Searchlight PicturesWhat makes a sci-fi movie a sci-fi movie? Is it a movie set in the future? A movie that incorporates technology that does not exist? A movie where impossible things happen? Usually, sci-fi is a “know it when you see it” genre, but not always. Take, for example, In the Blink of an Eye, the latest movie from longtime animation director Andrew Stanton. Using a unique structure, it tells three different stories that all coalesce into one message. Is it sci-fi? The better question is, does it really matter? The three parts of this film span thousands of years. First, we meet a family of Neanderthals, trying to survive in a cave while still finding time for love, loss, and art. Then, in 2025, we meet Claire (Rashida Jones) and Greg (Daveed Diggs), two graduate students who turn a situationship into much more at the worst possible time, but manage to make it work anyway. Finally, in a distant future, pilot Coakley (Kate McKinnon) is on a centuries-long journey to a new world, accompanied only by an AI assistant with whom she forms a Wilson-the-Volleyball-esque relationship. The relationship between two academics leads to the future of humanity as we know it in In the Blink of an Eye | Searchlight PicturesIt’s a delicate dance that jumps from storyline to storyline, but none of them feel like the “main” story. How is this achieved? According to writer Colby Day, very carefully. “I knew I wanted a story that would sort of feel like a circle story so that we could start at the beginning and move through past, present, future and find some way to connect,” he tells Inverse. “I put 500 note cards on a table that were three different colors and just started putting them together and trying to figure out, do these tell a story? Do these feel connective? I think it's like sculpture. You have a big block of marble and you're slowly trying to find something within that.” The resulting story is a twisting braid of story, but the one that audiences are most likely to connect with is Claire and Greg’s purely because it’s the only one set in this era. “We’re the least sci-fi thing about this movie!” Rashida Jones, a sci-fi veteran, tells Inverse. “[But] regardless of where we are in time, you're dealing with people almost dealing with the most basic things of being alive, being in love, staying alive, figuring out where you live, who you live with. Do you want to have a kid? What does that kid want to do with their lives? What are the biggest obstacles in being alive and protecting your kid? So the foundation of the movie was all kind of the same.” But the connection between these plots go beyond just the themes. Claire is an anthropology researcher, currently studying a skeleton from the Neanderthal era, and while her story with Greg starts in the present day, it doesn’t end there — in fact, their relationship becomes one of the most critical for the future of humanity. Neandrethals take up an entire third of this movie’s runtime, but it all ties together in the end. | Searchlight PicturesThis is the kind of movie that people refer to as “wholesome,” but its unflinching earnestness is its gift. “The real science is actually this alchemy of love of humanity,” Daveed Diggs tells Inverse. “It does the very, very Andrew Stanton thing of making you think that it's about one thing and then realizing that it's just about everything it means to be human.” It’s a warm hug of a story, balanced by moments of allegory and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments of worldbuilding. So whether or not it’s a science fiction movie doesn’t really matter. It’s a good movie with some sci-fi settings. “I thought of it as a humanist movie,” director Andrew Stanton tells Inverse. “Its drive is human nature and how it never changes and that keeps us similar at all times in time and space.” He pauses for a moment. “But I guess just saying that sounds sci-fi, doesn't it?”In the Blink of an Eye is now streaming on Hulu.