(2026) Hope - Awesome Sci-fi Action Movie with Plenty of Thrilling Moments & Desperately Needing a Sequel

For our second movie of the day, we opted to see this one that was released during our holiday trip since two weeks ago. As I was worried it would be gone soon from Indonesian cinemas, we arranged going to the cinema where it also played this film along with the one we saw before. Without further ado, here's more on the movie.

Brief Story Line

In a small harbor village called Hope, the local Chief of Police Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min - I, The Executioner, The Spy Gone North etc) was surprised when being informed by his cousin Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung - Humint, Smugglers etc) on the finding of dead cow seemingly attacked by vicious animal. As Sung-ki and his hunter friends tried to look for the thing that killed the cow, Bum-seok somehow found something attacking and killing the villagers.

With the help from rookie police officer Im Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon - Squid Game TV series etc), the Chief had to use all the weapons to fight something they never faced before. Things got worse for them and the village when it was revealed that the threat was much larger than they anticipated.

So what would happen to the village and what was it that attacked them? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Phew that was just amazing! It had been a while since my wife and I really had to catch our breath due to the intensity and suspense of the action in a movie. After few minutes of opening scenes, things started to get intense when we got glimpses of the terrifying aftermath of the attack on the village with the background of screaming sound. Then it really exploded with almost nonstop chasing of the thing (I am not going to spoil it in case you have not seen the movie so I'll just let you find out for yourself) which was able to run sooo fast and really powerful. The action sequence was truly awesome and took quite long to finally give audience a bit of break.

Afterwards, the movie pace slowed down a bit with the revealing of more information. As the story progressed, it was getting clear the what and the why this small village was being attacked. Subsequently the story got exciting again and full of action as the hunted become the hunters. And it continued till the end, though its ending might left some people disappointed due to the lack of closure and so many things unanswered. The frustrating thing was there was no firm information on the production of Part two which is a necessity to finish the story. The only news I got when I search for them while I post this was the director already teased the possibility of making this the first of a trilogy & already mapped out the story line. However, it would totally depend on the performance of this one and for now it does not look promising with Box Office result still below its production budget.

In any case, regardless of the commercial performance, the movie was still worth to see in the cinema. Its action sequence, wonderful special effects and great sound effects were the elements that made this so enjoyable for me and my wife. I could understand few negative commentaries but we both were still entertained. Despite some obvious non sensical thing involving Sung-ki, we did not feel the movie to be bad. There might be slight inconsistent pace in the middle but I found it to be nicely inserted to give audience a break, plus it had few comedic moments as well (by that old hunter when he was sharing his experience). However, there seemed to be a bit of missing information related to that explosive moment before the end, which probably would be explained later if there really is a sequel.

This movie was written and directed by Na Hong-jin who had not done a lot of movies in the past but his prior works included the highly rated and successful movies like The Chaser and The Wailing. This one was also received favorably by critics and was shown in 2026 Cannes movie festival and nominated for Palme d'Or. Other than the cast above, there were also appearances of Eum Moon-suk (6/45, To the Moon TV series etc) as carpenter Yang-bae, Im Hyun-sik (Be-Bop-A-Lula, The Mysterious TV series etc) as the old funny hunter Hae-sul, Jang-Yoo (Holly Punch, The Potato Lab TV series etc) as the guy forced to help the Chief and several others. However the big surprise would be the Hollywood names of real life couple Michael Fassbender (The Killer, Assassin's Creed etc) & Alicia Vikander (Beckett, Irma Vep mini series etc) along with Taylor Russell (Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, Bones and All etc) and Cameron Britton (The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window mini series etc) in here. To be honest I had different ideas of their characters before I saw this, but it did not surprise me who they play as once I reached mid of the film.

In the end, this was an entertaining sci-fi action movie with plenty of thrilling, edge of your seat moments. It had little humor to counter the suspenseful moments arising from the Chief's behavior, and supported by awesome special effects. Despite its seemingly uneven pacing and that illogical part I said above, it was still enjoyable to see. Obviously I would have preferred they made back to back production of its sequel (s) if there was already plan to make it a trilogy (or at least two part story) so we know for sure there would be a conclusion, cause leaving us without any would make this truly disappointing. So if you are looking for excitement and thrill from those action scenes, then you would be happy to see this. But if you expect to have logic in everything you see or a proper closure, then I do not think this is for you. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars