FilmSkool — a free film school
Take Shelter
Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
2011 · Directed by Jeff Nichols · 120 min · Thriller · Drama · Horror · Screenplay in the scene database · 16 frames
Tagline
Far away from the cruel world.
Plot
In LaGrange, Ohio, construction worker Curtis LaForche has apocalyptic dreams and visual and auditory hallucinations of rain "like fresh motor oil," swarms of menacing black birds, and being harmed by people close to him. He hides all of this from his wife, Samantha, and their deaf daughter, Hannah. He instead channels his anxieties into a compulsive obsession to improve and enlarge a storm shelter in his backyard; however, his increasingly strange behavior – including a tendency to cut ties with anyone in his life that has harmed him only in his dreams – strains his relationship with his family, friends, employer, and the close-knit town. He also puts his job in jeopardy as he borrows heavy equipment from the company for personal use to build his shelter.
To deal with his increased insomnia and apocalyptic visions, Curtis sees a counselor at a free clinic, with whom he talks about his family's psychological history. His mother, Sarah, has paranoid schizophrenia that surfaced in her at about the same age that Curtis is now. He's worried that he may also have the disorder.
In order to have the remodeled storm shelter completed, Curtis gets a home improvement loan he can't afford to start building the shelter – all without telling his wife. Samantha becomes angry when she discovers the project. After Curtis takes more than the prescribed dose of a sedative and has a seizure, Samantha calls an ambulance. He recovers, then finally explains the truth to her, including his dreams.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Jeff Nichols
- Cinematography: Adam Stone
- Edited by: Parke Gregg
- Music: David Wingo
- Production design: Chad Keith
- Produced by: Sophia Lin, Tyler Davidson
Cast
- Michael Shannon as Curtis LaForche
- Jessica Chastain as Samantha LaForche
- Shea Whigham as Dewart
- Tova Stewart as Hannah LaForche
- Katy Mixon as Nat
- Robert Longstreet as Jim
- Ray McKinnon as Kyle
- Kathy Baker as Sarah
- LisaGay Hamilton as Kendra
- Jeffrey Grover as Psychiatrist
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Hydraulx, REI Capital, Grove Hill Productions, Strange Matter Films
- Budget: $5,000,000
- Box office: $3,741,098
- Themes: small town, beach, schizophrenia, nightmare, obsession, deaf, ohio, shelter, end of the world, premonition
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by Jeff Nichols
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.