ALL ABOARD FOR CHAOS — Netflix’s The Woman in Cabin 10 starring Kiera Knightley is about to become your next obsession
A luxury cruise. A missing passenger. A journalist who swears she saw something she shouldn’t have. What begins as a dream trip quickly spirals into paranoia, gaslighting, and a nightmare at sea no one can escape.
Get ready for Kiera Knightley’s most chilling performance yet — the psychological thriller that’ll have everyone questioning what’s real… and who’s next.
Keira Knightley’s next big screen appearance is a maritime mystery. Netflix has adapted Ruth Ware’s 2016 best‑selling novel The Woman in Cabin 10 into a psychological thriller film directed by Australian filmmaker and director Simon Stone.
Knightley plays journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock, whose dream assignment aboard a luxury super‑yacht becomes a nightmare when she witnesses a woman being thrown overboard, only to be told everyone is accounted for. The film, co‑written by Stone with Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, marks the first screen adaptation of a Ware novel.
It’s been a while in the making. Ruth Ware’s novel quickly attracted Hollywood interest upon its initial release in June 2016. CBS Films initially acquired the adaptation rights in 2017, but the project stalled. In May 2024, Netflix announced that it had acquired the rights and would produce the film, with Simon Stone directing and Knightley attached. Stone co‑wrote the screenplay with screenwriters Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse.
Debra Hayward and Ilda Diffley produced the film through Sister, with Cindy Holland and Richard Hewitt serving as executive producers. Cinematography by Ben Davis. Benjamin Wallfisch serves as the composer.
When will The Woman in Cabin 10 release on Netflix?
Netflix’s thriller is scheduled to stream globally on October 10th, 2025. The runtime is confirmed to be 1 hour and 35 minutes. As with all Netflix releases, the movie drops at 12AM PT. The film is officially rated R for some violence and language.
While the movie isn’t getting a limited theatrical release, it did premiere at the BAFTA Theatre in London on September 25th.
What’s the plot of The Woman in Cabin 10?
The film follows Lo Blacklock, a travel journalist whose assignment on the maiden voyage of the luxury yacht Aurora Borealis turns sinister. After hearing muffled cries one night, she sees a passenger tossed overboard, but the next morning, the ship’s captain insists no one is missing and all cabins are occupied. Lo’s insistence that she witnessed a crime is dismissed as stress or imagination, yet she persists, putting her life at risk to uncover the truth.
Stylistically, the Simon Stone says the film serves as a throwback to some of cinema’s most iconic suspense stories. “It’s a classic thriller, very much in the vein of Hitchcock and the 1970s paranoid thrillers Alan J. Pakula was making. But there’s a twist, this time, there’s a woman at the center of the story instead of a Robert Redford or a Jimmy Stewart. That’s Keira Knightley, and she’s just extraordinary.”
Ruth Ware was consulted during production, according to ScreenRant, but chose to let the filmmakers craft their own vision. She likened giving up control to “sending your baby off to kindergarten” – an emotional but necessary leap of faith. Ware said she was “super happy” to hand creative control to Stone’s team because books and films tell stories differently; the script had to compress a 100,000‑word novel into a 90‑minute movie and adjust Lo’s internal monologue and ending.
The Woman in Cabin 10. (L-R) Kaya Scodelario as Grace and Keira Knightley as Lo in The Woman in Cabin 10. Cr. Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix © 2025
Cast and characters
Netflix has assembled an ensemble cast of familiar faces. The official passenger list includes:
Keira Knightley as Lo Blacklock, the travel journalist.
Guy Pearce as Richard Bullmer, a wealthy charity benefactor who invites guests onto his yacht
Hannah Waddingham as Heidi
David Ajala as Ben
Gitte Witt as Carrie
Art Malik as Dr. Robert Mehta
Daniel Ings as Adam.
David Morrissey as Thomas Heatherley
Christopher Rygh as Lars Jensen
Paul Kaye as Danny Tyler
Kaya Scodelario as Grace
Lisa Loven Kongsli as Annie Bullmer
Gugu Mbatha‑Raw
John Macmillan as Captain Addis
Pippa Bennett‑Warner and Ayọ̀ Owóyẹmi‑Peters
Speaking about the cast, director Stone said, “What I loved most was the vibe between the actors. Everyone was so supportive and protective of one another. It really felt like an ensemble, which is rare in filmmaking.”
Hannah Waddingham said at the premiere that joining the film was an easy decision, going on to say, “The collection of people — the gaggle, as I like to call us — that they’ve gathered together, I just couldn’t resist it. I thought, I don’t care if I’ve got one word, five words, no words, I want to work with those people. They’re people I’ve admired for many years.”
The Woman in Cabin 10. (L-R) David Morrissey as Thomas and Hannah Waddingham as Heidi in The Woman in Cabin 10. Cr. Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix © 2025
Where did The Woman in Cabin 10 film? When was it in production?
Principal photography took place on England’s Isle of Portland in Dorset in September 2024 and aboard the superyacht Savannah, one of the world’s first hybrid‑propulsion yachts, according to Televisual. The outlet notes that the crew drew inspiration from 1970s cinema and Alfred Hitchcock, using the yacht’s narrow corridors and glass‑walled cabins to heighten tension. Filming had wrapped by late November 2024 and the film has a reported budget of about $21 million.
Speaking about filming during the premiere, Knightley said, “We thought it was going to be quite luxurious. But the nature of filming meant we were on this amazing boat that was built for about 25 crew members and 12 guests. We had the 25 boat crew, plus 70 film crew, and around 20 cast members. We weren’t allowed to touch the walls, the carpets, or sit on any of the furniture, so we were all crowded into the middle for 12 hours a day. It was quite cold, so it wasn’t quite the luxurious experience I thought it might be.”
Waddingham echoed those sentiments about working on a boat. “We were all feeling a little bit sick, so it was like, ‘I’ve got you,’” she laughs. “We were either all going to hit it off or all hate each other because we were in a little B&B together in Weymouth, then all up in Scotland, completely on top of each other. But we just hit it off so much.”
The production also ventured beyond the coast. In early November 2024, the crew moved to Glen Affric Estate in the Scottish Highlands, a 10,000‑acre property owned by businessman David Matthews.
In an interview with Collider, director Stone and cinematographer Davis reportedly “used a style that emphasized alienation: wide-angle lenses placed close to actors, giving a warped sense of space. The yacht — opulent and shimmering — becomes claustrophobic, a floating prison.”
The Woman in Cabin 10. Keira Knightley as Lo in The Woman in Cabin 10. Cr. Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix © 2025
Will there be a sequel?
It’s a little too early to tell on this one, but there’s definitely more potential on the horizon, with a second book, titled The Woman in Suite 11, having been published in June of this year.
Author Ruth Ware revealed to ELLE that she was halfway through the sequel when she learned that the film was moving forward, and she faced the challenge of crafting a follow‑up that would satisfy existing readers and make sense to a new Netflix audience. There have been various hints that, should the first movie prove popular, the follow-up could be adapted next.
The official synopsis for The Woman in Suite 11 reads:
“When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.
The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.
What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?”
That’s all we have on The Woman in Cabin 10 – keep an eye on What’s on Netflix upon its release for our full review!
