Take Shelter

"Far away from the cruel world."

2011 2h 0m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

★7.1TMDB · 2,090

ThrillerDramaHorror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.

“Far away from the cruel world.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Michael Shannon
Curtis LaForche
Jessica Chastain
Samantha LaForche
Shea Whigham
Dewart
Tova Stewart
Hannah LaForche
Katy Mixon
Nat
Robert Longstreet
Jim
Ray McKinnon
Kyle
Kathy Baker
Sarah

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jeff Nichols
Writers: Jeff Nichols
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 75% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 15 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jeff Nichols, shot by Adam Stone. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain and Shea Whigham carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Far away from the cruel world.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt1675192 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jeff Nichols directs. Adam Stone behind the camera. David Wingo scores. Parke Gregg cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 75% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
2Released 15 years ago.
3Directed by Jeff Nichols, shot by Adam Stone. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by David Wingo. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Parke Gregg shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain and Shea Whigham carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Far away from the cruel world.".
8IMDB entry: tt1675192 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 19 themes, including "small town", "beach", "schizophrenia", "nightmare".

The technical file

Cinematography: Adam Stone
Original score: David Wingo
Editing: Parke Gregg
Production design: Chad Keith
Costume design: Karen Malecki
Makeup / hair: Julia Lallas
VFX supervisor: Chris Wells
Sound: Lyman Hardy
Runtime: 120 min · 2h 0m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $5,000,000
Box office: $3,741,098
Return: 75% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Take Shelter (2011)

Awards

Grand prix du Festival de Deauville

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Jeff Nichols

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Jack2020-05-16
★ 6/10
I do love slow-paced thriller films and this is exactly that. Having said that, there is something that makes me uneasy about the ending. It is up to so many interpretations that the writer / director of the film didn’t know himself how to end otherwise a close-to-brilliant story with a decent acting. Would I watch it again? Possibly. Would I make my friends watch it? I guess so.
griggs792025-03-24
★ 7/10
Take Shelter’s a slow burn, but it gets under your skin. Shannon’s great—properly intense—and there’s loads to chew on about fear, family, and mental health. Bit heavy-handed at times, and it drags in spots
CinemaSerf2025-06-13
★ 7/10
The family “LaForche” live in a remote Ohio backwater where mother “Samantha” (Jessica Chastain) looks after their deaf daughter “Hannah” (Tova Stewart) whilst dad “Curtis” (Michael Shannon) works for a local drilling outfit. Recently, though, things have become a bit strained as he has been having fairly graphic and disturbing nightmares. These foretell of the mother of all storms sweeping all before it before something ever more ghastly occurs. As these dreams intensify, he begins to struggle determining what is real and what isn’t. Are these hallucinations or is he perhaps seeing an unwelcome future? Initially, both he and “Samantha” think this could be stress-related and so he seeks medical advice that merely results in him becoming medicated. When that doesn’t help and when he starts to take elaborate precautions to protect his family from this impending disaster, we too start to struggle to establish what is going on in his conflicted and frustrated mind. Shannon is on good form here offering an evocative portrayal of a man suffering from mental illness. His erratic behaviour stuns his family and his neighbours, and the reaction from their tightly-knit Christian community is one more of sympathetic self-preservation than anything more useful as the family begin to buckle. Chastain also delivers strongly here as her character has great difficulty is adapting to the irrationalities of her husband’s behaviour whilst dealing with the challenges brought by their equally bemused child. It’s quite a salutary lesson in the toxiticy of anxiety and it’s effects on not just the person who is sick, but on those intimates who must deal with the behavioural inconsistencies emanating from one they love who cannot control their actions. There is also a palpable sense of desperation on display here, and that’s at times really quite intense whilst all the time we are never quite sure just what might be happening with those storm clouds overhead. That ambiguity also works quite well presenting us with a thoughtful and provocative drama that’s a tough watch at times, but worth it.