Watch Stowaway on Netflix
Written by: Joe Penna, Ryan Morrison
Directed by: Joe Penna
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer
Plot
A stowaway on a mission to Mars sets off a series of unintended consequences.
Verdict
Space movies often revolve around a problem that must be solved to prevent the death of everyone and the end of the mission. In this case, there's one too many people that the ship can support. One person has to go or they all die. That's an engrossing problem. This is more psychological than action, but this does a great job with the premise. My only criticism is the ending which felt too easy and tropey.
Watch it.
Review
This doesn't waste any time getting into space. The launch sequence voice over starts before we even see a production logo. Zoe, David, and Marina (Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette, ) head to Mars on a two year research mission. It's a great honor, but they are leaving everything behind.
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| Anna Kendrick, Shamier Anderson, Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette play Zoe, Michael, David, Marina |
This takes a turn when Marina discovers Michael (Shamier Anderson) behind a panel in the ship. I don't know how he got stuck inside the ship like that or how the ship is constructed in a way that has that much additional space behind a wall. There's no good explanation for this. Because of the implausibility of it I wondered if there was more to Michael's story. Is there something nefarious going on? I don't know if this is by design or that Michael had to be hidden so he could become part of the movie's plot.
I really like the setup. The crew is wondering how Michael got stuck on the ship. They don't think it was intentional, and Michael's a really nice guy. Shamier Anderson does a great job with the role. The problem is that the ship was designed for a crew of two. Three is pushing it, and with Michael there's no way the ship can sustain all three of them for the duration of the Mars trip. Often the formula for space ship movies is that they have to find a solution to a problem or equipment malfunctioning. This movie expands on that. There is no easy solution.
It's a crazy situation. Someone has to choose to die or they all die. The crew were trained for this mission, they have critical research. That leaves Michael as the odd one out, but will the commander just ask Michael to sacrifice himself? No one wants Michael to die, but there's just no other solution.
Being a Netflix original I was wary, but this is surprisingly good. The conclusion isn't bad, but I wanted a bit more. This plot of this movie puts a nice spin on the stuck on a space ship genre, and the ending feels like the writers wrote themselves into a corner and didn't know what to do. Unfortunately most of the options out of that feel like a cop out. I do appreciate the movie didn't try to play up the conclusion and make this some heroic tale, but a solid ending could have helped this end on a nice note.
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