At Sundance 2026, Andrew Stanton’s In the Blink of an Eye debuts with a bold multi-timeline sci-fi tale examining human emotion in the past, present and future.
If you have been keeping up with the Sundance Film Festival 2026, you may have found yourself wondering what Andrew Stanton is doing these days. The Whiz behind Wall-E has at long last arrived back on live-action soil and he is doing so with uncertainty, not caution. His new film In the Blink of an Eye is not only a return to form it is a high concept, mindbending thrill ride.
| Feature | Details |
| Movie Title | In the Blink of an Eye |
| Director | Andrew Stanton |
| Writer | Colby Day |
| Genre | Science Fiction / Drama |
| Narrative Style | Triptych (3 interconnected stories) |
| Time Periods | 45,000 BC (Neanderthals), Present Day, and Far Future |
| Core Theme | Human connection across time, evolution, and technology |
| Story Approach | Visual storytelling & behavior over heavy dialogue |
| Structure | Non-linear and multi-timeline |
| Editing Style | Using “Emotional Sync Points” to link different eras |
| Premiere | Sundance Film Festival 2026 |
| Vibe | Thought-provoking, Sci-Fi With Emotional Depth |
| Standout Factor | Skips the “Hero’s Journey” to focus on shared human feelings |
So, what’s the deal? That’s not your average “aliens destroy the White House” science-fiction movie. It’s a triptych — which is just a fancy way of saying that it tells three separate stories that are all interconnected.
It is a narrative that leaps randomly back and forth over the course of thousands of years, from ancient Neanderthals to the current day, and then to the future.
It’s ambitious, it’s a little experimental, and it’s trying to suss out what really makes us “human” from era to era.
Andrew Stanton had long been working on big shows such as Stranger Things, 3 Body Problem, and he spent that time ‘hand-picking’ his dream team. He’s also leaning heavily on his animation roots.
Andrew Stanton’s biggest takeaway is the importance of imagination. He thinks the presence of a character — an expression, a movement, or maybe a choice can say more than dialogue ever could. The end product is a movie meant to make you feel first, leading emotion with images rather than explaining everything in words.
The author, Colby Day, confessed he was a little tired of the typical movie structure we get applied to everything. Rather than tracking a single protagonist on a familiar trajectory, he wanted to “blow up the world” and change the rules. He was inspired by films such as Cloud Atlas — those “big swings” that might be a little messy but way more interesting than a “safe” blockbuster.
Just think about what it would be like to edit three separate films into one. The editor Mollie Goldstein said they had to find “sync points.” They’re moments when a character in 45,000 BC is experiencing exactly what someone in the future is. It’s the emotional glue that holds the whole thing together.
Connectedness is the new spectacle: The age of hollow, effects-laden action-movies is waning. In the Blink of an Eye caters to a burgeoning demand for narratives with emotional connections — demonstrating that no matter how far technology evolves or centuries elapse, what really resonates is how intimately we are linked to one another.
The Comeback of the “Big Idea”: For a time, it seemed like movies were made by committee. This feels like a personal project and a risk. If this works, studios will once again trust directors with strange, “unfilmable” scripts.
Universal Struggles: By featuring Neanderthals, the film makes us aware that even as our phones evolve, our hearts don’t. We’re all still coming to grips with the same primal fears and loves that people had thousands of years ago.
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Darkly In The Blink of an Eye is a quiet rebellion against all the sci-fi that has played it safe for far too long. Rather than pursuing bigger explosions and louder stakes, it looks inward – across centuries, across species, across futures – to consider what actually endures.
When the film connects Neanderthals, modern humans and future societies through shared feelings, it tells us our survival is not dependent on wiping out the other; rather it magnifies our humanity. If this movie sticks the landing like it promises, it won’t just be a standout at Sundance — it may indicate a turn toward even braver, more emotionally intelligent sci-fi, where connection matters more than spectacle.
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Explore all James Bond movies in order, iconic fight scenes, unforgettable villains, and how 007 evolved across six decades of cinema.
James Bond fighting is so much more than flashy action sequences. It is a six-decade journey through the evolution of fight choreography on film, changing global attitudes toward violence and the increasing complexity and artifice of stunt choreography in the movies. Ian Fleming once described Bond as a “blunt instrument” of the state—a man made to achieve results, not to be elegant while doing so.
It prefers its action to be muscled, aggressive, and violently blunt rather than graceful or theatrical. While Bond in Fleming’s novels was taught boxing and judo to mirror commando skills of the Second World War, cinematic 007 has evolved into more of a living painting, adapting to the martial philosophies, political climates and cultural sensibilities of the era.
