Old is a 2021 American body horror thriller film written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. It is based on the French-language Swiss graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, and Emun Elliott. The plot follows a group of people who find themselves aging rapidly on a secluded beach.
PLOT
Guy and Prisca Cappa are going through a separation. To avoid saddening their young children, Maddox and Trent, the couple take them to a tropical resort as a final family vacation. At their hotel, Guy and Prisca are given complimentary drinks, and the children befriend Idlib, the resort manager's nephew. At night, Maddox and Trent overhear their parents arguing and play a message decoding game with Idlib. During the argument, it is revealed that Prisca has a benign slow-growing ovarian tumour.
The next morning, the manager invites the family to a secluded beach where three additional parties are present: rapper Brendan "Mid-Sized Sedan" and his female companion; surgeon Charles, his elderly mother Agnes, his wife Chrystal, and their young daughter Kara; as well as Jarin and Patricia Carmichael, a close-knit husband and wife. Trent discovers the corpse of Brendan's companion. Charles grows suspicious of Brendan, who reveals that he has been experiencing nosebleeds because of his hemophilia. After the children rapidly turn into teenagers and Agnes suddenly dies, the families conclude that the beach is aging them, with the occupants undergoing the equivalent of one year of aging every 30 minutes. At least one member of each family has an underlying medical condition. They discover that trying to leave will result in them blacking out and waking up back where they left.
In a fit of rage, Charles cuts Brendan with a pocket knife, and the group watches as his injury quickly heals. Prisca's supposedly slow-growing ovarian tumour rapidly grows in size at a life-threatening rate. Charles performs a successful surgery to remove it. Brendan discovers that the body of his companion has fully decomposed in a matter of hours. Kara and Trent continue to age into their late teens, and after having sex with each other, Kara gets pregnant at a rapid pace. She gives birth, but the baby dies due to the time rapidly passing. The attempts to leave grow increasingly tense as Charles's worsening schizophrenia causes him to kill Brendan. As the day goes on, Jarin drowns, Kara falls to her death, and Patricia suffers a fatal epileptic seizure. Guy's eyesight blurs, and Prisca suffers hearing loss. Trent and Maddox discover the notebook of a previous traveller, along with indications of their being watched. At night, Charles attacks Guy and Prisca in a schizophrenic episode; Prisca runs as Charles continues to attack Guy. Chrystal's hypocalcaemia results in her bones rupturing, killing her. Prisca returns and slashes Charles with a rusted knife, instigating a fatal blood infection that kills him. An elderly Guy and Prisca make amends before dying moments apart from each other.
It is revealed that the resort is a front for a research team from the pharmaceutical company Warren & Warren that was conducting clinical trials of new medical drugs, which are administered to guests with medical conditions by spiking their drinks. Because the beach naturally accelerates the lives of the guests, the researchers have been able to complete the lifelong drug trials within a day. The researchers lure a new group to the beach, but are interrupted by Trent and Maddox, who survived their underwater swim, using the notebook as evidence that they give to vacationing police officer Greg Mitchel, who informs his boss of the researchers' crimes. The researchers are mentioned to have been arrested, with subpoenas sent to the rest of Warren & Warren, as Greg plans to reunite Trent and Maddox with their aunt.
