Among Us (film)

Among Us is a 2022 American computer-animated action-adventure comedy horror film directed by Marcus Bromander and Chris Wedge and produced by 20th Century Animation, Regency Enterprises and Innersloth Animation Studios and distributed by 20th Century Studios. It is produced by Bromander with Forest Willard and Peter Chernin based on a story by Aubrey Solomon, and is based on the video game of the same name by Innersloth LLC. It stars the voices of Tom Hanks, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz and more.

It is the first film in the Among Us film franchise, and the plot follows a blue crewmate (Hanks) and a pink crewmate (Bullock) in a relationship during games called "Among Us", and the crewmates have to hide and avoid one of them, who is the "Impostor". The Impostor lurks around on the other crewmates, and waits to kill them at the right time, when no one else was watching. The film was dedicated to Blue Sky Studios, a computer animation studio that went defunct in April 2021 following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

Among Us premiered at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2022 and was theatrically released on June 3, 2022 in the United States by 20th Century Studios. It received positive reviews from critics, praising its animation, voice cast (particularly Hanks, Bullock and Reynolds), musical score by Heitor Pereira and humor, though criticized the plot. It was a box office success, grossing $295.6 million worldwide on a $45 million budget.

Plot
On a ship in outer space, 15 crewmates, each a different color, were teleported to a seat. Two crewmates, a blue one and a pink one, noticed each other. They walked up to each other and greeted each other, and it was obvious the two were joking around and chatting as if they were in a relationship. Soon after, everyone was transported to the game in The Skeld. One of the crewmates, Red, was the "Impostor", but the other crewmates didn't know. Blue and Pink stayed together for the duration of this round.

While trying to connect the wires, Blue was having some trouble, so Pink came and helped him out as a sign of friendship. Grey, one of the other crewmates, was in the Reactor chamber, when all of a sudden, the room was sabotaged. Grey quickly completed a task for the chamber, and headed to the other end of the room, and completed the second task. No one suspected it was Red, until Lime saw a dead body on the ground near the Electrics room. Immediately reported, all of the crewmates were called to an Emergency Meeting.

The crewmates couldn't figure out who it was, and began questioning Cyan, who had been quiet for a while. Red, watching this, snickered to himself. To close off the meeting, Blue and Pink voted for Cyan, and everyone else did as well. It turned out that Cyan was not the Impostor, and that the one Impostor remained. Continuing onward, Blue and Pink kept together throughout the match, until they went into Electrical.

After hooking up the electric wires, Red was behind them. But before Red could pull out the knife and stab one of them, Blue and Pink left after completing their tasks. This led to Red chasing the two of them, and Grey, watching the whole thing, followed him. Blue and Pink immediately ran to the cafeteria and Pink pressed the Emergency Meeting button. Grey, having been following Red chasing Blue and Pink, immediately called on Red as the Impostor. Red attempted to back up his evidence by saying he following them for safe measures, but the rest of the crewmates were talking with each other, disagreeing with Red's statement. Everyone voted for Red, and Red was ejected from the ship, and said that Red was the Impostor.

Back in the spaceship, after Red was defeated in that round, the crewmates joked around at Red, mainly about when he lost. Red admittedly got pretty upset and stayed in the corner of the ship until the next game started, in the same map as the previous round. This time, Grey was the Impostor. Blue and Pink, like the last round, were with each other for the duration of the round. After completing the "Empty Chute" task, Pink went to the gas tank and started her "Fuel Engines" task. Grey looked nearby in Electrical, and watched Pink do her task. After completing her task, she headed to Electrical, and Grey jumped out and sliced her, killing her. Cyan saw Pink dead on the ground 15 seconds after Grey left the area, and reported the dead body.

Blue, having heard Pink was dead, kept his cool and didn't panic badly, knowing he would see her again in the next round. Red chose between Cyan and Grey. Grey was shocked, as he "wouldn't ever kill anyone", as stated by him. Red wasn't buying it, and placed his vote. Blue suspected that Red was the Impostor again, as he was quiet for the whole round. Blue voted for Red as a result, and the majority vote was Grey by one vote. Grey was ejected, and Grey was the Impostor, and the crewmates won the round. Back in the spaceship, the crewmates were with Grey, having a good laugh. Then, the next game began. This time, the map was Polus, and Pink was the Impostor. Blue had suspicions of Pink early on in the game, and stayed away from her.

