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Captive State

Play trailer 2:22 Poster for Captive State PG-13 2019 1h 49m Sci-Fi Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
42% Tomatometer 79 Reviews 40% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
After 10 years of extraterrestrial occupation, residents of Chicago must decide whether to continue to live under alien rule or support the resistance. When young Gabriel Drummond joins the insurgency, he soon finds himself under careful scrutiny from a shadowy figure who's trying to crush the rebellion and its plans for freedom.
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Captive State

Captive State

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Critics Consensus

This sci-fi thriller may not necessarily leave viewers in a Captive State, but it offers reasonably diverting alien invasion action with ambitious political undertones.

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Critics Reviews

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Dmitry Samarov Chicago Reader 03/28/2019
Whether our streets are under assault by alien insects or craven speculators, if a filmmaker shows the places we know and love, we will care about the story's fate, no matter how far-fetched. Go to Full Review
Matthew Monagle Austin Chronicle 03/21/2019
3/5
At its best, Captive State blends imaginative science-fiction with the caliber of detail-oriented espionage you might find in an Alan J. Pakula film. Go to Full Review
Leah Pickett Chicago Reader 03/16/2019
Overall it's a mess, compounded by murky CGI and some unrealistic performances. Go to Full Review
Nyle Coleman InSession Film 05/02/2024
B
This new take on alien invasion took a moment for me to accept but in the end, Captive State is a brilliant film. Go to Full Review
Manuel São Bento MSB Reviews 07/24/2023
C-
One of those movies that come out every year showing tremendous potential, an innovative and intriguing premise, but in the end, it just isn’t able to succeed. Go to Full Review
Josh Parham Next Best Picture 06/04/2022
5/10
The world building provided could have been stronger, but it’s enough of a foundation to be informative and interesting. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Ripper J Nov 30 Interesting premise and theme, but the pacing, like much of the modern "entertainment" industry, is broken. The first hour of the movie could have been done in 10 minutes because most of it was filled with drawn out scenes of characters doing nothing. Brushing their teeth, driving, walking (so much walking), sitting, staring off into space. They were not even introducing the setting, plot or characters. It was just nothing. The second half was still filled with too much empty space, but at least the plot finally started moving. While the pacing ruined the movie, the acting was decent and the story was passable. But overall, this slog was a chore to get through because of the pacing. See more Mark R Jul 29 I want to thank all critics & audience members who went against the majority & recommended this movie. As a sci-fi, action thriller with a resistance theme to the "invaders/occupiers", this was about as good as I have ever seen. I'm so glad to have stumbled on the 40% or so of reviews that said similar things. Well worth the watch...just have to stick with it through the first 40 minutes, and then it all starts to make more & more sense. Well done! See more Chantal C Jul 27 This is an astonishingly underrated movie. The acting was incredible, and as someone who has watched countless hours of SciFy, I'm hard to please. They had such a griping view of alien invasion, human responses (as there will always be collaborators and those who would fight for freedom), and then the end? When Gabriel looks at that final video? The way it ends with Goodman and his looking directly at the camera with resolve, I couldn't look away. See more Jonathan P Feb 9 Excellent. Thankfully I watched the film to make up my own mind instead of following the shallow reviews on here. See more Webb V Jan 30 Near perfect Sci-Fi. A thread of confusion runs through from start to end. No questions are actually answered but a complete story is told. In a world filled with uncertainity. This is movie is comforting. See more Rod's R Jan 15 Like many other I found the plot plodding and opaque. Got a quarter way through and gave up waiting for something recognisable as a way in to enjoy the movie. No wonder it bombed. See more Read all reviews
Captive State

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Captive State

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Movie Info

Synopsis After 10 years of extraterrestrial occupation, residents of Chicago must decide whether to continue to live under alien rule or support the resistance. When young Gabriel Drummond joins the insurgency, he soon finds himself under careful scrutiny from a shadowy figure who's trying to crush the rebellion and its plans for freedom.
Director
Rupert Wyatt
Producer
David Crockett, Rupert Wyatt
Screenwriter
Erica Beeney, Rupert Wyatt
Distributor
Focus Features
Production Co
Participant Media, Lightfuse & Gettaway
Rating
PG-13 (Drug Material|Brief Language|Sci-Fi Violence and Action|Some Sexual Content)
Genre
Sci-Fi, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 15, 2019, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 11, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA)
$5.9M
Runtime
1h 49m
Sound Mix
Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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