Encounter

Encounter is a drama with mystery, science fiction and thriller elements, released in December 2021. It centres on Malik Khan, a decorated former Marine played by Riz Ahmed, who returns home from overseas deployments and takes his two young sons, Jay and Bobby, away on a journey he insists is meant to keep them safe. He believes an alien species is spreading across the country and seizing control of ordinary people, and he is determined to protect the boys from it. As the trip carries them through a landscape that grows steadily more dangerous, the children are pushed to question what their father is really doing and to confront hard truths about him.

Michael Pearce directed and co-wrote the film with Joe Barton, following his debut Beast in 2018; his next feature, Echo Valley, came later in 2025. The cast includes Octavia Spencer as Hattie Hayes, Rory Cochrane as Shepard West, Janina Gavankar as Piya, and Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada as the two boys. Produced by Film4, Amazon Studios, Automatik Entertainment and Big Indie Pictures, it runs 108 minutes and was made in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Reception was middling on the whole. A critics' rating of 5.9 out of 10 from 125 reviews sits level with the IMDb score of 5.9 from around 12,000 votes, while the TMDB rating of 6.3 from roughly 476 votes is slightly warmer, though based on far fewer viewers.