Ana de Armas and Sydney Sweeney’s new R-rated thriller Eden is grounded in a true story about trying to leave society behind, but the movie’s Oscar-winning director explains why the characters’ romantic dream is nearly impossible to realize.

De Armas and Sweeney’s 1930s-set drama tells the remarkable true story of what happened when a small island in the Galápagos became home to a group of settlers looking to start a new life after fleeing Europe during the rise of fascism.

The physical and mental hardships of forging a life in an isolated place with limited resources are challenge enough for this motley group of dreamers. But things become even harder when conflict begins breaking down the island’s tenuous social order, unleashing the darkness that lurks within all people.

Oscar-winning Eden director Ron Howard thinks De Armas and Sweeney’s characters, and their compatriots on the island, were actually doomed from the beginning, as fleeing the troubles of society is ultimately impossible, since society itself springs from human nature (via Time):

This romantic idea that you could be your best self if you could just get away from modern society is something that we share to this day. Yet the problem is we drag society with us because we are society.

There’s this attraction to getting the hell out. There’s uncertainty. It’s destabilizing. And there’s allure there. Here are some people who tried it. It’s a case study. Turns out to be pretty juicy, and I think, very entertaining. It is a cautionary tale because it ain’t that easy. Instead of running from it, we’re better off recognizing who we are and what we can do and facing society.

What Howard’s Take On Eden’s True Story Means For The Movie

Howard’s remarks address the big themes running through Eden and its true-life story of survival. Sweeney’s character Margret Wittmer arrives with her husband Heinz (Daniel Brühl) and their son, who quickly find themselves at odds with the island’s other two inhabitants, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby).

Instead of cooperating with each other, the island’s two groups live in a state of distrust. They do manage to achieve a shaky equilibrium, however, and eventually begin warming to each other, setting up the possibility that they could form a genuine community.

This tenuous alliance is then utterly broken with the arrival of Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (de Armas), a wildly eccentric woman of mysterious background, who brings along her luxurious possessions, her two lovers and a crazy dream of building a H๏τel.

Each character comes to the island believing they can make a new life here, but each in their turn becomes utterly disillusioned, demonstrating Howard’s point about how difficult dropping out of society to forge a new life really is.

Our Take On Eden’s Tale Of Impossible Dreams

Howard found juiciness in the true story behind Eden, and his film version is indeed ripe with dramatic conflict, gripping suspense and shocking turns of plot. Sweeney and de Armas both turn in fascinating performances along the way.

Margret goes through all sorts of terrifying experiences, including a harrowing birth scene, but Sweeney plays her with calm self-possession throughout. De Armas has by far the showiest part, playing a possible murderer who seems flamboyantly removed from reality, and whose colossal selfishness ultimately proves destructive.

Howard skillfully guides his cast through this highly unconventional survival tale based on incredible true events, telling a story of lofty dreams ʙuттing up against the harsh realities of nature. Eden can now be seen in theaters, as it releases on August 22, 2025.