The Edenbound
2024 · 12m · UK
Directed by Andrew McGee
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
Amid an unending planetary war, a young pilot named Cara crashes deep inside enemy territory after a strike mission goes wrong. Stranded in the mysterious City of Echoes, a radio contact with the enemy forces her to choose between programmed duty and a human connection that unravels everything she's been conditioned to believe.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
McGee's doing the expected anti-war pivot—pilot meets enemy, questions orders, finds humanity—but he's wrapping it in enough virtual production spectacle that it almost disappears into the noise; the premise wants to subvert, but the execution plays it safe.
The film inherits its DNA from a long lineage of sci-fi intimacy-in-crisis (think *Arrival*, *Gravity*'s quieter cousins), and the formal restraint—two voices, one crash site, the slow collapse of ideology—anchors the technical ambition without drowning in it.
The decision to ground all that LED-volume firepower in a single radio conversation—letting Cara's conviction fracture through dialogue rather than action—is what transforms a high-concept premise into something that actually breathes on a short film's budget.
Reviews
McGee describes The Edenbound as a reflection on how war strips away individuality and empathy — a story about the dehumanising and indoctrinating effects of war, particularly by drawing parallels to current real-world conflicts.
Director Andrew McGee builds a striking futuristic world on an independent scale, harnessing virtual production and combining it with exceptional skills from every creative department.