Settlers movie poster 2021
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Settlers, A Dystopian Sci-Western Thriller About Power

‘Settlers,’ to articulate, shows some wonderfully scenic views of a vast wasteland. A lone family of three in a futuristic home, live and looks at the stars. Early on, the script gives nothing away about why the family is there, what the dangers are, or how they came to live in such a place. The homestead looks like a ranch except that everything structural is metal and it’s plainly obvious we are not in the wild west. The family dress as though they are from some kind of far distant saloon town. The look and feel of everything on screen is a wonderful mish-mash of new and old.

If you are an avid movie connoisseur who enjoyed films like Bokeh, The Bad Batch, and Here Alone, Settlers might be your new favorite movie for 2021. Mother of Movies compiled a list of the aforementioned films in a ‘most boring’ summation some years ago. All these films are about survival in a dystopian universe, filled with stories about a will to survive. These types of movies generally encompass an apocalypse of some kind that goes on to create a world that is a desolate and lonely place. And while the world can definitely be a sparse and uncertain platform I need more than an integral idea taken from a singular part of that to be invested.

How Can You Leave When There’s Nowhere to Go?

On the flip side, the skeletal cast does an amazing job of portraying what ways they are motivated. Mother and Father, Reza and Ilsa are just trying to normalize everything in their daughter Remmy’s world. When dark figures are seen in the distance, neither warn the young girl that danger is coming. When large letters scrawled across one of the windows threatening them to “LEAVE” appear, there are no conversations about what needs to be done. Even when her mother tackles and kills one of the intruders, nothing is explained about what might be the cause of such intrusion. And thus, her life is one very steep learning curve.

The main storyline hinges on one basic premise, which seems to revolve around repopulating this new Earth on Mars. Settlers’ is a character-driven study of the sum of these parts. Jerry’s arrival at the camp became something odd. More of a hostage situation than anything else, I disliked Jerry. No amount of polite etiquette could counter the foreboding nature of his presence nor the flaws in his plans. The introduction of a robot, lovingly befriended by Remmy and subsequently named Steve becomes an integral part of the storytelling. Steve was commissioned to blast the red dirt and in turn, make it able to grow things. But he becomes more than that, turning into something akin to a family dog.

Settlers

As Jerry turns the disenfranchised location into a flourishing home once again, nothing else within its human occupancy blooms. Everything feels like a hopeless situation at all times for one reason or another. The tension is palpable right up to the closing scenes. However pretty and well-explained its internal mechanisms are, I still came away feeling like I was given half a story that had no reasonable ending.

I give Settlers

2.5 robots called Steve to steal the show out of 5

SETTLERS Steve and Brooklyn Prince
SETTLERS Steve and Brooklyn Prince. Courtesy of IFC Midnight

You can watch Settlers in theatres and as a rental from July 23rd, 2021

Settlers Streaming Where to Watch


  • Starring: Sofia Boutella (“The Mummy”), Ismael Cruz Córdova (“The Undoing”), Brooklynn Prince (“The Florida Project”), Nell TigerFree (“Servant”), and Jonny Lee Miller (“Trainspotting”).
  • Writer-Director Wyatt Rockefeller.
  • Who made Steve? William Todd James is better known for bringing life to creations from Labyrinth and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
  • Additional movie information: Principal photography was performed in a remote desert area of Vioolsdift, which lies in the Northern Cape in South Africa.
  • Movies with a happy ending: The Special / The Velocipastor

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