As the game proceeded, Blue was in Electrical, hooking up wires, when suddenly, the Weather tower was sabotaged. Cyan rushed to the Weather tower and quickly shut down the sabotage. While in Electrical, Blue, connecting wires, was suddenly slain by Pink. Red and Grey, who were together doing tasks, saw this and reported the dead body. Red immediately called on Pink and declared her as the Impostor, but Pink had backed up her evidence with a believable statement, saying she "saw Purple in Electrical with Blue", and that she "saw her kill Blue in an instant while Blue was connecting wires", and concluded saying "I watched it all and had no involvement in the murder", but this only prompted Red to further believe her.

Voice cast

 * Tom Hanks as a blue crewmate
 * Ryan Reynolds as a red crewmate
 * Hugh Jackman as a grey cremate
 * Sandra Bullock as a pink crewmate
 * Cameron Diaz as a purple crewmate
 * Keanu Reeves as a green crewmate
 * Robert Downey Jr. as a lime crewmate
 * Tom Cruise as a cyan crewmate
 * Eddie Murphy as a brown crewmate
 * Julia Roberts as a white crewmate
 * Jonah Hill as a dark crewmate
 * Michael Peña as a lime grey crewmate
 * Tyler Perry as a yellow crewmate
 * Channing Tatum as a white red crewmate
 * Martin Lawrence as a black crewmate
 * Danny DeVito as an orange crewmate
 * Dwayne Johnson as a dark red crewmate

Additional voice cast

 * Jennifer Lopez
 * Alan Tudyk
 * Paul Rudd
 * Chris Pratt
 * Chris Evans
 * Will Arnett
 * Ralph Fiennes
 * Craig Robinson
 * Samuel L. Jackson
 * Will Smith
 * Seth Rogen
 * Bradley Cooper
 * Elizabeth Banks
 * Johnny Depp
 * Leonardo DiCaprio

Development
Plans for an Among Us film adaptation originally happened at Universal Pictures. Original talks were for the film to be 2D animated, but game creator Marcus Bromander said he "wanted to experiment the film with computer animation", and the plans were changed to 3D CGI animation, with animation being held at Illumination Entertainment. However, due to budget constraints, the project was cancelled, originally scheduled for a May 2020 release.

Development eventually turned to Paramount Pictures, and had just began production at Paramount Pictures' animation division, but was quickly shut down in August 2020, with focuses on upcoming animated films from the studio. Warner Bros. Pictures was the film's third studio to produce and release it, with animation being held at Warner Animation Group. After being discarded by the company in December 2020, Innersloth turned to Buddy Studios and Buddy Animation, owned by ToonBox Entertainment after its 2016 acquisition by the Canadian film company. Cal Brunker turned down the idea and the film was disbanded.

Around this point, the film was rejected by Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures and Buddy Studios, and Innersloth had no choice but to turn to 20th Century Studios. In the list of companies wanting to produce and release an Among Us adaptation was 20th Century Studios and Regency Enterprises, according to a news article published by The Guardian. Marcus Bromander and Forest Willard, the co-founder of Innersloth, signed a multi-year production deal of Among Us feature films, and opened its new animation studio, Innersloth Animation Studios, on December 19, 2021.

Casting
After 20th Century Studios had signed a deal with Innersloth LLC for a multi-year production deal for Among Us feature films, Tom Hanks had expressed interest in voicing one of the crewmates. In casting sessions, Hanks was chosen for the voice of the Blue crewmate. Ryan Reynolds, who had been producing with 20th Century Studios for a few years at this point, had also expressed interest in voicing in the film. He was given the role of the Red crewmate after talks of voicing one of them. While looking for people to voice the pink crewmate, Scarlett Johannsson, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Hale, Tara Strong and Grey DeLisle had interests in voicing the crewmate. After multiple recordings and casting sessions, Bullock eventually got the role. Hale and DeLisle, however, appeared as a dark blue crewmate and a light pink crewmate, respectively.

