The Discovery: Exclusive first teaser trailer for Netflix’s Rooney Mara and Jason Segel-starring dark romantic drama

'When the afterlife is scientifically proven, millions of people start taking their own lives to get there'

There’s a pretty exciting new film being cooked up over at Netflix, centring on a world where the afterlife is a certainty and people have begun killing themselves in order to more quickly reach it.

It was written and directed by very promising The One I Love filmmaker Charlie McDowell and has a strong lead cast, with Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad), Riley Keough (The Girlfriend Experience) and Robert Redford (well, you know who he is) supporting the intriguing central pairing of Jason Segel and Rooney Mara.

Today we’re hyped to share its first trailer, which starts out all heartwarming and romantic before the music slows and the picture skews, Segel and Mara’s characters being seen shifting a corpse and walking into the ocean.

Official synopsis:

The Discovery stars Robert Redford, Rooney Mara, Jason Segel, Riley Keough and Jesse Plemons and is a love story set in a world where the afterlife has been scientifically proven, and as a result millions of people start taking their own lives to “get there.” Directed by Charlie McDowell and written by McDowell and Justin Lader (The One I Love), the film was produced by Alex Orlovsky of A-LO Films and James D. Stern of Endgame Entertainment, and was co-financed by Endgame Entertainment and Protagonist Pictures. Executive Producers are Julie Goldstein, Lucas Smith, Mike Goodridge, Dimitra Tsingou, Hunter Gray, McDowell and co-producer Erika Hampson.

“To describe the story as original doesn’t begin to capture the world that Charlie has created that will envelop you,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said of the movie, which is premiering at Sundance. “Our global viewers are going to love this film.”

Shot on location in Rhode Island, The Discovery launches on Netflix on Friday 31 March.