Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines is set in a future where a cataclysm has reshaped civilisation. Great cities now move across the land on wheels, hunting and consuming smaller settlements to feed their engines and their people. London is one of the largest of these traction cities, and Tom Natsworthy works on one of its lower tiers. A chance meeting with Hester Shaw, a young woman from outside the city who is being pursued, pulls him off the life he knows and into a conflict that reaches the highest levels of London's leadership. The two are opposites whose paths were never meant to cross, and what they learn together puts the future of the moving cities in question.

The film is based on Philip Reeve's novel and was directed by Christian Rivers, making his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Jackson and Walsh also produced through WingNut Films alongside Deborah Forte. Hera Hilmar plays Hester Shaw and Robert Sheehan plays Tom Natsworthy, with Hugo Weaving, Jihae, Ronan Raftery and Leila George in supporting roles. The production had a budget of 100 million US dollars, and its worldwide box office came to about 84 million, well short of that outlay.

Audience responses were mixed, at 6.1 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 152,000 votes and 6.3 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of ratings. The film critics' rating stands lower, at 4.9 out of 10 across 189 reviews.