Arcadian

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Arcadian (formerly titled Sand and Stones) is a 2024 action horror film written by Michael Nilon, directed by Ben Brewer, and starring Nicolas Cage. .^[1]

Premise[]

“	After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.	„
	― Arcadian

Plot[]

The film opens with Paul scavenging for supplies in a storehouse and then fleeing through deserted back alleys, with the pandemonium of an apocalyptic event in the background, sirens blaring and sounds of distant explosions and screams of people. He seeks refuge in a secluded spot, cradling his two infant boys and reassuring them that everything will be okay.

Fifteen years later, after a pandemic has wiped out most of the population and caused civilization to break down, Paul and his twin sons, Joseph and Thomas, live in a derelict farmhouse, eking out what livelihood they can during the day and sheltering from monstrous photophobic creatures at night. As Thomas returns home one evening after sunset from a nearby farm belonging to the Rose family, it becomes apparent that he is the bigger risk-taker of the two brothers, while Joseph appears more intellectual and talks about ways of improving their situation beyond mere survival. After dinner, they hear loud banging coming from the cellar, which stops after three attempts of the creatures to enter the house.

The next morning, Paul finds deep gouges on the outside of the cellar door and decides to reinforce it. Joseph reveals that he has been working on an off-road utility buggy in the barn, and Paul helps him to fix the engine. After Paul teaches Joseph how to drive it, he sends both his sons to salvage some wood for reinforcing the cellar door. Thomas, who is secretly in love with Charlotte Rose, wants to go the Rose farm and leaves his brother, asking Joseph to meet him later on the road leading to the Rose farm so they can return home together.

On his way back from the Rose farm, Thomas trips over a crevice and falls into a cave, concussed and unconscious. After Joseph returns home without his brother and with the night falling, Paul sets out to find Thomas and discovers him in the cave, where they decide to stay until sunrise. When several creatures converge on them through the rocks underneath the cave later in the night, Paul lights a flare, but one of his hands gets trapped in the rocks, and as the charge detonates in his hand, it kills the creatures and causes the cave to collapse.

Meanwhile, home alone, Joseph uses himself as bait and traps one of the creatures, intending to study it later. Driving the buggy in the morning, he finds Thomas and Paul, who is badly injured and unconscious, and brings them home. Thomas insists that they should take their father to the Rose farm, as better care can be provided there, and because Paul won't survive without medication. But Mr. Rose and his wife announce they can't spare any medicine to help him, although they are willing to let Thomas stay on their farm. Joseph returns home with Paul. Thomas pleads with Charlotte. She gives him the medicine, but when Thomas tries to take it home to his father, he is stopped at the gate and held at gunpoint by one of Rose's farmhands, who accuses him of being a liar and a thief and wants to punish him by shooting his foot off.

Back home, Joseph finds a large hole forming under the floorboards and realizes that the creatures have been digging under the house, intending to get inside. At the Rose farm, they attack through a similar hole dug under the floor and kill everyone except Thomas and Charlotte, who escape to Paul's farm. There, Paul regains consciousness and suggests a course of action to fight the creatures. Joseph starts preparing a trap, planning to set off several gallons of fuel as an improvised fire bomb. In order to give the brothers and Charlotte more time to make it to safety, Paul locks the door behind them and holds the creatures off until the bomb explodes, sacrificing his life.

The next day, Charlotte, Joseph, and Thomas set off to check for possible survivors on the other farms in the area.