Sometimes I guess things are just meant to be. A couple of months ago, I was planning on seeing this movie in the theater, but when we went to see it Poor Things was playing, so I made the wise choice to watch that instead. But, just my luck, I couldn’t make it out to a theater this week, so to honor its streaming release, here is my review of I.S.S.
I.S.S. (or International Space Station) is now available to stream on Showtime through Paramount + and is Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite; It is the first time I have seen one of her films. But before we take flight on this journey, here is your spoiler warning. If you haven’t seen this and don’t want to be spoiled, turn your ship around and head over to the home page here to check out some of my other content. Otherwise, climb aboard, and let’s to the review.
Before I dig in too deep, I really want to say how much I liked this cast. There wasn’t one major A-list star in this, but several (six to be exact) actors that I have seen in various things that came together for this. Ariana DeBose (I knew her from “Argylle”) plays Dr. Kira Foster and is top-billed here, but all six shine in their roles especially during the first two-thirds of the film.
The film starts with Kira and Christian (John Gallagher Jr.) (“10 Cloverfield Lane”) as they make their trip and eventually docking to the International Space Station. They are greeted by the other astronaut, Gordon (Chris Messina), and the three cosmonauts, Weronika (Masha Mashkova), Nicholai (Costa Ronin), and Alexey (Pilou Asbæk) (who I of course knew from Game of Thrones). Gordon (who I know best from “Argo”) gives Kira the tour as the others go back to their work. Then we get to the first night and her trouble sleeping which didn’t play a single part moving forward, so not sure why they would focus on that.
The next day is when things start to get interesting. Kira notices something happening on the surface of the Earth and wonders what it is. Shortly after that, both Gordon and Nicholai receive an urgent and classified message from their respective governments about a war that has broken out on the surface and that they should take command of the space station by any means necessary. This is when the slow burn catches fire. We now know that both sides got the same message and tensions will continue to build.
The first move is made when Alexey and Nicholai lie and say that the antenna is broke and that it must be fixed manually. Gordon volunteers to be the one to go out and fix it. This is also when we learn that he and Weronika are a couple of sorts… or as much of a couple as you can be while confined to a space station. While he is out fixing it, Alexey cuts off communications, and then Nicholai uses the arm of the ship to knock him off and he is seemingly gone for good.
This next bit is a little tough to follow if you’re not paying attention, but Weronika is pissed at them and tries to enlist Kira to help her. Then Kira gets Christian to assist. When they think she is lying, Christian hits her on the head and apparently, it’s hard enough to kill her. So, after a bit of back and forth here, Gordon is magically still alive somehow, so Alexey extends the arm to save him, but as soon as he is back on the ship, both he and Nicholai die in a fight together. So now we are down to just three.
At this point, I really don’t know what is going on or why Christian decides to cut the power to the breathable air or why he decides to not trust Kira, but it ends up being his demise as Kira and Alexey work together to take him down. As the last two people left alive on the ship, they decide to follow Weronika’s original plan, but this time, they both take the cure and the ship and the movie ends with them traveling down to Earth. At this point, it’s up to us to decide what the possible outcome is.
Overall, this was a fun and underrated cast that worked well together and the story was a slow-burn that I enjoy. All that worked well together up until the third act when the story and motives sort of fell apart and they cobbled together an ending. I enjoy these sorts of movies where the cast is small and they can carry the entire film, they were just hurt by some bad writing.
That will do it for this week. Have you seen this movie? What are you’re your thoughts? Please come back here next week and join me where I will find another movie to watch and review. In the meantime, you can read some of my other reviews here.
