Image via 20th Century Studios, courtesy Everett Collection
Nine years after his last sci-fi movie, director Ridley Scott made a long-awaited return to the genre this week. His new movie opened to mediocre reviews, and this appears to have impacted its performance at the box office. The movie in question is headlined by Jacob Elordi, alongside Josh Brolinand Margaret Qualley. Scott, who emerged as one of the greatest directors of his generation in the 1970s, is still renowned for the classics Blade Runner and Alien. However, his 2017 sci-fi movie, Alien: Covenant, underperformed at the box office and divided audiences. It now holds a 65% critics’ score and a 55% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Scott has recently expressed an interest in returning to the franchise, following the success of Alien: Romulus, which was directed by Fede Álvarez.
His latest movie has received a lower score on Rotten Tomatoes than even the divisive Alien: Covenant. Also featuring Allison Janney and Guy Pearce, the movie now holds a 40% score on the aggregator, where the consensus describes it as “a derivative and drowsy tour through the post-apocalypse” whose “lush visuals can’t compensate for its listless narrative and underpowered pacing.” In her review, Collider’s Gabrielle Moss wrote that the movie “offers some thrilling moments, solid performances, and breathtakingly lush landscape cinematography, it never quite coheres into the statement about love in times of crisis that it aspires to be.”
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
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🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
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01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
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02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
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03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
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04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
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05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
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06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
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07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
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08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
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Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
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The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
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You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
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You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
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You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
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Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
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You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
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Here’s How Much Ridley Scott’s New Sci-Fi Movie Is Eyeing In Its Box-Office Debut
We’re talking, of course, about The Dog Stars. Based on a novel by Peter Heller and adapted by Mark L. Smith, the movie delivered a so-so debut at the domestic box office, finishing behind holdover hit Spider-Man: Brand New Day and even the live-action/animation hybrid Coyote vs. Acme. The movie fell short of projections, which had put its domestic debut in the low-double digits; instead, it delivered an $8 million opening weekend haul. Globally, the movie is looking at around $20 million in its first frame. Produced on a reported budget of $70 million, The Dog Stars is performing in line with Darren Aronofsky‘s Caught Stealing, which couldn’t crack the $20 million mark in its lifetime domestic run. This is a blow for Elordi, just as Caught Stealing was for his fellow up-and-comer Austin Butler. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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