The best fight scene in No Time to Die is the punishing stairwell brawl in Safin’s lair, where Bond is up against three armed adversaries in a narrow slab of concrete. Filmed in long, fluid shots, the scene is relentless and tiring, highlighting Craig’s older, injured Bond relying on instinct on the battlefield.
There’s a weight behind each punch, every gunshot is earned, and being in a tight space doesn’t bring with it any glitz. It’s Bond the hardened survivor, not the dazzling hero—pragmatic, efficient, and potently human. This moment perfectly embodies the movie’s themes of sacrifice, perseverance and the physical toll of being 007.
Spectre contains a loving nod to the From Russia With Love train fight, with Bond facing off against Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista). It’s destructive, shattering several train cars. Bautista was starting to be “gentle,” but Craig told him to be more brutal.
Bautista complied, hurling Craig so violently that he left the actor with a serious knee injury (meniscus tear), forcing him to wear a brace for the rest of the shoot and ultimately having surgery. This fight, then, features real pain and injury from both players.
“Casino Royale” jolted the audience with its unsentimental brutality right from the start of the film. Shot in high-contrast grainy black & white the fight isn’t clean, it is chaotic and crude and Bond ends the fight bleeding. Bond attempts to drown his quarry, Fisher, in a sink, the quarry fights back. There is no elegance here.
The cinematography is in keeping with Cold War noir and spy fare such as The Ipcress File while confirming that this Bond is a “blunt instrument” and implying that he’s still coming to terms with the emotional cost of killing. The scene was intentionally to feel unchoreographed, to ball the struggle and the fatigue of taking a life.
Die Another Day is widely derided for its use of terrible CGI (the invisible car, the tsunami surfing, etc.), but the fencing match between Bond and Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) at the Blades Club is a rare moment of hands-on stunt work. It begins as a civilized fencing bout and ends with a full-on broadsword brawl, wrecking the club set.
Trevelyan is Bond’s equal—a fellow “00” agent with the same training. The battle is a mirror match. Most importantly, the sequence mutes out the bombastic score and all we can hear is the metallic thuds, the heavy breaths and the wind. This sound design decision highlights the brutal intimacy of two friends attempting to kill each other.
The fight is a combination of technical grappling and dirty fighting (headbutts, biting), Bond finally throwing Trevelyan to his death. The classic line “For me” in response to Bond’s “For England, James?” that he answers shortly after meeting Trevelyan, signals a personal change in Bond’s motivation.
In The Living Daylights, the tussle between Bond and Necros clinging to the outside of a cargo plane is a marvel of aerial stunt work. Withstood the strain Unlike the green-screen-laden sequences of later times, this was shot with stuntmen (BJ Worth and others) actually hanging from a plane over the Mojave Desert.
The physical struggle, as well as the roaring wind (sound design has a significant role in that), make it all very disorienting and high-risk. It’s a battle dominated by gravity, not martial arts moves.
Licence to Kill is the bloodiest of the pre-Craig Bond films, and was the first to be given a 15 rating in the United Kingdom. The Bimini barrelhouse brawl is a highlight for its raw brutality. Bond isn’t trying to get away as he fights; He’s trying to do as much damage as possible. They refer to pool cues, broken bottles and a brawl that seems more at home in a western saloon than a spy movie.
The scene is staged and lit to highlight the fearsome Jaws, playing with shadows (the train closet) and jump scares. Bond is completely physically impotent; he punches Jaws in the jaw and breaks his hand — a world away from Connery’s crushing blows to Grant’s neckline. This makes Jaws a supernatural entity.
The resolution Bond stabs Jaws with a jagged lamp, delivering an electric shock is a variation on the Oddjob demise that includes a comic bounce, as Jaws endures and then departs. The sequence was choreographed by Bob Simmons, maintaining the trilogy of train fight masterpieces.
The beach fight and the hotel room brawl with Draco’s men reveal a new editing philosophy employed by director Peter Hunt. Hunt used quick cuts, jump cuts and a little bit of speeded up footage to make the fights more energetic. This gave the film a visceral, almost frenzied feel that anticipated the “shaky cam” mode of the Jason Bourne series by several decades.
The brawling judo fight is a demonstration of this transition from the chaotic to the slightly more stylized fighting in Dr. No. Bond uses the environment, a sofa, and a large statue to fend off the sumo’s size, continuing the message that Bond has to change his fighting style to whatever culture he’s invading.
