New action/sci-fi pic 65 features the daddy vs dino showdown we never knew we needed.
After crashing on an unknown planet in 65, Adam Driver’s space pilot discovers he’s stranded on Earth 65 million years ago. Fighting for his life, and to protect a young girl who was the only other survivor, he faces down prehistoric creatures in this new action/sci-fi pic coming to cinemas March 9. That should be enough information to race and see it—but if for some reason you needed further justification, Daniel Rutledge has 65 more reasons to see 65.
1. Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs, what more do you want? That’s seriously enough.
2. Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the blokes who wrote A Quiet Place. They’re talented horror boys branching out into sci-fi/action and that just screams potential.
3. Adam Driver plays a daddy figure looking after a little girl, upping the stakes more than if it was just him fighting for his own survival—which would be cool enough, but the trailer gives us a taste of his intense facial expressions as he desperately protects a child. Those expressions look choice as.
4. “Equal parts Planet of the Apes and Predator, 65 might just be the perfect sci-fi mixup,” said Kotaku. Um, yes please!
5. This is a US$91 million budget movie that is brand new IP. It’s not based on anything pre-existing, it’s genuinely original in a way that is very rare these days and in a way which is to be celebrated.
6. Adam Driver has all kinds of cool looking future tech in this, with the trailer showing off robotic smart grenades and guns that have aqua coloured LED lights like in sci-fi videogames.
7. In the TV show Girls, Adam Driver simulated peeing on Lena Dunham one time.
8. They set a movie 65 million years ago. SIXTY-FIVE MILLION. Some other guys were like “Whoa, 10,000 B.C.! That’s so old!”. Guys, that’s not old. Clan of the Cave Bear is set around a measly 30,000 years ago. Year One? One Million B.C.? Pfft! 65 might just feature the oldest setting of a film ever.
9. Danny Elfman scored this. Remember his Batman score?
10. Casting Adam Driver in the lead means they’re taking this pretty seriously, but the trailer really hammers that home. This isn’t some winky kitsch silliness, this is some earnest dinosaur action and I am here for that.
11. I need to circle back to number 3 here for a minute: Adam Driver plays a daddy figure. Adam Driver as an intense daddy. Come on!
12. Any math nerds in the house? Well, it’s about damn time we had a movie about the lowest integer that is the sum of two integer squares in two different ways with all different numbers, am I right?
13. A sexy Adam Driver turns into a sexy centaur while selling perfume in an ad that also features him running along a sexy beach topless beside a sexy horse. Prepare yourself physically if you haven’t seen this before:
14. There’s been quite a few movies that have brought dinosaurs into human times, but sending humans back to dinosaur times? That’s rarer. Sending future humans with cool sci-fi weapons back to dinosaur times? Rarer still. Bring it.
15. Adam Driver starred in the Oscar-winning 2019 film Marriage Story alongside Scarlett Johansson. The Noah Baumbach film was critically acclaimed for its portrayal of bitter divorce, with The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw heralding it as a “wonderfully sweet, sad and funny film that simply delivers more moment-by-moment pleasure than anything else”. However, many viewers decried the film’s lack of dinosaurs and spaceships.
16. A 2021 study reckoned the total number of T-Rex that ever lived on Earth was around 2.5 billion, with around 20,000 alive at any one time. Just imagine trying to get around the place, say, from your crashed spaceship for a few days walk to get to some escape pods. With all those bloody T-Rex around and probably a fair few velociraptors and such too, it’d be full on.
17. Filmmaker Scott Beck said a cool thing about 65: “We love genre filmmaking—going to a movie theater on a Friday night with a packed audience and seeing a movie that plays us like a piano. Horror, suspense, action, adventure—that’s the sweet spot for us. And what we love even more is to combine genre with a heartbeat—characters you really love.”
18. The Auckland Museum has recently hosted not one but two T-Rex skeletons together. It’s awesome to see them in person and their names are the very scary sounding Peter and Barbara. I’ll be thinking of them in the cinema—is that you, Barbara? Oi leave Adam Driver alone, Barbara!
19. Sam Raimi produced 65. Sam Raimi created The Evil Dead. Sam Raimi also gave us Drag Me To Hell.
20. Adam Driver sings about love while simulating going down on Marion Cotillard in the movie Annette.
21. Given the very small cast and the fact there’s no IP licensing costs as this is original, the vast majority of that US$91 million budget will be up on the screen for us to see. The trailer gives us glimpses of the CGI dinosaurs and they look pretty much faultless—that future tech all looks really cool too.
22. Adam Driver starred as Kylo Ren in the third Star Wars trilogy. That was a hit and miss set of films with high highs and low lows, ultimately ending the Skywalker Saga with a bit of a whimper. Here’s Adam Driver’s chance to dip back into the sci-fi/fantasy world and do it better this time round.
