I.S.S. - Mark Reviews Movies

I.S.S., Bleecker Street

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 18, 2024

The International Space Station, a joint venture between the space programs of multiple countries, is intended for scientific research and experiments that cannot be performed on Earth, and I.S.S. puts forth its own sort of experiment about human nature aboard the space station. If war were to break out between two of those participating countries, would the scientists on the orbiting facility find some higher purpose or fall into the mentality that resulted in the earthbound conflict in the first place?

The central premise of Nick Shafir's screenplay is a legitimately great one, as two teams of three scientists from the United States and the Russia find themselves stuck on the space station, unable to contact their respective home governments, and filled with equal levels of suspicion about their international colleagues after full-blown nuclear war erupts on Earth. Given the scale of that conflict, it seems unlikely that anything these scientists would or could do on the space station would really matter. Beneath the clouds of the planet, large, unspecified masses of land have become orange-glowing terrains of who-knows-how-much devastation and death.

However, let's assume that, as recent history has proven, life and petty in-fighting and political squabbles can and will continue under seemingly unimaginable circumstances. In this case, there's the distinct probability that thousands, hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions of people have been killed in nuclear conflict, and no matter how absurd it might sound to us right now, there's also the distinct possibility that six people, alone and helpless and only with fear and a national indemnity to which to cling, would react exactly as the characters here do.

Whether or not Shafir and director Gabriela Cowperthwaite make convincing drama out of this idea is another story, though. With the setting comes certain expectations for predictable scenes, and while part of the ironic point is that even these—as they see themselves—more evolved types of people are capable of backstabbing and even violence, it's frustrating how easily the material finds itself indulging in action.

The first couple acts suggest a subtler story—about paranoia and uncertainty and how nobody is willing to say what needs to be said, out of worry that a former colleague and sudden foe might not be on the same moral or philosophical page. Just because the premise inherently lends itself to a certain degree of spectacle doesn't mean the story itself needs to or should follow suit.

Those early scenes, though, are convincing, and the initial conflict here is quite compelling, until the whole thing decides that violence is apparently the only answers to the questions and stakes raised by the setup. It sees Kira (Ariana DeBose), a biologist studying the creation of artificial human organs, and Christian (John Gallagher Jr.), who's experimenting with fire (apparently so there can be a weapon at one point), arriving at the space station via a rocket.

They're greeted by American commander Gordon (Chris Messina) and their respective Russian colleagues. Nicholai (Costa Ronin) is Gordon's counterpart. Alexey (Pilou Asbæk) shares a work station with Kira and is very particular about the boundaries of the countertop. Weronika (Masha Mashkova) and Gordon are secretly lovers, although even the newcomers figure that out without much effort.

The six bond over booze and music and stories of home, and it's helped by a hard-and-fast rule that nobody talks politics at work or in their downtime. It's the "present day," so tensions exist between the two countries. While looking down on Earth, Kira and the rest of the crew spot witness plumes of fire appear.

War has broken out between these two countries. Before communication with the planet is cut off, Gordon receives orders that he and his American colleagues are to take control of the space station by any means necessary, and Gordon assumes Nicholai has received a similar command.

Most of the story is spent with the Americans, as they agree to wait for any confirmation or clarification of that order and keep a close eye on the Russian scientists. What's fascinating about the suspense of this setup is that each side clearly knows what the other has been told to do, and because of that, no one can just come right out and say the obvious. The characters' real intentions, then, remain a bit of a mystery, and we're just left to interpret what might be a lie, who's worthy of trust, and how words that might seem like blatant deceptions and acts that appear quite nefarious might not be as simple as that. The performances key into that air of doubt and the sense that anyone could be hiding something.

The resulting tone is engaging, but it does become clear that Shafir has written himself into a couple of corners with the setting and the ambiguity. That's obvious, for example, in the required sequence of a spacewalk that goes wrong, because any movie set in space must contain at least one such scene, but it's primarily in the way the plot becomes a series of physical standoffs and confrontations.

The thinking behind that is sound enough, since the whole point is to see supposedly enlightened people return to more primal notions. I.S.S. could have told that story without sacrificing the inherent intelligence of these characters, but unfortunately, the movie takes the easier, less satisfying route of fulfilling the more obvious expectations.

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