When you ask people who know what they are talking about when it comes to the Bond movie library what the best is, it’s almost always From Russia With Love that is named, the duel between Bond and Donald “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw) on the Orient Express stands as a cornerstone moment in action movie history. It took the genre away from the bloodless fisticuffs that defined 1950s action films to a more visceral, claustrophobic reality.
The development of James Bond’s style of fighting is indicative of a narrative that’s about more than just choreography or spectacle. Every punch, wrestle, and fight for life is a product of the time it was made, informed by global politics, shifting definitions of masculinity and what audiences want to see in it. From Connery’s primal, rough-and-tumble fights to Craig’s brutal, Krav Maga–inflected efficiency, Bond’s battles have always stripped away the suave disguise of the gentleman spy to expose the lethal truth beneath.
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Colin Farrell returns to Matt Reeves' Batman universe as the Penguin in The Batman Part II, and shares the dark world of Gotham and his passion storytelling.
Colin Farrell has got us very excited to return to Gotham as The Penguin in The Batman Part II. Far from it being about getting action scenes right, or even stealing the show with the character’s arc. Farrel explained in a chat with Collider that what pulls him back are the people he gets to work with, and the “Matt Reeves immersive world that’s just very, very gritty.” There’s definitely a love for the vibe and the behind the scenes team it feels like. Farrell kept it real, he explained the camaraderie and new ways of working on set keep bringing him back, as he promotes the upcoming movie The Ballad of a Small Player releasing on 29 October 2025.
Colin Farrell delivered so many thoughts on his role in HBO’s massive hit The Penguin. So the experience evidently stuck with him for good. The series its eight-episodes run in late 2024. It garnered rave reviews, high ratings, and mentions for major awards like the Emmys and Golden Globes. Farrell really got to dive deep into the character, all of the intricate layers and psychological twists and turns that you can only explore in a long form series. Apparently the part allowed him to stretch his acting chops quite a bit, and fans seemed to get as much pleasure as he did. With all the buzz around the show, it is no surprise that The Penguin turned out to be one of HBO’s breakout hits.
The show ended up a huge success, attracting 5.3 million viewers across all platforms during its first weekend, marking the largest four-day debut for a tier one Max original since The Last of Us dusted off in January 2023. The show received rave reviews from critics with a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviews referring to Colin Farrell’s performance as “transformative” and “a true tour de force.”
It’s not so much ‘What do I do with this?, but I just want to be in that world and be with Robert and be with Jeffrey again and be brought by Matt Reeves,’ said Farrell. After a deeper exploration of the HBO series character, Farrell returning to the movie sequel isn’t about further expanding the Penguin’s story, instead rejoining the talented ensemble.
Colin Farrell shared his happiness by saying “I’m really excited to be back in that world, to just be around it,” he said as he contemplated joining such an unparalleled group of creatives once more.
Farrell’s ties to the world of Batman are deeply embedded since he was a kid growing up in Dublin. He shared, he was raised watching Burgess Meredith’s legendary turn as the Penguin in the ‘60s Batman TV series when he was 5, and then Danny DeVito’s iconic performance in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns at around 11 or 12.
For the actor, the joy is a little simpler, just getting to play in a world “where a character called Bruce Wayne and Batman exist, is such a joy.” He admired how Reeves had “re-imagined a world that is unique enough and yet still honors the struggles of that city and the psychological struggles of the character of Bruce Wayne.”
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Although Farrell has now confirmed that his part in The Batman Part II will be very small, a smaller appearance than in the first film. He has read the full script and described it as “extraordinary”. He hinted that THE BATMAN 2 is a much deeper plot, it means that Reeves is expected to be seen in scarier scenes and it will further keep the franchise as the stakes are bigger.
Filming for The Batman Part II is set to begin April 2026. Robert Pattinson, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis and Colin Farrell are returning to their roles. Farrell seems doubtful about a second season of The Penguin. He said to Deadline, “I’ve heard some talk about it, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Part of me thinks we should just leave it as we got away with something special.”
For Farrell, being part of Matt Reeves’ Batman world is more than just another gig—it’s a dream come true from his childhood, and he’s surrounded by collaborators who are as passionate as he is about telling grounded, character-driven stories in the dark, complex reality of Gotham. The criminal underworld of Gotham City is once again ready to entertain their fans but Colin Farrell’s Penguin has made a permanent impact on the Batman mythos and his passion for this universe and the team behind it will keep him coming back for as long as they’ll have him.
