प्लॉट

Set in the future when water is hard to find, a teenage boy sets out to protect his family and survive.

Set in a near future when water has become the most precious and dwindling resource on the planet, one that dictates everything from the macro of political policy to the detailed micro of interpersonal family and romantic relationships. The land has withered into something wretched. The dust has settled on a lonely, barren planet. The hardened survivors of the loss of Earth's precious resources scrape and struggle. Ernest Holm (Michael Shannon) lives on this harsh frontier with his children, Jerome ( Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Mary (Elle Fanning) fends his farm from bandits, works the supply routes, and hopes to rejuvenate the soil. But Mary's boyfriend, Flem Lever (Nicholas Hoult), has grander designs. He wants Ernest's land for himself, and will go to any length to get it. From writer/director Jake Paltrow comes a futuristic western, told in three chapters, which inventively layers Greek tragedy over an ethereal narrative that's steeped deeply in the values of the American West.—Laurent Boyé

In a post draught-apocalyse USA, people would literally kill for water. Ernest Holm lives with his son Jerome and daughter Mary in their small town house and field. While everybody has left, Ernest stays, believing that the land will grow once more if only theres irrigation. Ernest gets water for his family by trading supplies with the water people who extract water from deep wells. When his mule breaks its legs and he has to kill it, Ernest goes to the auction and buys a robotic carrier machine to replace it, beating the offers of Flem, a young man whos been seeing Mary without his consent. Ernest rejects Flems offer to rent the machine. One morning Ernest finds his machine is missing, and he goes looking for it. When he gets to the water people, Ernest is accused of stealing. He wins a fight with the water peoples leader Caleb and takes his knife.

Continuing on, he finds his machine and Flem with it, transporting a supply of water. Flem is taking it somewhere. Ernest takes Flem tied up but he soon gets weary due to refusing to take a drink from the water theyre carrying. Flem, wanting to continue his smuggling run, then throws a bottle at Ernest killing him. Time went by, the people found and buried Ernest, but the machine has gone missing. Flem marries Mary after helping the family build an irrigation system thus saving their farm. But the machine, limping and mangled, didnt shut down, and its default protocol makes it walk to a store in town. The store owner reaches Jerome in the Holm residence, informing about the machine. After tricking his way to town over border patrol, Jerome gets to the store to find the store owner has repaired the machine.

Jerome gets interested to the machines laser sensor. It turns out the sensor can behave like a video recorder. Curious about the machines adventure, Jerome plays the recording and finds the truth about Flem and Ernest. Arriving home before Flem, Jerome picks on him as how did the machine find its way home. Flem lies further, which only infuriates Jerome even more. But he doesnt take any action. One day Flem goes on a supply run with the machine, and accidentally falls into a pit, breaking his legs. As he cries for help, Jerome, who has been secretly following him, comes at the pits mouth. As Jerome only stands there, Flem realizes that Jerome already knows about what happened to Ernest. Flem tries to talk his way into Jeromes mercy. Eventually Jerome shoots him in the head, and decides not to tell anything, even about Ernest, to Mary.