Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Richard McGuire, Here is the story not just of a location, but a particular view. Eras and generations appear, scene within scene, vignettes unfolding before a static camera. In her 12th collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis, Johanna Johnston tackles a story that has eight main threads interwoven across 500 years. Taking on the project was a foregone conclusion for Johnston. “I’ll do pretty much anything that Bob does because he’s a genius and breaks boundaries every time.”

After the ferns and dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, nature gives way to inhabitants. The first humans in the scene are Native people, the Lenni Lenape. Johnston spoke to two museums specializing in the tribe, but had to build all of the garments. “We had to construct the indigenous clothing in London where the film was shot. Sourcing all the skins and smoking them in a traditional way was very interesting, and it certainly stunk out the costume department,” she chuckles. Johnston also consulted with Jacqueline West, who recently designed Killers of the Flower Moon, regarding some details.

Soon carriages cross the screen, their occupants in frock coats and panniers. Over time, a house is constructed in front of us and another around us. The scene transforms from Edenic to colonial to suburban. As families move in and out of the house we all now occupy, we become part of the lives of several generations. All of these stories overlap and intersect. Characters and scenes artfully fade in and out of the fixed view, weaving the location into a paradigm for the triumphs and tragedies of families everywhere. With such a complex plot, the costumes help the audience recognize not just characters but their place in the timeline.
As the 18th century dawns, we see Benjamin Franklin in a cutaway coat and tricorne and a woman with a distinct silhouette of pannier beneath her walking dress.

A house is constructed around us, and we find ourselves with the Harter family during the turn of the last century as the nation progresses from rural to the Age of Flight. Mrs. Harter (Michelle Dockery) starts in sweeping Edwardian skirts and a parasol while John Harter (Gwilym Lee) eventually dons an aviator’s outfit, which at the time might as well have been a space suit.

In the 1930s, the house becomes a home, not just a residence. Starched collars give way to the relaxed freedom of silk pajamas, and undershirts with just suspenders.

The post-WWII era arrives with the Young family. Al (Paul Bettany) and Rose (Kelly Reilly) form a routine of holidays and birthdays that covers the tumultuous ’40s and ’70s. They arrive in a tailored 1940s victory suit and an army uniform. The clothes anchor the decades like moving title cards introducing each scene.

When the house is passed down to the next generation, the film reunites Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, 30 years after Forrest Gump. The continuum features everyman Richard Young (Hanks) and Margaret (Wright), covering their betrothal, marriage, divorce, and old age. “I had to tell the evolution of that time, not only through their style but through their body shape. Tom was in padding all the way through, even at one point where he is practically his own age. For instance, when he was youthful, I gave him a strong upper body shape to go with his de-aged young face. In middle age, he gets a bit of a belly. In old age, he becomes thinner and stooped.” More than just fluency in clothing, Johnston underscores Hanks’s age by cleverly creating a silhouette beneath the silhouette.

The last family we see in the house is the Harris family, a professional African-American family navigating sociopolitical issues within the audience’s lived experience. Their contemporary, stylish costumes bring them into resonance with the post-pandemic world.

Telling a story as complex as Here was a logistical and continuity puzzle. Johnston notes that the shooting schedule could demand three or four periods shot on the same day. “It was challenging and mental at the same time. Any given day’s shoot could be any of about 70 different datelines with principals and extras—who would do a corridor lineup outside the stages, like a quick-change—Christmas, Halloween, parties, builders, and so on. I wish I had put up a fixed camera to document the process. Honestly, everything was at 500 miles an hour.”