"Stowaway" an engaging sci-fi drama about morality rather than aliens

Stowaway (2021)


As we have learned from the movies, no one in space can hear you scream. They also can’t hear you make moral decisions. While it isn’t fair to compare all of cinema set in space, “Stowaway” is more philosophically inclined, and yet one more reason to never enter the space program. A problem-solving space drama about selflessness and the “trolley problem,” the film questions the morality of the sacrifice of one person to save a larger number without sacrificing old-fashioned tension. As developmentally spare as it needs to be, “Stowaway” is engaging and well-acted by its cast across the board. 


In a two-year mission to Mars, NASA-like agency Hyperion sends commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette) to colonize the red planet with two other astronauts in the MTS42. Having been chosen from thousands of applicants, Yale medical researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) and Harvard biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) have trained for this expedition. All goes well after a bumpy takeoff, until the commander discovers the ship’s carbon dioxide scrubber has failed. Within a panel in the ceiling, there’s an unconscious stowaway. The person in question is Michael (Shamier Anderson), a Hyperion technician who has been knocked out after performing a routine shuttle check. The CDRA (Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly) has been damaged by Michael’s harness being wrapped around a pipe, and therefore, there is not enough oxygen for all four people on board. Considering a crew of three was already a risk, one member will have to be subtracted, but who?

Writer-director Joe Penna and co-writer Ryan Morrison (2019’s “Arctic”) patiently take their time with their setup and have clearly been painstaking with their research, reaching out to experts in space travel to bring authenticity to the story they want to tell. The script is not much more than functional, but it does take a fresh direction, forgoing all existence of an alien threat on board, whether it be inside a human host or otherwise. The stowaway also doesn’t turn out to be a threat—at least not intentionally—or have ulterior motives. When the characters must have the conversation with Michael and make the tough decisions, everyone has their own perspectives. Zoe is a doctor, so she naturally cares about other people, like Michael; David must sacrifice his years of research, having experimented with growing algae to create a new oxygen supply; and Marina, being on her final mission, must act pragmatically without worrying about her crew being racked with guilt.

If Kevin McCallister was forgotten and left home alone while his family went to France, how Michael was left on board without so much as a roll call is beside the point here. It’s the impetus of the plot, and one must just take it as read that Hyperion made a major oversight. Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, and Daniel Dae Kim (2019’s “Hellboy”) cannot help but reliably commit to the material they have. While their characters do come down to being types, we do feel emotionally invested enough in seeing them all survive those two years back to Earth. Even Shamier Anderson (2019’s “Endings, Beginnings”) is able to create a sympathetic character out of Michael—he has a sister to take care of at home—and hasn’t a mean bone in his body. The moral quandary is what sells “Stowaway” before resting entirely on its suspenseful spacewalk and how everything pans out thereafter. 


Grade: B -


Netflix is releasing “Stowaway” (116 min.) to stream on April 22, 2021. 

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