The Road

"In a moment, the world changed forever."

2009 1h 51m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

🍅

74%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.2

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 4,459🍅74%Rotten Tomatoes●64Metacritic★7.2IMDB · 267,805

AdventureDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind and water. It is cold enough to crack stones and, when the snow falls, it is gray. Their destination is the warmer south, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there.

“In a moment, the world changed forever.”

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Cast

Viggo Mortensen
Father
Kodi Smit-McPhee
Boy
Charlize Theron
Mother
Robert Duvall
Old Man - Eli
Guy Pearce
Veteran
Molly Parker
Friendly Woman
Michael Kenneth Williams
The Thief
Garret Dillahunt
Gang Member

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John Hillcoat
Writers: Joe Penhall, Luis Russo, Janet Kusnick
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 86% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CAST

Did you know

263+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by John Hillcoat, shot by Javier Aguirresarobe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Nick Cave. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jon Gregory shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee and Charlize Theron carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "In a moment, the world changed forever.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John Hillcoat directs. Javier Aguirresarobe behind the camera. Nick Cave scores. Jon Gregory cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 86% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
2Released 17 years ago.
3263+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
4Directed by John Hillcoat, shot by Javier Aguirresarobe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Nick Cave. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Jon Gregory shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee and Charlize Theron carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "In a moment, the world changed forever.".
9IMDB entry: tt0898367 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 14 themes, including "based on novel or book", "dystopia", "post-apocalyptic future", "paternity".
11Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe
Original score: Nick Cave
Editing: Jon Gregory
Production design: Chris Kennedy
Costume design: Margot Wilson
Makeup / hair: Toni G
VFX supervisor: Glenn Allen
Sound: Leslie Shatz
Runtime: 111 min · 1h 51m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $32,000,000
Box office: $27,635,305
Return: 86% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Road (2009)
Rotten Tomatoes: 74% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 64/100
IMDB rating: 7.2/10 · 267,805 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award5 wins & 34 nominations total

Also by

John Hillcoat

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andres Gomez2014-03-06
★ 6/10
Viggo Mortensen and Smit-McPhee deliver great performances but it doesn't really hook you up.
John Chard2019-10-11
★ 8/10
The clocks stopped at 1:17 The Road is directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition) and written by Joe Penhall (Enduring Love). Based on the 2006 novel of the same name by American author Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men), the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and his son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. How do you sell such a sombre piece to the film loving public? I'm not sure I personally can, such is the whirly like emotions dominating my thoughts. OK, it's a grim and bleak film, of that there's no doubt. Director Hillcoat is not out to make a thrilling end of the world actioner. Staying faithful to McCarthy's novel, this is now a world where animal & plant life is practically extinct, where this particular part of America is lawless and populated by cannibal types. Humanity has long since left the arena. How we arrived at such desolation is not clear - intentionally so. We are now just witnessing the after effects of something world changing, the fall out personally involving us as we hit the road with man & boy. Hillcoat and his cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe have painted a clinically dead world from which to tell the story. Scorched soil is home to threadbare trees, the skyline punctured by the wreckage of man's progress passed, storms come and go as if to taunt the characters. It's a living hell that begs the question on why would anyone want to survive in it? So here's the thing that finally hit me like a sledgehammer some five days after watching the film, it's not just the bleakness of the apocalypse that gnaws away at you, it's also the expertly portrayed study of parenting. So emotively played by Mortensen, with Smit-McPhee essaying incredible vulnerability, it sinks the heart the longer the movie goes on. All of which is leading up to the ending, where we get something absorbing, revealing and utterly smart. Tough viewing for sure, but compelling and thought provoking throughout. 8/10
Wuchak2021-06-20
★ 5/10
Grey, maudlin post-apocalyptic drama with some horrific thrills After a mass extinction event, a man & his son (Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee) walk from western Pennsylvania to the Southeast coast trying to survive a life-or-death situation in a world without laws as people prey on each other. Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and Molly Parker show up for small parts. Based on Cormac McCarthy’s final novel, "The Road" (2009) is similar to “Carriers,” released almost three months earlier. Unlike semi-goofy post-apocalyptic films like the original Mad Max trilogy, "The Road" and "Carriers" are deadly serious from beginning to end with no comic book nonsense. This works in their favor because both films give us a window into what life would be like after a worldwide crisis destroys conventional society. Each film explores one's reaction to such a world-ending disaster: Do we forsake all sense of morality in an attempt to survive – lie, steal, forsake and murder – or do we hold on to our moral compass, come what may? Is life worth living if you must become an immoral, wicked savage to survive? Isn't it better to live with dignity at all costs – fight with nobility and die with dignity when and if we must? Some denounce both flicks on the grounds that they’re too downbeat and depressing, but wouldn't a lawless world be a very dire situation? In other words, the downbeat vibe reflects the reality of the story. However, “Carriers” is the superior of the two by far. “The Road” is tediously one-dimensional and unrelentingly somber. Plus the dynamics of the father & son are boring with the annoying boy almost singlehandedly ruining the movie. They needed to find a girl or a woman to shake things up – anything to dispel the grey monotony. The film runs 1 hour, 51 minutes, and was shot mostly in western Pennsylvania & West Virginia (the towering bridge), plus Oregon and Spirit Lake near Mount St. Helens, Washington (the log-jammed lake). GRADE: C+