the Brotherhood at any time.”“Okay, Mitch, but instead maybe I’ll study for tomorrow’s algebra test so I don’t flunk and have to repeat next year. I wouldn’t be so behind if you hadn’t sprung all those goddamn midnight preparedness drills on me.”
I’d be interested in seeing how gay dating works in this universe.
Very easily, I should imagine.
Well with all the repressive frontier bullshit, probably not great.All other things being fabulously equal, though, I imagine that this particular sci-fi twist would have the least relative impact on the gay male dating scene, compared to all other dating scenes.You’d still get more negative outcomes at the marginal point of tension/conflict – “he’s not really my type but dear god it’s been awhile” – but everything I’ve read seems to indicate that that kind of thinking is least likely to be a dealbreaker in that particular scene. Not coincidentally, that scene’s also the place you’d be most likely to hear it said out loud already.And yeah, I guess that’s kinda shitty, but it’s a great example of the unresolvable tension between honesty and tact. It’s right up there with the question of whether it’s better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all. Bit more complicated, though. “Is it better to have lied, then settled, then gotten laid? Or to have not lied, and not gotten laid? Or to have not lied, gotten laid slightly fewer times, but felt better about not lying during your attempts to get laid?”Seminal questions, indeed!
Funny enough, Todd’s surrogate parents are a gay couple.
Smurfette in the 25th Century
So, is there any word on if this is going to get movie sequels? If there isn’t really an ending, I don’t particularly want to see it if there isn’t going to be a part 2 and 3.
While the ending leaves room for sequels, it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger or anything. The credits told me it was based on a book I’d never heard of, but it wasn’t until I came looking for the review that I knew that book was just the first in a trilogy. The film’s ending didn’t make me feel like there HAD to be a followup.
Fun story – more years ago than I would care to admit, I took a year long Creative Writing course. The module on novel writing was run by none other than Patrick Ness (who at that point had published one reasonably well-reviewed Pynchon-esqe thingy called ‘The Crash of Hennington).
He was, frankly, amazing – one of two or three teachers who really treated the thing as more than a lucrative time-sink for hobbyists and was willing to not validate people who were half-assing it – for which I think he was eventually drummed out when they complained. He was a stickler for emotional honesty in fiction, and did a lecture on the depiction of sex and violence (and why you mostly shouldn’t) that sticks with me to this day. I’m honestly really glad he’s ended up doing as well as he has.
As someone who adores the books I’m still super skeptical but damn, evil cowboy Mads Mikkelsen makes a compelling argument.
Nice, to see this get a good review. It makes me sad when people hate on something just because it had a lot of delays.
Unless this movie ends in a rape. I am out.
You know what I absolutely love about Daisy Ridley? It’s how whenever she puts on a new haircut she is almost completely unrecognizable.That’s a really cool skill for an actor’s face to have.
I think a bit of that is because she has a (sorry to point this out) ENORMOUS forehead, so any different configuration of bangs or sweep over it makes her face appear very different
No, that’s probably exactly it. Along with how her face is freakishly symmetrical, which tends to accentuate any differences in a person’s face when they turn their head at all.And I don’t think it’s wrong to point out her enormous forehead, since her forehead clearly hasnt held her face back from being, y’know. . . . She’s kinda like Keira Knightley in that way, now that I think about it, who also has a large forehead.
I’m dying for her to play a Bajoran or one of the other big forehead star trek aliens (a sentence you will only read on a few sites)
You can tell it’s the future because the women have terrible haircuts.
Is the dog in it?First line from the book, iirc:“First thing you learn when your dog starts to talk is that dogs don’t have much to say.”
I just started reading this today out of curiosity. I hope they don’t change the nature of the dog, it’s probably the most fun character in the novel so far.
How does one get out of the greys?
I thought the world building of the book was pretty interesting, and it did a good job of creating stakes/conflict of the story to be invested in. But it got drug down quite a bit for me by needing to hang its plot on the dumb concept of some social contract about mortal combat when the main character turns 16, so in light of all the interesting stuff going on the story revolves around this dude chasing the main character around because he needs the kid to kill him, but only in a fight. On top of just being a really stupid conceit, the story didn’t need it at all. Hopefully the movie writes figures out a smarter way to do it, or just removes it all together.
Saw it last night in a relatively well-attended showing. The B- is a fair grade IMO. I could not fault any of the performances, and some are truly stand-out. Holland is THE genuine awkward male teenager, I haven’t seen anyone do it better. Mikkelsen is the strongest, but doesn’t leave everyone else in the dust – it’s a solid crew.There are a few big story problems, or perhaps screenplay problems that ruined the A game for me. SPOILERS coming.The indigenous species (at least we take the word of the colonists on that) are indeed a stand-in for “something bad happened” and deserved to be fleshed out or discarded. The same plot points could have been served by alien plant spores, a pandemic, or cosmic rays – so wasted potential there, or maybe unnecessary overall. The fact that their CGI is the weakest in a picture full of impressive CGI doesn’t help.The Oyelowo character, the Preacher or whatever he’s called, feels like a guy who makes a LOT more sense in the book. That the screenwriters read the source material so many times they started to forget that not everyone understood what he was about so that they didn’t have to explain it. He becomes increasingly important as the story evolves but his whole thread lacks grounding. A pity really, the performance is great.Overall thought the movie is worth seeing, and me and me and the kiddo enjoyed munching popcorn all the way through. I’m saddened that there won’t be a second and third, this concept could have worked.
This is . . . the most generous review of this movie I think I’ve read. Surprisingly generous, honestly.I love the Chaos Walking series; it really nails what it feels like to be a teenager – your every thought on display (and yet, the thoughts of the person you like being inscrutable), feeling like you have zero control over your destiny, etc. Beyond that, it takes a good look at toxic masculinity and all of its ill-gotten gains: manifest destiny, violence, depression. It was always going to be a hard reach for a movie to be able to adapt all of that in a Hollywood-friendly package, I think. But the script changes, the delays, the reshoots . . . oof, it does not spell confidence in this movie.In summation: Poo, Todd. Poo.
Yeah, they changed the dog.