I have no idea if director / co-writer’s latest movie Joe Penna (Arctic) was shot during the pandemic, but it sure feels like it could have been, albeit in a way that doesn’t scream that it was so. With only four actors, Stowaway plays like a chamber play about ethics and human dignity and whether life matters more than mission, all in a science fiction setting. The opening of the film is simply a launch of a spacecraft shown from the cockpit of a ship with three crew members – ship commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) and medical researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick). We only see what they see: a lot of tremors, noise, an impossible control panel, the occasional drop of the booster rocket and ultimately a fantastic view of the earth.
The crew embarks on a two-year mission to Mars, primarily to conduct experiments to see if the red planet can sustain any type of life. And while we never get the details of the research, much of it seems to involve the life of the planet. There are small indications that there have been some misjudgments about ship weight affecting fuel economy and flight path, but these are easy issues to fix. A few hours into the flight, Marina hears a noise in the ceiling paneling, and as she loosens the screws holding it in place, a deeply wounded Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), a launch plan engineer who definitely shouldn’t be on this one, falls out Flight. Not only was he injured and passed out while performing final checks, but he also damaged some critical functions of the ship, including those involving oxygen supply, by jumping around during takeoff.
Once they determine that Michael is not an intentional stowaway, the crew must figure out what to do with him as they begin to assess with each other and with Mission Control how and whether the flight can continue with the extra person on board. And it soon becomes clear that there is not enough oxygen to continue the mission with four people and no way to fix what was broken to produce more. As Marina is very missionary, she gets the harsh reputation that Michael must die and would prefer to take his own life, while Zoe is more of a humanist and wants to give him as much time to live as she can regardless of how much oxygen she has depleted it.
While it’s never specifically mentioned, the fact that Michael is black feels significant – he’s seen as the sacrificial lamb who must step aside for others to live. But when circumstances change again and there is only enough oxygen for two crew members, they come up with radical ideas that ultimately save everyone. The solution involves one of the most complicated, dangerous, and suspenseful spacewalking sequences I’ve ever seen, and of course things don’t go exactly according to plan.
One of the most refreshing elements of Stowaway is that there are no bad guys. All four people are crew members you would consider yourself lucky with, trying to solve critical problems. They are all nice and smart and able, and even when they argue, they do it sensibly. Where is the drama coming from? Small moments in which the personalities are not exactly coordinated. Marina has been to space before, so she knows the importance of sticking to the plan in order to achieve the agreed-upon goals. Zoe is an idealist, but more importantly, she is a doctor, so the idea of choosing someone to die for the sake of the mission would never seem logical to her. Meanwhile, David gets emotional at the idea of throwing away his research on a plan that may not work. Perhaps most unexpectedly, Michael’s reaction to being told he is about to die is okay because he knows he was not chosen to be there and understands that his being endangers everyone, even without everything goes wrong as it goes. And the fact that all four characters are so personable and sensible makes certain moments all the more difficult.
As in his previous film, Arctic, director Penna (who co-wrote Stowaway with Ryan Morrison) is excellent at telling stories about isolation. The characters actually talk to each other and as they (and we) learn about Michael and his life on earth, they reveal a lot about themselves to him and us too. I suspect each audience will have a favorite crew member and will have their own ideas about what the best plan of action should be, depending on personality type. And these favorites can move as they should as the film progresses. The ending of Stowaway doesn’t play out the way I imagined (although I’m not sure I can articulate exactly how I imagined).
The four performances are spot on, and the interactions between the four main cast feels real in terms of their knowledge, compassion, and ability to function in impossible circumstances while making life and death decisions. This is a character drama that happens to be set in space, and it’s a perfect example of the places science fiction can take us to that doesn’t involve aliens, space battles, or galactic empires.
The movie is now being streamed on Netflix.
Third Coast Review is Chicago’s locally curated website specializing in arts and culture coverage in the Chicago area. Read more under Thirdcoastreview.com
