Encounter(2021)

Name: Encounter
Director: Michael Pearce
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Released: Dec 10, 2021
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Lucian-River Chauhan, Aditya Geddada

Independent

R
Rated R for language and some violence
1h 48m

Release Date: Dec 10, 2021

Two brothers embark on a journey with their father, who is trying to protect them from an alien threat.

Note: Distributed by Amazon Studios

Release Details

Original Release | Dec 10, 2021

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Director & Top Cast

Michael Pearce
Director

Riz Ahmed
Malik Khan

Octavia Spencer
Hattie Hayes

Lucian-River Chauhan
Jay Khan

Aditya Geddada
Bobby Khan

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United Kingdom, United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

U.S. Marine Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed) has two young boys, Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada). At home, Jay and Bobby are living with their mother Piya (Janina Gavankar) and their mother's new partner, Dylan (Misha Collins). Piya has been feeling sick recently, and Dylan ominously tells them it is 'a bug.'One night, Malik appears at their house, wakes up his two sons, and urgently tells them that they are going on a road trip. While on the road with his boys, Malik passes a police car and tells his boys to get down. Hours later, Malik is pulled over by a different cop. Though Malik is polite, the cop is hostile and aggressive, and Malik sees something shifting behind his eyes. Malik determines the cop has been infected by a parasitic organism from another planet. Malik wrestles the gun away from the cop, knocks him out, and leaves him in the street.Back on the road, Malik confesses to his boys that this is not a road trip, but a rescue mission. He says that an alien parasite has taken over the planet and that their mother has been infected. As much as half the population may be infected by this alien parasite, which is using human bodies to reproduce. Malik needs to get his boys to safety and says they can protect themselves from the parasites with bug spray.In a grocery store, Jay starts to question Malik's story. Later, Malik learns his boys' mother is pregnant after his sons say Piya has been getting sick in the morning and having weird food cravings. When Malik calls his parole officer Hattie (Octavia Spencer), it's revealed that he missed his psychiatric evaluation. Malik refuses to tell Hattie where he is but asks Hattie to check on his ex-wife. Piya and Dylan are found tied up in the garage, but alive.Hattie works with federal law enforcement in an attempt to retrieve Jay and Bobby. The feds believe Malik will kill his children and then himself. Hattie speaks to a former Marine friend of Malik's, Raúl (Antonio Jaramillo), who describes the assault incident that caused Malik to get dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps. While describing how terrible the conditions were, he mentions that they were "getting eaten alive by bugs" and then found bodies of children in the wreckage. This incident caused Malik to snap. Hattie deduces that Malik is suffering from a mental disorder.Jay begins to suspect the aliens are not real when his father sees hundreds of meteors in the sky that Jay does not see. After they get a flat tire, Malik tries to steal a car but gets in an altercation with an old man, armed with a shotgun, who is the owner of the car. Malik gets away, gravely wounding the man, but is injured. Malik teaches Jay how to drive in order to get them to safety. While Malik sleeps off his injury in an abandoned house, Jay drives to get his father medicine and food. Jay overhears on the radio that his father is a wanted man for kidnapping his two children. Back at the abandoned house, Jay confronts his father. Malik admits that he lied, that he was in prison for two years, and that his brain has been playing tricks on him.The sons of the man Malik wounded, Dwight (Brennan Keel Cook) and Kurt (Bill Dawes), track him down. The men kidnap Bobby and attempt to perform a citizen's arrest. Almost immediately, they open fire on Malik and Jay. Malik manages to apprehend both men without killing them and escapes with his boys.Malik calls his ex-wife and gives her an address of a diner where he will leave the boys, telling her he will not go back to prison. However, while the police and helicopters start chasing his car, Malik realizes Jay has hidden in the back seat. Jay refuses to leave his dad behind, even after an hours-long standoff with the police, which drags on after sunset. Hattie insists to Malik that the authorities will take his mental health into consideration when deciding his fate, but Malik does not believe her.Not wanting to lose his father, Jay runs out of the car and points a gun at the police. Malik tries to distract the police to save his son, and then convinces him to put the gun down and run to him. They embrace, with the police lowering their weapons. (thanks to Wikipedia).

Storyline

A Marine Corps veteran suffering from PTSD takes his kids from California to Groom Lake, Nevada. He tells his children that alien parasites have landed on Earth to take over the planet. As their journey takes them in increasingly dangerous directions, the boys will need to leave their childhoods behind. — Frank Liesenborgs