A devastating pandemic, environmental destruction and a depleted society reduced to anarchy are the themes at play in Sir Ridley Scott’s latest film The Dog Stars.

Based on Peter Heller’s 2012 novel of the same name, the stars of the sci-fi film say they hope its themes will makes viewers question the parts of their lives they take for granted.

Jacob Elordi stars as the lead character, Hig, a former mechanic turned pilot, who spends his days flying over Colorado with his dog Jasper, searching for a better life.

He tells the BBC the film portrays “the human condition”, with the characters living in “the apocalypse” but “still looking for something else and hoping for something else”.

The film, which features a star-studded cast of Guy Pearce, Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin, is set in the 2030s, where only those immune from a deadly flu remain alive.

It immediately draw parallels with the Covid pandemic with its aerial shots of abandoned cities and Hig’s constant search for resources like food and medicine.

Elordi, who received his first Oscar nomination earlier this year for Frankenstein, says “there were a few moments I remember looking around [on set] and thinking it’s strange to be doing this make-believe, when the reality is just behind us and just in front of us”.

He says a dystopian future like the one portrayed in the film is “frightening to think about” but “it’s something we have to examine and remember, because we are on the cusp of these realities”.

The 29-year-old also says he resonates with his character’s struggle to be content with life.

“Everything is sweet for us – we’re able to walk around on the street, go to the shops, go to the park, have dinner with each other and we still go to bed and think ‘What else is there?’, ‘What am I missing?’, ‘What’s wrong?’ and nothing is”.

This is also true for his co-star, Mare of Easttown and Memento star Pearce, who plays Pops, the survivor who meets Hig after emergency-landing his plane near his home.

Pearce says the way the film highlights “this world we take for granted” is “pertinent” adding: “You can go to the supermarket and get food and wake up with your family – a lot of people even to this day don’t live like that, so I am absolutely aware of [my] privilege”.

The film’s anarchical vibe is also portrayed through its environment, with scenes of scorched earth that resemble the images many of us have seen in places affected by wildfires.

This is personal to both Pearce, who previously worked with Sir Ridley on Prometheus in 2012, and Elordi. Both were raised in areas of Australia that have been recently damaged by natural disasters.

“I’ve been in Australia when there’s been serious bushfires,” says Pearce, whose home state of Victoria was damaged earlier this year.

“All round the world now there’s just more and more effects of climate change so it’s pretty terrifying that a lot of those things are not far away,” he says.

Elordi, who hails from Brisbane, is a little more hopeful about the future of the climate in the context of the film – pointing to other parts where you can see lush expanses of greenery.

“Something interesting and not to be missed is the idea of regrowth – that in this abyss, four or five years after the worst day ever for human beings, the trees are full, the grass is thick and the flowers are growing out of the decay”.

He says this provides “a note of hope” and “idea of redemption”, adding that this relates to real life through wildfires because “when a wildfire destroys an entire coast, inevitably the nature and the earth rebuilds and regrows”.

Early reviews of the film have been mixed, with The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee three-star review describing it as a “limp and lethargic film that only briefly fascinates in pushing us to wonder what anyone was really hoping this would end up being”.

David Rooney at The Hollywood Reporter is slightly more positive, noting that the film is “muted but never dull” and an “appealingly mellow watch”.

But in a two-star review, Empire’s Helen O’Hara says the film “tries to examine the difference between surviving and thriving” but “doesn’t seem entirely convinced of its own answers”.

The film got three stars from Tim Robey at The Telegraph, who notes the film’s “action interludes are more nonsensical than scary” and “provide momentary dumb fun when Scott’s campfire apocalypse needs waking up”.

Sir Ridley says the film was inspired by Covid, but also the original book’s context, having been written in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

“If you put those two together you’ve got a great combination of chaos,” he notes, adding: “If you have chaos, you get panic and anarchy and away you go”.

He also says he thought a lot about his upbringing when building the film’s virus-stricken world.

“I was a war baby so I can remember incendiary bombs dropping on me and we’d have to shelter under the stairs. So the Second World War to me was apocalyptic”.

Elordi notes that he is “afraid of large movies and things packed with action set pieces” but was reassured by Sir Ridley as “the master of these kinds of films”.

“I would have done any movie he sent through for me to make, it’s a privilege to get to work with a pioneer of our industry in my lifetime – it’s kind of unfathomable,” he adds.

The Dog Stars is out in UK cinemas on 28 August.