The widowed Tova (Sally Field) first befriends Marcellus (voiced by Alfred Molina), the giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium where she works as a cleaner, when she catches him sneaking out of his tank. So it’s fitting that Remarkably Bright Creatures ends with the octopus on another adventure, one final odyssey that helps connect the lonely widow and the adrift thirtysomething Cameron (Lewis Pullman) in ways neither of them could have ever predicted. 

It turns out, the missing father Cameron came to Sowell Bay in search of — the one whose class ring Marcellus snuck out of his tank and braved the savage wolf eels to retrieve — was Tova’s son all along. The ring’s inscription, “EELS,” isn’t the high school mascot, as Cameron had previously assumed. It stands for Erik Ernest Lindgren Sullivan, Tova’s son, who died in a tragic boating accident at 18. Cameron, then, is actually Tova’s grandson.

PHOTO BY DAVID BUKACH

“Cameron and Tova never set out to heal each other,” director Olivia Newman tells Tudum. “That’s where the magic of the movie comes in: It’s this other creature who sees things that they don’t. He finds a way to keep bringing them together because he understands that if they spend enough time together, they will be able to help each other heal. I love that lesson. So much healing can happen through connection. You would never guess that these two seemingly opposite humans could be just what the other one needed.”

Tova and Cameron affect each other “against her will in a lot of ways,” jokes Field. They’re both acquired tastes, but “little by little, they creep into each other’s lives and into each other’s sadness. And Marcellus watches all of this and talks about what he sees constantly.”

Read on to find out what else happens in the film, the biggest changes to the story as it transformed from page to screen, and how star Pullman contributed to the soundtrack.

PHOTO BY DIYAH PERA

What happens in Remarkably Bright Creatures? 

Widow Tova busies herself as a cleaner at the local aquarium, where she befriends the giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, and tells him her problems as she scrubs sticky fingerprints off the glass of his tank. But when she injures herself, the new-in-town Cameron fills in — and the unlikely colleagues become friends. 

Tova helps Cameron track down his late mother’s high school best friend, whom he believes to be his dad. Unfortunately, the friend reveals that he is not the father — actually, Cameron’s mom had been in love with a mystery man, and he never knew her boyfriend’s true identity. But thanks to Marcellus’s final heroic act of retrieving the ring, which Cameron had thrown into the tank in a fit of frustration, the two figure out that they’re the family they’d each been searching for. 

After they discover the secret, the rest of their lives fall into place: Tova realizes she shouldn’t resist the advances of Ethan (Colm Meaney), the sweet Scottish grocer who’s held a torch for her, and Cameron realizes he needs to prove to single mom Avery (Sofia Black-D’Elia) that he’s ready for a relationship. And they discover one more secret as Cameron helps clean up Tova’s house — a list of potential baby names hidden under the floorboards in Erik’s room, proving he had helped name Cameron and was excited to become a father. He would have never abandoned Cameron — it was an accident that claimed his life.

PHOTO BY DIYAH PERA

Where was Remarkably Bright Creatures filmed?

Remarkably Bright Creatures was filmed in Vancouver, although the stunning Pacific Northwest vistas actually stand in for Washington State. The fictional town of Sowell Bay is located on the Puget Sound, but the Sowell Bay scenes were filmed in the Vancouver neighborhood of Deep Cove. Some scenes were filmed at the Vancouver Aquarium, where the giant Pacific octopus who served as the visual inspiration for Marcellus resides.

PHOTO BY DIYAH PERA

Who are the Knitwits?

The Knitwits are Tova’s group of best friends who are all in a knitting club together, though their meetings consist of more hanging out than knitting. Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, and Beth Grant play the other members of the Knitwits.

What is a Dala horse?

Tova treasures the set of carved wooden horses her Swedish mother passed down to her. Dala horses originated in the Dalarna region of Sweden, and are painted in the traditional bright colors of the area’s decor.

How is the Remarkably Bright Creatures movie different from the book?

Newman, who co-wrote the script, says her first task was making sure having a giant octopus as a main character wouldn’t distract from the realism of the rest of the story. “I never wanted the audience to feel like they were suddenly being switched into some other tone or some other universe,” she says. “I always wanted to maintain his really wonderful sense of humor and point of view, so thinking of how to weave him through the story without it being a distraction or a tonal shift was definitely the biggest challenge.”

But there were other major differences: the book switches perspectives from chapter to chapter, and Tova and Cameron’s storylines don’t intersect until later in the book. Marcellus knows about their connection from the beginning of the book, but in the film he connects the dots much later. Rearranging the story in this way meant that eventually, Newman had to forget about the novel.

“When I’m in the process of writing, I will know the book backwards and forwards, but at a certain point I just have to stop looking at it and trust that the DNA of the book is in me and will come out on the page,” she says. 

Ultimately, Newman chose Tova as the anchor of the story because she’s a woman at a crossroads in life, and we can learn about Cameron’s story through her. “They’re both involved in each other’s lives and helping each other heal,” she says. “The question that hangs over Tova’s head is what happened that night [of Erik’s accident], and did her son die angry at her? The driving mystery for Cameron is, ‘Why did my father abandon my mother and not want to be part of my life?’ And lo and behold, the questions that they’re both asking lead them to each other.”

Was author Shelby Van Pelt involved in the film? 

Yes, Van Pelt is an executive producer — and even appears in a brief cameo in the audience of Cameron’s performance of a Radiohead song at a local bar. But Newman says that she was also “incredibly supportive” of the adaptation process. “She understood that we were going to have to move away from the book in certain aspects, but she read every draft,” Newman says. “She gave us really thoughtful notes that were really helpful in terms of making sure we didn’t ever stray too far from the book or lose an aspect of the character that she knew book fans really were attached to.”

Is Moth Sausage a real band? 

No, Cameron’s band Moth Sausage is a product of Van Pelt’s imagination — although the very real band Frisco provides their music in the film.

PHOTO BY DIYAH PERA

What song does Lewis Pullman play in Remarkably Bright Creatures? 

Cameron performs Radiohead’s “I Can’t” at a dive bar open mic night after discovering a cassette of Radiohead’s Pablo Honey album — underrated, he and many music fans would agree — in Tova’s car.

Did Lewis Pullman really play the guitar?

Pullman is a musician — a drummer, actually — but he learned how to play the guitar (and sing in public) for the role. “I love playing music. I tried to not put the guitar down for as long as I had available,” he says. Getting onstage in front of a room full of extras (and Van Pelt!) to sing Radiohead’s “I Can’t,” however, was out of his comfort zone. “That was probably one of the scarier days of shooting I’ve ever experienced. I was so, so terrified. I chose to play the drums because you get to hide behind all the drums and you’re not front and center!”

Remarkably Bright Creatures is streaming on Netflix.