Na Hong-jin's sci-fi movie Hope, starring Hwang Jung-min, Jung Ho-yeon, Michael Fassbender, and Alicia Vikander, is a funny, action-packed ride.
The best way to go into Na Hong-jin's Hope is completely blind. Violent, chaotic, and hilarious, Na's film drops the viewer into North Korea, where we meet the citizens of the small town of Hope Harbor, located not too far from the DMZ.
Like any small town, everyone knows everyone, the population is getting older and older, and the police force consists of just a handful of people. It's a quiet life in Hope Harbor until a dead bull triggers an investigation that leads to a shocking attack by a mysterious monster. Na sets the stage perfectly for his monster movie, throwing the audience headfirst into the suspense as they follow the people trying to get to the bottom of this shocking attack.
Jam-packed with action, Hope might just be the most exciting film to come out of Cannes Film Festival this year.
'Hope' Serves Up Equal Portions of Action and Humor — and Has an Impressive Monster Reveal While most sci-fi epics likely won't leave you laughing until you have tears in your eyes, Hope is genuinely not like the other sci-fi movies. Na employs a lot of situational comedy to Hope in a way that feels natural while also seeming completely ridiculous.
From potty humor to slapstick, you'll easily find yourself giggling in one moment and then jumping from a scare in the next. It's what makes the film so naturally charming; you not only become invested in the characters, but you're rooting for them because they've endeared themselves to you. But what makes Hope shine is its action scenes, specifically in the first hour of the film, when the monster attacking the little town is an invisible force.
The film centers around police chief Bum-seok , as a well-meaning but slightly cowardly defender. We follow Bum-seok as he runs through the wreckage of the town, all the while hearing the horrific screeches of an unseen beast that is killing everything in sight. It's a sequence that is reminiscent of Cloverfield, but the movie eventually offers one of the best monster reveals of all time as the creature emerges from the shadows, lanky-limbed, sharp-toothed, and damn near invincible.
Related The 10 Scariest Monster Movies of All Time, Ranked "The perfect organism.
" Posts 14 By Daniel Boyer Thanks to his rookie, Sung-ae , they manage to actually put up a decent fight against this relentless terror, and the scenes that play throughout this sequence consist of long shots speeding down streets from a police car and a healthy amount of gunfire and explosives. While some of the special effects for the monsters are wonky in the film — the seams show the most in these scenes when the camera closes in on them — the design is creepy enough to illicit full-body chills when you see one of them charging at you at top speed.
Yes, you read that correctly, there's more than one of these monsters. And when Sung-ae and Bum-seok find that out, their little problem gets ten times worse.
Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander Might Lure You in, but It's the South Korean Talent That Shines Hope boasts an impressive cast of Hollywood names like Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton, but their appearance is not what you might expect; in fact, you might not even notice them at first glance. The true talent on screen lies with the people of the small town. Hwang's turn as Bum-seok is equal parts thrilling and comedic.
He excels at physical humor and comedic timing, and he is the protagonist whom we follow throughout the film. COLLIDER Collider · Quiz 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 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do?
The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive.
CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them.
You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 8RESOURCE 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge.
If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust.
In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits.
The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 8THREAT 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. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant.
BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time.
DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 8AUTHORITY 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it.
BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy.
DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 8ENVIRONMENT 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. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement.
At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 8ALLIANCE 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. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life.
Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice.
DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 8MORALITY 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. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen.
Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed.
I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 8PURPOSE 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers.
Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → 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. 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. 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. Los Angeles, 2049 Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. Arrakis Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. 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.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Even funnier is when Bum-seok gets to play off of Jung's Sung-ae. She might be younger and lower in rank, but the biggest badass title goes to her, with her arrival on screen being one of the coolest scenes in the movie. Jung, who gained international fame after starring in Squid Game in Season 1, plays the perfect heroine. She's capable, smart, and thinks fast on her feet.
In comparison to Bum-seok's bumbling ways, she seems almost like a superhero. But that doesn't mean that she's the boring straight man; she delivers her own laughs along the way and easily goes toe-to-toe with Hwang in these silly moments. Also a highlight of the film is Zo In-sung, who plays Sung-ki, a local hunter and cousin to Bum-seok. He's the typical swaggering cool guy, but spends most of the movie tracking the monsters through the woods.
When the action finally hits him, Zo shines even when he's playing off of characters who are covered in VFX. His best scenes are when he's paired up with Hwang, and while the third act has its faults, one particular scene in the middle of a high-speed chase shows that Zo can easily meet Na's standard for action and comedy.
'Hope' Struggles When It Enters 'Avatar' Territory With Michael Fassbender The problem of Hope lies in the second half of the film. While the first part is tightly shot and contained in town, the second part of the movie almost feels like an entirely new story. When Fassbender and Vikander step in, the story goes from what feels like an indie horror movie into high-concept sci-fi, bordering on Avatar territory.
Unfortunately, this doesn't do the film any favors because it's something that's introduced far too late. It completely switches up the tempo and the tone of the film, feeling shoehorned in as it dumps a bunch of exposition on the audience in the final half hour. Subscribe for newsletter deep dives on films like Hope Crave deeper context? Subscribing to the newsletter unlocks behind-the-scenes analysis, cast and creature-design breakdowns, and Cannes-to-Korean-cinema perspectives—plus wider film coverage to fuel your next watchlist.
Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. It's not a surprise that Na is already working on a sequel; the film ends on a pretty major cliffhanger. And, in some ways, that's necessary.
There are a handful of lore plot holes that go completely unexplained, and the introduction of a new aspect of the story means that the scope of the film has widened immensely. Couple this late-stage twist with the fact that the final action sequences simply drag on for far too long, and it's a disappointing end for a genuinely entertaining movie.
The sad thing is, Hope could have been a near-perfect film had it abandoned its desire to go even bigger and simply stuck to the creature feature that made its first half so entertaining. While it's obviously too soon to judge Na's sequel, for now it might be better to simply enjoy the film for the action that it offers and ignore the more extreme sci-fi elements that feel a bit too ham-fisted to actually work.
REVIEW 8 10 Hope 'Hope' excels at combining action and comedy in a sci-fi epic, but it stumbles in the third act when it tries to grow too big too fast. Like Follow Followed Science Fiction Thriller Mystery Release Date May 17, 2026 Runtime 160 minutes Director Na Hong-jin Producers Saemi Kim Cast Hope is a 2026 film set in the remote harbor town of Hope Harbor, near the Demilitarized Zone.
The story unfolds as a mysterious discovery in the area intensifies into a larger enigma, compelling the town's inhabitants to face an ominous and unfathomable threat. Expand Collapse Pros & Cons
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