Hope (2026 film)

Ko Bum-seok is the police chief of Hope Harbor, a small village near the Korean Demilitarized Zone populated mostly by elderly residents. His second cousin, Ko Sung-ki, asks him to inspect a dead cow with gaping wounds. Sung-ki and his fellow hunters attribute it to a stray tiger, but soon find further dead cattle and the farm's owner also dead. Bum-seok returns to a Hope Harbor in distress as a large creature rampages across the village, massacring several villagers. With reinforcements tied up fighting wildfires elsewhere, he teams up with retired colonel Ahn Nak-yeon to track it down, but the pair mistakenly shoot and badly wound a local chef while searching a dilapidated building.

Continuing the search alone, Bum-seok learns from a local militia that the creature is in fact an intelligent, apparently indestructible humanoid. After it wipes out the militia, rookie officer Im Sung-ae saves Bum-seok by firing a grenade launcher at the creature, severing one of its legs. The two give chase by car, but Bum-seok hesitates to finish the creature off after seeing it crying. The creature is killed after being run over by a tanker.

A surgeon examines the body, noting that it is a digitigrade with similarities to human anatomy but also additional unknown organs. Bum-seok and Nak-yeon later encounter an eccentric hunter and would-be carpenter, Yang-bae, who claims to have killed a second creature and stored its corpse in his freezer. The body turns out to be a monster infant. Bum-seok realizes the adult creature had been searching for its offspring, and angrily blames Yang-bae for triggering the massacre. Meanwhile, while tending the wounded at a makeshift hospital, Sung-ae learns that there are several such creatures out there. She tracks down Bum-seok to warn him, and the two, along with Nak-yeon and Yang-bae, head out to look for Sung-ki.

Elsewhere, Sung-ki and his fellow hunters stumble upon a massive crashed spaceship in the forest and realize the creatures are aliens. Inside, they find a nursery-like chamber but are ambushed by the alien Empress J'aur and her subordinates, Ma'veyyo and Ai'dovor. Everyone present is killed except Sung-ki, who faces off against Ma'veyyo and is nearly killed. Bum-seok's group arrives in time, allowing Sung-ki to escape on a horse belonging to a heavily armed group of local union members. Ma'veyyo pursues Sung-ki along the highway as Bum-seok and Sung-ae attack from their car. Sung-ki maneuvers himself onto the car and badly wounds Ma'veyyo using a grenade launcher. Celebrating as he hangs out the window, Sung-ki is accidentally swiped off the side of the vehicle.

Ma'veyyo rejoins J'aur, and together they watch as an allied spaceship belonging to Emperor Daiads falls from the sky and crashes into a nearby mountain. The resulting shockwave sends the police car off the road, forcing Bum-seok, Nak-yeon, Sung-ae and Yang-bae to press on by foot as they try to evade the aliens and reach Hope Harbor in time to raise the alarm. Meanwhile, J'aur and Ma'veyyo discuss their next move, as Ma'veyyo promises to find Xinertai, the infant, offering his own heart to revive him.

A mid-credits scene reveals that Sung-ki has survived and is limping along the highway.

• Hwang Jung-min as Ko Bum-seok,^[1] the police chief of Hope Harbor
• Zo In-sung as Ko Sung-ki,^[1] a headstrong local who tracks a dangerous creature
• Jung Ho-yeon as Im Sung-ae,^[1] a rookie cop under Hope's police force
• Michael Fassbender as Ma'veyyo, an alien warrior/bodyguard^[1][8]
• Alicia Vikander as J'aur, the aliens' Empress^[1][8]
• Taylor Russell as Ai'dovor, one of the creatures and J'aur's subordinate^[1][8]
• Cameron Britton as Va'migere, the first alien who demolished town^[1]
• Eum Moon-suk as Yang-bae, an offbeat carpenter^[9]
• Lee Sang-hee [ko] as Ahn Nak-yeon, a retired colonel^[9]
• Im Hyun-sik as Mr. Hae-sul, an elderly local^[9]

Hope had its world premiere at the main competition of the 79th Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2026,^[1] marking the first South Korean film to compete for the Palme d'Or since Decision to Leave (2022). The selection makes it the fourth film by director Na Hong-jin to be screened at the festival, following The Chaser (2008) in Midnight Screenings, The Yellow Sea (2011) in Un Certain Regard section, and The Wailing (2016) in the Out of Competition section.^[26]

Hope is slated for a July 15, 2026 release in South Korea.^[27] Neon scheduled its theatrical release in the United States for September 9,^[28] and also acquired distribution rights for other English-speaking territories.^[29][30] In May 2026, Mubi acquired distribution rights in Latin America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Turkey.^[31] Later that month, it was reported that Hope had pre-sold to 200 territories worldwide; among the buyers disclosed were Focus Features, which bought rights for France, the Benelux and South Africa, as well as Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, which acquired the film for Portugal, Scandinavia, Iceland, the Middle East and Israel.^[32]

The film had its North American Premiere in the Centerpiece Presentation section of the 25th New York Asian Film Festival on 20 July 2026.^[33] It had its UK Premiere at the 79th Edinburgh International Film Festival on 16 August 2026.^[34]