‘Ride The Eagle’ Trailer: Jake Johnson Reconnects With His Dead Mother Through VHS Tapes
Jake Johnsonis perhaps best known for his role opposite Zooey Deschanel in the sitcomNew Girl, which ran for seven seasons on Fox. However, in recent years, he has also branched out and begun lending his talents to blockbusters such asJurassic WorldandSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In the new movieRide the Eagle, he stars as a man whose mother communicates with him from beyond the grave. Don’t worry, this is a feel-good comedy and not a horror film, so watch theRide the Eagletrailer below.
Ride the Eagle Trailer
We’ve seen movies where famous actors only appeared by Skype (Vincent D’Onofrio inSinistercomes to mind as one example), butRide the Eaglelooks to be going a more old-school route withSusan Sarandon. She co-stars here as the late mother of Johnson’s character, but here we only see her speaking to him through a videotape on a Panasonic TV.
“Look at me, talking to you even though I’m dead,” she says. “Well, I’m still here, spiritually.” He’s in a remote cabin, watching her on VHS like this, and at one point, there’s a joke that makes it seem like she’s going to somehow phase through the television and enter the room with him.
“Before you die, you see …The Ring.” I know it must seem like I have horror movies on the brain, but the trailer forRide the Eagledoes toy with the spooky possibilities of its scenario before promptly lightening the mood.
Johnson voiced Peter Parker in the animatedSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,and the comedic highlights of this trailer come mostly fromJ.K. Simmons, who also has a Spidey connection by playing J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s live-actionSpider-Manmovies (and nowthe Marvel StudiosSpider-Manmovies). Simmons plays Honey’s old lover, who isn’t above sneaking into her cabin after she’s gone.D’Arcy CardenofThe Good Placefame also makes an appearance as Leif’s ex-girlfriend, “the one who got away.”
More than anything,Ride the Eagleseems like a version ofThe Bucket Listwhere it’s a surviving loved one who must cross items off the list, learning life lessons from a parent who still wants to impart some of her wisdom even after she’s gone. Here’s the official synopsis:
When Leif’s estranged mother Honey dies, she leaves him a “conditional inheritance.” Before he can move into her picturesque Yosemite cabin, he has to complete her elaborate and sometimes dubious to-do list. Leif and Nora, his canine BFF, step into Honey’s wild world as she tries to make amends from beyond the grave in this hilarious and heartfelt comedy.
Ride the Eaglearrives on digital and in theaters onJuly 30, 2021.
