Trailer
Plot summary
Seventeen-year-old Rhoda Williams, fascinated by astronomy, is accepted into MIT and celebrates with friends. Driving home that night, she hears a radio report about a newly discovered planet, looks up at the sky, and her car strikes a stopped vehicle. Composer John Burroughs is left in a coma; his pregnant wife and young son are killed. After four years in prison, Rhoda returns to her parents' house and works as a janitor at her old high school. News of the planet, called Earth 2, continues, and a wealthy entrepreneur offers a civilian seat on a flight there through an essay contest that Rhoda enters. She finds John at the crash site, visits his house to apologize, loses her nerve and pretends to be a cleaner offering a free day of housework.
Cast
- Matthew-Lee Erlbachas Alex
- Meggan Lennonas Maya Burroughs
- AJ Dianaas Amos Burroughs
- Bruce Colbertas Symposium Speaker
- Paul Mezeyas Symposium Speaker
- Ana Valleas Symposium Speaker
- Jeffrey Goldenbergas Symposium Speaker
- Joseph A. Boveas Symposium Speaker (as Joseph Bove)
- Flint Beverageas Robert Williams
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Another Earth (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The car collision scene was made possible by a local police officer Cahill was acquainted with, who cordoned off part of a highway late one night, and the scene in which Rhoda leaves prison was shot by having Marling walk into an actual prison posing as a yoga instructor and then exiting.
- The song in the musical saw scene was composed by Scott Munson and performed by Natalia Paruz, known as the "Saw Lady", whom Mike Cahill came upon while riding the subway in New York; he then arranged for her to coach William Mapother on how to hold and appear to play the saw.
- Brit Marling approached William Mapother for the role of John after "being haunted" by his performance in In the Bedroom, and Mapother agreed to work on Another Earth for $100 a day, saying he was drawn by the film's subject and by the names involved.
- Mike Cahill shot the film in and around his hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, so he could use local friends and family and cut costs; his own childhood home became Rhoda's home and his bedroom became Rhoda's room.
- Fox Searchlight Pictures won distribution rights to the film in a deal worth $1.5 million to $2 million, beating out other distributors including Focus Features and the Weinstein Company.
