Encounter story
Encounter is a 2021 drama thriller film, directed by Michael Pearce from a screenplay by Pearce and Joe Barton. It stars Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Janina Gavankar, Rory Cochrane, Lucian-River Chauhan, and Aditya Geddada. Synopsis: A former Marine abducts his two young sons to protect them from what he perceives to be an imminent threat from space parasites.
12 total · 3 choice · 4 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| child abduction | choice | This is a story about a well-intentioned, but misguided father abducting his two young sons to protect them from a threat that exists solely in his imagination. |
| father and son | choice | The story explores how the boy Jay comes to understand that his estranged father is not the hero that he'd believed him to be. |
| invasive life form from outer space | choice | A main novelty of the film lies in the (anti-)hero of the story being convinced that as much as half the people on Earth could be infected by alien parasites, which use human bodies to reproduce. |
| brother and brother | major | The follows two young brothers getting whisked away in the middle of the night by their estranged father, and the aftermath thereof. |
| facing organized pursuit | major | There was a manhunt on for Malik and his two young sons. |
| law enforcement | major | Federal law enforcement officers were on a manhunt for Malik and his two young sons. Malik got into a confrontation with a patrol cop while pulled over on the highway. |
| mental illness | major | The viewer is made to ponder that Malik was suffering from a mental disorder, and was of the mind that alien parasites were proliferating around the Earth for that reason. |
| coping with a loved one being missing | minor | Piya was briefly shown expressing concern over the well-being of her two recently kidnapped young sons. |
| human familial relationship | minor | Piya was living on a farm with her new partner, Dylan, and her two yong sons from a previous marriage. Whether Piya and Dylan were married or not was never made clear. |
| mother and son | minor | Jay and Bobby interacted with their mother at dinner. |