23. Is the T-Rex not just the coolest real creature ever? Close your eyes and think of what you think of when you hear the word “monster”, it’s probably something like a T-Rex. They’re just so wicked looking—aside from those weird, wussy little arms. What’s up with those?
24. Remember the very first Adam Driver sex scene in Girls he did with Hannah in the pilot episode? Slate’s Heather Schwedel rated it the number one sex scene in the series in an article that ranked all 53 sex scenes in Girls. When I first saw it over 10 years ago, I’d never have guessed where this man’s career would go from there. So mint that it’s come to a point where he’s warring against dinosaurs.
25. It’s awful to see photos of dorks posing beside magnificent creatures they’ve shot to death in real life, generally on safari in Africa. But what if you absolutely had to shoot at a massive creature? What if that creature wasn’t an endangered wonder, but a fearsome behemoth about to crush you and a little girl you’re protecting to death? Then it would feel amazing to blow it away, to fell the enormous beast. I’ll be fantasising I am Adam Driver in this movie, shooting the big creatures to smithereens to save a little girl.
26. Adam Driver starred in the 2019 film The Report as Daniel Jones, the lead investigator for the US Senate’s sweeping study into the CIA’s torture practices during the so-called War on Terror. It’s not a very popular movie, but Driver’s performance was highlighted by many critics amid some significant praise. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman heralded it as “a darkly authentic political thriller that does exactly what a movie like this one should do… leaves you chastened and inspired”. Perhaps the film would have been a bigger hit if Jones had a ray gun and shot a few dinosaurs in it.
27. Adam Driver yells “nachos” with such passion in 2013 film What If that once you’ve seen it, you can’t not think of him doing it every time you sit down to eat some delicious nachos. I can’t, anyway. The scene is him talking about sex as well as nachos, by the way, with Daniel Radcliffe.
28. One of the internet’s best websites is dinosaurfactsforkids.com which says 65 will include “species of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Dromaeosaurs like Utahraptor, Deinonychus or Velociraptor as well as prehistoric crocodilians like Deinosuchus. It is likely more species including herbivores will appear upon the movie’s release.”
29. The girl Adam Driver is protecting in 65 is named Koa and she is played by up-and-coming 15-year-old Ariana Greenblatt, who we’ll see next in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Eli Roth’s Borderlands.
30. Adam Driver has done Saturday Night Live, of course. One of his bits was set at Medieval Times, the greatest dinner slash tournament outlet chain in America, and also the setting of one of Jim Carrey’s greatest ever scenes in 1996 film The Cable Guy.
31. It’d be a real surprise if you’ve read this far but haven’t picked up on the fact that Adam Driver fights a dinosaur in 65—but for the sake of clarity, or in case you forgot, this is a movie in which Adam Driver fights a dinosaur.
32. Adam Driver said a cool thing about 65: “Every scale of filmmaking interests me and no filmmaking experience is alike. This movie, 65, particularly seemed like a unique, big swing, because it was dinosaurs, so the scale was big, but it had room for thoughtful characters and big overall themes, while being extremely entertaining. When families go as a group to see the same film in a theatre, it’s a special thing to be a part of.”
33. 65 million years ago is a hugely significant point in history. It’s when scientists say there was a major extinction that wiped out nonavian dinosaurs, known as the K-T Extinction. Perhaps science tomes will now be adjusted to account for Adam Driver’s involvement—perhaps the K-T Extinction will now be known as the A-D Extinction. Perhaps not.
34. One of the stills released from 65 is a bit that’s also in the trailer and it has Adam Driver giving Koa a piggyback ride through a swamp. Countless people will have seen that and fondly imagined getting their own piggyback ride through a swamp on Adam Driver. But so far, we’ve only had a still and a split second in the trailer of it. In the movie, there’s a good chance we’ll get a whole piggyback scene to enjoy. Maybe more than one.
35. The IMDb trivia page for 65 says it’s the first time in Adam Driver’s film career where he utilises his weapons training from his old career as a marine.
36. How does he utilise that training? To fight a dinosaur, remember!
37. Your usual T-Rex came equipped with a set of 50-60 banana-sized teeth and could rip almost 100kg of flesh off their victims in a single chomp.
38. As well as his Oscar nominations, Adam Driver also was a Tony finalist for his role in the first Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This directed by Michael Mayer. One has to wonder how the stage version of 65 is going to go.
39. 65 has a 90 minute runtime, which is absolutely ideal for this type of movie—or pretty much any movie.
40. Adam Driver was great as Maurizio Gucci in House of Gucci, but that film did have a distinct lack of man vs dinosaur action.
41. 65 is definitely going to be better than Teenage Cavegirl, aka Bikini Cavegirl.
42. In 2008, Adam Driver founded Arts in the Armed Forces, an organisation that brings free staged readings to active and retired service members. Good dude.
43. It’s believed the T-Rex could run at around 20km/h. How fast can you run? For how long?
44. Adam Driver’s last name is also a type of golf club, of which there are some that weigh 65g. Why not play golf with a 65 driver, then go watch 65 with Driver?
