[6] The film stars Helena Bonham Carter, Judy Davis, Callum Keith Rennie, and Kyle Catlett.

[7] T. S. Spivet, a 10-year-old boy and budding cartographer, lives on a secluded, rural Montana ranch with his moody older sister, his pretentious entomologist mother, and his emotionally distant and quiet wannabe cowboy father.

spends most of his time playing, making amateur inventions, and meandering around the ranch with the family dog, Tapioca.

reveals that he had a fraternal twin brother, Layton, who was much more into cowboy-themed things, like his father, but not as scientifically inclined as T.S.

receives notice from the Smithsonian Institution, all the way across the country in Washington, that he has won the Baird Award for inventing a perpetual motion machine.

Before leaving, he packs a suitcase and takes one last look at Layton's old bedroom, a shrine of dusty toys and furniture that his parents are unable to bring themselves to throw away.

travels initially by train, hitching a ride in one of the rail cars, where he plays and imagines that Layton is still there with him, clear enough for a conversation.

realizes that he needs to be careful, opting to sleep in an auction show camper that's being transported (there's a life-sized cardboard stencil of a family eating dinner that he can mimic so a guard looking in thinks he's just part of the art).

Two Clouds tells the boy a whimsical story of a sparrow and a pine tree, suggesting that everybody reaches the right destination for themselves eventually.

walks along the railroad tracks with his backpack (having stored his suitcase in a nearby electrical grid box), when a fat, mean-spirited policeman begins chasing him and shouting profanities at him.

eventually loses him, where he hitchhikes with a friendly trucker named Rick, a man who enjoys meeting people and chronicling this in photography.

to sleep on the truck, he notices that the boy is injured from nearly falling off the bridge earlier that day, and advises him to see a doctor.

He sits at a table alone during the conference, but is suddenly swarmed by a crowd of admirers when it's discovered that he's the boy who made the prizewinning invention.

puts his skills to the test and invents an even better perpetual motion machine than the last one, and shows how it's used to rock his new infant sibling's cradle on the front porch.

After writing and directing Micmacs, Jeunet preferred his next film to be based on an existing story.

[9] Also, a track from the videogame Mass Effect 3 called "Leaving Earth" was used during TS's speech at the institute.

Spivet brings its bestselling source material beautifully to life, offering a blend of visual thrills and poignant pathos that help tie the film together despite an occasional surfeit of quirk.

[15] The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 4 June 2014 in France,[16] and on 3 November 2015 in the United States.