Pandorum (2009)

Elevator Pitch: The intergalactic space craft Elysium is on its way to an earthlike planet with thousands of people on board in cryo sleep. Corporal Bower, one of the crew is ejected from his capsule and is joined by Lt Payton. They are in the control space and cannot reach the bridge. Bower makes it into the ship proper with the intention of restarting the reactor. He joins forces with a woman who is the ship’s environmentalist and a man who is a farmer, and initially the three take refuge in the woman’s work capsule, since the vast craft is populated by a tribe of cannibal mutants. But the must get out there and find their way to the reactor, if they are to survive. 

Content: There is no sex or nudity. We are told that pandorum is a deep space effect, resulting in those in charge hallucinating, so what is real? Payton stuck in the control space rescues a man from the communications tubes. Out in the vast corridors of the ship the trio have to take on the mutants at times, who have developed because they were originally people in cryo sleep programmed to make the best of their current situation. So they have become cannibals, because  that is the best way for surviving. But they are violent and impossible to communicate with. 

A View: This film lost quite a lot of money, but has developed a cult following who are still lobbying for a sequel. There is always this problem in this sort of outing that the barriers which the heroes have to overcome just look like bits of video games, and this film is no different. There is also a level of complexity in Lt Payton’s situation. Surely there was enough going on without that. But I liked the twist at the end, and I will reveal the 125 year trip had actually taken 923 years. Why? So probably a watch if you like that sort of thing.

Other deep space films in a similar vein reviewed on this site include: Event Horizon,  Passengers and Lockout.