Can a teenage romance survive the sudden onset of a global nuclear apocalypse?

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the 2013 film How I Live Now, an American teenager visiting the English countryside finds her summer transformed by a sudden nuclear detonation in London. As society collapses into martial law, she must navigate a brutal, unfamiliar landscape to reunite with her cousin and love interest, Eddie.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald and based on the 2004 novel by Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now presents a gritty, speculative vision of the near future. The story follows Daisy, an abrasive American teenager sent to stay with her British cousins. Her arrival coincides with rising global tensions, marked by news of a bombing in Paris and heightened security at Heathrow Airport. The narrative shifts abruptly when a nuclear device is detonated in London, killing tens of thousands and plunging the country into chaos.

The film distinguishes itself from other young adult dystopian fiction through its commitment to graphic realism. While critics have drawn parallels between Daisy and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, the film’s tone is notably darker. Macdonald intentionally designed the production to be an intimate, low-budget project, casting mostly unknown actors alongside Saoirse Ronan. This choice emphasizes the vulnerability of the young characters as they are forcibly separated by military forces and forced to survive in a landscape defined by massacres and displacement.

The emotional core of the film rests on the bond between Daisy and Eddie. After being separated, Daisy endures a harrowing journey through the countryside, witnessing the grim aftermath of war before eventually finding her way back to their farm. The film concludes with a recovery period, though the trauma of the conflict remains; Eddie is left mute and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, leaving Daisy to care for him as the nation attempts to rebuild. Despite receiving mixed critical reviews, the film is frequently praised for its humane approach to the intersection of young love and world-ending terror.

Production for the film began in June 2012 across England and Wales, supported by Film4 and the BFI. It premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, with a UK release following in October of that same year. While some reviewers found the narrative uneven, others lauded Ronan’s performance for providing the necessary weight to ground the film's intense emotional shifts.

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