★★★½
In a cinematic landscape crowded with dystopian road films, The Run enters the conversation with familiar terrain under its wheels. Written and directed by Stephen de Villiers, this South Australian production, which premiered at the 2025 Adelaide Film Festival, follows an ageing smuggler navigating a fractured, post-pandemic world shaped by a global fertility crisis.
It is a premise that immediately recalls the lineage of films like Mad Max, Children of Men and The Road. We don’t have a dystopian film shortage. Does this add to the oeuvre?
Set against a near-future Australia marked by declining birth rates, masked interactions and scattered wind farms, The Run taps into contemporary anxieties. There is a quiet recognition of demographic shifts. An ageing population. A sense of societal contraction. Drones hover overhead. Shops still require masks. The world feels close enough to be plausible, yet distant enough to carry myth.
At its centre is Mac, played by Callan Mulvey, a hardened operator shaped by loss. Mulvey brings a physical credibility to the role. His experience in action cinema is clear. He understands how to carry tension through stillness as much as movement.
Yet The Run asks him to hold something more internal. A man negotiating the line between survival and responsibility. When to keep moving. When to stop and face what he has been running from.
The story pairs him with a runaway teenager, played by Charlotte Maggi, and her baby. Their dynamic is where the film finds its strongest footing. Maggi brings a rawness to the role.
Felix Cameron has already shown he has star power in Boy Swallows Universe, but here he feels a little underutilised. Small boy, big eyes, bigger guns. The presence is there, but the script doesn’t always give him space to fully realise it.
Together, they anchor the emotional stakes. The final act tightens its grip. Car doors slam as the camera stays fixed on a closed front door. Who is walking up the gravel path? Is it Mac to the rescue or the harem overseeing villains looking to return her to captivity?
De Villiers leans into genre conventions. There are echoes of Mad Max in the dust and velocity. Moments that feel reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs in their offbeat stylisation. Even flashes of Lethal Weapon-style improvisation and Back to the Future Part III tonal nods. At times, this familiarity provides comfort. At others, it makes the film feel caught in homage.
The action sequences are solid. Functional. They do what they need to do. Its villains are marked visually rather than psychologically. Brightly coloured hair. Neck tattoos. Immediate signals of threat. Yet beyond that, there is limited backstory or personality to deepen their presence.
Nicholas Hope as the seedy service station owner Jimmy is a standout. With his bed hair and stained singlet, he brings a grimy, unpredictable energy. The kind of colourful dystopian grifter that often populates films like this. You want a highway filled with personalities like this. It highlights what the film could have done more of.
Where The Run distinguishes itself clearly is in its thematic undercurrent. There are shades of The Handmaid’s Tale in its treatment of fertility. Women positioned within systems that reduce them to function. The film touches on contemporary cultural tensions. Control. Fear. The pressure placed on bodies, particularly female bodies, in times of crisis.
Visually, the film benefits from its setting. Director of Photography Michael Tessari captures the South Australian landscape with scale and intent. Wide, green open coastal spaces. Harsh light. Frames that feel closer to a Hollywood blockbuster than a local production. The environment becomes part of the tension.
That tension is reinforced by Justin Pounsett’s score. It builds effectively across the film, particularly in moments of threat. Low swells rise as the villains approach. The music signals danger before it arrives. It’s a subtle but important layer in sustaining the film’s momentum.
Ultimately, The Run is a film that understands its genre. It ticks many of the expected boxes. It moves with purpose. It delivers tension when it needs to.
The film gestures toward deeper questions. About responsibility. About running from trauma. About what we owe each other in a collapsing world. It does not always push those questions far enough to fully separate itself from its influences.
The Run holds the road. It just doesn’t always change the direction.
The Run screens at Wallis Cinemas in Adelaide from 14 – 20 May, and at select Reading Cinemas from 15 – 17 May in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, the Gold Coast and Adelaide.
It is then released to rent or buy from 17 June on Amazon, Apple, YouTube, Google TV, Foxtel, Fetch TV and Sky NZ.
Tickets to the Q & A screening on Sun 17 May at Wallis Noarlunga in Adelaide are here.
Website: https://rialtodistribution.com/film/the-run/ and https://www.arterialfilms.com.au/our-films/the-run
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/therun_film/
Watch the trailer here:
Film details:
Title: The Run
Director: Stephen de Villiers
Cast: Callan Mulvey, Charlotte Maggi, Felix Cameron
Country of Origin: Australia
Duration: 117 mins
Rating: CTC
