''Settlers'' is a 2021 British

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written and directed by Wyatt Rockefeller. It had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on 18 June 2021. It was released on 23 July 2021 in the United States by

IFC Midnight IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its ...

Plot

A small family in a lonely outpost on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

is attacked by bandits. One of the bandits, Jerry, survives and kills the family father. He attempts to integrate into the family, demanding thirty days to prove himself to the surviving mother Ilsa and child daughter Remmy. Over time, Ilsa seems to warm to him, but after thirty days, Ilsa tries to shoot him. She fails as the magazine of the gun that Jerry intentionally left was empty, and Jerry kills her in the ensuing struggle. Remmy, who resents Jerry's presence, grows sullen and spends much of her time with "Steve", a pet-like robot found in a storage unit. Remmy also discovers that their farm is within a large force field bubble that keeps breathable air inside. This makes clear that the bandits came from outside or another similarly shielded area. Years pass, and Remmy, now a young woman, remains sullen and almost completely silent around Jerry. They have an argument over whether to have a child, and Remmy decides to run away, but Jerry stops her from doing so. He ties her up and attempts to rape her, but Steve blasts Jerry in the neck with its power-drilling attachment. Remmy frees herself and kills Jerry. Now alone, she decides to depart, leaving Steve to tend the outpost.

Cast

Sofia Boutella Sofia Boutella ( ar, صوفيا بوتلة; born 3 April 1982) is an Algerian actress, model, and dancer. Early life Boutella was born in the Bab El Oued district of Algiers, Algeria, to an architect mother and a jazz musician father, Safy Bout ...

as Ilsa *

Ismael Cruz Córdova Ismael Enrique Cruz Córdova (born April 7, 1987) is a Puerto Rican actor who gained national attention playing Mando on ''Sesame Street''. Cruz also had a role in the Showtime original series ''Ray Donovan ''Ray Donovan'' is an American c ...

as Jerry *

Brooklynn Prince Brooklynn Prince (born May 4, 2010) is an American child actress widely known for her critically acclaimed role in the 2017 film ''The Florida Project'', for which she won the Critics Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer. She has since star ...

as Younger Remmy **

Nell Tiger Free Nell Tiger Free (born 13 October 1999) is a British actress. She is best known for her role as Leanne Grayson in the television series ''Servant'', and as Myrcella Baratheon in seasons 5 and 6 of the television series ''Game of Thrones,'' repl ...

as Older Remmy *

Jonny Lee Miller Jonathan Lee Miller (born 15 November 1972) is a British film, television and theatre actor. He achieved early success for his portrayal of Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson in the dark comedy-drama film '' Trainspotting'' (1996) and as Dade Murphy i ...

as Reza * Natalie Walsh as Female Stranger * Matthew Van Leeve as Male Stranger

Release

In April 2021,

acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the

on 18 June 2021. It was released on 23 July 2021.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 60% based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 6 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Settlers'' is serious to a fault, but viewers seeking a non-sensationalistic look at space colonization may find this a rewarding voyage." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links