“65” is a survival thriller film with sci-fi elements and a story that tries to balance a tragic family drama with a wilderness survival story, but both parts come out as hurried and underdeveloped. The title does not reveal much about the plot, but within ten minutes of the film, the title is justified. It says that 65 million years ago, a visitor from another planet arrived on Earth and killed dinosaurs to survive his time on the planet. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world that replaced the one that existed 65 million years ago on Earth.
Spoilers Ahead
’65’ Story
The film starts with the sole pilot, Mills (Adam Driver), who survives while the rogue asteroids strike the spaceship and cause it to crash on a strange planet. The crash had almost killed all the passengers inside the spaceship, as they were in cryogenic sleep except for young Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). Back at home, Mills had a daughter of Koa’s age who was ill, and Mills had taken the long mission in order to afford the cost of her illness. When stranded on a strange new planet with everything around them trying to kill or harm, Mills and Koa tried to survive in such harsh scenarios.
One of the shortcomings of the film is its unoriginality as it reminds us of the “Jurassic Park” franchise and one recent series, “The Last of Us,” due to the very similar tropes used in the film including shooting monsters, protecting the unarmed kid, the resemblance of the kid with a daughter, and the group of people dying in their cyro-sleep. After getting the plane crashed, Mills and Koa made a plan to cross the mountains to go to the other side, where the other half of the spaceship was. Half of the spaceship had some parts that were operable, and they had to reach the other end by walking. While on their way, they came across dangerous animals like dinosaurs and big lizards, who were all trying to use them as prey, but Mills had a weapon that would kill them all.
Each event that is showcased in the film is boring and predictable. The consistently dependable Adam Driver makes every effort to preserve this movie, despite the fact that it gives its key actors very little to work with. The movie “65” does a good job of portraying Mills’ past and the traumas he has experienced, but it falls short of explaining how those traumas would explain why he would go to such lengths to save a total stranger like Koa. The tragic family angle that the film tries to incorporate into the plot is insufficient and lacks reasoning. The trauma that he had to face while leaving home and his sick daughters remain unexplored. The technology and the gadgets used to survive in the wild are all fascinating but can be replaced with the visuals of video games.
The attacks are very similar to what we have seen countless times in dinosaur films. The asteroids that hit Mill’s spaceship were coming for Earth after all, and soon they found that an apocalypse was about to start. Mills and Koa had to leave the place before the giant meteor could hit the planet. In the course of events, Mills and Koa got stuck inside a cave, and they struggled a lot to get a path out of the cave. Inside the cave, Mills and Koa got separated; Mills got attacked by a weird creature that almost took his life but somehow, he managed to get out of the cave.
On the other hand, Koa got attacked by lizards from all sides after getting out of the cave mountains. But in due time, she was immediately saved by Mills. Mills and Koa did not share a common language, but they could communicate with each other through some form of sign language, which was the basis of their friendship. At one point, Mills had fallen into quicksand but was saved by Koa, and that’s how the mutual trust between Mills and Koa existed.
’65’ Ending: Was The Spaceship Successful In Launching Before The Meteor Could Hit The Earth?
Towards the end, Mills and Koa could find the other end of the spaceship, which was still active, but the spaceship was surrounded by big lizards and dinosaurs that wanted to prey on the humans. In the end, the climax was predictable as it was similar to a cat-and-mouse situation between the dinosaurs and the spaceship, and ultimately Koa saves the day by luring the dinosaurs away from Mills, and finally, Mills could shoot them down. The spaceship could function just at the moment while the asteroid was hitting the Earth, and they could escape by the minute. And with the meteor hitting the Earth, the whole landscape changed to what we know as today’s planet Earth.