If you do a search on “How many people are in space right now?” you’ll be reminded there are currently 10 humans working up there, including three aboard the Tiangong Space Station and seven who are halfway through a six-month expedition onboard the International Space Station.
Remarkable. Also, quite ordinary in these times. But also: Wow.
The combination of the awesomeness of space and the vulnerability of the human condition in such vastness outside and yet such tight and intense quarters inside has made for many a great movie. There’s so much potential in that setup! For the first hour or so of director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s impressively staged and initially gripping “I.S.S.” (not sure why they added the periods), it feels as if we’re getting another memorable entry in the genre, but the final act devolves into a formulaic space thriller.
“I.S.S.” is set in what appears to be the near future on the International Space Station, with three American and three Russian crew members working in harmony in the name of scientific advancement and for the most part steering clear of political discussions — until something world-shattering happens. All of a sudden it’s as if we’re in the gravity-free version of a Cold War submarine movie, where all bets are off and nobody is to be trusted. It’s a fascinating setup and for a while it appears we’re in for an indie-style minor classic, but then …
Working from a screenplay by Nick Shafir that was on the 2020 “Blacklist” of the most buzzworthy unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, director Cowperthwaite (whose work includes the acclaimed documentary “Blackfish”) and the production design and VFX team do an impressive job of staging the entirety of the film inside the gravity-free, claustrophobic nooks and crannies of the space station, with the occasional foray outside. (There’s almost always a repair to be executed in these types of films.)
The crew includes three cosmonauts and three astronauts: Russians Alexey (Pilou Asbæk), Nicholai (Costa Ronin) and Weronika or “Nika” (Masha Mashkova), and the Americans Gordon (the recently ubiquitous Chris Messina), Christian (John Gallagher Jr.) and new arrival Kira (Ariana DeBose), who arrives with a nest of mice that will have to co-exist in tight quarters under stressful conditions. (I’ll take “Harbingers of Things to Come” for $200, Ken.)
It’s a tightly knit group — they’ve all learned at least the basics of each other’s language — and they welcome Kira with open arms, as well as sharing tips on how to navigate previously simple tasks such as sleeping and keeping your balance and opening a bottle of liquor without letting the droplets drift away. Occasionally there’s an indication of some underlying conflicts, e.g., when someone cues up “Wind of Change” by Scorpions (a celebration of glasnost in the Soviet Union) and a tense exchange follows. Still, all seems calm until the crew members look through the viewing hatch and see a series of enormous, hellishly orange-red explosions on the marble surface of the Earth, and it’s soon evident these are not volcano eruptions or any other kind of natural disaster. They’re nuclear explosions.
Communications and most of the tech shuts down, but eventually Gordon receives a rudimentary message from NASA, saying the American astronauts’ immediate objective must be to take control of the ISS by any means necessary. They can only assume the Russians have been given a similar mandate, and thus begins an extended cat-and-mouse game in which loyalties are tested and blood is spilled (or should we say, sent upward) and we’re sure of this: Not everyone is going to make it home alive.
On the surface, all parties agree to work together and to sort it out when they get home, but nobody trusts anyone. (We learn that scientific and medical breakthroughs that have recently been achieved on the ship will be an invaluable tool in the war, which is why both sides have urged their representatives to take control of the mission even if it means taking out their counterparts.)
Unfortunately, this is when “I.S.S.” loses its bearings. A romance is never fully explained and seems plot-adjacent at best. One character in particular experiences a sudden change in character that feels arbitrary and implausible. We can understand the enormous pressures suddenly thrust upon the crew, but for such brilliant minds, they keep doing really stupid things. The cast is uniformly excellent, with Ariana DeBose leading the way. For a relatively small-budget film, the visuals and sets are better than good. Ultimately, though, “I.S.S.” runs out of big ideas and sputters across the finish line.
