Chariot

Chariot is a 2022 science-fiction movie starring Thomas Mann, Rosa Salazar, and John Malkovich. The movie was filmed in Little Rock (Pulaski County) and at the Buffalo National River in early 2021 and uses a number of historic properties as settings.

The movie is divided into seven titled parts, with the first, “The Reincarnation Station,” taking place at a remote cabin in the hills in 1840. One night, an old man (Chris Mullinax) sees a structure with an antenna and flashing lights on a distant hilltop. The next day, he mounts his horse and heads off to investigate, but another version of him remains at home, overseen by a figure wearing a mask resembling that of a medieval plague doctor.

In the present day, Harrison Hardy (Thomas Mann) is talking to Dr. Karn (John Malkovich) about a recurring dream he had had 4,476 times. In the dream, his mother is cooking dinner and tells him to ask his dad if he got garlic from the grocery store; he goes to the back room where his dad is watching football on the television, but he notices on the way a red pull-string hanging from the ceiling, and the house where he grew up had no attic. Karn claims to have had patients with very similar symptoms and offers a form of hypnotherapy.

Harrison moves into the Lafayette, apparently a residential hotel. Beginning the section titled “The Lovers Reunited,” he encounters in the laundry room Maria Deschaines (Rosa Salazar), an aspiring actress, who invites him to her room that evening for a candlelight dinner. They wake up the next morning in bed together. Maria tells him, “The Lafayette collects…unusual people.” Among those he encounters are a floating man named Elliot (Henry Penzi), a masked singer named Charmagne (Torii Wolf), David Reece (Vernon Davis), who works at the nature center downtown and is obsessed with convincing the last two of a particular species of turtle to have sex, and Lauren/Oliver (Scout Taylor-Compton), two people who inhabit the same body.

Maria convinces Harrison to try LSD, and when he next has the dream, it changes slightly, with him glancing up at the string. When he tells Karn this, the doctor is clearly frustrated, suggesting that they begin hypnosis immediately. Karn later shows up at the office of Rory Calhoun (Shane West) with a man in a hood, saying he requires assistance for a “simple procurement.” Rory wants to refuse, but Karn lifts a hood off another figure, who is an exact copy of Rory, and asks him, “Do you enjoy existing?” The next day, Maria is called into Rory’s office under the assumption that he is a producer scouting talent.

When Harrison has the dream again, he goes up into the attic and sees a lot of random pictures in boxes, some of people he recognizes. The next day, an unknown number calls, and the voice on the other end, very scratchy, says only, “Help me.” He goes to Dr. Karn and talks about the expansion of his dream. Karn attempts to do hypnosis, starting with a riddle, but the phone rings, and even when unplugged, it continues to ring. When Harrison presses the speakerphone button, Maria’s voice says, “Help me.” He goes to her room, but it has been emptied out. Outside the Lafayette, two figures in plague doctor–type masks watch the building. Harrison later goes to Calhoun’s office but is restrained.

Calhoun drives him to a remote location at night, where Dr. Karn is waiting with two henchmen. While Harrison is strapped to a gurney, Karn begins the riddle, and Harrison falls asleep into his dream. In the attic, he encounters Karn, who is pouring lighter fluid over all the photographs. Karn explains that reincarnation is true, with people living and dying repeatedly, but that sometimes there is a glitch in the system, and he is sent to clean it up. The glitch, in this case, was Maria. He sets fire to the photographs.

The final section, titled “The Lovers Reunited II,” follows one couple as they drive to the house of another for dinner. There, the two women catch each other’s eyes and nod, smiling, to one another.

Chariot, which started production under the title The Chariot, began filming in Little Rock on January 18, 2021, with filming continuing for twenty days. Writer/director Adam Sigal told the Arkansas Times that they had selected Arkansas due to film incentives from the Arkansas Film Commission and relatively low COVID-19 infection numbers, but Sigal and producer Sasha Yelaun were particularly entranced with the historic Lafayette Hotel building. Other sites used in production included the Hotel Frederica, the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, and the Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center. The opening sequence was filmed near the Buffalo National River.

Luke Y. Thompson of the AV Club concluded that Sigal clearly modeled his movie after the work of David Lynch but “doesn’t possess enough of Lynch’s intuitive surrealism to pull it off,” saying that the film “certainly doesn’t lack ambition, just execution.” Sumner Forbes of Film Threat was kinder to the movie, writing that it “may not blow anyone away with its inventiveness, but it’s right at home in the family of darkly funny science fiction films that are enjoyable to watch late at night.”

The movie had a limited release in theaters on April 15, 2022, also appearing on DVD, streaming services, and video-on-demand. It grossed $1,322 from a one-day release in Turkey on July 21, 2023.

For additional information:
Brinkley, Rhett. “Sci-Fi Feature ‘The Chariot’ Starring Thomas Mann, John Malkovich, Wraps Filming in Little Rock.” Arkansas Times, February 25, 2021. https://arktimes.com/rock-candy/2021/02/25/sci-fi-feature-the-chariot-starring-thomas-mann-john-malkovich-wraps-filming-in-little-rock (accessed May 28, 2026).

“Chariot.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13942896/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_chariot (accessed May 28, 2026).

Forbes, Sumner. “Chariot.” Film Threat, April 12, 2022. https://filmthreat.com/reviews/chariot/ (accessed May 28, 2026).

Harrison, Alex. “Chariot Review: Quirky Sci-Fi with Potential Ends up Aimless & Confusing.” Screen Rant, April 14, 2022. https://screenrant.com/chariot-2022-movie-reviews/ (accessed May 28, 2026).

Henderson, Odie. “Chariot.” RogerEbert.com, April 15, 2022. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/chariot-movie-review-2022 (accessed May 28, 2026).

Thompson, Luke Y. “Chariot Aspires to Lynchian Surrealism, But Falls Short.” AV Club, April 15, 2022. https://www.avclub.com/chariot-review-thomas-mann-rosa-salazar-john-malkovich-1848761282 (accessed May 28, 2026).

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas