A new Linkin Park documentary directed by the band’s Joe Hahn, Unshatter, will trace the band’s return to the stage following the death of singer Chester Bennington in 2017. The film, whose logline is “The Hardest Part of Ending is Starting Again,” will open in theaters on Sept. 30. Tickets go on sale Aug. 13 with full details on a bespoke website.
A trailer shows the excitement of fans in and around the band’s 2024 gig in São Paulo, Brazil and features interviews with band members. “It’s certainly never been done the way we did it,” the group’s Mike Shinoda says in one clip before addressing Bennington’s death. “So much of our lives had gone into Linkin Park, and it all just came to a crashing halt.” The musicians express worries that the band was done. And then new vocalist Emily Armstrong comes into the picture, leading to triumphant concert footage.
The film covers a span of time beginning with the 2022 recording sessions that yielded their eighth studio album two years later, From Zero, which features Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain, to the São Paulo show. The documentary also includes footage from the band’s vault, performance footage, and interviews with the band and its fans.
A co-founding member of the band, Hahn has played synthesizer and turntables in the band since 1996. He has also directed the band’s music videos for “Numb,” “Somewhere I Belong,” and “Bleed It Out,” among several others. In a statement, he explained that Unshatter, whose title suggests that something broken could be put back together, wasn’t intended originally as a documentary but as a concert film capturing their 2024 São Paulo show. He sees it now as a thank you to Linkin Park’s fans.
“The more we kept the cameras rolling, the more we realized there was a much bigger story unfolding,” Hahn said. “After seven years away, we honestly didn’t know what the future of Linkin Park looked like. We were figuring it out as we went. None of us knew if the band would evolve the way it did, how fans would respond, or where any of it was leading. I didn’t want to make a film that looked back on everything with perfect clarity. I wanted people to experience that uncertainty the same way we did in real time.”
Hahn added that because he’s a Linkin Park member and had lived the story “from the inside,” he felt a responsibility to be honest. “It would have been easy to tell the version people expected or the version built from headlines and interviews, but that was never the goal,” he said. “I wanted to capture the conversations, the doubts, the creative moments, and everything in between that only the people living through it could really understand.”
An album, Unshatter Film Soundtrack (Live in São Paulo), out Sept. 25, includes performances of songs from throughout the band’s career. It will also include songs from the concert that Hahn did not feature in the film.
After a hiatus following Bennington’s death, Linkin Park released “The Emptiness Machine,” their first song featuring Armstrong and Brittain, in 2024. They swiftly followed it with “Heavy Is the Crown” and the album From Zero. Their most recent single, “Unshatter,” came out last year as part of the deluxe edition of From Zero.
