Shailene Woodley Takes On the Most Brutal Race on Earth in Psychological Thriller Ultra
Shailene Woodley hits the gas in Ultra, a psychological thriller from writer-director Victoria Negri that hurtles through Death Valley.
If you were wondering whether endurance stories can work on screen, well, The Long Walk finally made it to theaters this year and critics largely dug it. That one follows a brutal game where boys walk until they die and the last one standing wins. So yeah, the interest in pushing bodies and minds to the edge is clearly there. Enter Ultra, a psychological thriller from writer-director Victoria Negri that drops Shailene Woodley into one of the toughest races on Earth and asks: what happens when your grief won’t stop chasing you?
The setup
Woodley plays Eve, who signs up for the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon after the death of her twin sister. That’s 135 miles through Death Valley, where the air can hit 54°C (about 129°F) and the asphalt basically tries to melt your shoes. As Eve grinds through the course, she realizes someone in white is out there with her, steadily closing the gap. Is it real? Is it in her head? Either way, she can’t outrun what’s behind her unless she faces it.
The essentials
- Star: Shailene Woodley (Divergent) as Eve
- Writer-director: Victoria Negri, whose feature debut was Gold Star
- Premise: A grief-stricken runner takes on the Badwater 135 in Death Valley and is pursued by an ominous figure in white
- Race details: 135 miles; temperatures can reach 54°C
- Producers: Allison Rose Carter and Jon Read for Savage Rose Films, alongside Iris Torres
- Executive producers: Andrew Kortschak and Lisa Ciuffetti for End Cue, and Toby Halbrooks for Sailor Bear
Why Negri is telling this story
"Tragic circumstances, for better or worse, are transformative, and Ultra is a film born from that experience."
Negri says this one comes from a very personal place. Her father was a distance runner who became paralyzed after a stroke; the thing that fueled him was taken away, and he eventually passed. While she tried to find her footing after that loss, she turned to ultrarunning herself. She has since finished two 100-mile races, a stack of 50-milers, and more marathons than most people want to think about. For her, physical pain became a way to process emotional pain. That’s the DNA of Ultra: a visceral descent into a mind that won’t stop spiraling, set against a race that demands everything you have.
Quick take
I’m not running 135 miles for any reason, but as a movie setup, this has real heat. Woodley tends to lock into intimate, character-first roles, and the 'runner in white' is a clean, creepy hook for a psychological thriller. Add in the real Badwater backdrop and Negri’s personal connection to the material, and this could be both sweaty-palmed and oddly cathartic. You in for Ultra, or does your idea of cardio stop at walking to the fridge?