Brad Pitt plays a fine role in Ad Astra (2019), a cleverly crafted science fiction film that immediately gets our attention with a stunning, vertigo inducing, opening scene.
Roy McBride is a decorated and highly qualified U.S. military astronaut, sometime in the mysteriously near future. A straight-faced, highly strung individual who doesn’t believe in enjoyment, relationships, or anything that will distract him from ‘the mission’. It appears that life is ‘the mission’.
Roy’s father, H. Clifford McBride, is played by Tommy Lee Jones, who I’m amazed to have just read is 73 years old, and who was brilliant in, amongst many other films, The Fugitive, along with Harrison Ford.
H. Clifford is the most decorated astronaut in history and led a team, decades ago, on a mission to Neptune. Obsessed with finding evidence of life outside our solar system he believed that with less interference from the sun’s energy the search would be easier. Communication, however, had been lost and it was assumed that they had perished.
Back to the present. Intense energy bursts are breaking down the electrical systems on Earth, causing death and destruction on a global scale. And they’re getting worse, leading to eventual Armageddon.
Yes, the usual sci-fi apocalypse tale, and at that point I was beginning to switch off, seeing not much variation on your regular screwed up soldier and end of the world stuff.
However, the source of the energy surges is Neptune, and Roy, so tightly bound by his own emotions that I’m surprised that he can breathe, is told that his father may be alive. And the bonds begin to loosen. The tale turned, then, into one of a father, son relationship. An extremely intense and multi-layered relationship, as a fairly constant Brad Pitt voiceover keeps intimating. A slightly annoying voiceover which made me wonder why they couldn’t have just written a better script that showed us why, rather than just told us.
And, unsurprisingly, Roy is sent out to find him.
The near future is an interesting concept in this film. They still use rockets that look like our 21st century ones, i.e. the ones that blast off from Cape Canaveral. They still use 21st century electronics, like our phones, tablets etc. From that there isn’t much to differentiate it from now; other than the fact that there is a permanent colony on the Moon—one that resembles a giant shopping centre; and an underground base on Mars. There is an amusing bit of product placement. The landing gate for the flight to the Moon is Virgin Atlantic. Obviously planning to branch out over the coming years.
Overall I enjoyed the film. It had a 2001 A Space Odyssey vibe about it; low lighting, ‘70’s décor, and a slow meandering feel, as if no one was in a hurry—even when they were in a hurry. It raised questions as I watched it, a characteristic I like in any film. There’s an interesting and grim scene when they pick up a mayday in space and rendezvous with a ship that’s being used for animal testing. Also, the military colonisation of the Moon and Mars. It gave me the impression of a future that was somehow harder and bleaker than now. Not in the same league as The Blade Runner, for example, but not as clean, tidy and safe as we would hope the next, say, fifty years would bring us to.
Worth a watch. And I’d be interested to hear what you thought of the finale.
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