45. Ariana Greenblatt said a cool thing about working with Adam Driver in 65: “I was really nervous coming into this project. I felt a lot of pressure because he’s incredible—and it was just the two of us. He’s so talented and inspiring. I respect Adam and his work so much. When I tested with him via Zoom, he even had impact through the screen—you could really feel everything he’s giving you.”
46. In 2001, Sammy Hagar re-recorded his hit I Can’t Drive 55 as I Can’t Drive 65 to make another $65,000 or something. It was used in some NASCAR broadcasts and as intro music for Budweiser Pole Award winners on US TV. Chances are slim, but who knows, it might fittingly turn up in this movie.
47. This 7 second clip of Adam Driver really, really enjoying soup has 2.8 million views on YouTube.
48. Filmmaker Scott Beck said another cool thing about 65: “We had a mantra: ‘it’s about what you don’t see’. That was very instrumental on A Quiet Place, as it was instrumental as we grew up on movies like Jaws. The whole movie has been built on that mantra—the idea that there’s something dangerous and mysterious out there in this environment that Mills and Koa will have to engage with. We’re using sound design, we’re using the camera, we’re using production design to suggest what’s out there, and only at the right moment will we startle the audience.”
49. Don’t worry about the ‘it’s about what you don’t see’ bit, because you will definitely see Adam Driver fight a dinosaur.
50. Adam Driver was great in BlacKkKlansman, which was acclaimed by many critics including Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times who called it “one of Spike Lee’s most accomplished films in recent memory, and one of the best films of 2018”. It probably would have been even better if some of the white supremacists were eaten by dinosaurs and Adam Driver blew David Duke’s brains out, though.
51. Kevin Ishioka is the production designer on 65. He was the production designer on Dunkirk. That movie was sweet.
52. Someone edited that clip of Adam Driver enjoying soup in Girls into the movie Ratatouille and the delightful result has almost 2 million views on YouTube.
53. In 2019, the New Yorker published a feature on Adam Driver entitled ‘Adam Driver, the Original Man’. In 65, he is literally the original man—the first man to ever set foot on Earth. Doesn’t have an Eve, however.
54. Producer Deborah Liebling said a cool thing about 65: “The scenes are intense and terrifying. The tension builds painfully, excruciatingly. It’s paid off in these glorious moments, with the pure emotional joy that of the connection that these characters create with each other. It’s a really fun ride, a rollercoaster.”
55. If you’re a movie fan whose favourite type of movie is one from Sony/Columbia Pictures that opens with a spaceship being damaged by asteroids, 65 is only the third ever, following 2013’s After Earth and 2016’s Passengers. Thanks, IMDb trivia page.
56. Adam Driver’s sexiness inspired John Oliver to do a ridiculous, drawn out, multi-episode bit about his weird sexual fantasies about Adam Driver that went on for way too long. Then Adam Driver got involved and called him out.
57. There’s a chance this will feature a diplodocus, which is not a very fearsome dinosaur but it was absolutely enormous and is also the name of a great 2008 drum and bass track from Dutch lads Noisia, which had a solid remix from Kiwi boys The Upbeats too.
58. I feel I need to hammer this point home one more time: this is absolutely original IP, it’s got a bone fide A-list actor in the lead and it’s serious action/sci-fi that’s about as genre as genre filmmaking gets. It’s something we should be supporting.
59. In the Superbowl trailer for 65, the tagline “65 million years ago” comes up one letter at a time as a homage to Alien and Aliens—two of the greatest movies ever.
60. Adam Driver starred in Martin Scorsese’s 2016 passion project Silence, which is regarded as absolutely brilliant by many critics. For RogerEbert.com, Matt Zoller Seitz awarded the “monumental work” four stars, saying it is “not the sort of film you ‘like’ or ‘don’t like’. It’s a film that you experience and then live with”. Reading between the lines of his review, however, you can tell he’d have liked the film more if there were dinosaurs in it.
61. Back to scientific reality for a second—that K-T Extinction that occurred 65 million years ago wiped out around 50 percent of plants and animals. It was a major turning point in Earth’s history, as the geologic period known as the Cretaceous ended and the Tertiary period began. Does the release of 65 mean that Adam Driver’s acting ability is so great it ended the Cretaceous period and started the Tertiary period?
62. If the above is true, then tertiary education might be about to feature a lot more Adam Driver courses, right? Sorry.
63. Not as sorry as you’d be if you’d read this far and still didn’t realise this movie has Adam Driver fighting a dinosaur, though. Come on, even if you’ve skipped through, you should have picked up on that by now.
64. In New Zealand, the retirement age is 65. I mean I had to find one New Zealand connection, right? Sorry again.
65. OK but seriously, we haven’t had a great dinosaur movie since 1993 and this could finally, finally change that.
