‘Death Of A Unicorn’ Trailer Sees Paul Rudd & Jenna Ortega In A24 Fantasy Release

It’s no secret that 2024 has been a lot more of a stagnant year for A24 than usual, with releases like MAXXXINE and Civil War resonating less with the audience they’ve built up over the last decade. If you’ve been missing out on A24’s unique whimsicality that they brought to projects like Midsommar, The Green Knight, and Hereditary; it seems like the magic is coming back with the release of Alex Scharfman’s Death Of A Unicorn trailer. 

The film follows Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) after they accidentally hit and kill a unicorn on the way to Elliot’s billionaire boss’s house. After presenting the unicorn to his boss (Richard E. Grant), The Leopold family decides to exploit the unicorn for its magical properties. Little do they know that this mythical opportunity was a Monkey’s Paw… Watch the trailer below:

‘Death Of A Unicorn’ Trailer Breakdown

The trailer opens with Jenna Ortega’s character Ridley walking towards the unicorn following the car crash. Paul Rudd’s character, Elliot, asks “Ridley, are you okay?”, and Ridley responds that the unicorn was showing her a vision to leave. She continues by exclaiming how she doesn’t “think we’re supposed to be here.” 

We cut to the conversation leading up to the car crash where Elliot is reassuring Ridley that they’re good people, to which she responds that she’ll tolerate them. The car crashes into the unicorn, spinning around in a circle, and we cut to a shot of Elliot and Ridley on The Leopold’s front door, apologizing for being late. 

As Mrs. Leopold (Téa Leoni) opens the door, the alarm on Elliot’s car goes off; revealing that Elliot and Ridley brought the unicorn along with them. The unicorn, apparently alive, stabs the top of the car from the inside; and we cut to a shot of all the present characters staring down at the, seemingly dead, unicorn. 

The Leopolds immediately take the unicorn from them and prepare their team of scientists to study it. Upon inspection, the scientists (Sunita Mani, Steve Park) discover that the unicorn has the potential to relieve any disease; including cancer. The Leopolds begin to get excited from all the money they’re about to make.

In the next shots, Ridley reveals to Elliot over text that the unicorn has a property to never die; and that its parent is on the way to rescue it. She voices over “We need to give The Little One back! Okay? Bad things will happen” as the trailer cuts to Steve Park’s character getting stabbed in the back by a horn. Elliot’s face can be seen through Ridley’s flesh wound, and the camera pans over to a monstrous unicorn silhouette outside the scientist’s tent. 

We get a series of shots from the third act’s climax. Notably, the takeaway shots that help decipher the story are Sunita Mani’s character figuring out that there are two unicorns, the parent unicorn protracting its claws, Ridley and Elliot locked in a room together hiding from the unicorns, Will Poulter’s character running away from a horn into a room, and Mr. and Mrs. Leopold discussing whether or not to pursue exploiting the unicorn over dinner.

The trailer ends with red-toned, fiery shots of all the characters running away from the unicorns; with one final shot of the parent unicorn roaring in Ridley’s face. The tagline, “Poke Around and Find Out” cuts in before the final title card, “Death of a Unicorn”. “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys fades in before a final scene of Will Poulter pouring drinks and saying, “Here’s hoping we kill Bigfoot on the way home, huh?”

A24’s Death of a Unicorn was directed by Alex Scharfman and stars Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani, Jessica Hynes, and Steve Park. The film releases in theaters Spring 2025.

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