2021, Joe Penna (Arctic) -- Amazon
Once we dispense with the utter lunacy of the premise, that an aero-space engineer would somehow find himself jammed into a tight space during pre-launch, not be missed when he didn't come out, AND having caused catastrophic damage to an essential component, once we dispense with that, we are given a tense plot where the now-fourth crew member has to be integrated, while also dealing with the fact they need to share food and oxygen. Oh, and that essential component he was jammed in with? That was the CO2 scrubber, and its dead. And they only had one. I was a bit fuzzy on how they would run out of oxygen because the CO2 scrubber was dead. I was way more fuzzy on WHY THEY ONLY HAD ONE.
But the acting is great. This is about the emotions they feel weighing the reality of the situation against the humanity of it all. Toss him out the airlock would be the most expedient choice, but no. Each of the crew, Commander Barnett (Toni Collette, The Sixth Sense), Dr. Levenson (Anna Kendrick, Scott Pilgrim vs the World) and biologist David Kim (Daniel Day Kim, Star Trek: Enterprise) feel the impact of their altered trajectory deeply. Stowaway Adams (Shamier Anderson, Wynonna Earp) knows what has happened and does his best to integrate and help. So, they are all left with the hard decisions, but Levenson makes it clear they have to do everything they can to ALL survive. And they do, until it leads to some tragic circumstances, as we knew it would, because these movies always do. But...
SPOILER.
That's where the fucking movie ends! There is a tragedy, a lost cannister of oxygen, a collapse of biological backup O2 and a sacrifice by Levenson, as even with the remaining oxygen only three could survive, not four. And the movie ends. I was confused and flabbergasted, as in most movies, this would be the mid-point, where they lose a crew member and have to double-down on their efforts to not only survive but also make her sacrifice mean something -- complete the mission! Tensions would increase, something else would come close to going wrong, but eventually they would succeed! But nope, movie ends, sacrifice is tragic and we have no idea whether it helps in the long term. Like with Ad Astra or Midnight Sky, I get what they are going for here, but.... I don't buy in. Too much else is just cliché Hollywood story telling for us to get a twisty like that. Hrrmph.
The mere plot of this frustrated me enough to not watch it. This review only reiterates that I would have found it utterly dissatisfying (and quite predictable given the set-up). Thanks for taking this bullet...
ReplyDeleteSo, question, if they're on a mission to Mars and only have so much oxygen for the trip, how are they supposed to breathe on Mars? Is there already an established colony there? If they have breathing equipment on board for their Mars set-up couldn't they use that?
yeah there is equipment there and more on the way, I believe. This is where the plot seemed muddied, as it was more because of the CO2 scrubber. I am assuming the CO2 scrubber would output just enough oxygen to supplement their existing stores. Without it functioning, they would just need even more oxygen, especially with another body in tow.
ReplyDeletethe other part I forgot to mention was that I had to stop and continue later, a few times, as the latent anxiety in these movies gets to me these days.