Title: I.S.S.
Describe This Movie In One Gravity Quote:
KOWALSKI: Half of North America just lost their Facebook.
Brief Plot Synopsis: In space, no one can hear you scheme.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 2 Def-Con 4s out of 5.
Tagline: “America and Russia are at war. So are their astronauts.”
Better Tagline: “At least it’s not a Battlefield Earth sequel.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Dr. Kira Foster’s (Ariana DeBose) first trip to the International Space Station ought to be a celebratory one, as she joins fellow American scientists Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina) and Christian Campbell (John Gallagher Jr.) along with their Russian counterparts (Masha Mashkova, Costa Ronin, Pilou Asbæk) on a voyage of discovery. Unfortunately, their voyage is cut short by nuclear war back on Earth, followed by orders from the U.S. and Russian governments to their people to seize the I.S.S. by any means necessary.
“Critical” Analysis: There’s something admittedly intriguing about setting a movie on the International Space Station and almost making that a secondary consideration. And while there’s much that will be made of director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s (Megan Leavey, Our Friend) “authenticity,” I.S.S. could’ve taken place in just about any remote outpost with international membership.
But then, we wouldn’t have chilling shots of Foster and company watching nuclear bombs detonating across North America, or the terror of Barrett spacewalking to fix the antenna array with none of the usual advance preparation. It’s all part and parcel of how Cowperthwaite tries to spin out the tension of both sides receiving identical orders over the course of the film. Let’s just call the results “mixed.”
Nick Shafir’s script tends toward the heavy-handed, with frequent urgent convos about how the scientists should ignore politics and what’s going on “down there.” It pairs nicely with Barrett describing the station’s Chekhovian life support system. Messina is perfectly acceptable as our Everyman forced to confront the unthinkable, especially joined by veteran character actors Gallagher Jr., Mashkov, and Ronin. The only real outlier is DeBose.
That’s through no fault of hers, it’s just that the role of Dr. Foster doesn’t require a lot of effort. Most of the time, DeBose just looks … uncomfortable. Good on her for trying to branch out from musical theater, but it was honestly kind of disappointing that Foster didn’t try to unite the ISS through the power of song.
A secondary layer to the conflict gets introduced when it’s revealed that one of the onboard experiments may have immediate application to the situation Earth-side. Unfortunately, Cowperthwaite doesn’t follow up on this, instead steering us inevitably towards a climactic zero-G fight between the two alpha males, which looks and is pretty dumb. If you don’t think about it too much, I suppose the predictable end result could be viewed as, like, a metaphor, man.
Interesting as it is to shoot the entire movie in zero gravity (or using wires, which I’m guessing were digitally removed), the gimmick doesn’t mitigate the inability to generate any real suspense (they two teams want to fly the Soyuz capsule to … where, exactly? Kazakhstan? Who’s going to pick them up? Are none of these people aware of Threads? Is it unrealistic that someone on board didn’t seriously consider driving the space station straight into Greenland?
Are the Russians the movie bad guys? How can they be, when they love their children too? In I.S.S., the Russkies may strike the first blows, but they feel really bad about it. That’s gotta count for something.
I.S.S. is in theaters today.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
