The first hour of Na Hong-jin’s Hope holds its own among the greatest monster thrillers in film history. If the South Korean film was given the USD200 million budget of James Cameron’s Avatar instead of the roughly USD50 million of Tim Miller’s Deadpool, the likelihood that this is the first time you’re hearing about Hope would’ve been impossible.
Directed by Hong-jin—who made his name reinventing horror tropes in 2016’s The Wailing—Hope opens in theatres this week. It kicks off with police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), who is called to investigate a cow’s mysterious death in the port village of Hope Harbour. It’s mostly an elderly community, where Bum-seok is simply dying for some real action. When he finally receives his wish in the form of a rampaging monster that massacres Hope Harbour’s helpless citizens, Hope kicks off a story of doomsday survival that constantly swerves and upends expectations. What follows the thrilling and surprisingly funny first hour before you finally glimpse the full monster is a combination of Aliens, The Host, and a universe of freaky creatures built to serve as the heralds of the next great sci-fi franchise.
There isn’t a whole lot else that I can say about what happens after that, exactly, without running into major spoilers. After the exhilarating first hour of monster mayhem, the film follows a group of hunters led by Bum-seok’s cousin (Zo In-sung), who trek into the woods to discover more about their new foe.
Alongside Hwang Jung-min, Hope stars Squid Game’s Jung Ho-yeon as his badass partner—capable of working the stick shift of a car and firing massive rounds of ammunition like she’s Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator. Hope also features motion-capture roles from Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Taylor Russell. The latter assemblage of stars should already tell you more than I wanted to let on about where the story goes next.
Like Avatar, Hope eventually opens up to explore an extraterrestrial element full of giant talking aliens. But unlike how Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington lead Cameron’s franchise, Hope's trio of aliens still leave us wanting in the second-half. For Hong-jin, that longing to learn more is likely intentional—even if it comes at the cost of telling a complete story.
Part of the fun of Hope is going into the film with as little knowledge of what you’re about to see as possible. Your reactions to how the story unfolds—and especially how it ends—will fully determine if you agree that Hong-jin should make seven more of these or not. What I can say is that it feels like Hope’s 156-minute runtime flies by like it was only half that, because the action set pieces absolutely rip.
Hong-jin’s monster leaves gaping holes in its wake as it wreaks havoc on Hope Harbour, and it’s impressive how long he’s able to go without revealing its full form. His sandbox feels both incredibly grounded and as out-there as the monsters of A Quiet Place, and I’m dying to know what he’s capable of pulling off with four times the budget of Hope.
Even with what Hong-jin had at his disposal, I’m still trying to figure out how he pulled off those tracking shots. Plus, Hwang Jung-min’s comedic timing needs to be studied as his police chief hunts the creature alongside an older resident with their knees shaking like Shaggy and Scooby-Doo.
Hope premiered earlier this summer at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where audience members were more polarised than they were when they booed the ending of Taxi Driver in 1976. There’s really no middle ground with this film. Critics left the theatre either praising Hope as a masterful return to Michael Bay’s explosive Hollywood or denouncing its insane ending as a travesty of modern franchise-making. Appreciating both is the sweet spot.
Hong-jin certainly wants to film a trilogy. You could argue that Hope’s ending demands one, even though I’m completely satisfied either way. Whether it’s a bold commentary on the genre or a filmmaker begging for a sequel is purposefully left open-ended. Hong-jin’s also made it very clear in post-premiere interviews that he’s already written the sequel should the opportunity arise. But my jaw hit the ground when the credits rolled, and I’d pay absurd amounts of money to erase my memory so that I could experience that feeling again. I say let him.
