Forget green screens. For Netflix's new dark comedy Sacrifice, stars Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy climbed an actual active volcano — and audiences are eating it up. The film arrived on Netflix in the US and France on October 16 and has already claimed the No. 3 spot on Netflix's US movie chart, according to Tom's Guide's October 17 roundup.
Climbing a volcano before breakfast
Director Romain Gavras (Athena) refused CGI or constructed sets for the volcano scenes. Instead, he marched the cast onto the slopes of a real volcano in Santorini, Greece — with the crew spending almost an hour hiking uphill every morning, equipment loaded onto donkeys because motor vehicles are restricted on the volcanic island.
"It's more fun as a director to bring the cast on a real active volcano when actors are down to do stuff like that," Gavras told Netflix. "Every morning, we had to climb up for almost an hour, with all the gear on donkeys, everyone walking up." The production filmed entirely on location across Greece, Bulgaria and Iceland between November and December 2024. For another sequence, the crew hauled 200 extras in gala dresses into a mine in northern Greece.
What the film is about
Evans plays Mike Tyler, a washed-up action star trying to repair his public image at a star-studded environmental fundraiser. The gala is stormed by a radical eco-cult led by Taylor-Joy's Joan, who takes the guests hostage: her followers believe that three human sacrifices thrown into a volcano within three days are the only way to stop a disaster that could wipe out humanity.
The ensemble is stacked: Vincent Cassel plays billionaire Ben Bracken, Salma Hayek-Pinault his wife Gloria, with John Malkovich, Charli XCX, Yung Lean, Sam Richardson and Ambika Mod rounding out the cast. The film runs 1 hour 41 minutes and blends dark comedy, thriller and mythic storytelling, drawing on Greek myths, Joan of Arc and quest narratives.
A divisive festival debut finds its audience
Sacrifice premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025, where it split critics badly — and was then snapped up by Netflix. The streaming debut has flipped the script: viewers are embracing the wild, eat-the-rich satire, pushing it into the US top three within days of release.
Whether it becomes a word-of-mouth phenomenon or a curious footnote, one thing is certain: when a studio actually climbs a volcano instead of building one in a computer, it deserves the spotlight. Sacrifice is streaming now on Netflix.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Silly Fun (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0