Chris Hemsworth is no stranger to rigorous physical roles, having pushed himself for films like Thor, Extraction, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. However, he faced an unexpected personal challenge when his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
In the documentary “Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip to Remember,” available on Disney+ and Hulu since November 24, 2025, Chris discusses his father’s health struggles and their journey toward coping with the illness.
Produced in collaboration with National Geographic, the series follows Chris and his father Craig as they embark on a road trip across Australia, aiming to employ reminiscence therapy.
At the series’ outset, Chris shares that Craig is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, with symptoms emerging over the past two years.
“It’s so easy to take our parents for granted,” Chris reflects in a heartfelt moment. “I feel I’ve been so busy I haven’t spent as much time with my dad as I would want to… and there was the diagnosis. He has early-stage Alzheimer’s and there are definitely good days and bad days.”
The exact timing of Craig’s diagnosis is unknown, but Chris has previously shared his own concerns about developing Alzheimer’s due to possessing two copies of the APOE4 gene, which is associated with a higher risk of early onset.
During the documentary, Chris and his father revisit significant locations in Australia, including a former childhood home, as part of Craig’s reminiscence therapy.
“I wanna do everything I can to help him so my dad and I are going on a road trip. It’s something we’ve been talking about for years,” recalls Chris. “Turns out the experience could help fight the disease. If it helps, fantastic. But I’m just looking forward to spending time with my dad.”
The road trip serves as reminiscence therapy, a technique encouraging people, especially those with dementia, to recall past experiences through sensory prompts, aiming to improve mood, self-esteem, and cognitive function.
“My road trip with my dad is going to be a trip back into our past to exercise his memory in order to strengthen it,” Chris shares through a voice-over.
This effort is crucial, as Chris mentions that his father sometimes forgets tasks he once knew well.
“It’s confronting and [a] really tough thing to navigate because it’s something about his personality that is … It’s not a stubbornness but there’s a route of how he does things,” Chris explains. “I’m not sure if he’s forgetting this or is he insisting on doing it this way. Or is this a symptom? I don’t know.”
The memory lapses are evident on screen, with Chris describing the painful reality of watching his father forget where he was and who he was speaking to, even with old friends.
The diagnosis has also heavily impacted Chris’s mother, Leonie, who emotionally reveals, “As a partner, it’s difficult because I want him to be the person that he was. I want that relationship. Sometimes I wake up in the middle [of the] night and it’s quite terrifying where it’s all going,” she admits tearfully.
Craig himself shares his fear of becoming a burden and losing touch with loved ones, but Chris reassures him that he will never be a burden, ending their trip with heartfelt expressions of love.
Currently, over six million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. Globally, more than 55 million people have dementia, and this figure is projected to almost double every 20 years, reaching 78 million by 2030 and 139 million by 2050, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International.