Murder investigations are one of my favorite TV genre and the 1950s futurism is one of my favorite art aesthetic and Netflix’s “Ray Gunn” channels both of these. This is the story of a private eye guy who is honest, but not always lawful. He’s not above a little larceny as we’ll witness in the opening scenes. He can’t afford to be that honest with the collectors coming for the furniture and taking his ride.
Academy Award-winning director Brad Bird (“The Incredibles,” 2005 and “Ratatouille,” 2008) sweeps us away to what the production notes say is “an alternate future as seen from 1939.” The city is Metropia, a retro-futurist city where humans and aliens live side by side, but prejudice against aliens it out in full force. People can fly with a rocket pack (available for rental like this Lime Electric Scooters) and cars can fly. Instead of “The Jetsons” glass-domed flying saucers, the flying vehicles are inspired by 1950s gas-guzzling chrome muscular mechanics.
At the center of Bird and Matthew Robbins screenplay, is the titular Ray Gunn, voiced by Sam Rockwell. He’s an ex-cop who now works as a private detective with Eye-Ra Kadok (Tom Waits). You only have to take one look at the poster to know where this is going. 
He’s going to become entangled with a sultry gal who has some secrets and someone’s willing to kill for them. You know where this is going, but the ride is so smooth you’ll want to tag along with Ray Gunn twice or thrice just to enjoy the coolness of this retro futuristic world and the sultry tones of Scarlett Johansson. There’s some unobtrusive commentary on immigration, legal and illegal. In this case, people are either of earth or off-world and prejudice against off-worlders is rampant, but our guy is cool. His partner Eye-Ra is a one-eyed, many limbed off-worlder,and as a team, they are fun and the dialogue provides a comfy long-time friendship feel.
In this world building, the design team have hit all the right notes: jetpacks, cars, motorcycles and, as if the name of our protagonist didn’t given it away, guns. I’m not a collector of guns, but this team pays loving tribute to all of the futuristic weapon designs of the 1940s and 1950s. I’ve already looked at Netflix’ online shop, but they aren’t being sold…yet. Lovers of motorcycles, you’ll see some of those as well. This is a retrofuturism car fan fantasy.
When we first meet the two, they seem to have uncovered forgery of documents to bring in off-world illegal aliens by the massive alien resident Vanzine Kaluta (Michelle Rodriguez).
Their agency is so low on funds, everything in the office is being re-possessed. Eye-ra whines, “We are months away before we can afford ethics.” But that’s Ray Gunn’s problem: He has standards. He believes in the truth, but he lives in a world that is gray with indifference.
Everywhere we go, holograms advertise the upcoming album release of pop star Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson), “Welcome to the Future” (music by Michael Giacchino with songwriter Kimbra contributing three songs, including “Too Much to Ask” and “Innocent”) The sexy blonde Venus Nova is a wealthy woman with trouble tattooed on her heart. Bored with the manufactured pop tunes her manager Barry Vogel (Alan Tudyk) forces her to sing, she’s already on husband number four: Arnold Dom (Bobby Cannavale). Arnold Dom worried that his golden ride is about to give him the boot. Unwilling to become was-bund number four, he hires Ray Gunn to follow his wife, worried she’s having an affair.
Ex-husband number one, Barry, remains in the orbit of Venus Nova as her manager and he’s also Megamax’s new CEO. Megamax’s success rides on the popularity of his ex.
In the shadows lurks a mob boss, an outworlder named Francis “Slugsy” Xavier (Matt Berry) and a studio fixer, Sam Stelfreeze (Michael Chernus). And there is someone more than willing to step out of the shadows to replace Venus.
The screenplay by Bird and Matthew Robbins has the kind of snap you want in a romantic noir comedy.
Go for the comedy. Go for the love of noir. Go for the beautiful vehicular and armory designs. And go because of the slithery sultry tones Johansson hypnotically hissed as Kaa (in the 2016 “The Jungle Book”) are given a bigger showcase and she’s one scorching torch singer. You might also recall her as the voice behind Ash, the porcupine punk rock guitarist in the Universal Pictures and Illumination musical comedy film series “Sing.” And we can’t wait for the soundtrack to come out.
“Ray Gunn” premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 10 October 2026. “Ray Gunn” also screens at AFI FEST on 25 October 2026. It will be released in select theaters on 4 December 2026 and then stream on Netflix on 18 December 2026.