Historically speaking SciFi is one of my favorite genres not just in film and TV but also in the written word. I think there are more opportunities for this sort of thing to thrive because we are not restricted by that which is realistic hence the entire "fiction" part of it all. We only think we know everything about the universe and when we get out of our comfortable Earth area, strange things start to happen that we couldn't have possible predicted until we are actually there. Well at least in theory because we haven't really been very many places as far as manned flights are concerned.
Slingshot is an unusual film because the destination isn't really so focused on as the length of time it is going to take in order to get there and this film explores how a person going into cryo-sleep or a drug-induced prolonged slumber rather than staying awake for the more than a year that it would take to get to said destination is the primary focus of this story.
A 3-person crew is sent aboard a new style of spacecraft to head towards Titan, one of the moons in orbit around Saturn that has long been suspected of containing the most "earth-like" environment that exists in our solar system. The problem is that it is 6 billion miles away and we don't really have any method of getting there in a timely manner. Therefore, the gravity of Jupiter is used in order to propel the team to their destination at a rate that is far faster than anything that the world has ever come up with. The mission's primary focus is to investigate if the intense gravity of Jupiter could be used for interstellar travel as well as actually landing on Titan, which is something they don't bother addressing whether something like that could actually be possible.
At first everyone seems cool and ready to handle this mission because although the journey does take a really long time, it isn't necessary for them to be awake during the entire flight. Therefore, the team is put into a 90 day drug-induced coma of sorts and are woken up only to perform routine maintenance and to check on the trajectory of the ship and what not. You know? Science stuff.
As the flight carries on the mental state of the 3-person crew starts to deteriorate more and more with everyone other than the Captain having bouts of memory loss of important things such as the names of their family members or loved ones. It isn't discussed how it is that they would forget these things yet somehow manage to remember the rather complicated ins and outs of running a spacecraft of this magnitude but whatever... we have to suspend our logic for a little while.
The tension is created by exceptional acting on the part of Casey Affleck, who I think is a better actor than his brother Ben. Lawrence Fishburne is just "fine" but the real star of the show is relative unknown actor Tomer Capone who plays the role of "Nash."
Nash starts to uncover various problems with the ship or the onboard computers and is urging "John" (Affleck) to form a mutiny of sorts to turn the ship around while they still can. Once they hit the "slingshot" they will be unable to reverse course. It is left up to us, the audience, to decide who is losing their mind and who isn't and this can be a tricky game that I think the writers and director did a very good job with. Right up to the very end you will be kept guessing about what is imagined and what is real, even to the point of wondering if all of the crew members are actually really there at all.
There are a lot of flashbacks to the time on Earth preparing for the flight and this fits in well to mix up the scenes that take place on the spacecraft, which is a small and rather boring set that if that was the only scenery we were exposed to the entire time, would be very boring on its own. I would imagine that this kept costs relatively low because there isn't much in the way of expensive CGI shots of the exterior or even of the planets that they are passing by. You'll find out later about how the actual story conveniently fits into why this is even though come on! We all know that this is a convenient plot device that just happened to save millions and millions of dollars in production costs.
This film does what I consider to be a good job of mixing psychological thrillers with science-fiction and for me anyway, I spent a lot of time wonder just what the hell is really going on. Some might find this confusion annoying but to me I prefer a movie that doesn't lay all the pieces out in front of you and instead forces the audience to fill in the blanks by themselves. In the end you will likely still not know exactly what happened and this encourages discussion... which to me is a sign of a good film.
Should I watch it ?
This film didn't get a lot of love from the press and it was considered a horrible failure at the box office and was pulled from most theaters shortly after it was released on the 30th of August, 2024. If online revenue stats can be trusted this film has failed to pull in even 1 million dollars against an unknown , but probably more than $1 million, budget. The cast give good performances and while there are a few rather silly things that happen, I found this to be a wild ride that is worth watching if you have the time to watch it intently. This is not a "casual watching" film... if you do that, you will be lost pretty quickly.
I enjoyed it because of my own biases and preferences in what it is that I enjoy on screen. I like the unknown, even if that unknown even means parts of the whole story being left up for us to guess. I can totally understand why other people wouldn't like this though, and perhaps this is part of the reason why it has a 5/10 rating on multiple websites and was mostly panned by professional critics.
If you are big fan of unusual sci-fi, then this might be for you. If you are not, then it probably wont be. Also, it is definitely a "slow burn" so if you need action right out of the gate, this movie will almost certainly not be for you.
This film is still in some theaters but can also legally be rented on Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft as well as other more minor streaming services