With films like Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, Eternal is a movie that blends a dramatic love story with science fiction, spanning many years. They are are two genres that many sci-fi enthusiasts feel can coexist well, but overdoing it can be costly, leaving either genre to have a mark on the film.
Eternal centers around Elias (Simon Sears), who becomes obsessed with a global crisis of a crack near the Earth's core that is causing the end of times. His focus on the problem and how he will fix it in the future becomes intertwined with the love story he shares with the beautiful Anita (Nanna Øland Fabricius). The movie opens with their first meeting, and he takes Anita back to his apartment, where he explains how he plans to solve the Earth’s fracture. His career path ends up becoming a metaphor for the pair's first sexual encounter.
To backpedal for a minute, it's the film's opening moments that grab any moviegoer. The scene consists of a man and his dog in a lone house that sits near a cliff overlooking the ocean. The fracture in the Earth causes part of the cliff to collapse and crumble into the sea. Although the visuals are not over the top or done in a very blockbuster fashion, they’re still compelling enough to have anyone slouched in their seats sit up a bit.
However, Eternal struggles over the next hour and thirty-five minutes. There is a lot to cram into that run time. Anita and Elais’s story arc jumps around the scientific endeavor to save the Earth, but it's jarring at times, always having you play catch-up. Elias chooses to save the world over Anita, and at no point is his choice intriguing. Although we feel the stakes of the film in the first half, we never buy Elias' choice. It’s not that we think it's right or wrong; there just isn’t enough there for us to feel invested in his decision.
Still, the special effects of Elias's trip down to the fracture holds are attention-grabbing. It almost makes us wish this film wasn't so 50/50 with its genres. The ship he operates has a specific set of designs that feel very 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque. The science discussed by the characters feels very matter-of-fact and highly European (the film was produced in Denmark). Never once did it feel like it was trying to be a summer blockbuster. In the end, Eternal becomes its own worst enemy, never really sticking the landing on either of its plots. With many real-world problems causing fractures in the Earth, there always seemed to be a subtle hint to give us a sense of urgency, because this could happen. However, the poor pacing of the script prevents us from really caring about something we should. Optional Purchase.
Why does this Danish Sci-Fi Romance belong in public and academic library collections?
Eternal does have strong educational tones. As mentioned above, the scenes address the scientific issue of climate change and Earth's reaction to it. Love story aside, Eternal is meant to make humans feel small in terms of the Earth's problems. Almost at times, making us wonder if, no matter what we do to try and better our world, some things are out of our hands.
What educational themes does Eternal explore?
At its core, Eternal examines the human response to an existential crisis—both planetary and personal. The film invites discussion around climate change, environmental ethics, and the limitations of human control over natural systems. Through Elias’s obsession with fixing the Earth’s fracture, the story mirrors real-world questions about scientific responsibility, moral sacrifice, and the emotional toll of environmental collapse.