Beyond

During a routine shopping trip, an armed robber forces the cashier, Michael, to empty the safe, only to reveal there is no safe in the shop. As the robber grows more agitated, Cole steps forward, taunts the thief as a coward, and dares him to shoot. Michael tries to intervene and wrest the gun away, but he is wounded in the gut. After Cole calls for an ambulance, a friend invites him out for drinks. Cole accepts only on the condition that it isn’t a house party. He soon finds out it is, and he goes downstairs to drink alone, where he meets Maya, the host. The two strike up a conversation about an approaching asteroid, with Maya suggesting that modern stress would vanish in the face of certain doom, while Cole contends that life would still matter even in such a moment of meaninglessness.

What begins as a chance encounter blossoms into a relationship, framed by a bold narrative device. The film intercuts present moments from Cole and Maya’s budding romance with a series of flashforwards that imagine life in post‑apocalyptic Scotland after the asteroid has arrived. In these glimpses, Cole and Maya hide from alien spaceships, while the present-day scenes show the couple’s path leading up to those cataclysmic events. Their chemistry deepens as they navigate a world on edge, and a question about family soon enters the conversation: Cole does not want children, while Maya reveals she cannot bear them. As the asteroid grows closer, Cole asks Maya to marry him, and after a lighthearted moment where she jokes about it, he becomes serious and she accepts.

The pressure of impending disaster intensifies the couple’s struggles and the world’s fragility. Scientists grow increasingly worried about a collision, and successive attempts to divert the asteroid fail, keeping humanity in a state of heightened anxiety. In the flashforwards, the strain of survival takes its toll on Cole and Maya’s relationship; food, shelter, and the constant threat push them to the brink. When Maya becomes pregnant, Cole is taken aback and argues that it may be cruel to bring a child into such a doomed world, while Maya views the pregnancy as a miraculous turn of fate. She decides to keep the baby, setting the stage for a rift that widens as the world’s pressures mount.

The present-day tension comes to a head as loyalties are tested and choices are judged. In a present-day arc, Michael voices discontent with Cole’s refusal to shoulder responsibility for Maya’s pregnancy. A flashforward introduces Keith Novac, a survivor who theorizes that the aliens have come to purge Earth of overpopulation to leave it better for the few who remain. Novac demonstrates his attempts to contact the aliens, and Cole confesses that their missing child is in the care of Maya’s parents, whom they suspect of fleeing the country. The encounter with Novac grows increasingly tense, and he suddenly attacks, sending the narrative back to the moments when Cole and Maya have already separated because of the pregnancy. Maya, who is about to give birth, invites Cole to the hospital.

Redemption and peril collide in the hospital sequence, changing everything. Cole arrives to face Michael, who accuses him of betraying his own beliefs and living without responsibility. In the face of imminent death, Michael proclaims that Cole has abandoned meaning and purpose, sparking a moment of envy for the potential hope in Cole’s life. Novac, a doctor who has appeared on the scene, rushes from the hospital, shoots Michael, and works to save Cole’s life. As Cole drifts toward delirium, he imagines the various scenes from the flashforwards, woven together by the actions of Novac and Michael. A voice from Maya—their lifeline—tells him that the asteroid has missed Earth and that she has given birth to a baby girl. The film closes with Cole lying in a hospital bed, Maya at his side, and a fragile thread of hope restored amid the chaos of the world they inhabit.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:04