Troop Zero

In the heat‑baked outskirts of 1977 Georgia, the night sky stretches like a promise over quiet backroads and porch lights. The film opens on a young girl whose imagination is as expansive as the constellations she watches from her deck. Christmas Flint is a dreamer with a quiet grief, a love of astronomy, and an unshakable belief that the universe might be listening. Her world is a blend of small‑town rhythms—library trips, schoolyard chatter, the scent of fresh‑cut grass—and a yearning that reaches far beyond the county line.

Supporting her are the adults who orbit her life with a mix of practicality and suppressed ambition. Her father, Ramsey, is a steady‑hand lawyer whose measured advice grounds her lofty aspirations, while Miss Rayleen works nearby, carrying her own unfulfilled hopes of a legal career. Both become reluctant mentors, offering the stability and encouragement that allow Christmas to turn her private fascination into something communal.

When a national NASA initiative promises that a winning troop’s voices could be immortalized on the Golden Record—an actual artifact bound for deep space—Christmas sees a chance to give her town a foothold among the stars. She gathers a ragtag collection of fellow outsiders, forming a Birdie Scout troupe that the town officially labels Troop Zero. The premise centers on their collective effort to claim a place in the cosmos, using the familiar rituals of scouting as a launchpad for something far grander.

The tone balances gentle humor with heartfelt melancholy, bathing the story in a nostalgic 1970s aesthetic while constantly turning its gaze upward. Against a backdrop of porch swings, vinyl records, and moonlit fields, the film explores how belief in the extraordinary can knit together misfits into a family, and how the simple act of looking up can become a catalyst for personal and communal transformation.

Last Updated: August 10, 2025 at 02:05