This Jacob Elrodi Romance Is Netflix’s Biggest Movie Right Now

The top movie on Netflix this week is 2 Hearts, a romantic drama starring The Kissing Booth and Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi. 2 Hearts is not a Netflix original, as it was first released to little notice in October 2020. Now that it has hit Netflix, though, the based-on-a-true-story movie is starting to attract more attention.

2 Hearts was filmed over three years ago, as Elordi pointed out himself on Instagram over the weekend. The cast also features Tiera Skovbye (Riverdale), Adan Canto (Designated Survivor), and Radha Mitchell (Olympus Has Fallen). Elordi’s involvement in the film was likely the big attraction for Netflix since he fronts the streamer’s popular The Kissing Booth movie franchise. He will appear as Noah Flynn again in The Kissing Booth 3, which hits Netflix later this year.

2 Hearts tells two stories that eventually connect and is based on the book All My Tomorrow: A Story of Tragedy, Transplant, and Hope by Eric Gregory. There are two couples, Chris Gregory (Elordi) and Sam Peters (Skovbye), and Jorge Bicardi (Canto) and Leslie Bacardi (Mitchell). The Bacardi story unfolds in the 1970s, with Jorge, heir to the Bicardi rum fortune, falling in love with Leslie on a flight. Jorge has a lung condition and beats doctors’ expectations by making it to his 30s, but he will need a transplant soon.

In the 2000s, Chris and Sam fall in love at Loyola University. He joins her sober car ride service, Safety Patrol. Their romance doesn’t last long before Chris suffers a brain aneurysm and is later declared brain dead. So how do these two stories connect? It turns out that Chris is an organ donor, and once he dies, Jorge receives a lung transplant thanks to Chris. As Distractify notes, most of the story is true, but there are some changes made for dramatic effect. Jorge was one of five people who received an organ transplant from Chris. Leslie and Jorge were also involved in financing the film. Before Jorge died in September 2020, he helped start the Gabriel House of Care in Jacksonville, Florida.

Elordi’s next project will see him joining Zachary Quinto on a road trip. The two signed on to star in He Went That Way, a 1964-set crime thriller. It is inspired by the true story of animal trainer Dave Pitts and his chimp Spanky, who spent three days with serial killer Larry Lee Ranes. Quinto will play a character inspired by Pitts, while Elordi’s character is inspired by Ranes.