Chaos Walking

Chaos Walking is a 2021 American dystopian science-fiction action-thriller film directed by Doug Liman and written by Patrick Ness and Christopher Ford. It is based on Ness's science fiction trilogy Chaos Walking, adapting its first book, 2008's The Knife of Never Letting Go. It stars Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Demián Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas and David Oyelowo. It follows a young man who lives in a dystopian world without women, where all living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in streams of images, words and sounds, called "Noise". When a woman crash-lands on the planet, he protects her from danger. Announced in 2011, the film underwent several rewrites based on an initial draft by Charlie Kaufman, with Jamie Linden, John Lee Hancock, Gary Spinelli, Lindsey Beer, Ford, and Ness revising it further. Liman was later announced as director in 2016, and principal photography began in 2017. Originally set to release on March 1, 2019, it was removed from the schedule to accommodate the film's reshoots in April 2019 after poor test screenings. The film premiered in South Korea on February 24, 2021, and in the United States on March 5, 2021. It received generally negative reviews from critics who derided the film's underdeveloped plot, uneven pacing, lack of character development, Ridley and Holland's chemistry, and deviation from the source material's themes and message. The film was also a commercial failure, grossing $27.1 million worldwide against its $100‒125 million budget and resulting in a write-down for Lionsgate. Plot In 2257 AD, in the colony of the planet New World, all the male colonists have been afflicted with a condition called the Noise, which causes everyone to see and hear each other's thoughts. The colonists were at war with the native humanoid species referred to as The Spackle, which killed all the female colonists, while half the men survived. Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown with his adoptive fathers, Ben Moore and Cillian Boyd. Other residents include the preacher Aaron, the town's mayor David Prentiss, and his son Davy. Prentiss has learned to control his Noise, making his thoughts difficult to see and hear. A spaceship that lost contact with the First Colony approaches New World and a scout ship is sent to investigate the planet, but it crashes. Todd discovers someone stealing something and chases the thief, only to come upon the crash site.