The Road

The Road (2009) is a post-apocalyptic drama from director John Hillcoat that you can watch online on iFILM. The earth is scorched, the cities are dead, and a father walks his young son south along a gray, ash-choked highway.

Viggo Mortensen plays a man with no name and one job: keep the boy warm, keep him fed, keep him from becoming like the things that hunt in the dark. What is left of humanity has split in two — those still scraping by on canned food, and those who have started eating each other. A shopping cart, a pistol with two bullets, a map that promises nothing. Kodi Smit-McPhee, as the son, keeps asking whether they are still the good guys, and his father can never quite answer. Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce appear in brief, haunting turns.

Adapted from Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the film strips out almost all color and music, leaving the squeak of wheels and breath on freezing air. That bareness makes every flicker of hope feel heavier than gold. Stream The Road (2009) online on iFILM.