In the Blink of an Eye Tells Three Stories Across Time—One Was More Challenging Than the Rest

Searchlight and Hulu's In the Blink of an Eye is a new film from renowned filmmaker Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), and its unique approach to storytelling sets it apart. The film almost functions as an anthology, focusing on three different stories across time—the Neanderthals, the present day, and the far future in space. All three of these tales weave in and out of each other, offering distinctly different stories of the human experience that share one key connection.

The film stars Parks and Recreation star Rashida Jones, Hamilton's Daveed Diggs, SNL's Kate McKinnon, and more. The Direct sat down with In the Blink of an Eye director Andrew Stanton and writer Colby Day, where they revealed that the Neanderthal storyline was the hardest of the three to bring to life as they wanted.

"Everyone either pictured GEICO or Fred Flintstone," Stanton explained, which is something the creative didn't want. Instead, they wanted to see that these Neanderthals "had just as much intellect" as we do today, and audiences would "see the humanity in their eyes the minute you met them."

Day explained that when you are "going from page to screen," it's "a whole new translation." So, despite how simple he thought the story was to write, bringing it to life on the screen was a different matter entirely.

The Direct also spoke with film stars Rashida Jones (Claire) and Daveed Diggs (Greg), who opened up about the most challenging aspect of making this movie. More of the interview can be read below. In the Blink of an Eye starts streaming on Hulu on Friday, February 27, 2026.

The Hardest Timeline To Get Right for 'In the Blink of an Eye'

"Everyone Either Picuted GEICO or Fred Flintstone..."

• The Direct: "Out of those three story lines, which do you think was the hardest for you guys to just get right and really just pull off the way you wanted it?"

Andrew Stanton: Easy. The past the caveman. Everyone either pictured GEICO or Fred Flintstone... And I get it, because there's not a lot of, like, authentic examples that you really buy. Maybe '2001' when it gets really, really ape like, but I just really believe that they were a struggling species that were, every hour of their life was a survival, and there wouldn't be a muscley thing about them, as far as He-Man or Grunty that they've had just as much intellect, and you'd see the humanity in their eyes the minute you met them. And so it was really casting that and honoring the humanity that exists in all of us right now, in anything to do with the past. And so that I'm very proud of, that we captured.

Colby Day: I think in writing it, the past felt simple to me. I think I understood, 'Oh, this is a story about just trying to survive.' But then, when you get to production, things are going from page to screen, which is a whole new translation thing. And so I do think, once you get into, how do we breathe life into the end results on the screen, absolutely, very challenging.

• The Direct: "How did you want to form a connection between all three of these stories that are playing out in the movie, but still make them distinct and tell their own stories and not lean too much into, you know, that connection as it were?"

Colby Day: In thinking about the film, from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to tell a story that somehow was about the past, present and future, and so I think so much of the work of figuring out the script was just trying to figure out, what are individual stories within each of these timelines that feel like they compel us and move us forward? And then the work became Okay, but how do we actually interweave those and sort of create a tapestry of those three storylines?

Andrew Stanton: Yeah, it was challenging. At first, the structure part of you, the left brain, part of you, wants to make more connections and sense of it. But when we started to, like, just understand it through just living, just to the emotional aspect of living and the randomness and the means that you have to pivot just because life changes on you, and then you don't have as much control of it... We all go through the same glossary of events at some point or another in our lives before it's over, and that makes us all know each other, whether we ever meet. And I think that was just the gestalt that was the takeaway from reading it, and that was all we were trying to get from the execution

Rashida Jones & Daveed Diggs Reveal the Most Challenging Aspect of 'In the Blink of an Eye'

The Passage of Time Was an Interesting Obstacle to Adapt to.

• The Direct: "At any point during the process, you know, before filming started, during or after, what is the most surprising challenge you guys faced?"

Daveed Diggs: The hardest part of any film for me is understanding where you are in the story and being able to match the passage of time honestly and the weight of your decisions and where you are in your life. And this one, even our small section spans so much time, it's a whole life. And so given the circumstances that, like moments before you enter a scene, it ends up being an even weightier question. It's like, not what did I do yesterday, what did I do in the last 20 years?

Rashida Jones: Yeah, agreed. I think the amount of time that we span as the same people in the same relationship, filling in those gaps, you know, like, because there were some times where we do like a jump cut for New Year's Eve from, I can't remember, It was like five years or something, and we were sitting in the exact same place. So much has transpired, [I'm] crazy pregnant and, you know, how do you infuse all of that into the scene? Before you say action, when you literally just changed your costume and came back to this redress the set, like, I think making it feel like we'd spent more time together, more time passed, more life had happened, is challenging, because you want to have to be viable.