Penelope Cruz in a scene from Bunker, screening at AFI Fest 2026
HOLLYWOOD,CA (LA ELEMENTS) 10/27/2026 – Florian Zeller’s latest film, Bunker, opens with Miguel (Javier Bardem) and Sofia Moreno (Penelope Cruz) enjoying a late night dinner in London at a fashionable restaurant with friends and co-workers. Miguel charms with the story of how when they first started dating, Sofia had a cat that he was allergic to. Because the allergies made his eyes water, Sofia mistook that for tears and believed that he must be an incredibly sensitive man. She fell for him and they have been together ever since. Miguel gazes at Sofia with such intensity that even after 17 years of marriage, his love for her is unmistakeable. The guests find the story adorable, and one of them asks Sofia what their secret for staying together.
“I think things last when you consider them fragile because you handle it with care. It’s when you perceive something as solid, that it will eventually end up breaking,” says Sofia. This cryptic response brings a cold awkwardness to the gathering. Visible tension arises between Sofia and Miguel who is clearly taken by surprise.
After all, this is the perfect couple. He is a successful architect, she is a literary agent and book editor at a top publishing company. They live in an exquisite house with their two daughters who they clearly adore. Once Sofia finishes speaking, the scene cuts away to a shot of a sledgehammer smashing through a brick wall. This sets the stage for the clash between Miguel and his neighbor Toby (Stephen Graham). Toby is a holdover from before Miguel and Sofia’s neighborhood became entirely gentrified. Now, his modest studio is dwarfed by the Moreno’s stately exquisitely designed home. Toby simply wants to add a window to let in more light, but Miguel is concerned that his family’s privacy will be invaded. Like it or not, Toby has now entered the life of Miguel and Sofia.
Even more chaos arrives in the form of tech billionaire Andrew, (Paul Dano) who wants Miguel to design a literal bunker for him and an elite group of wealthy individuals in Hawaii. Andrew is only onscreen for about 5 minutes, and his communication with Miguel is entirely through Zoom, but Dano makes him fascinating to watch as he completely melts into this character. He gives Andrew the perfect combination of cordiality and cunning. He is someone very much used to getting what he wants. And when what he wants is a bunker with “oxygen controlled by vocal recognition,” one starts to get the sense that he knows something that practically everyone else does not.
The tension that has been shifting just underneath the surface finally explodes when Miguel considers taking on Andrew’s project. Sofia deeply despises Andrew on moral grounds. She believes him to be the cause of the problems that he wants sanctuary from. Miguel however is tempted to take on what would be his most lucrative project. Is Miguel willing to give up this project for Sofia? Has Sofia already distanced herself away from Miguel to the point that it doesn’t matter anymore? Emotions boil over and then an act of extreme violence decides the answer for them.
Bunker presents a visually stunning aesthetic that plays well into its themes of isolation. The Moreno house itself features a Victorian exterior with a modern interior of multiple split levels-a design that allows a family to live together and yet so far apart. The cinematography by Ben Smithard, with its use of selective low lighting, serves to enhance the vision of the Moreno’s house as being onto itself a type of bunker. His tight close-ups of Bardem and Cruz capture the ambiguity of the fate of a marriage that on the surface once seemed so ideal.
In Bunker’s tale of a husband and wife facing the greatest challenge to their marriage in the era of Big Tech, Bardem and Cruz tell this story brilliantly. You see this clearly in Miguel’s growing sense of dread that his ambition just might cost him the only thing that truly matters. This aligns strikingly with Sofia’s growing rage over the indignities she has dealt within her own career. Indignities made worse by Miguel’s seeming obliviousness to them.
Perhaps it’s because Bunker appears to center more on Miguel’s self-actualization, that one wishes the subplot between Sofia and Jeremy (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a rising star in the literary world, had been more developed. The attraction was evident from the beginning, especially on Jeremy’s part. His departure comes across as abrupt, leaving one to believe that he was little more than an echo chamber for Sofia.
While Bardem and Cruz have co-starred in other films, Bunker is the first movie where this real-life husband and wife, are onscreen playing husband and wife. Each brings their considerable charisma to Zeller’s modern-day tale of the isolation that weakens our humanity, making this film a fascinating watch.
Bunker screened at AFI Film Fest on October 22, 2026
Click here for our red carpet interview with Director Florian Zeller
Bunker 1 hour 59 minutes
Director Florian Zeller
Writer Florian Zeller,
Producers Florian Zeller
Federica Sainte-Rose
Cast
Javier Bardem Miguel
Penelope Cruz Sofia
Stephen Graham Toby
Paul Dano Andrew
Patrick Schwarzenegger Jeremy
Cinematography Ben Smithard
No Comments