The Road is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic survival film directed by John Hillcoat and written by Joe Penhall, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy.

[5] The man and boy travel on a road to the coast in hope that they can find safe haven, scavenging for supplies in their journey, and avoiding roaming cannibalistic gangs armed with guns.

[6][7][8] In November 2006, producer Nick Wechsler used independent financing to acquire the film rights to adapt the 2006 novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Wechsler and his fellow producers Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz planned to have a script and an actor cast to portray the father before pursuing a distributor for the film.

[12] By the following November, actor Viggo Mortensen had entered negotiations with the filmmakers to portray the father, though he was occupied with filming Appaloosa in New Mexico.

[14] Filming began in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area in late February 2008, continuing for eight weeks before moving on to northwestern Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Oregon.

"[16] Pennsylvania, where most of the filming took place, was chosen for its tax breaks and its abundance of locations that looked abandoned or decayed: coalfields, dunes, and run-down parts of Pittsburgh and neighboring boroughs.

[18] Hillcoat sought to make the film faithful to the spirit of the book, creating "a world in severe trauma", although the circumstances of the apocalyptic event are never explained.

Mark Forker, the director of special effects for the film, sought to make the landscape convincing, handling sky replacement and digitally removing greenery from scenes.

The critical consensus states, "The Road's commitment to Cormac McCarthy's dark vision may prove too unyielding for some, but the film benefits from hauntingly powerful performances from Viggo Mortensen and Kodi McPhee.

"[22] Joe Morgenstern from the Wall Street Journal states that viewers have to "hang on to yourself for dear life, resisting belief as best you can in the face of powerful acting, persuasive filmmaking and the perversely compelling certainty that nothing will turn out all right.

"[22] Esquire screened the film before it was released and called it "the most important movie of the year" and "a brilliantly directed adaptation of a beloved novel, a delicate and anachronistically loving look at the immodest and brutish end of us all.

[30] The Washington Post said the film "is one long dirge, a keening lamentation marking the death of hope and the leeching of all that is bright and good from the world...It possesses undeniable sweep and a grim kind of grandeur, but it ultimately plays like a zombie movie with literary pretensions.

"[31] Tom Huddleston from Time Out called the film "as direct and unflinching an adaptation as one could reasonably hope for" and "certainly the bleakest and potentially the least commercial product in recent Hollywood history."

He said the movie is a "resounding triumph", noting its "stunning landscape photography [which] sets the melancholy mood, and Nick Cave's wrenching score.

"[22] J. Hoberman from the Village Voice said that while "Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning, Oprah-endorsed, post-apocalyptic survivalist prose poem...was a quick, lacerating read", "John Hillcoat's literal adaptation is, by contrast, a long, dull slog.

"[22] Jake Coyle from the Associated Press stated that "[a]dapting a masterpiece such as The Road is a thankless task, but the film doesn't work on its own merits".