Anna Kendrick in “Stowaway.” (Netflix/TNS)
Published May 04. 2021 7:07AM
Adam Graham, The Detroit News Get the weekly rundown Email Submit
A three-person crew is on a journey bound for Mars when a fourth person is discovered on board. The more the merrier? Not in this case, as there s only enough oxygen on board for three. So either someone needs to hold their breath or an uncomfortable discussion needs to take place.
That s the set-up for Stowaway, which looks like a sci-fi thriller but unfolds like a straightforward moral play. It s a simple numbers game: someone s gotta go. But how do you measure the value of a life under extreme circumstances?
Stowaway (now streaming on Netflix) sees the film-making pair dealing with double the number of characters. Veteran commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), on her third and final space mission, acclaimed biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) and medical researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) are the official crew of MTS-42, a trio charged with a two-year mission to the red planet many believe will provide the first steps to us being able to call it our second-home. While a slightly underperforming main engine during take off comes close to causing them to abort, it isn’t long before they’re settling into their various tasks. During a brief press conference, Zoe enthuses that this is a rare opportunity “to give her life meaning”, while Marina expresses full confidence that her latest colleagues are well-equipped to handle anything that comes their way.
The problem with posting blowout numbers is that it raises the obvious follow-up question: Can you top this? For Apple Inc and Facebook Inc, the answer might be no, or not anytime soon.
On Wednesday, the two tech giants showed the strength of their money-making prowess, with Apple reporting quarterly revenue of US$89.6 billion in the three months that ended in March, up 54 percent from a year earlier and exceeding the US$77.3 billion Bloomberg consensus.
Facebook generated sales of US$26.2 billion in the period, an increase of 48 percent from last year that handily beat the US$23.7 billion average analyst estimate.
Why David Kim From Stowaway Looks So Familiar
Why David Kim From Stowaway Looks So Familiar Netflix
How far would you go to preserve your life s work? Stowaway tells the story of Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), a launch engineer on a Mars-bound spacecraft who appears from the trailer to have been knocked unconscious preparing the ship for launch and only discovered after takeoff. When the ship s life support system sustains damage, the crew has to decide whether it s possible to abandon their mission, or whether they ll have to take measures even more drastic.
The trailer hints that as the ship s biologist, David Kim might have the most to lose from any disruption to the mission. His experiments with growing plant life off the Earth s surface are part of what he tells Adams to be, the first steps to being able to call Mars our second home. The film s logline promises that the ship s medical researcher (Anna Kendrick) emerges as the only dissenting voice
GLEN WELDON, HOST: The Netflix film Stowaway follows a three-person crew on a mission to Mars. They re played by Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim and Anna Kendrick. When they discover a fourth person aboard, played by Shamier Anderson, his unexpected presence places them all in jeopardy.
AISHA HARRIS, HOST: The space travel in Stowaway is pretty down-to-earth. There are no sinister aliens. But there s plenty of calculus, both mathematical and moral, as the crew tries to puzzle their way out of their rapidly worsening situation. I m Aisha Harris.
WELDON: And I m Glen Weldon. And today we re talking about Stowaway on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR, so don t go away.