Poster © Bleecker Street. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
|
GenreAdventure, Comedy & Drama
RatedR
Runtime1 hr 58 mins
ReleasedJuly 8, 2016
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorMatt Ross
StarringViggo Mortensen, Frank Langella, Kathryn Hahn
|
Captain Fantastic (2016)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Captain Fantastic's Details | |
| Genre | Adventure, Comedy & Drama |
| Rated | R |
| Released | 01/23/2016 (Sundance); 07/08/2016 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 58 mins |
| Budget | $5M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Captain Fantastic's Interests | |
| General | Noam Chomsky Day, hunting knives, rock climbing, school buses, homemade everything. |
| Music | Alex Somers. Gentle, woodsy and very Pacific Northwest. |
| Movies | The Mosquito Coast (1986). Another dad who takes off-grid living way too far. |
| Television | Alone. Wilderness survival, zero group chats. |
| Heroes | Noam Chomsky. In this house, he gets his own holiday. |
| Captain Fantastic's Crew | |
| Director | Matt Ross |
| Writers | Matt Ross |
| Producers | Nimitt Mankad, Monica Levinson, Jamie Patricof, Shivani Rawat, Lynette Howell Taylor |
| Cinematography | Stéphane Fontaine |
| Music | Alex Somers |
| Edited By | Joseph Krings |
| Production | Electric City Entertainment, ShivHans Pictures |
| Distributed By | Bleecker Street (United States), Entertainment One (International) |
Ben Cash is a great dad and a reckless one, sometimes in the same scene, and Captain Fantastic only half wants to admit the second part. The movie loves his off-grid family so much that whenever it starts asking hard questions about him, it ducks back into a warm singalong. But Viggo Mortensen is magnificent as Ben: brilliant, stubborn and quietly wrecked by a family loss, a man who can teach his kids to scale a cliff and has no plan for a world that won’t play by his rules. The six kids are terrific, especially George MacKay as Bo, who can quote philosophy and can’t talk to a girl his age. Frank Langella’s Jack is no cartoon villain. His worries make sense. The culture clash scenes are very funny, especially a supermarket the kids treat like a mission. It made $23.1 million worldwide on a reported $5M. A 7.9 because it’s tender and thoughtful even when it plays favorites. $8,052 says you look up off-grid cabins tonight and close the tab the second you see no Wi-Fi.
What works: Viggo Mortensen gives one of his best performances, and the kids feel like a real, strange, loving family.
What doesn’t: The movie goes easy on Ben whenever it gets close to judging him, and the ending wraps up his choices too neatly.
Who it’s for: Anyone who has daydreamed about quitting society, and families who like their road trips funny, sad and full of arguments.
Spoilers
The loss is Leslie, the kids’ mother, who had been ill for a long time, and her written wish was to be cremated, not buried. Ben and the kids quietly take her from the cemetery and honor her wishes with a farewell of their own, then Ben shaves his beard and the family settles into a more ordinary life on a farm, with the kids waiting for the school bus.
Deep in the Washington wilderness, Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) is raising his six kids completely off the grid. They hunt, climb, read philosophy, argue politics like grad students, and celebrate Noam Chomsky's birthday instead of Christmas. They are brilliant, and not great at small talk. Then a family loss pulls them out of the woods. Ben loads everyone into a converted school bus and heads for New Mexico, to a funeral that the kids' wealthy grandfather, Jack (Frank Langella), has told him not to attend. Matt Ross writes and directs. One hundred eighteen minutes, one very long road trip.
Anyone who can quote philosophy and start a fire without matches. Small talk optional.
| Viggo Mortensen | Ben Cash |
| Frank Langella | Jack Bertrang |
| George MacKay | Bodevan Cash |
| Samantha Isler | Kielyr Cash |
| Annalise Basso | Vespyr Cash |
| Nicholas Hamilton | Rellian Cash |
| Shree Crooks | Zaja Cash |
| Charlie Shotwell | Nai Cash |
| Ann Dowd | Abigail Bertrang |
| Erin Moriarty | Claire McCune |
| Missi Pyle | Ellen McCune |
| Trin Miller | Leslie Abigail Cash |
| Elijah Stevenson | Justin |
| Teddy Van Ee | Jackson |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +400 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $23.1M; Domestic box office $5.9M; Opening weekend $94K; Profit / loss (est.) +$4.1M; Rotten Tomatoes 82%; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 82% (228 reviews); Metacritic 72 / 100; IMDb users 7.8 / 10 (253,989 votes); movie.guru score 8.3.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.