Focus Features’ second trailer for Captive State dives deeper into the state of life in post-extraterrestrial invasion Chicago in Rupert Wyatt’s sci-fi drama-thriller. The film picks up ten years after aliens have begun their occupation of earth, giving rise to a world where some humans continue to rebel against the planet’s occupants - even as others collaborate with humanity’s new overlords. The film’s cast includes big names like John Goodman and Vera Farmiga, as well as Moonlight and The Equalizer 2 actor Ashton Sanders.

Wyatt is far from a stranger to the sci-fi genre himself, having previously directed 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The filmmaker thereafter directed the Mark Wahlberg drama The Gambler (which Goodman also starred in) and helmed the pilot episodes for the since-canceled TV shows TURN and The Exorcist. He was even attached to helm the X-Men movie Gambit, about three years ago. Currently, however, Wyatt is in the midst of making a big return to the sci-fi genre, between Captive State and his involvement as a producer/director on Showtime’s Halo TV series.

The second Captive State trailer is now online, well ahead of the film’s release next spring. Whereas the first Captive State teaser trailer was more of an introduction to the movie’s premise than anything else, this new preview further explores the film’s primary setting, e.g. a Chicago neighborhood under alien occupation. Check it out in the space below.

In contrast to the first teaser, the second Captive State trailer emphasizes the human resistance against the dystopian state ushered in by the planet’s other-worldly visitors, and offers a sneak peek of what appears to be one of the film’s aliens, in the flesh. It’s not altogether yet what the rebels’ mantra “The Phoenix will rise” means here (e.g. whether it’s just a cool slogan or actually refers to something tangible), but the trailer suggests that Goodman and Sanders’ characters will find themselves on on opposing sides of the conflict, with the latter becoming part of the resistance (and vice versa, in Goodman’s case).

So far, the marketing has painted Captive State as being a relatively grounded dystopian sci-fi drama-thriller where the totalitarian government in power is backed by forces that are (literally) out of this world. The film’s setup, which Wyatt cowrote and developed with his screenwriter wife Erica Beeney (Battle of Shaker Heights), is somewhat less conventional than the average sci-fi dystopia premise because of the alien occupation angle, and may have an easier time standing out from the rest of the genre’s crowd for it. Here’s hoping so, anyway.

MORE: The Quake Trailer: The Wave Gets A Sequel

Source: Focus Features

  • Captive State Release Date: 2019-03-15