Fast-tracked through the space programme, rising star research scientist Dr Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose) finally makes it to the International Space Station. There, she is welcomed by her new colleagues: two American astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts, united by a common goal to work in service of all humankind regardless of nationality, race or creed. Borders, explains cosmonaut Nika (Masha Mashkova), are invisible from space. But there are hints that the idealism and harmony on the ISS might be fragile when Kira’s lab mice react to zero gravity by chewing each other’s limbs off. It’s not the most subtle of metaphors, particularly for the amputee rodents.
When US-Russian hostilities back on Earth boil over into full warfare (strikingly and unsettlingly evoked in the view from orbit, as the blue-green planet turns an angry, inflamed red), the tensions on board soon ignite. It’s a neat premise, with something of the claustrophobia and high-stakes space peril of Danny Boyle’s Sunshine. But while DeBose is impressive, the contrived plot of Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s movie hinges, somewhat preposterously, on rational, highly trained scientific minds devolving overnight into paranoid, murderous maniacs.