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Stowaway begins with what feels like the most ridiculous of premises in that a crew going to Mars has just three individuals on it. Really?! Even last year’s Away had at least seven on board as there are many different tasks for them all to perform.
Aboard the Kingfisher spacecraft in this film, Zoe (Anna Kendrick) is the doctor, David (Daniel Dae Kim) is the botanist, while Marina (Toni Collette) is the Commander, and on her third and final space mission. Even out of those three, wouldn’t they aim more for crew members in their late 30s/early 40s at most? By that token, only Kendrick would qualify, and even then, I can’t see her going into space because she’s tiny. But then, this is Hollywood…
However, they’re about to be joined by a fourth crew member, maintenance man Michael (Shamier Anderson), who ended up stuck on board by mistake. At first, it’s rather handy when he starts working with David on data entry for his botany projects, whilst listening to jazz and having inconsequential conversations.
But… they have a bit of an issue of too many people and not enough resources, so how do they stretch them? As it is, the craft was originally built for just two crew members, but big company Hyperion made cutbacks to allow three. So, how do they deal with four?
They all end up in big conflict situations as they try to resolve things, stretch resoruces and make sacrifices regarding what they can later achieve on Mars in order to simply stay alive now… for as long as possible.
Stowaway shows what you can do with a small cast, no doubt filmed in a lockdown situation, and along with a few ‘heart in mouth’ moments, it’s not Gravity, but it’s still great entertainment, and far better than the 5.5 it currently has on IMDB.
Stowaway is on Netflix now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 116 minutes
Release date: April 22nd 2021
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Rating: 8/10
Director: Joe Penna
Producers: Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo, Clay Pecorin, Ulrich Schwarz, Nick Spicer, Aram Tertzakian
Screenplay: Joe Penna, Ryan Morrison
Music: Volker Bertelmann
Cast:
Zoe Levenson: Anna Kendrick
David Kim: Daniel Dae Kim
Michael Adams: Shamier Anderson
Marina Barnett: Toni Collette
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.