Last night I took the time to watch Spaceman (2024) with Adam Sandler, this type of movies where the main character spend most of his time on a close environment are not easy to pull off, very recent the was the movie I.S.S that was close to a 5/10 but it had a few good scenes and it was on a similar environment, close space station without any kind of exploration mission.
Spaceman (2024) is a movie about a Czech Republic Cosmonaut Jakub Prochazka, who is on a mission to take samples of a purple cloud close to Jupiter while his wife Lenka waits for him on Earth with their next to born son. During this trip that would be a more than one year mission alone in space, Jakub had an encounter with a what looks to be an Alien that look like a Spider, as Jakub he is a traveler but got deeply attracted by Jakub loneliness.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11097384/
- Platform: Netflix
- Release: February 23, 2024
I really like the vintage vibe from the movie although is very common for things to look very simple and square on space stations in case something needs to be fix there is as less complex mechanisms or parts. At the time the movie starts Jakub is over six months traveling alone, the mission was design to be a solo mission, all he had to do was to collect dust sample from the purple clouds next to Jupiter, to stay sane while been alone all this time sleeping is key factor but his toilet that long tube he is next too has been going on and making loud noise at night so its been close impossible for him to sleep.
For me this was the first fucked up moment and probably what attracted the Alien, during a conference call with Earth a girl was giving the opportunity to ask Jakub if he feels sad to be so far away? he must be the loneliest man in the world!. Once you continue watching the movie and you think about this moment again if Jakub was honest at that moment he would probably start crying at worst because been away from his wife for so long was killing him but he put up a fake smile and answer was polite as he could.
Jakub wife Lenka at Earth has recorded a terrible video, she is leaving him while he is millions of miles away on a solo mission, she is pregnant for a second time and its a coincidence that this is the second time he is not there for her, the space program director refuse to give him this message and the hunt to locate Lenka starts so she can talk to Jakub and keep him sane because right now it doesn't look too good for him.
Besides Jakub and Lenka the other character that had an important role was Peter by Kanul Nayyar, I really like this guy from Big Bang Theory TV Series, this time on the opposite side of the spectrum been a serious tech at control center who was in charge of keeping Jakub in check, very awkward character as a fact the entire movie has this Soviet Union style from the 80s so it was not just Peter, you wont see people smiling on this movie that much except for Jakub happy memories with Lenka.
As I mention before this Alien Spider like has been intrigue my Jakub loneliness feeling and he just show up out of no where, there was no portal or ship nothing just whats up here I'm at Jakub bathroom from all of the other room on the ship the one that torments Jakub the most, to make things simple Jakub gave the alien the name of Hanus since he was nameless. The moment they start interacting Hanus starts to rewind Jakub's memory, he gets into his head and start looking for his memories with Lenka trying to understand why he was so lonely, if it was him who decided it or it was a punishment or he was that stupid that he could not see the damage he was doing to himself and others around him like his wife, deeply Jakub was lonely and sad before he got into the mission thats the style of life he choose and this is what Hanus is trying to understand.
Hanus kept digging on Jakub's memory trying too look for a logical answer because everything around Jakub felt like a punishment, been on that ship felt like a punishment for Hanus, he could sense more than was just on the surface of Jakub something not even Jakub himself could understand or see, if he had he would not left his wife back on Earth pregnant after she lost their first baby under the same kind of circumstances, he was not there for her and the excuse was always work, Hanus got into a few memories of Lenka trying to live a life full of happiness next to Jakub pushing him to do things he would enjoy, trying to know more about him but from Jakub's side of the table the sentiment at the moment was not mutual, he did love her but was not aware through the years how his relationship with his wife was deteriorating because of how either obsess or blind he was for been always fixed into his work.
I get this is not a movie for most people, they might jump in thinking there will be planet exploration, fight with the alien or something totally different, I did too but the moment Hanus says "Your loneliness intrigue me" I was hooked because this alien knows nothing about human behavior and is trying to understand humans farther than just learning our ways and language, he wants to understand our existence specially how a human like Jakub can live been sad and lonely all the time like he currently was, when Hanus starts to rewind all Jakub's memory with Lenka then he realize the problem was him all the time, not that its part of human behavior, it was him at his core that was selfish and shortsighted, he was only interested in things that keep him going but never into the things that kept Lenka going, she was pregnant for the second time but he never saw farther than she just been pregnant but how the mission would affect her specially after she lost their first baby, the message of this movie is very simple although what I like about it is the scenario and how this alien figure is so philosophical basically saying this is not normal, this is not ok, what is wrong with this guy? then he gets it and even gets mad at Jakub leaving him alone for some time. After that then comes the last part that had some space exploration and even an Interstellar type scene with Jakub going into a cloud that had effects like a black hole. It is very hard to recommend this movie unless you like movies that analyze human behavior or fucks with the character mind.
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