Tom Hanks, His Robot and His Dog Hit the Road in First Trailer for Apple’s Finch

For many Americans, the moment when the COVID-19 pandemic officially became “real” arrived in March of 2020 when actor Tom Hanks revealed his COVID diagnosis. The beloved performer, who more or less inherited the title of “America’s Dad” after we all stopped wanting to think about Bill Cosby, eventually went on to recover from the virus and return to what he does best, which is making crowd-pleasing blockbusters, hosting SNL and winning awards. Now he’s back in a new film with a familiar apocalyptic setting, although the funny thing about Finch is that it was actually filmed a year before COVID arrived.

Finch is a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic drama that looks to combine a bit of Cast Away with The Martian or I Am Legend. Hanks plays an “ailing”—you know he’s sick because his voice quavers throughout—inventor who survives a cataclysm that destroys most life on Earth. Hiding out in a bunker, with only a dog for company, he builds a robotic companion Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones) to look after the dog when he’s gone. The trio must then embark on some kind of cross-country roadtrip in search of safety. We look forward to weeping when Jeff inevitably sacrifices himself for Finch and the dog at some point.

Finch had a long production, originally being titled BIOS way back in 2017, before filming in the spring of 2019. Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, of “Battle of the Bastards” Game of Thrones fame—and also “The Long Night,” but people don’t like to talk about that one—it was originally intended for theatrical release by Universal, but then sold to Apple TV+ and given its current release date of Nov. 5, 2021. This is another major acquisition for Apple TV+ as they try to build up their slate of major original motion pictures.

In addition to the star power of Hanks, Finch stars the aforementioned Caleb Landry Jones. Check out the first full trailer below for this upcoming sci-fi feature.