While Top Gun: Maverick revived the summer box office with its iconic scenes and caused many to join the Navy, there is another military-themed film coming that sheds light on the side of service society often forgets about. Apple TV+’s new movie Causeway explores the life of a veteran returning from the war in Afghanistan. Struggling to reacclimate to a life outside the military due to a traumatic brain injury, Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence) tries to find herself while living with an unsympathetic mother.

The film was originally announced in 2019. Jennifer Lawrence was attached to star in the then-untitled A24 film from the start. It was confirmed in the same week that Brian Tyree Henry was in discussions to star opposite the actress.

Causeway marks the feature film debut of director Lila Neugebauer. The director is known for their work in the Broadway revival of The Waverly Gallery, which earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Revival of a Play. The screenplay for the film was written by Elizabeth Sanders, Luke Goebel, and Ottessa Moshfegh. Producers include Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi, with Neugebauer, Joshua Bachove (The Sky Is Everywhere, Do Revenge), Kirk Michael Fellows (Angel Has Fallen), Jacob Jaffke (Bodies Bodies Bodies, X), Sophia Lin, and Christopher Surgent (Marry Me) serving as executive producers. Grace Potter and Ed Wasserman are associate producers.

Here’s everything you need to know about Causeway before its release.

Causeway: The Plot

     Apple TV+

Lynsey was deployed in Afghanistan. After a traumatic brain injury, she is sent home to New Orleans, but she struggles to return to a normal life, just like many veterans do. The film’s logline gives a bit more information on what audiences can expect to see play out:

Lynsey is healing from her injury and the sudden change in her life, while it isn’t obvious what her new friend James is trying to recover from. Based on a fleeting scene of him staring at a photo of a young boy in the trailer, he may have lost his child in a tragic accident, from a sudden illness, or just too soon. Deadline confirmed that James is struggling with both the loss of his leg and a car accident that took the life of his nephew.

Two unlikely strangers find solace in newfound friendship as they navigate their journey from grief to healing.

The two become friends and help each other heal, with scenes like an embrace in a swimming pool and hanging out together at a bar peppered throughout the trailer. Will they be able to help each other through their grief?

Causeway: The Cast

Jennifer Lawrence is Lynsey. The actress is known for her work in The Hunger Games franchise, the X-Men franchise, Silver Linings Playbook, and Don’t Look Up. The film that put her name on the map was Winter’s Bone, earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at 20 years old. Brian Tyree Henry is James. He is recognizable from roles in Atlanta, the 2019 Child’s Play, and If Beale Street Could Talk.

Other cast members include Linda Emond (The Patient, Madam Secretary) as Gloria, Stephen McKinley Henderson (Lady Bird) as Dr. Lucas, Jayne Houdyshell (Only Murders in the Building) as Sharon​​​​​​​, Russell Harvard (Fargo) as Justin, Frederick Weller (BlacKkKlansman) as Rick, and Sean Carvajal​​​​​​​, Will Pullen​​​​​​​ (The Americans, Dickinson), and Neal Huff (Mare of Easttown, Split) in unnamed roles.

Release Date

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022. It will be available to watch in theaters and stream on Apple TV+ starting November 4, 2022.

Everything Else We Know

The film’s title is based on the 24-mile-long bridge that allows traffic between Metairie, Louisiana, to Mandeville, Louisiana. “It’s the site of an accident prior to the film’s events; that journey across the bridge struck me as an apt metaphor for a number of journeys in the film,” the director told Deadline.

Causeway is a very personal project for the lead actress. In an interview with Vogue, Lawrence discussed why she was drawn to the project and how it feels different from everything else she’s done. She feels that, since turning 18, many of her films have followed a specific theme, but she wonders if, now being a mother, that will change. She also shared that the theme she had in mind was intrinsically linked to her mother and her childhood.

The film began production in late 2019, only to have to put everything on pause due to the pandemic. When they returned in 2021 to finish the movie, Lawrence found her life was in a very different place. She had gotten married and gone through pregnancy. The actress also finished the major franchise she was a part of, X-Men. All these factors combined gave her the time to figure out what she wanted to do moving forward. It also allowed more of Lynsey to come to the surface.

“Art more often than not is about one’s mother. I hesitate to say that because I would hate for somebody to go back and watch my movies, or watch this movie in particular, and think that that is the way that I’m painting my mother. My mother is a wonderful person. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still things from my childhood that I’m working out.”

While you wait to watch Causeway, check out the relationship between a major franchise and the military.

“Her untenable home, her inability to commit to one thing or another because of these internal injuries that are completely invisible but huge—I think I connected with that at that specific time in my life.”