PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Movies and shows set in space are a difficult concept. Not in terms of understanding, but in the act of creating a film that seems believable, considering the concept is futuristic. Just because something is set in the future, doesn’t mean the audience will just accept anything as a plot. Let’s add in the difficulty of creating futuristic technology and creating actual SPACE that doesn’t look like you made a movie from your kids craft supply table. Regardless, I love space and alien movies, and I am always willing to give them a chance, so I was all over 5th Passenger when it came across my path.
5th Passenger is a futuristic space movie set in the year 2151. It was co-written and directed by Scotty Baker with leading lady Morgan Lariah and David Henri Martin assisting with writing. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the movie acts as a mini Star Trek reunion with Marina Sirtis as Alana, Armin Shimerman as Myers, Tim Russ as Franklin, Manu Intiraymi as Thompson… and then there’s the legendary Doug Jones, the king of creature acting, who is in the movie without crazy costumes or prosthetics. Jones plays a much too brief Langdon. He’s the big name on the docket, yet we only get maybe five minutes of screen time with him because it all goes to hell in a handbasket very quickly.
On this ship, there are two classes of people: citizens and non-citizens. Citizens are given all the luxury of the station while non-citizens, who continue to suffer on Earth as well after a massive class war, are treated like garbage and aren’t even given credit when they have worked for their positions. When Miller (Morgan Lariah) offers to steer the self-driving ship through an asteroid field, she is shot down by Langdon, who created the technology to drive better than any humans. So, they head into the field on cruise control. Big mistake.
When asteroids begin to very quickly destroy the ship, everyone escapes to pods. The lower level with the non-citizen pods have been destroyed and non-citizens Miller, Myers and Thompson and citizens Franklin and Li all run to the last pod. Franklin is constantly threatening to kill everyone, Li is an uber jerk and Myers and Thompson are just along for the ride. Miller is the smartest of the bunch. She figures a way to thrust them closer to a rescue location at the risk of their oxygen levels, which are depleting fast since there are five passengers in a pod that houses four.
Franklin builds a rudimentary Doppler to find objects, and the five travelers thrust their way across space to get to a ship that is dark and abandoned. Miller and Thompson go inside to find that they might not be alone. When they get back to the pod, they may have brought something back with them. But nothing is as what it seems on this pod and someone has a secret.
When the movie first started, I honestly had the sinking feeling that this was going to suck. The acting was alright and the sets were nice. The green screen was obvious in a lot of places, and the plot moved almost TOO quickly. However, when we were left with just our core group of Miller, Myers, Thompson, Franklin and Li, it became exponentially better. The effects got better, the acting improved, and the story was captivating. Now, the creature leaves a lot to be desired. Looking like an Alien knockoff and moving like a toddler playing with a plushie took away a lot of the intensity, but it was still effective for what it was.
While I did see it coming at a certain point, the ending to 5th Passenger was thrilling and provided a great twist to leave on, one not common among space movies. You come to really like Thompson (with the style of early 2000s SmashMouth, for some reason) and Myers with their goofy and sweet personalities. Sirtis is amazing as Alana, who’s personality really moves the story along. She is the most believable character, and I thought she was fantastic.
Doug Jones is always amazing, but we barely got to see him. I couldn’t even find a still of him in the movie. I thought we may see him more after the crash, but the cameo in the beginning is all the Jones we get. All in all, I really liked 5th Passenger. I can see myself recommending this in conversation and watching it again, knowing what I know now after seeing the end. 5th Passenger releases in theaters and on demand July 10th, and I do recommend this for space lovers. It’s surprising, intense and great for Star Trek fans.
