A group of female colleagues go into the bush on a corporate retreat in the Victorian wilderness. Before they set out, a guide takes their phones, saying it will be a social media-free weekend.
"You'll survive," the boss's wife Jill tells them. Except that's not necessarily true.
Five women go into the bush … but only four women come out.
Based on the mystery thriller novel by Jane Harper and a sequel to 2020 hit The Dry, Force of Nature is the second movie about federal agent Aaron Falk, played by Eric Bana.
Bana says he was drawn back into Falk's world by the script, which is driven by five women — all of whom have their own trauma, complications and contradictions.
There's Jill (a steely Deborra-Lee Furness), beside her husband at the head of the corporate hierarchy. Beneath her are Lauren (Robin McLeavy), the meek office whipping girl; Bree (Lucy Ansell), new to the corporate world; Beth (Sisi Stringer), Bree's sister, who is trying to reset her life after struggling with crime and substance abuse; and Alice (Anna Torv), an uptight office manager who goes missing in the wilderness.
It soon becomes clear that Falk and Alice had met before she disappeared, when Alice approached him to expose corruption at the company.
"We knew that we were going to be able to cast five incredible women in those roles, and we loved how different each of them were," Bana says.
There is a hint of the reality show Survivor threaded in the film, with changing factions and petty rifts emerging within the group as they struggle through their trek of the fictional Giralang Ranges.
"We knew that ensemble and just that predicament—I think Australians can relate to it. I think all films work well when the audience is able to insert themselves into the story," Bana says.
"So, in this case, I think they're going to be sitting there thinking, which one of the five would I be? How would I respond? How would I cope in this pressure situation? Would I survive? Would I crumble?"
Deborra-Lee Furness may be a self-confessed city girl — she jokes that she prepared for the role of Jill by hiking up Fifth Avenue in New York City — but she agrees the movie makes you consider how you would behave in similar circumstances.
"You're like, what would I do? It's not always the case [that you would do what you think you will] if you're put in that predicament," she says.
Jill's authority becomes shaky as the trek gets more difficult. And when the group returns home, suspicions are cast upon her.
After all, being at the top of a company hierarchy doesn't make you the top dog in the bush. As Falk says in the movie: "Out here, nature holds us all to account."
Rain, gloom and predatory worms
The Dry centred on the brutal murder of a family in a regional town that is crumbling under the pressure of a once-in-a-lifetime drought.
Force of Nature, in contrast, is set in the lush Victorian bush, in the middle of a wet, windy and unforgiving winter — brought to life in Victoria's Otways, the Dandenongs and the Yarra Valley.
That landscape posed challenges to the cast and crew.
"Rain was a big problem and sunshine was a problem," explains Robin McLeavy, who plays the repressed Lauren.
"Like, mine and Anna [Torv]'s big scene, it was so tense, and then we got this bit of rainfall and we had to stand around for 40 minutes, waiting for it to pass, and then pick it up again. Or if the sun came out, it was like, oh, this is too happy. We need the depressing cloud cover again."
Some remote parts of the set were only accessible by foot, and shooting during winter meant freezing temperatures … and leeches.
"There was a leech in someone's eyeball, mouth, nostril, under a mask, under a mask in the nose," McLeavy says.
"They were falling from the sky — like you wouldn't sit down," adds Sisi Stringer, who plays Bree. "You wouldn't touch anything, you'd be standing up, nothing touching you, and then all of a sudden there's a leech on your shoulder."
Bana laughs at the mention of the predatory worms: "We don't want to put people off from going into these beautiful areas. Maybe just not in the middle of winter."
Connecting to country
The cast stressed how important it was for them to connect to the landscape around them while working on Force of Nature.
Both a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony were held before filming started.
"It was really, really special and really important for us to do that before using the land," Stringer says.
McLeavy says these types of ceremonies are becoming more common on film sets in Australia and abroad, and believes they should be compulsory: "I think it's culturally significant.
"It's also a health and safety issue if you don't do a Welcome to Country ... I've been on multiple sets in North America and Australia where filming will just mess up — cameras will stop rolling, trucks will break down."
As the cast of this film knows all too well, and as Stringer adds: "Nature fights back."