MISSION TO SURVIVE
A team of astronauts face a lack of oxygen in a new space thriller
Stowaway
NEW Genre: Sci-fi Available: Thursday 22 April Runs: 116min TVSW says: Tense and claustrophobic
TONI COLLETTE BLASTS into space in this new feature-length Netflix thriller about a small crew of astronauts fighting for survival as they head for Mars on a two-year mission to help colonise the planet.
The voyage is going smoothly until Commander Marina Barnett (Collette) discovers an unexpected stowaway on board shortly after lift-off. The stowaway, engineer Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), was accidentally trapped on the space craft during the launch and is horrified to realise that he is on his way to the red planet.
Things get even worse when Marina and her crew members – medical researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) and biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) – discover irreparable damage to their life support systems, meaning there is only enough air on the ship for three people. With four people on board, will someone have to be sacrificed if they are to reach the safety of Mars?
‘These incredible people have been flung into the unknown in the name of science and exploration – and there are so many points at which the mission can go wrong,’ says Collette.
‘It becomes a question of absolute survival.’
The film was directed by Joe Penna, who also helmed survival thriller Arctic, and the action was shot in a near-exact replica of a space shuttle.
‘It really did feel like being in a spaceship. It was so cool,’ says Kendrick – although the actor says she’d never want to travel in space for real.
‘Obviously, there are many women who are capable of being astronauts, but I am not one of them,’ she laughs. ‘Would I want to go to Mars? Never. I would do a lot of things – I would skydive, I would get a neck tattoo before I’d go to space.’