Cold Storage (2026) – Review and Summary

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Featured image: Naomi (Georgina Campbell) and Travis (Joe Keery) | © Cold Storage / Samuel Goldwyn Films

“Cold Storage” Film Details

• Director(s): Jonny Campbell
• Writer(s): David Koepp
• Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
• Runtime: 1 Hour(s) and 39 Minutes
• Public Release Date (In Theaters): February 13, 2026
• Genre(s): Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Young Adult
• Content Rating: Rated R
• Primary Language: English

Movie Summary

A military base turned storage center is home to a possible alien fungus. For decades, it was considered contained. However, as the system meant to keep it dormant fails, two 24-year-olds and a retired agent are tasked with preventing a world-ending outbreak.

Cast and Characters

Travis (Joe Keery)

• Character Summary: With a record, Travis, often called Teacake, is trying to keep his nose clean. He holds down his job at the storage facility as best he can, despite how his boss is, and when Naomi is hired, he is nice, talkative, and tries to steer them both out of trouble. But, while trying to be good, it doesn’t mean Travis has any desire to be boring.

Naomi (Georgina Campbell)

• Character Summary: A bit of a nerd and a touch mischievous, Naomi has recently joined the storage facility team, and like Travis, she needs her job. She is a single mom, her child’s father is a bit erratic, and while it isn’t clear what her next chapter holds, she is trying to make the best out of this one.

Robert (Liam Neeson)

• Character Summary: Robert is a multi-decade veteran whose job in government mainly dealt with matters that should never come to the public’s attention. Unfortunately, though, before his retirement, partly due to back issues, he tried to warn people about what was buried in Kansas, where Travis and Naomi work. But, with no one listening, things have escalated to where they are now.

Trini (Lesley Manville)

• Character Summary: Trini is Robert’s long-term work partner and shares most of the secrets of what they had to do in order to protect the world. She is also a marvelous shot, better than Robert, who usually has to use a barrage of bullets, compared to Trini, who quickly gets the kill.

Review and Commentary

Highlight(s)

Naomi [83/100]

Sci-Fi and horror have a long history of giving us the kind of roles you long for women to have. Layered without traumatic or sob stories, funny without having to be a sidekick, and playful without it always having to be flirtatious. It’s a genre that likes to take risks, and Campbell works well as Naomi. She has this around-the-way girl look with the braids, strong forehead, and a familiar backstory.

But then it is revealed how nerdy she is, her investment in Travis is treated with initial ambiguity since you don’t know if it is just her happiness that one co-worker seems cool, her seeing him like a little brother, or what? On top of that, she is just as much down for investigating as she is willing to push things further and take on dangerous roles when things start to hit the fan.

Naomi isn’t an accessory to make Joe Keery’s character look good. She is her own person who, honestly, doesn’t seem to need Keery, but the movie does due to his star power.

The Leads’ Chemistry [85/100]

Travis and Naomi, as noted, have the type of relationship where it could have gone any direction. He could have been like a weird younger brother, that cool co-worker who makes Naomi look forward to her job, that new best friend, or even a potential love interest. Truly, the way David Koepp writes Cold Storage, and how Campbell and Keery play out their roles, nothing feels set in stone, and we loved that.

But, best of all, we loved that this was how most male and female pairings were handled. Liam Neeson’s character has a partner named Trini Romano, with whom he worked for decades. Their connection mirrors Travis and Naomi, where you can see there is depth and chemistry, where that relationship could have been anything. It ultimately is just platonic life partners, bonded by shared secrets and the work they did, but whether we’re talking about an incident in the late 70s or modern times, it is understood that if one or the other calls, they are showing up. It’s the type of love between the sexes you don’t see enough.

On The Fence

Keeping It Simple [77/100]

Like most horror nowadays, there isn’t much of an effort to really dive into the origins of the villain and have things make sense. The movie tries to explain this early on by talking about how a NASA experiment, which seemingly failed, led to something coming back from space or a mutation of the fungus sent into space. There is an almost cheap explanation of how the fungus somehow spread itself from deep within a vault, where it has been for decades, suddenly onto the surface.

And it goes on and on from there. From the military’s response, if not Liam Neeson basically playing the same character with a slightly different background, while interpersonal relationships get notable attention, developing characters, or the situation they are in, doesn’t have the same pursuit of detail.

Overall

Our Rating (81/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)

Cold Storage may keep things fairly simple regarding the alien aspect and the means to solve that problem, but everything else about the movie can be shockingly better than expected. Whether intentional in the writing, the performances, or just luck, the actors have unquestionable chemistry, which reminds you that chemistry doesn’t always need to equate to romance. Also, they make you care who among them lives or dies to the point that, while you may not want a sequel, you could maybe be persuaded just to make sure everyone survives another movie.

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