Romulus follows Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), an orphan whose mining contract is forcibly extended by an unscrupulous company. Losing hope of ever leaving her planetary outpost, she and her adopted brother and synthetic human, Andy (David Jonsson), join her ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Madekwe) and his friends to retrieve cryostasis chambers from an abandoned space station. The group hopes to use the cryostasis chambers to travel to a distant planet and start a new life.
They steal a spacecraft and head to the wayward space station. As the group approaches, they discover that the station is about to collide with planetary rings, and they must work quickly to avoid disaster. Tyler’s cousin, Bjorn, has a distaste for synthetic humans and harasses Andy. When several members of the group board the space station, a series of events unleashes dormant facehuggers, and the terror begins. They encounter Rook, an android science officer modeled after Ash from the original Alien film. Like Ash, Rook’s objective is to advance the human race and he manipulates Andy into providing valuable data on the aliens to "The Company."
One by one, the group is picked off by the aliens, leaving only Rain, Andy, and Kay (Tyler’s pregnant cousin). Kay is badly injured by an alien but is rescued. In Rook’s final moments, he convinces Kay to take an injection of alien/human hybrid DNA to save her own life. The three escape the space station as it plunges into the planetary rings. Rain sets a course for their new life and places Kay in a cryostasis chamber. While preparing to enter her own chamber, Rain receives an alert from Kay’s chamber. Rain opens it to find Kay’s pregnancy has rapidly advanced, and she immediately gives birth to an alien/human hybrid. The hybrid escapes to another part of the ship, eventually finding its way back to Kay and killing her. Andy is wounded by the hybrid, and Rain fights to kill it while narrowly avoiding a crash into the planetary rings. Rain places Andy in a chamber and vows to fix him when they reach their destination.
Did I mention this movie is intense? There’s little in the way of comedy, except for a few deliberately lame dad jokes told by Andy (presumably programmed by Rain’s deceased father). The action sequences are what you would expect from a modern big-budget sci-fi movie. The zero-gravity scenes are believable enough (as if I would know how things react to zero gravity).
I’ve now seen Cailee Spaeny (Rain) in three movies, two this year, both featuring rather serious roles. Her first film this year was Civil War, where she played a young aspiring war photographer who inadvertently led to the protagonist's demise. Spaeny carries Romulus from an acting standpoint, although the supporting cast is serviceable. They effectively convey terror at the right moments.
Fede Alvarez has a winner on his hands—Romulus is very well done. However, terror-infused gore just isn’t my cup of tea. If not for that, I’d be more inclined to rewatch it.
