The Road (2009) on Netflix
After a catastrophe wipes out the world's plants and almost every animal, a father and his young son travel a road toward the coast, scavenging for food and avoiding armed gangs.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.2/10273,647 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes74%
Trailer
Plot summary
A catastrophe has left the world without plants and with almost no animals. A father and his young son, born after the disaster, walk a road toward the coast, where the father hopes the warmer south will be easier to live in. They search abandoned places for food and fuel and keep clear of armed gangs who may rob them or kill them for food. The father has taught the boy that they are the good people, who carry fire in their hearts and will not eat other people to survive. He has a pistol with two bullets left.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Road (2009)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To capture the story's bleak world without computer effects, the filmmakers shot in parts of New Orleans that had been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and on Mount St. Helens in Washington.
- A review in Adbusters criticized the film's Coca-Cola product placement, but director Hillcoat noted the brand references come straight from the source novel and that Coca-Cola itself was in fact reluctant about the placement.
- The Weinsteins deliberately delayed The Road's release to November 25, 2009 to position the grim survival drama as an Oscar contender, bumping Rob Marshall's musical adaptation Nine off that same date.
- Director Hillcoat insisted on shooting in genuinely decayed real-world locations rather than building the film's desolate post-apocalyptic setting with digital effects, saying plainly that the production "didn't want to go the CGI world."
- Part of the shoot took place at Conneaut Lake Park just two months after a fire destroyed the park's historic Dreamland Ballroom, with director Hillcoat noting that nearby Pittsburgh itself could look "very bleak" with "abandoned" city blocks in winter.
