Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose) is the new kid on board the International Space Station (hence the title). She’s the third American onboard, and they share the space with 3 fellow Russian astronauts. It’s always difficult to be the new person in a group, especially since the rest of the team seem familiar with each other. There’s even some kind of romance going on between Chris Messina’s Gordon and Maria Mashkova’s Nika.
Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s film eases you into their day to day, and also allows us to feel Kira’s sense of dislocation, amongst the people and in the space itself, since navigating through zero gravity takes quite a bit of getting used to. Things take a turn when some kind of nuclear disaster happens down on earth. They don’t know any details, all they get is orders from down below. Each team is instructed by their countries to take over the I.S.S. by any means necessary. The film basically becomes a space thriller at this point, since we’re waiting to see who strikes first. While some of the crew are driven by their nationalistic concerns, and are willing to do whatever it takes to help benefit their own countries, others are motivated by survival.
Distrust and confusion fills the air, as one team decides to strike first, resulting in tragic consequences for both sides. There is a natural anxiety that already comes from being in isolation up in space, add this conflict into the mix and the tension felt is sky high. Anne Nikitin’s score is fantastic, and really adds to the tension we feel as the events unfold.
Choosing Kira’s character as our entry point to the film’s context is a solid, neutral choice. She doesn’t know anyone, which leads her to not necessarily take sides. As Nika’s the only other woman onboard, there is a certain camaraderie that exists between them, especially since Nika is the one person who helped to make things comfortable for her when she first came onboard.
I love that the film tears through the expectation audiences would have going into a movie like this, where we would assume perhaps a nationalistic dogfight in space. In reality, some characters exude a ton of indecision and regret over certain decisions that they make, while others don’t want to be in this situation, but feel like their hand is forced in their desperate bid to survive and make it back to earth.
I have to remark on what a chameleon of an actor John Gallagher Jr. is. Every single film he’s been in, I don’t manage to recognise him until we’re almost at the end of the film. He’s a great character actor and dives spectacularly into the skin of the character that he inhabits, so we don’t even see the actor until a certain point. He manages to make an impression in an ensemble film like this, which is no easy feat.
I.S.S. isn’t exactly among the ranks of definitive space movies like Gravity or Apollo 13, but it offers solid B-movie thrills, and will probably be one of the better movies you see in January 2024.
Review screener provided.
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