Dinosaurs have fascinated moviegoers for generations, but 65 attempts to give the familiar creatures a science fiction twist. The action adventure stars Adam Driver as Mills, a pilot who crash lands on what initially appears to be an unknown planet. He soon discovers that the dangerous world around him is prehistoric Earth, filled with creatures capable of turning every journey into a fight for survival. Written and directed by longtime creative partners Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the film combines their love of suspense with a fascination that began when they were children. For the filmmakers, making a dinosaur movie was something they had imagined for decades.
Beck and Woods had already developed a distinctive approach to screenwriting through projects including A Quiet Place and Haunt. Their scripts are designed not only to tell a story but also to communicate how scenes might feel visually and sonically on screen. While writing A Quiet Place, for example, they experimented with unusually sparse pages to emphasize important sounds and moments of silence. For 65, they continued playing with screenplay presentation, even changing font sizes to suggest different dinosaurs and species. Their goal was to make the experience cinematic before filming had even started.
The filmmakers’ enthusiasm for dinosaurs stretches back much further than their professional careers. Beck and Woods have known each other since they were 11 years old and recalled making their own movies using Jurassic Park action figures. Like countless children, they were fascinated by the almost unbelievable idea that enormous creatures once walked the planet. That childhood amazement eventually became a professional challenge. They wanted to create their own dinosaur adventure while finding an approach that did not simply repeat movies audiences had already seen.
Alongside Driver, the film relies heavily on young Ariana Greenblatt, who plays Koa, another survivor of the crash. Greenblatt was only 13 during filming, and the production presented an unusual challenge because so much of her performance involved working directly with just one principal costar. She described the experience of acting opposite Driver as exciting, especially because she had never previously worked in such an intense one-on-one setup. Their relationship becomes crucial to the story as Mills and Koa attempt to survive a hostile environment despite significant barriers between them.
Ultimately, 65 grew from the filmmakers’ desire to capture the same sense of wonder and danger that made dinosaurs exciting to them as children. Instead of building a crowded ensemble adventure, Beck and Woods placed two isolated characters against an environment dominated by prehistoric predators. The result combines survival drama, science fiction, and creature thrills while keeping its emotional focus on a small human partnership. For two childhood friends who once made movies with dinosaur toys, bringing enormous prehistoric creatures to the big screen marked the realization of a remarkably long-running dream.
