Mortal Engines Official Trailer

Mortal Engines, coming to theaters in the U.S. December 14.

Thousands of years after civilization was destroyed by a cataclysmic event, humankind has adapted and a new way of living has evolved. Gigantic moving cities now roam the Earth, ruthlessly preying upon smaller traction towns. Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan)—who hails from a Lower Tier of the great traction city of London—finds himself fighting for his own survival after he encounters the dangerous fugitive Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar). Two opposites, whose paths should never have crossed, forge an unlikely alliance that is destined to change the course of the future.

Mortal Engines is the startling, new epic adventure directed by Oscar®-winning visual-effects artist Christian Rivers (King Kong). Joining Rivers are The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies three-time Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who have penned the screenplay.

 

[Thanks to Carl Slaughter for the story.]

20 thoughts on “Mortal Engines Official Trailer

  1. @nickpheas I came in to make the exact same points, especially on Shrike!

    Also, I am disappointed but unsurprised that Hester’s facial scarring has been toned down to a “still conventionally attractive” level.

  2. The second paragraph of the excerpt above is missing its last sentence, which is . . .

    The Universal and MRC adaptation is from the award-winning book series by Philip Reeve, published in 2001 by Scholastic.

    . . . a slightly odd place to cut it off, given it’s the sentence mentioning the author of the original novel. 😛

    (Yes, there’s a split-second at the end of the vid where, if you’re quick to pause, you can possibly read the grey-on-black credit as well. Credits at the end of trailers aren’t meant to be read, apparently.)

    Apologies if the version you found actually cut off right there, of course! I’m just going by the version I found on several sites (including the movie site).

    /FreelanceNitPicker 😉

  3. LOL. Then I go with my first thought “what a weird place to cut it off.”

  4. Kendall: The second paragraph of the excerpt above is missing its last sentence

    Yeah, I was reading this thinking, what the hell is “Mortal Engines” and why should I care that a movie is being made?, given that the text seems to assume that people will know what it is and be excited about it.

  5. I love the books. Film looks good, though where is Shrike?

    In the US editions of the book Shrike is called something else (I don’t remember what.) I don’t know why–maybe not to conflict with the Shrike in the Hyperion books?

  6. Wow. Even a vote of No Confidence in how a YouTube movie trailer was presented.

  7. Mike Glyer: Wow. Even a vote of No Confidence in how a YouTube movie trailer was presented.

    Nah, even if you’d included the bit about the author and publisher, I’d probably still have been thinking, what the hell is “Mortal Engines” and why should I care that a movie is being made?

    It’s probably a factor of not having had kids. I didn’t really read much youth or MG fiction when I was a child, have always lived far from my nieces and nephews, and have had no reason to know what’s been published in that arena.

  8. Mortal Engines is an exceedingly popular novel by an exceedingly popular author, and the film has been discussed on File770 before. On top of that, scifi films often get coverage here regardless of whether they’re adaptations. Not every post has to matter to everyone. *shrug*

  9. Meredith: Not every post has to matter to everyone. *shrug*

    My mystification was not that Mike posted about a big Peter Jackson movie (which makes perfect sense), but that Peter Jackson is making a big blockbuster of something I’d never heard of.

  10. @JJ

    In this case it says a lot more about you (or your disinterest in YA) than it does about the book. 🙂

  11. @Mike Glyer: Sorry, I didn’t mean to start something.

    @JJ: I’ve seen a teaser trailer of some sort before for this. I don’t really understand the trailer types. This is the official trailer, but I’ve seen one before, like a while ago. I guess it was the teaser trailer or something.

    The books didn’t interest me (moving cities make no sense), but I may go see the movie.

  12. Meredith: In this case it says a lot more about you (or your disinterest in YA) than it does about the book.

    Absolutely. As I pointed out, my exposure to children’s and MG literature is pretty much non-existent. 🙂

    I first found out about Moomins maybe… 3 years ago? Very possibly here on File 770. I had never heard of, or seen them, before that, as far as I was aware. It’s always strange finding out that there’s something which has been huge in popular culture but that you’ve never heard of in your usual real-life and online social circles. (I still don’t see the appeal, but it’s no skin off my nose if other people enjoy them.)

  13. @JJ

    It always gives me a bit of the horrors since there’s so much good YA and children’s lit out there, and our tastes match often enough* that I’m sure there’s stuff you’d enjoy – but there are so many good books out there in general that no-one could possibly read all of them.

    *Although you’re not nearly interested enough in dragons** if you ask me.

    **Speaking of dragons I’ve been reading some more of Raksura and while I’m still pretty happy with my top two Best Series picks so far, the bottom four is getting very difficult. Having too many good books to choose between is a good problem to have, and a great improvement over the Puppy Years, but. *whimper*

  14. Meredith: you’re not nearly interested enough in dragons if you ask me

    That’s kind of funny, given that McCaffrey’s Pern books were some of my earliest SFF loves. 😀

    But it’s true that I tend to favor science fiction in my reading more than fantasy.

    Speaking of dragons, I’m in the middle of the third Lady Trent book right now, and while I’m enjoying them, I’m not finding them… gripping, I guess. (I stopped after the second one to read a SF book before resuming.) So far I would have to say that I enjoyed the Raksura books more. DRAGON PEOPLE! 🐉

  15. @JJ

    Lady Trent is best as a whole, and I can’t say why without spoiling the living heck out of it. :p

    Raksura seems a bit more loosely structured so far. I’m curious to see if the last two (my bank account isn’t thrilled with me, but we did the accounts recently and we’re doing okay at the moment so I’m indulging) give me that series-specific wow-factor instead of being a series of connected books that I enjoy very much.

    I’m spacing out reading Stormlight a bit more, because after reading the first one I had to take a few days off and I’d rather not repeat that. Chunks instead of whole novels, when the novels are that flipping long.

    Nothing is going to top Divine Cities, as far as my ballot is concerned – I’ve read enough of all them to be sure of that.

  16. Whenever I see anything about Mortal Engines it always reminds me of Chrome Shelled Regios which I ran across first even though it came out some 4 years after it. I think there are earlier examples of moving cities in Japanese sources so I do not know if there is a direct link or not.

    Actually there is an original anime,Darling in the FranXX, running now with moving cities in it. Which is getting the most thorough analysis I have seen for an airing show. This is the one for the first episode , they run from about an hour to up to an hour and forty-five.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXm_s_MAQkA&t=2647s

Comments are closed.