Eden director Ron Howard revealed the real-life influences of his 2025 Floreana Island-set movie headlined by a star-studded cast. The upcoming psychological thriller delivers a gripping story about a group of European settlers arriving at Floreana Island in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. As expected, conflict slowly arises after tension builds, leading to a chaotic clash that could be deadly for the settlers.
Given the disruptive and chaotic nature of Eden's plot, some wonder whether the movie is based on a true story. Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard shared a thorough explanation of the real-life events that inspired Eden's story, and how he spent a good chunk of his time traveling and studying the main location where it all happened.
Is Eden Movie Based on a True Story?
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Eden director Ron Howard confirmed that the movie is based on the real story of the Floreana settlers. The filmmaker even visited the location where one of the film's most chilling scenes took place.
At one point in Eden, Sydney Sweeney's Margret Wittmer is giving birth in a remote cave surrounded by wild dogs. Howard revealed that he visited the actual place where this birth scene took place in the early 1930s: a cave in the Galápagos:
"You look at the cave and you can’t imagine anyone endured this, but it happened."
With a script written by Emmy nominee Noah Pink, the first trailer for Eden (released by Vertical Entertainment) teased the movie's somewhat bizarre plot involving these settlers. While the story might be deemed outrageous by some, Howard divulged that what makes Eden stand out is that the events happened in real life, describing the movie's story as a "season of Survivor where people really don't make it:"
"You’d be shocked at how accurate the movie actually is. What was chilling about this story is that a handful of people went there and half of them either died or vanished—and that’s intense. That’s like a season of 'Survivor' where people really don’t make it."
Eden's story is a matter of life and death for the settlers, leaving fans to wonder who survives in the end. Speaking with Deadline, Howard pulled the curtain back even more on how he ended up piecing the story together, confirming that he first learned about the story 15 years ago during a family trip to the Galápagos:
"I encountered this story about 15 years ago, on a family trip to the Galápagos. It’s a place I’d always wanted to go, since first seeing pictures of the wildlife, the iguanas, and the unusual birds, while flipping through a National Geographic magazine at age eight or nine. I always wanted to go, and finally did. It exceeded all my expectations. There, I encountered this story. It was so fascinating to me that I just began reading whatever I could about the three units of people who chose to try to go off the grid and reinvent their lives at a time when the world was going through tremendous turmoil. They were rejecting that as individual groups and thought they could make over their lives and start anew in the Galápagos."
The award-winning director also shared that the most dangerous factor in Eden is "human nature," sharing how the settlers succumbed to a downward spiral that spiraled out of control:
"It turned out that the most dangerous factor was not Mother Nature; it was human nature. This story just unfolded in a very classical, dramatic, and ultimately suspenseful way. I could not get it out of my mind, but 15 years is a long time. I believed in it. I kept reading, I kept thinking about it, but I also knew it was unusual for me."
After seeing Eden, Howard also encouraged viewers to research the real-life inspiration for the movie's story, promising that "people will be blown away by how accurate" the events that unfold:
"I’d like people to see the movie first, but you go back into the research and people will be blown away by how accurate our framing of these people actually is and the events that unfold. This is such a classic story. Everybody went for a different reason. One family may be the most relatable, and they’re going because the world just doesn’t make sense to them anymore, and they can’t afford to live there, and they’re running away."
Ultimately, the director described Eden's story as "a pioneer story, but in the most extreme way:"
"It’s a pioneer story, but in the most extreme way. If you just type in ‘off the grid,’ it’s one of the most visited sites on the internet, or a reason. The period during and after WWI and WWII, things were just so dire around the world. Their reasons for escaping are very relatable."
Eden boasts a stellar cast of A-listers led by Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas, Daniel Brühl, Felix Krammerer, and Toby Wallace. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2024, before releasing in U.S. theaters on August 22, 2025 (read more about Sydney Sweeney's other projects here).
Why Eden's Story Is Unique & Bizarre
Aside from the fact that it is based on a real-life story, the discourse surrounding Eden's story will spread like wildfire on social media (once the movie is released nationwide) due to its bizarre nature.
Eden delivers a tale centered around settlers who only want a peaceful utopia on Floreana. Their simple lives get disrupted by the arrival of a Baroness named Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (played by Ballerina star Ana de Armas) and her companions. At the center of the conflict in Eden is the clash between the Baroness' desire for a lavish lifestyle and the original settlers' more reserved way of living.
Wehrhorn's arrival on Floreana is more like a ticking time bomb because she disrupted the peace among settlers, slowly evolving into a tension-filled struggle that would cement their downfall. Without spoiling anything, it is interesting that parts of the real-life story remain unresolved to this day since the fate of the two major characters is still unknown.
