In the Blink of an Eye Movie Review

In the Blink of an Eye (2026)

Watch the trailer
Written by: Colby Day
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Starring: Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, Daveed Diggs
Rated: PG-13

Plot
Three story lines spanning thousands of years intersect and reflect on hope, connection, and the circle of life.

Verdict
It's a neat look at how life repeats, and how humankind is connected from eras that spans tens of thousands of years. This focuses on past, present, and future with a through line between the stories. Birth, death, and family remain a core tenant to civilization. Those three themes persist whether it's the Neanderthal era, the present, or a future where humans plan to colonize another planet. All eras stack upon earlier ones, building on advancements and technology. It's a neat idea, but it doesn't delve deep enough, focused on ideas instead of characters.
It depends.

Review
Colby Day previously wrote Spaceman (2024). Stanton directed Finding Dory (2016) and WALL·E (2008).

This seems like a less ambitious Cloud Atlas (2012), which posited the world and some inhabitants are forever linked across the ages. It's somewhere in the realm of Being Human (1994) where one man is reborn across time periods. This movie looks at the evolution and advancement of humans, drawing a distinct link from Neanderthals to the present day to a future version of humans that colonize another planet.

45,000 BCE: Jorge Vargas, Skywalker Hughes play Thorn, Lark

Three stories focus on a Neanderthal family forty five thousand years ago, anthropologist Claire (Rashida Jones) in the present, and longevity enhanced pilot Coakley (Kate McKinnon) on a spaceship in 2417. The initial question is what's the link. Claire is studying ancient human bones which very well could be the Neanderthal family. She mentions to her mom that her research could lead to living longer. Did her research contribute to Coakley able to live hundreds of years?

The first idea that spans the eras is sickness. The Neanderthal patriarch becomes sick, Claire's mom is sick which causes her to quit her fellowship, and the plants on the spaceship are diseased. That could jeopardize the entire mission to start a new colony. If the plants can't be cured, there won't be enough oxygen to complete the flight. Coakley proposed getting rid of the all the infected plants and killing herself so that there would be enough oxygen for the babies. The computer proposes sacrificing itself and using the server room as a secondary greenhouse. Coakley agrees a bit too quickly. While the computer argued against Coakley's sacrifice based on the sheer dumb luck of humans, the computer seems to be the more sustainable option.

2025 CE: Daveed Diggs, Rashida Jones play Greg, Claire

This looks at three distinct eras; the past, present, and future. Each era affects the next, making technological advancements possible. Despite how things change, there's plenty of overlap.

The Neanderthal family finds a tribe to join, Claire marries Greg (Daveed Diggs) and has children, Coakley fosters these children that rapidly age to inhabit the new colony. The future of the tribe led to civilization. Claire's son starts a company that's behind Coakley's spaceship. As her son states, "the human lifespan to the universe around us has always been the blink of an eye." He's found a way to beat time.

2417 CE: Kate McKinnon plays Coakley

The physical link between the eras is the acorn. The Neanderthal father made it into a necklace for his daughter. Claire finds it during her research and gilds it as a keepsake. She gives it to her son who places it on the spaceship to represent new life. It's a sign of  new beginnings, an object that has survived thousands of years. Another tie in is that the Neanderthal funeral pyre is very similar to the future colony's death ceremony. It's a new civilization on another planet, and the start of a new human race.

I appreciate movies that don't try to explain too much, but I'd like to see more scenes on Claire's son's company and the future in which Coakley lives. I'd also like this to do more to develop the characters. They're an idea that doesn't quite evolve into a formative story. This is a concept on how civilization and ideas repeat and build upon themselves. Problems aren't all that different despite the eras. The next step would be to build on that with a point of view.