The film of "relationships, resilience, and what it really takes to move forward when you don't have all the answers" will hit cinemas on September 30. Listen to the live version of Somewhere I Belong now!
Linkin Park have announced that their UNSHATTER documentary will be hitting cinemas on September 30, and posted the first trailer.
In addition, the live soundtrack album, UNSHATTER (Live In São Paulo) is coming on September 25, with the first track, Somewhere I Belong, available now.
Directed by Joe Hahn, the film follows the band as they regrouped in 2022 following the death of Chester Bennington in 2017, through the creation of From Zero and the start of their latest chapter with Emily Armstrong, hitting the stage at the enormous show in São Paulo in 2024. It will also feature rare archival footage, behind-the-scenes content and intimate recording sessions.
"UNSHATTER follows a very particular moment in Linkin Park’s history and documents a path through loss, uncertainty, friendship, and reinvention,” says Joe Hahn. “I hope longtime fans see parts of our journey they've never seen before, and I hope people who are just discovering our music come away with a better understanding of how we got here. But even beyond Linkin Park, I hope people connect with it as a story about relationships, resilience, and what it really takes to move forward when you don't have all the answers."
Further explaining the film, Joe reveals that the title is based on the idea that "Something can be broken, rebuilt, and still carry its scars.
"To me, resilience isn't about pretending something never happened. It's about accepting what happened, honouring it, and finding a way to keep moving forward. That felt like the best way to describe both the film and our journey. This is really a story about loss, friendship, creativity, and reinvention.
"This wasn't supposed to be a documentary. It started with an opportunity to film our 2024 show in São Paulo, just wanting to capture that moment. But the more we kept the cameras rolling, the more we realised there was a much bigger story unfolding.
"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.
"I've lived this story from the inside, so I had a perspective that only a bandmate and a friend could have. That also came with 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. 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."
The project came with an element of challenge for Joe, being so connected to the subject of the film and its emotional weight.
"As a filmmaker, I had to approach this differently than anything I'd done before. My background is in music videos where you're always thinking about visuals and style. On this project, every creative decision had to support the story instead of getting in the way of it. The editing process was really about finding the spine of the film. We had hundreds of hours of footage and thousands of index cards covering every possible direction the story could take. Working with Igor Kovalik, who's edited Linkin Park videos for years, we kept asking ourselves the same question: are we telling the story as we actually lived it?
On how the band felt about returning after losing their friend, Joe calls it "A huge leap of faith.
"We decided that if we were going to do it, we wanted to go all in because we wanted it to feel meaningful for the fans who had stayed with us through everything. Making this film also reminded us how much our songs mean to people. They've always lived somewhere between darkness and hope, and seeing how they've continued to help people over the years became one of the biggest reasons to tell this story.
"More than anything, this film is a thank you to the fans. It's our chance to share the whole story instead of having people piece it together through speculation or bits and pieces over the years. I hope longtime fans see parts of our journey they've never seen before, and I hope people who are just discovering the band come away with a better understanding of how we got here. But even beyond Linkin Park, I hope people connect with it as a story about relationships, resilience, and what it really takes to move forward when you don't have all the answers."
UNSHATTER hits cinemas on September 30 via Trafalgar. Pre-sale tickets are available now. UNSHATTER: Live In São Paulo is released on September 25.
