Stowaway is a dumb movie and here are some spoilery posts to prove it

Early reviews for Stowaway not looking great:

I can’t say I had high expectations, but perhaps higher than usual for a Netflix sci-fi movie, so that’s a shame.

Actually the reviews are not bad, running at 74% but for what its worth the audience opinions a not looking good. Still its based on a small number of audience opinions, so Ill take it with a grain of salt. I’ll take a wait and see stance on this one.

This L.A. Times review seems pretty favorable:

Watched Stowaway. It was… ok, I guess. My problem is that there’s just so much unbelievable stuff going on that it pulls me out of the movie. I mean, there was probably no realistic way of setting up the situation in the first place, but the way they did it was particularly ridiculous. Also, without spoiling too much, there is a point in the movie where they go on an EVA, and the amount of time they spend not tethered to anything is just ludicrous. And not for any reason, either. They totally could be tethered, they just aren’t.

Still, as a character drama it was fine. The leads are all good. The set design is pretty good. I just couldn’t get over how does a guy get stuck in a cabinet that is screwed shut? How do they not have a backup CO2 scrubber? Why aren’t they frickin’ tethered?? I was really hoping there would be a better explanation at the end about how the stowaway got there, but nope..

Ha ha, you saw Stowaway!

-Tom

I thought it wasn’t out yet.

I also am going to watch Stowaway because what low budget zombie horror movies are to @tomchick, broadly realistic sci fi movies about near interplanetary missions are to me.

The Martian is legitimately one of my favorite movies ever, ridiculous wind force opening included, simply because a well done treatment of Martian manned missions in relatively realistic within my lifetime technology is 100% my jam.

Stowaway will have a hard time competing with Tintin’s Explorers on the Moon.

I felt Stowaway was worth a watch, but its technical weaknesses mentioned above are more than a bit distracting at times and I was never satisfied with the explanations provided. Of course, it never claims to be Kerbal Space Program: The Movie (although I would totally watch that, lol).

I honestly was waiting for some sort of supernatural or sci-fi explanation for how some random technician was rendered unconscious and bolted into an enclosure without anyone noticing. Or at least some sort of insidious explanation or evil scheme or shapeshifting alien. Because that’s how plausible the premise is: “whoops, a dude got accidently launched into space even though we’re going to make a point about the space agency being so meticulous that it tracks the weight of a coffee cup”.

There are plenty of ways to force a space crisis. But Stowaway simply couldn’t be bothered. From the get-go, it loses all claim to being hard sci-fi and turns into a brainlessly contrived ethics dilemma without ever earning its dilemma.

-Tom

Yeah; I thought they were going to head down the path of a troubled sister he couldn’t manage anymore and other personal issues which pushed him to sneak onboard, knowing the agency would take care of things while he ran away from his responsibilities (and maybe displacing his weight by taking out backup systems).

Ooh, I like that! Great premise! Now they have to save the guy who doomed them. Hey, Netflix, next time produce a script from @Dan_Theman, plz!

-Tom

I’m up for the job!

Also, you know, moments before take-off on a 2-year mission, he’s working in the cabinet containing the one piece of equipment without which everyone will die, and which has no redundant backup system. So, you know, they launched without checking that piece of equipment.

Ok, so you folk at totally bullshitting, right? Ya’ll are pulling a prank on the rest of the board. This can’t be the premise of a film. Except maybe a Roger Corman production.

Edit to remove spoiler. Granted, the title doesn’t really hide anything. Peace.

He’s not pulling a prank, lol.

I haven’t watched this movie, but my favorite space YouTuber made an interesting video about his work as a consultant on it.

Is this based upon The Cold Equations?

The premise is based on the same core idea, but the movie goes wacky in the third act.

I was going to post that, except I haven’t watched it yet because I haven’t seen the movie.

But I did see his pre release episode on the spaceship design.

Deja vu! Though I guess that discussion was orphaned back in the Netflix movie thread.