Asteroid City (stylized in all caps) is a 2023 American science fiction comedy drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, from a story he developed with Roman Coppola. The ensemble cast includes Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, and Jeff Goldblum. Its plot mostly presents a stage play set in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, which follows a Junior Stargazer convention and the unexpected arrival of extraterrestrials and UFOs to the titular town in the American Southwestern desert, which is in close proximity to atomic test sites created after World War II. The play is contexualised through a television documentary following the creation of the show itself, adding a layer of metatextuality.
The project was announced in September 2020 as an untitled romance film, with Anderson writing, producing and directing, alongside Jeremy Dawson of American Empirical Pictures and Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush. In February 2021, it was described as being about a "group of brainy teenagers". Originally set for Rome, filming took place in Chinchón, Spain, between August and October, 2021, with cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman. Several sets resembling a desert landscape and a mock train station were used. Post-production included editor Barney Pilling and a musical score composed by frequent Anderson composer Alexandre Desplat, featuring country and western songs from many artists. The official title for Asteroid City was revealed in October 2021 at the BFI London Film Festival.
Asteroid City premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2023, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. It began a limited theatrical release through Focus Features in the United States on June 16, 2023, expanding to a wide release a week later. It grossed $54 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, and received generally positive reviews.
Plot Throughout the film, the action is split between showing a television special documenting the behind-the-scenes creation of a new play and a presentation of the play itself. The play's events are depicted in widescreen and stylized color, while the television special is seen in black-and-white Academy ratio.
"Asteroid City," The Play Set in a retro-futuristic version of September, 1955, the play follows an annual Junior Stargazer astronomy convention being held in the fictional, titular desert town somewhere in the American Southwest. The town's claim to fame is the impact crater and remnants of a meteorite left behind from contact with a meteor in 3007 B.C. Nuclear atom bomb tests also occur regularly nearby.
Act 1: Friday morning, 7:00 am War photojournalist Augie Steenbeck arrives to Asteroid City with Woodrow, his intellectual teenage son, and his three younger daughters, in their car which has broken down. After a mechanic informs them that there's no hope for their car due to an unexplained piece of machinery gone rogue, Augie phones his father-in-law, Stanley, asking for his help. Stanley, who dislikes his son-in-law, persuades him to tell the children about their mother's recent death, which Augie had concealed. When he informs his children of her passing, the girls decide that they want to bury her ashes in Asteroid City, much against Stanley's wishes. Augie and Woodrow meet Midge Campbell, a famous but world-weary film actress, and her daughter Dinah, who, like Woodrow, will be honored at the convention. The other convention participants arrive: Five-star General, Grif Gibson; his aide-de-camp; astronomer, Dr. Hickenlooper; three additional teenaged honorees - Clifford, Shelly, and Ricky; their parents - J.J., Sandy, and Roger; A busload of elementary-school children chaperoned by young teacher, June Douglas; A band of cowboys led by singer, Montana, who get stuck at the convention after missing their bus. A local motel provides everyone's accommodations.
Gibson welcomes the attendees at the Arid Plains Crater where the teenagers are to receive awards for various inventions. Afterwards, the characters all get to know each other better, namely Augie and Midge who are cabin neighbors and begin a romantic relationship as they interact through their windows. Later that night, while the convention guests are observing an astronomical ellipsis, a UFO suddenly appears above the crater; an alien emerges and steals the remnant of the meteorite that created the crater. Augie manages to photograph the creature before it leaves immediately after.
Act 2: The next day Gibson, with instructions from the President, has placed the town under a strict military quarantine, and everyone is subjected to medical and psychiatric examinations. The President has also instructed that no word of the events should get out to the public and to convince the witnesses that what they saw was not real. Meanwhile, a romance blossoms between Montana and June, who assure the students that the alien is likely peaceful. Dinah and Woodrow also develop romantic feelings after bonding over their shared quirks. Meanwhile, J.J. asks Clifford, his son, why he feels the need to always be dared to do something, which Clifford has a habit of doing. He replies that perhaps it is because he is "afraid, otherwise nobody will notice [his] existence in the universe." Woodrow protests to Augie and Stanley that they should not be so calm about what has happened and questions what the meaning of life is, if there even is one. Meanwhile, Stanley tells Augie that he and his kids are welcome to stay with him for as long as necessary, for his love for his daughter and grandchildren outweigh his dislike of Augie. The Stargazer honorees use Dr. Hickenlooper's equipment to attempt to contact the alien. Tricking the guard watching the pay phone, Ricky calls his school newspaper to relay the quarantine details and cover-up to the outside world.