Cameron Diaz voiced a purple crewmate in the film, after discussions on if her or Debi Derryberry should voice the crewmate. Derryberry appeared as a dark pink crewmate in the film. Keanu Reeves, during casting sessions, got the role as a green crewmate. In an interview, he had "great expectations on how the film would turn out with [him] in it". Included in the cast was Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, Eddie Murphy, Julia Roberts, Danny DeVito, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who voiced a lime crewmate, a cyan crewmate, a brown crewmate, a white crewmate, an orange crewmate, and a dark red crewmate, respectively. Additionally, although not included in the official cast, Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Statham, Tress MacNeille, Christian Bale, E. G. Daily, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and others were present in additional voice roles.

Animation
The animation was originally planned to be 2D animated, but during original production with Universal Pictures, Marcus Bromander had expressed interest in experimenting with 3D computer animation. 20th Century Animation kept the CGI animation decision made by Bromander, and Innersloth's new animation studio, Innersloth Animation Studios, supervised in animation. Regency Enterprises' animation studio, Regency Animation, also helped with production, though was uncredited in the final production.

The animation originally began in January 2021 at Blue Sky Studios. In February 2021, following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox and its assets, including 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios, Disney announced the official and permanent shutdown of Blue Sky Studios. On April 10, 2021, Blue Sky Studios was shut down indefinitely, and thus made 20th Century Animation its successor.

20th Century Animation used Cinema 4D and Autodesk Maya for their animation, as well as CGI Studio, the animation program used in Blue Sky Studios' productions. Animation services that provided animation and/or visual effects were DNEG, Lola VFX, and 20th Century Animation's France division, 20th Century Animation France, a competitor to Illumination Entertainment's animation supervisor, Illumination Studios Paris. Each sequence in the film contained 1,693 frames, each with almost-realistic texturing. Marcus Bromander stated in an interview during the animation development that the animation process was "going really great, despite [the Innersloth team] not experimenting with CGI animation before".

Music
"Main article: Among Us: Music from the Motion Picture"

Release
Among Us was originally scheduled to be released on May 15, 2020 by Universal Pictures, but the film's plans were disbanded in February 2020, and was given to Paramount Pictures, with a release date of October 9, 2020, but like the Universal Pictures deal, it was disbanded in August 2020 and was given to Warner Bros. Pictures, with a released date of February 26, 2021. It was then given to Buddy Studios in December 2020 with a release date of March 5, 2021, but was then given to 20th Century Studios.

After long delays from 4 film studios, Among Us had its premiere on May 20, 2022 at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in France. The film was later theatrically released in theaters on June 3, 2022 in the United States, followed by an international release by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on June 4, 2022. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for violence, mild language, peril, and some blood.

Marketing
Before the film's release, the theatrical release poster was shown in American and Canadian theaters on December 1, 2021. The film's official trailer was shown on January 23, 2022 on Innersloth's official YouTube channel and 20th Century Studios' official YouTube channel. McDonald's promoted an exclusive sponsorship deal with 20th Century Studios and included Among Us exclusive toys in McDonald's Happy MealsTM.

Box office
Among Us was theatrically released in the United States on June 3, 2022. It grossed $109.2 million in the United States and Canada and $186.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $295.6 million.

In the United States and Canada, Among Us opened on June 3, 2022 with $23.8 million on its first day at the domestic box office, peaking at #3. It grossed $59.2 million in its opening weekend, and dropped down to #4. In its first opening week, it made $29.3 million, and failed to perform its expectations of $30-45 million. In its second weekend, it dropped by 3.4% and grossed $12.1 million. Entering its second and third week, it made $4.6 million in each week. Its expectations finished after its 14th week, and made $109.2 million.

In other territories, Among Us opened with $34.2 million on June 4 and peaked at #2 at the international box office, and went on to gross $61.2 million in its opening weekend, and remained at the #2 position. In its first week, it grossed $44.7 million and peaked at #1 at the international box office.

Critical response
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 69% based on 283 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5.15/10. Its critical consensus reads: "Call an emergency meeting! Among Us has some explaining to do -- on how it works on being a great computer animated film adaptation to a game that became a widespread meme -- and how it sometimes slacks on its plot." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film an average grade of "A-" on their A+ to F scale.

Trivia
TBA

Transcript
"Main article: Among Us (film)/Transcript"

Credits
"Main article: Among Us (film)/Credits"