Approaching the Unknown (2016)

Plot of Approaching the Unknown: Captain William Stanaforth is an astronaut who is sent as the first man to be landed on Mars. It is he who has developed a system back on earth which will allow for the production of water. He is to be followed by Captain Emily Maddox in an identical spacecraft. Stanaforth rendezvous with a space station operated by two guys where he replenishes stuff. There is something odd about them. He communicates with Louis Skinner (Skinny) back in Houston. Later his water production system fails despite his efforts, and similarly something has gone wrong with Maddox’s craft and she has been recalled. He is determined to carry on so he finds he can get just enough water from the AC system, and cuts off all communications with Houston. His space craft flies onwards through space at enormous speed, although in the vastness of the galaxies, movement is not visible. Stanaforth dons his space suit for some sort of final  activity.

Content: Absolutely no sex or nudity, or drinking of anything except water, or drug taking. Since Stanaforth’s food is dehydrated, to make it edible he adds hot water, without hot water he eats it dry. The space craft is moderately spacious and somehow is provided with gravity. There are flashbacks to Stanaforth in the desert where he invents the water making system, and the same system on his quite complex spacecraft is the central feature. Out in space the forms of the galaxies, looking like illuminated clouds or smoke, feature. They look like those photos from the Hubble telescope.

A View: Mark Strong, usually a supporting actor, does a great job in this movie which was a straight to video production in a limited number of countries. Probably like me, anyone viewing it will be waiting for something exciting to happen. Will he be transformed into an unrecognisable animal? Will he be visited by an alien and take to its home planet? Will be make it and get together with Emily Maddox? I waited in vain for any of these to happen, and despite the lovely photos of space, they were not enough to keep me entertained, even for an hour and a half. So not really a watch even for nothing, while doing something else.

Fun Fact: To make the film viable the makers had to ignore the inevitable interval occurring in communications as the space craft moves away for  earth.