Prospect (2018)

Elevator Pitch: On a hostile planet in a distant galaxy prospectors locate and recover valuable jewels, descending to the surface from commercial spacecraft in small landers. Cee and her father Damon are two, who have made a deal with some mercenaries to mine what is known as “the queen’s lair”. On their way there they meet two other prospectors with whom they fight, resulting in the death of Cee’s father and one of the opposition. Later the remaining combatant, Ezra, and Cee are forced to cooperate to overcome a variety of oppositions, not the least of which are the inhabitants of a minute habitation, who wish to buy the girl.

Content: The father and daughter depart from the spacecraft in the lander, they recover a jewel, illustrating the difficulty of the task. There is conflict with strange looking weapons, capable of wounding and killing. The people on the planet either wear a form of spacesuit, to keep alien spores out, or crouch in habitations made of thick material. There is the amputation of an arm. All the equipment seems to be vaguely steampunk.

A View: Looking at the Wikipedia entry there seems to be more back story than actually featured in the film, or maybe I did not get all of it. There is the basic question, what was the point? But past that I admired the use of an existing environment which was really well done, and despite the difficulty of watching people wearing space suits for virtually the whole film I remained engaged. It cost $3.9 million, but has made almost nothing, despite having done the rounds of the various festivals and won some prizes. A watch if you like indie SF.

Additional Info:  The exteriors were shot in the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.