Act 3: 1 week later (As Earp explains it, in the third act, "our cast of characters' already tenuous grasp of reality has further slipped in quarantine, and the group begins to occupy a space of the most peculiar emotional dimensions. Meanwhile, the information blockade spearheaded by General Griff Gibson has been, it appears, incomplete.")
The extraterrestrial events have become national news and Asteroid City has transformed into a tourist attraction. A furious Gibson threatens Ricky with arrest due to treason. June, once again, attempts to hold a normal class with her students, though it is derailed by her student Dwight, who performs an ode to the alien with the help of Montana and his band. Augie and Midge rehearse a scene from her upcoming film and when she asks him to employ his grief, he becomes overwrought with emotion and burns his hand on his quickie-griddle, causing Mercedes (as Midge) to momentarily break character. Dr. Hickenlooper follows up with the Stargazers about their attempts to interact with the alien and, privately, tells Woodrow that he should always continue to follow his curiosity and asks him to be her protégé. General Gibson assembles an emergency assembly with the town residents and informs them that the quarantine has been lifted when suddenly, the UFO reappears, dropping the meteorite back into its former position; the General sees new markings on it and deduces that it has been "inventoried." Gibson then reinstates the quarantine; the children, scientists, and parents revolt, using the honorees' inventions to overpower the military, and chaos ensues.
Epilogue Augie wakes up the next morning to find everyone gone from Asteroid City, and he is informed by the motel manager that the quarantine was lifted after all. Stanley accepts his granddaughters' wishes to leave their mother's remains in Asteroid City. As the family is leaving town, Woodrow reveals he has won the fellowship funding and intends to use the funds on Dinah. Augie also learns that Midge has left him her mailing address. Afterwards, Augie and his family quietly drive away as another atom bomb is tested in the distance.
The Television Documentary A television host of a 1950s WXYZ TV program introduces a documentary about the creation and production of Asteroid City, a fictional play by famed Western playwright Conrad Earp, which has been created for the program, specifically, to show the inner-workings of mounting a theatrical production. The documentary opens on the first day of rehearsals at the fictional Tarkington Theatre, at a read-through of the play, with Earp reading the opening stage directions aloud to the whole company. He introduces the primary cast of characters and the scenography present.
Later, a scene depicts a private audition held between Earp and actor Jones Hall, who will go on to play Augie. They discuss the themes of the play (namely why Augie burns his hand on the quickie-griddle) and, after Hall performs one of Steenback's monologues, they share a kiss, establishing their relationship as lovers. Another scene set the night before the play's opening night shows Woodrow's understudy on a train trying to convince Mercedes Ford (who plays Midge) to return to the production after she left due to a fight with Schubert Green, the director, to which she eventually agrees. Next, the special introduces the audience to Green, who is living in a makeshift apartment backstage at the theater due to his recent separation from his wife. His wife, Polly, arrives delivering their son's report card to sign (though Green at first believes it to be divorce papers) and gives him one last piece of advice for how to block a scene in the play, before leaving him, perhaps for the last time.
Moving back in time to the time when Earp was still writing the play, the next scene shows the playwright visiting an acting school for assistance in constructing the third act. The class contains many of the performers who will later appear in the shown production of Asteroid City. When asked what the play is about, Earp answers with "infinity and I don't know what else."
In the middle of the third act (during the filmed live performance of the play), Jones Hall unexpectedly exits the stage and confronts Green, telling him that he "still doesn't understand the play", and asks if he is "doing him right" (delivered directly to camera). Green tells Hall to keep playing Augie the same way despite being uncertain, and that he is doing him right, and that what is really important is to "keep telling the story." After that interaction, while taking a smoke break on a balcony, Hall runs into the actress who was cast to play Augie's wife before her only scene was cut. She recites the deleted scene's dialogue to him, and he appears to gain new insight from it.
In the host's final appearance, he informs the audience that six months into the run of the play, Conrad Earp died in a car crash, and the special returns to the scene at the acting school, where Jones Hall blurts out the phrase "You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep." As each actor repeats this line staring into the camera, their world is briefly shown in color, and the alien appears one last time, holding the meteorite.
Cast
Production Development and casting