In the Blink of an Eye is a 2026 American science fiction drama film directed by Andrew Stanton and written by Colby Day. It stars Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, and Daveed Diggs.
The film premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2026, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize. It was released by Hulu on February 27, 2026.
In the Blink of an Eye depicts three interconnected stories exploring the history of the world. The first story followed a family in the prehistoric (about 47,000 years ago), the second story follows a present day research scientist, and the third story takes place in the future aboard a spaceship heading toward the Kepler system.
It was first announced in October 2022 that Andrew Stanton had signed on to direct a film written by Colby Day for Searchlight Pictures, which cited the films ' (1968), Magnolia (1999) and Interstellar (2014) as influences for the story. Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, Daveed Diggs, Jorge Vargas, Tanaya Beatty and Skywalker Hughes were among the cast announced to star in the film in March 2023.
Principal photography began on March 24, 2023 in Vancouver, and wrapped up on May 16, 2023. In March 2024, Thomas Newman was hired to compose the score, after previously scoring Stanton's Pixar films Finding Nemo (2003), WALL-E (2008), and Finding Dory (2016).
In the Blink of an Eye premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, on January 26, 2026, followed by a worldwide streaming release on February 27, 2026, on Hulu.
Bilge Ebiri of Vulture was critical of the lack of connection with the characters but praised the use of visual textures and storytelling, making "In the Blink of an Eye is so ambitious that a rather dramatic artistic balancing act is required to make it all work." Siddhant Adlakha of Variety wrote "Both as drama and as science fiction, In the Blink of an Eye doesnâÂÂt probe these questions, but rather, drops definitive answers like anvils, leaving little room to ruminate, wrestle, or consider." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com noted that the film had "so many humanist ideas that it becomes really tempting to give it a pass on that basis alone" such as people connecting to the past and future as a species in a fertile ground, but added "whether itâÂÂs the pandemic, a rushed production, the business upheaval at Searchlight, or something else entirely, that ground just never got enough water to make this work."
A. A. Dowd of Empire wrote "Meditating drippily on the grand cycle of life, In The Blink Of An Eye plays more like Cloud Atlas as a self-help seminar." Adrian Horton of The Guardian considereed the film to be "tediously boring â too limp, uninspired and barren to conjure any of the requisite wonder for the persistence of life" calling it equivalent to "watching paint dry on the cave wall." Richard Lawson of The Hollywood Reporter felt the plots being "so broad and generic" and considered "much more powerful to see really detailed, specific stories identified as parts of a grandly universal human experience." Chase Hutchinson of IGN felt that the film has "little ambition and even less genuine wonder." David Ehrlich of IndieWire felt that the film was not "significantly worse than" John Carter but "bad enough to make you long for the days when Hollywood was willing to risk embarrassing itself at that scale".
Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times admitted that the film could have developed into a miniseries, as it had lack of space for the characters and felt that it often gives the impression "itâÂÂs trying to get you to feel rather than letting you feel, with swelling music and montages of people experiencing emotion, signaling what youâÂÂre supposed to be experiencing, too." Damon Wise of Deadline Hollywood felt it an echo of the Stanton's previous experience with the failure of John Carter that sent him to the "Director's Jail" and ultimately considered the film to be "woolly and sentimental as this to take [Stanton] anywhere except backwards, to DirectorâÂÂs Siberian Gulag." Jake Kleinman of Polygon felt each piece of the film "uniquely flawed" but mentioned the director and writer's greatest sin being "failing to bring them together in a clever way".
Embedo Ashibeze of Screen Rant said that Thomas Newman's score, Ola Maslik's production design and Ole Birkeland's cinematography helped in saving the film from being "forgettable". Sean Rinn of SLUG wrote that "Stanton and Day fail to realize that the beauty of humanity is in the uniqueness and specificity of each individual experience, not in some universal story that encompasses everyone and everything". Jake Cole of Slant Magazine said that Stanton failed to add anything new in the genre, which felt like a similar tread to Cloud Atlas and The Tree of Life. In a positive review, G. Allen Johnson of San Francisco Chronicle added that "Stanton is a dreamer, with an unshakeable faith in humanity" which was proven through this film.
Upon its selection for Sundance, the film was named the winner of the festival's Alfred P. Sloan Prize, awarded annually to the best depiction of science, technology, engineering, and math themes in a film screening during the festival. It also received a $25,000 cash award from the Sundance Institute with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.