We are never truly alone. There’s always something watching us, tracking us, and feeding our habits into an imperceptible algorithm. Artificial intelligence basically knows our every move — and whoever can weaponize it can effectively control our lives.
The idea of perpetual surveillance was once just a cautionary tale; the subject of speculative science fiction. In the past few decades, that idea is creeping closer to reality. And it’s made older, tech-centric thrillers, like Hulu’s The Stranger, eerily prescient in hindsight.
The Stranger had an unorthodox beginning: it was conceived as one of many stories that first dropped as a 13-part saga on Quibi. (Remember Quibi?) Though its host platform wasn’t long for this world, closing its doors after just seven months, its best ideas managed to survive. The Stranger has since been reincarnated in the form of a traditional 90-minute movie. And it’s still definitely worth the watch.
Directed by Veena Sud (Seven Seconds, The Killing), The Stranger is a cat-and-mouse thriller that unfolds across one night in Los Angeles. Scream queen Maika Monroe stars as Clare, a rideshare driver who’s brand-new to the city. When she picks up Carl E. (Dane DeHaan), a disarming stranger en route to LAX, it feels like kismet. At least, that’s what Carl seems to think; Clare’s more concerned with navigating LA’s byzantine freeways than engaging in stilted banter.
Their tentative chemistry quickly sours when Carl reveals his true colors. He’s not a well-off (if awkward) tech savant from the Hollywood Hills, but a sociopath that has potentially been stalking Clare for months.
It’s hard to tell if she’s his next murder victim or the subject of a twisted experiment, which has as much to do with algorithms and learned behavior as it does with some good old-fashioned misogyny. Either way, Clare manages to escape Carl once, but she must rely on her wits to survive the rest of the night. Suddenly the very things she can’t do without — her smartphone, her car, and even her adorable pup, Pebbles — are weapons that Carl can use against her. Their dynamic is one of the most interesting and innovating aspects of The Stranger, allowing Sud to address the paranoia that’s become increasingly prevalent in the past four years.
Dane DeHaan makes for a terrifying stalker in The Stranger.
The Stranger takes cues from Strange Days, Cat Person, and even Minority Report, molding the City of Dreams into an after-dark nightmare. Avan Jogia co-stars as JJ, a gas station clerk that ends up caught in Carl’s web alongside Clare. Their quest to outsmart (or at the very least, outrun) their stalker sends them on an odyssey across LA’s grimy underbelly. Together they confront obstacles just as threatening as Carl, like police brutality, sexism, and even wild coyotes.
Dark humor brings occasional moments of levity to an otherwise-bleak thriller — and yes, the story does occasionally dip into the clichés of its chosen genre. That said, The Stranger is a surprisingly propulsive thriller. Its original episodic structure prevents the adventure from growing stagnant: it’s light on its feet, and never overstays its welcome. More than that, the themes Sud explored back in 2020 are still just as timely now. The Stranger has more than justified its return, almost four years later. It may not have been meant for Quibi, but it wasted little time in finding a second home.
The Stranger is streaming on Hulu now.
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