Stowaway (2021)

Stowaway is one of those films that feels more like a thesis than a story. It's built on a problem. A mission to Mars designed to support 3 people is disrupted when a fourth person "stows away," albeit accidentally, and forces them to wrestle with the idea that they will all die unless one of them dies. That's it. That's the whole movie. The film spends a lot of time, I mean a lot of time, explaining why there is no other way. One of them has to be sacrificed. Finally (mild spoiler) one of them chooses to sacrifice themselves and the movie ends. 

Despite what feels like an overly constructed idea that never quite finds a way to be organic, the film still mostly works. The runtime isn't excessive. Writer/director Penna manages to build incredible tension throughout, as well as a great deal of empathy. The film is strong in how it honestly generates the sense of loss, personally felt by the audience. The small cast means there isn't a lot to distract us. The script smartly invests us in this handful of people and forcing us to choose one ends up being emotionally fraught. A lot of this has to do with the cast, top notch all, who deliver on this idea, making the payoff strong even if, again, I felt it was a bit too pat. 

But the idea itself is a worthy one to explore. Sure this is a simple premise and the film just makes excuses for why there can never be any other solution. But it speaks to something more. We in western culture have agreed tacitly that for the rest of us to thrive some of us must be sacrificed. This story puts this in our face and forces us to make a choice. Who should it be? There are very good, logical reasons why it should be one, but the film asks us to recognize the consequences of that. By casting the only black actor in the role of the sacrificial lamb the film is teaching us more about ourselves than we may want to face. The film, even with its small cast, gets us to look at how gender and race and vulnerability play into how these choices are made in real life.

So while the film felt a bit too overly constructed it overcame this enough for me to appreciate what it was doing. And I liked that it didn't find a way to miraculously pull a heroic moment to save the day as that would have truly missed the point. Sure I would have loved it if the film spent a little more time making it all feel more natural but it still did what I needed it to do to get onboard. And it made me ask myself some difficult questions, the answers of which I really didn't like. For that it gets points. 

Stowaway

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson

Director: Joe Penna

Writers: Ryan Morrison, Joe Penna