Finch is a 2021 American post-apocalyptic science fiction drama film directed by Miguel Sapochnik based on Craig Luck and Ivor Powell’s spec story. Tom Hanks and Caleb Landry Jones feature in the picture. In October 2017, the film was announced as BIOS. From February through May of this year, filming took place in New Mexico.
Universal Pictures had planned to distribute the picture in theatres in the United States on October 2, 2020, however it was postponed multiple times due to the COVID-19 epidemic. It was renamed Finch, acquired by Apple TV+, and launched on November 5, 2021. The film received mixed reviews, with praise for Hanks’ performance but criticism for a lack of novelty and inventiveness in the post-apocalyptic genre.
Cast of Finch
- Finch Weinberg is played by Tom Hanks.
- Goodyear is played by Caleb Landry Jones, and Jeff Seamus is played by Caleb Landry Jones.
- In a flashback sequence, Marie Wagenman plays a daughter.
- In a flashback sequence, Lora Cunningham plays a mother.
- In a flashback scenario, Oscar Avila plays a truck driver.
- Finch’s Warning System is voiced by Emily Jones.
Ten years have elapsed since a solar flare destroyed the ozone layer, rendering the planet Earth mostly uninhabitable, devastated by catastrophic weather events and burnt by the sun’s UV radiation, with temperatures reaching 150 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius). Finch Weinberg, a robotics engineer, is one of the few survivors, living alone with his pet dog Goodyear and a helper-robot Dewey in an underground laboratory at St. Louis, originally held by the business he worked for before the disaster.
Finch only goes outside to look for supplies while wearing a safety suit. Finch, who is dying of an undefined illness, is working to develop a more advanced humanoid robot companion to care for his dog once he is gone. Finch feeds its encyclopaedic knowledge, including a guidebook on dog training and care. However, Goodyear is first sceptical of the robot (which eventually chooses the name Jeff.)
Finch notices that a large storm approaching St. Louis will undoubtedly demolish the city and kill him. Finch, Jeff, Dewey, and Goodyear set out for San Francisco in a significantly customised RV. Jeff was only able to download 72 percent of his encyclopaedic info due to his abrupt departure, and his mental capability required training. Despite his declining illness, Finch attempts to teach Jeff some essential life skills and how to defend Goodyear. Jeff’s curious nature both amuses and irritates Finch, but the robot gradually gains initiative.
The titular figure in Miguel Sapochnik’s magnificently scaled science-fiction epic is played by the ever-paternal Hanks. He is one of the few survivors of a cataclysmic cosmic catastrophe that almost wiped off the earth’s most essential resources a decade ago. Despite the dismal setting, “Finch” manages to stick to the warm ring of its core notion, generating a family-friendly film that is big-hearted, comfortingly conventional, and reinforced by a real love of dogs.
In its best moments, the movie even mimics the spirit of our canine companions in certain ways, leaning closely into simple yet virtuous concepts like hope, trust, and loyalty the way pooches inherently do, demanding a big-screen treatment with the array of emotions it evokes — feelings as grand as the visual scope that “Game of Thrones” veteran Sapochnik puts on display. (“Finch” was initially intended for a theatrical release by Universal, but was purchased for streaming by Apple due to pandemic-related delays.)
We first see Hanks’ former robotics engineer Finch Weinberg humming a tune in his shabby radiation suit while scavenging derelict shops and deserted homes for food and supplies alongside his cooperative lunar rover, looking more like a cuddly, live-action version of WALL-E than the authoritatively gun-toting Will Smith of “I Am Legend.”
When Finch gets home — a subterranean lab that he has meticulously outfitted with useful equipment and high-end technology over the years — and meets his fluffy, floppy-eared rescue mutt Goodyear with strokes and belly rubs on the other side of his Home Sweet Home mat, his joy is impossible to miss.
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Shortly after, writers Craig Luck and Ivor Powell (the latter of whom has produced sci-fi classics like “Blade Runner” and “Alien”) introduce us to Finch’s daily routine, which consists primarily of cutting open hundreds of books, scanning them page by page, and loading all the data onto the robot he’s been building to serve as a backup guardian for Goodyear after he’s gone.
Finch hits the road in his well armed solar-powered RV and move his ragtag family from St. Louis to a potentially more habitable San Francisco after the droid finally comes alive and warns him of an approaching deadly storm — after all, he is programmed with protective laws similar to Isaac Asimov’s, but with a fourth item added that priorities Goodyear’s safety over everything else.
But this isn’t another “Cast Away”-style situation of Hanks carrying a movie by himself. Caleb Landry Jones’ odd but equally powerful presence eventually reveals itself as Jeff, the film’s orange-headed robot that evolves over time. Jeff’s development, matched by a steadily growing speaking voice, is one of the film’s many heartwarming and amusing treats, as Finch strives to instil basic human values, knowledge, and decision-making abilities in his robot, as well as forge a link between him and Goodyear.
Sapochnik is a bit of a letdown in terms of tension. He may have also benefited from a more relaxed first act. Despite this, “Finch” provides audiences of all ages with the appropriate type of big-budget cinematic vacation, one that is as endearingly uplifting and disarming as a dedicated good boy’s unconditional companionship.
