Finch (film)

Not to be confused with Flinch (film).

Finch
Promotional release poster
Directed by	Miguel Sapochnik
Written by	Craig Luck Ivor Powell
Produced by	Craig Luck Daniel Maze Kevin Misher Ivor Powell Jack Rapke Miguel Sapochnik Robert Zemeckis
Starring	Tom Hanks Caleb Landry Jones
Cinematography	Jo Willems
Edited by	Tim Porter
Music by	Gustavo Santaolalla
Production companies	Amblin Entertainment Reliance Entertainment Walden Media ImageMovers Misher Films
Distributed by	Apple Inc.
Release date	November 5, 2021 (2021-11-05)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Finch is a 2021 American post-apocalyptic science fiction drama film directed by Miguel Sapochnik from a spec script written by Craig Luck and Ivor Powell. The film stars Tom Hanks and Caleb Landry Jones.

The film was announced as BIOS in October 2017. Filming took place throughout New Mexico from February to May 2019. The film was scheduled to be released in theaters in the United States by Universal Pictures on October 2, 2020, but was delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was retitled Finch, sold to Apple TV+, and was released on November 5, 2021. The film was released to mixed reviews, with critical acclaim given to Hanks’ performance, but criticism for lack of originality and for not introducing something new in the post-apocalypse genre.

Plot

Ten years have passed since a solar flare destroyed the ozone layer, increasing temperatures to 150 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius) and turning the planet Earth into a largely-uninhabitable wasteland scorched by ultraviolet radiation, and subject to extreme weather events. One of the few survivors, robotics engineer Finch Weinberg, lives alone with his dog Goodyear and a helper-robot Dewey in an underground St. Louis laboratory once owned by the company he worked for before the cataclysm. Finch only ventures outside to search for supplies with a heat and ultraviolet-resistant protective suit.

Dying of an undisclosed ailment [partially disclosed when we see Finch reading a book titled "The Effects of Exposure to Ionizing Radiation", ie. Radiation Poisoning.], Finch is working on creating a more advanced humanoid robot companion to take care of his dog once he is gone. Finch feeds it volumes of encyclopedic knowledge, including a manual for training and caring for dogs. However, Goodyear initially doesn't trust the robot (which eventually chooses the name Jeff.)

When a massive storm approaches St. Louis, and it is predicted to last 40 days, Finch, Jeff, Dewey, and Goodyear set out in a heavily modified motorhome towards San Francisco. Because of the hasty departure, only 72 percent of the data could be uploaded to Jeff, and has the mental capacity of a child. Despite his condition worsening, Finch tries to teach Jeff some valuable lessons about life and how to protect Goodyear. Jeff's inquisitive behavior both amuses and frustrates Finch, and as Jeff shows more initiative, he inadvertently stumbles into a trap which destroys Dewey, and their motorhome is pursued by an unknown car. However Finch forgives Jeff after it helps their vehicle from being overtaken, in spite of a panicked error in judgment by Finch.

Approaching their destination, the UV radiation has dropped low enough for Finch to be able to step out into the sunshine without a protective suit. He spends an afternoon outside with Jeff, teaching it how to play fetch with Goodyear before quietly dying. Jeff and Goodyear make their way to San Francisco, finding the city habitable but deserted, and set out to find any surviving humans.

Cast

• Tom Hanks as Finch Weinberg
• Caleb Landry Jones as Jeff
• Seamus as Goodyear

Additionally, Samira Wiley, Skeet Ulrich and Laura Harrier were set to appear in the film, but their roles were cut from the final cut.

Production

On October 26, 2017, it was announced that Tom Hanks would star in BIOS, a post-apocalyptic film about a robot who is built by Hanks' ailing character Finch to protect the life of his beloved dog when he dies. Miguel Sapochnik would direct the film, which would be produced by Robert Zemeckis and Kevin Misher, from a spec script by Craig Luck and Ivor Powell. Several major studios were bidding for the rights of the film, with production expected to begin in early 2018. A few days later, it was reported that Amblin Entertainment had purchased the project, with Universal Pictures set to distribute it. In December 2017, the film was revealed to be on that year's "Black List" of most-liked unproduced screenplays.

In January 2019, Caleb Landry Jones joined the cast in a motion capture and voice role as the robot which Finch builds. In March 2019, Samira Wiley was announced as part of the cast, followed by Skeet Ulrich and Laura Harrier in May, but were all absent in the released film, following editing to make the story more upbeat.

Speaking of cutting the last section of the film, Sapochnik said:

We shot a lot. There is a whole section that ended up on the cutting room floor that was about Jeff finally coming into contact with human beings and how they were not what he expected and certainly not what his father, Finch, had prepared him for. But when we got to post, we were in the edit, there was a point where I realized that I knew we had reached the end of the movie but we still had more story to tell. I tried as much as I could to see if we could accommodate it, but it was a bigger story than we had time to tell in the time we had left to tell it. At some point we just had to make a choice. To me, I believe the notion of kill your darlings. I loved it. I really liked what we did. It had great actors in it. It had Samira Wiley, it had my wife Alexis Raben, we had Skeet Ulrich, we had a load of people in it. And it was really good. It wasn’t the right ending for this chapter of this story. We had to let it go.”

Principal photography began in February 2019, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Filming also took place in Santa Fe, Shiprock, Los Lunas, Socorro, and the White Sands National Monument, and ended in May 2019.

Release

In May 2018, the film was scheduled to be released in theaters by Universal Pictures on October 2, 2020. In June 2020, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic shutting down theaters worldwide, it was delayed to April 16, 2021. In January 2021, it was moved to August 13, 2021, and in March, it was moved a week later to August 20.

In May 2021, it was announced that the film had been retitled from BIOS to Finch and bought by Apple TV+ for a release on November 5, 2021, while Universal would also retain home entertainment and linear television rights to the film.

Reception

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 75% based on 116 reviews with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Finch may not be the most memorable post-apocalyptic story, but Tom Hanks proves perfectly charming company even after the collapse of civilization." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Gayle Sequeira of Film Companion wrote, "The film is a showcase for the Tom Hanks Greatest Hits collection, appealing to our affection for the archetypes this actor has embodied in the past." Richard Schertzer of Sportskeeda commented, "Finch proves to be a decent watch but it often gets lost in other science-fiction movies, living in their shadow, rather than doing something new."

External links

• Finch at IMDb
• Finch page on official Amblin website