What did I just witness?
I walked out of Na Hong-jin’s “Hope” completely dazed. Not emotionally devastated, not intellectually challenged — just genuinely wondering what the hell Na Hong-jin had just unleashed on Cannes. In a competition lineup full of quiet suffering and highly restrained films, this thing crashes through the doors like a maniac.
And it’s kind of awesome to witness that. Just for the sheer fact that such a movie actually exists. Because where it goes is insane.
You barely need the premise: something strange is discovered near the DMZ in the remote town of Hope Harbor, and before long the entire place descends into chaos. A local cop, Bum-seok, gets pulled into the middle of it. Beyond that, the less you know, the better. Half the fun is watching the movie continuously mutate into something bigger, stranger, and far more unhinged than you initially expect.
For most of its 2-hour-40-minute runtime, “Hope” speeds by, playing like Na Hong-jin decided to make the biggest, loudest sci-fi action monster movie possible and somehow convinced Cannes to screen it in competition. The audience at my screening seemed puzzled, though some were clearly delighted. You could feel people trying to recalibrate about an hour in once they realized the movie wasn’t going to settle down or become respectable.
The first hour alone is one gigantic sustained action set piece, and then the last hour somehow turns into another one that practically steamrolls the audience all over again. The camerawork is unbelievable at times — so fluid and confident — and Michael Abels’ score goes insanely hard with the strings. There’s a sweaty, chaotic energy to the whole thing that makes even the messier parts weirdly exciting. A lot of the action happens in broad daylight too, which somehow makes it feel even more unhinged. Nothing’s hidden.
Now, to be clear, you’re going to read a lot of complaints about some of the VFX, which do look unfinished — Na barely finished editing the film before submitting it well past the Cannes deadline. Characters barely exist beyond whatever immediate danger they’re facing. And the ending… the ending feels like Na Hong-jin suddenly decided to see how far he could push the audience before the credits rolled.
But honestly? I didn’t care. Watch— a decade from now, this will be known as one of the greatest action movies of the 21st century. Some of the stunts here are flat-out jaw-dropping. I haven’t felt this much thrill watching action sequences since ‘Fury Road’ screened 10 years ago at Cannes.
Did I mention that, in addition to the main Korean cast — Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, and Hoyeon — Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Taylor Russell are also in this movie? Quite honestly, unless you already knew beforehand, you’d have no clue they were even in “Hope.” They’re practically unrecognizable, buried under CGI, their voices altered, to the point where there kind of isn’t really a point in casting them.
There’s something refreshing about watching a director go this completely overboard. So many Cannes films this year have felt emotionally muted, carefully controlled, almost afraid to get ugly. “Hope” is ugly. It’s sloppy. It’s soaked in blood and rain and screaming and creature goo. It throws absolutely everything at the wall. The action is relentless.
By the time the film ended, the entire theater had that exhausted “what did we just watch?” energy. And then the movie basically hints that this is only Part One, which only seemed to infuriate people even more.
Honestly, I’m still not entirely sure what just happened tonight. It felt like a first for Cannes — this gigantic, blood-soaked sci-fi monster action movie somehow competing for the Palme d’Or. The reaction leaving the Palais was a mixture of confusion, laughter, irritation, and genuine awe — which, frankly, feels like the ideal response to a movie this unhinged. Even when it doesn’t work, it’s alive in a way most films here simply aren’t. And if this really is only Part One, then God help us all.
