Slingshot is a complicated film to review—not because the movie itself is complex, but because it feels like two different films in one. I really wanted to like it. It had the potential to be solid but ultimately falls short, coming across as average. Perhaps it's the use of elementary scenes (that aren’t meant to be) with an otherwise serious tone, or the choppy subplots and flashbacks, but it doesn’t succeed as it should.
The story follows John (Casey Affleck), an astronaut on a mission to Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. John and his crew—Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne) and Nash (Tomer Capone)—must use a "slingshot" maneuver, utilizing Jupiter’s gravitational pull to reach Saturn. Due to the great distance and limited resources, the crew must endure multiple drug-induced hibernation cycles to complete their mission of harvesting natural resources to bring back to Earth. Although not part of the film’s main plot, it’s worth noting that Titan has an atmosphere denser than Earth’s and is the only known body in space, other than Earth, with clear evidence of stable liquid on its surface.
John awakens from a hibernation cycle and joins his fellow crew members to assess the spacecraft's condition. Captain Franks instructs John to communicate with mission control. Disoriented from the hibernation cycle, John thinks he hears his girlfriend Zoe calling out to him while not being able to remember her last name. Eventually, he recalls it, and each of the crew members completes their tasks before returning to hibernation.
During the hibernation cycles, a series of flashbacks provide backstory. John is essentially a loner. Zoe is revealed to be a scientist integral to the mission. John and Zoe develop a strong relationship that is tested when John is selected for the mission to Titan. Zoe doesn’t want John to go on the years-long mission and tells him she loves him. He doesn’t reciprocate and they agree to split.
When John awakens from a hibernation cycle, the other crew members are still asleep. As he walks through the spaceship, it begins to violently shake, and a ceiling panel dislodges, hitting him on the head and knocking him out. The crew finds and tends to him, then discovers a large dent in the hull of the spaceship. Radios to contact mission control don’t work. Concerned for their safety, Nash becomes paranoid that the mission is doomed and insists they return to Earth. Franks refuses to entertain Nash’s concerns and insists the mission will proceed. Nash attempts to convince John that they need to return to Earth, but Franks discovers this and asks John to choose a side. John confirms his loyalty to Franks.
The crew successfully performs the slingshot maneuver and heads toward Titan. Nash begins to spiral out of control, prompting Franks to pull a gun on Nash and John. John assures Franks he’s with him as Franks leads John and Nash to their hibernation pods. As John starts to go under, he witnesses Franks brutally beating Nash. When John awakens, Nash is nowhere to be found. Franks tells John that Nash had to be placed in long-term hibernation. John demands to see Nash, but Franks does everything he can to not lead John to Nash. They argue and Franks reveals that Zoe was a plant to study John for the mission. John struggles to believe this but starts to question it when Franks reveals specific details about his relationship with Zoe. John, not wanting to believe, fights with Franks, eventually wrestling the gun from him and knocking him out.
John goes to the bridge and asks the ship’s AI where Nash is located. The AI tells him Nash is healthy and on the bridge. John then asks the AI how many people are on the mission, and the AI reveals that it’s a one-man mission. John has been alone the entire time and his full name is Captain John Nash Franks.
John is uncertain of his reality and attempts to use the shortwave radios (knowing they cannot reach Earth). He hears Zoe on the other end. Zoe tells John he’s not really in space; he’s in a fake ship deep under the New Mexico desert, and the mission was a test run for traveling in space. It was crucial that he did not know the truth. Zoe explains that an earthquake caused the damage to the hull and severed the communication line to the ship. She also informs him that the dosage of the hibernation drug was too high, but they couldn’t communicate with the ship because of the severed line. A rescue crew has been trying to tunnel to his location, but it’s been a slow process. Zoe advises John to exit through the airlock and find his way to a door leading to a stairwell. Before exiting, he has a final confrontation with Franks. Franks tells John to remain dedicated to the mission and points out that he’s been hallucinating due to the drugs. John decides to trust Zoe, exits the airlock, and finds the ship positioned in an underground bunker. He hears the rescue crew and heads towards a red emergency light. John then has a moment of clarity, realizes he’s hallucinating, and is sucked into the void of space. Roll credits.
The movie borrows elements from two other films (and likely others). The first is similar to The Sixth Sense, where Malcolm thinks he’s interacting with others, but is actually not. The director attempts to deceive the audience into believing the other two crew members are part of the interaction. The second, and more significant influence, is from Fight Club. Fellow crewmembers Nash and Franks are constructs of John’s mind. If you’re not familiar with Fight Club or similar psychological thrillers, you might think Franks is a domineering captain hell-bent on completing the mission. However, as John’s mental state deteriorates, it becomes apparent that John has gone crazy—or perhaps he hasn’t. As the movie approached its final scene, I expected it to offer a choose-your-own-adventure type of ending, but it resolves itself.
In essence, this movie performs at a C level. Casey Affleck delivers his usual dry performance, which suits a loner astronaut. Laurence Fishburne elevates most things he’s in, and the last space movie I saw with him was terrifying (Event Horizon). He’s good. Tomer Capone performs well as an insane person. That said, the rest of the cast isn’t great. The head of mission control is awful. Those sequences along with the elementary video lesson to a room full of astronauts and scientists felt like excerpts from thrill ride queues at theme parks. Don’t get me wrong, those videos are fine for theme parks, but they don’t belong in movies released at the theater.
The film has a very slow build-up to any real action, and when it does come, it’s average. Don’t expect humor or witty banter; it’s simply not there. I might watch this movie again on a rainy Saturday afternoon in February, but probably not.
