Finch debuts this Friday on Apple TV +, so I caught up with director Miguel Sapochnik to find out more about what makes this Tom Hanks sci-fi tale vibrate.
What is it about the end of civilization that people find so fascinating?
I would say one of the best things to write is the beginning or the end of something. In the middle, it’s still a mess. And I feel like a film about the beginning of humanity or humanity… it’s done, right?
So now we’re definitely obsessed with our own demise. It’s an interesting time for all of us, and I think it’s probably reflected by [the character] Bullfinch. Finch begins to look back on everything he’s done and wonder… what did he actually achieve? Was it worth it? It is a point of reflection.
I really feel like film storytelling right now is our thinking point, where we need to look at ourselves and question ourselves about the choices we’ve made and determine if we’re ready to make the changes that need to happen. so that we can continue to survive.
Do you think Finch is an upbeat and hopeful story, despite being centered on the end of humanity?
I actually do. At the same time, I was worried that my own personality was misleading the dark side of nature and I feel like something definitely came out of it.
I showed [Finch] to some friends after finishing it. When you have just finished a movie, you have lost all perspective on what you really did. And I showed it by expecting them to smile politely and say “interesting” or something like that. And they laughed. A lot. All the way through. And then they cried at the end… and they said it was beautiful. And I felt like I had never had this experience before.
All Finch has left is a dog and a robot. I wanted to start with the dog, what do you think he represents? How does that play out in the story that takes place in the middle of the end of days?
One of the turns that I’ve always liked about the script is that you meet this guy, [and] he is building a robot to take care of his dog. So he really loves this dog. It is his center of attention. He doesn’t like humans. He obviously had bad experiences with humans … And then little by little, this story unfolds and we realize that the dog is the survivor of a traumatic event that he experienced when he was younger, in the midst of the apocalypse. The dog means something to him. In fact, the dog is a reminder of his failure as a human being, of his cowardice.
There is something really engaging about the idea that he has a very strong bond with this dog, so that the dog can remind him every day how cowardly he is. The decision to make sure that this dog survives, beyond Finch’s life – it’s an act of desperation… he can’t let this dog perish, he has to make this dog survive, because of some way it’s hope. Interestingly, the dog itself doesn’t care. It’s just happy to be there. Throwing the ball is the dog’s happiest moment. I found that there was something beautifully simple and eloquent about it.
Let’s talk about Jeff the robot. I read a book once that theorized that maybe the natural end point of organic life is turning into artificial life. Does Jeff represent a way for the legacy of humanity to continue?
Jeff the robot is human 2.0. We were looking for a way to explore humanity rather than the depths of humanity’s potential depravity.
Jeff, he’s potentially the best and the worst of us. And what he has that Finch lost is optimism and hope. He also has naivety, which is terribly dangerous in the wrong hands. He also has a stubbornness, an inability to listen properly, and an attitude that is deeply frustrating at times for everyone involved. But, I think this idea of hope and optimism in the midst of an apocalypse is something unique. Something to feed, not to push down.
You’ve done some of the biggest episodes of Game of Thrones, episodes with full-scale battle scenes. Was Finch a different or complementary experience to your previous job?
I think complementary is the key word. At the same time, the way I try to approach these big battle scenes is to look for the intimate moments … the action gets really boring really quickly if it doesn’t have any character motivation, or if it doesn’t have any. real interest.
If you play Call of Duty, the real power of these games is the ability to make you feel fear or triumph, the range of emotions when you are in the midst of this epic, intimate or claustrophobic experience. Trying to focus on that personal point of view of a character in a movie elevates any action or context you would place it in. PS5 console owners can enjoy six-month trial access to Apple TV + at no additional cost. Click on here for more details, conditions and frequently asked questions.
