*****SPACE STATION-SIZED SPOILERS!*****

Shot on a shoestring budget of $13.8 million (the catering budget of an average Marvel movie these days), 2023’s “I.S.S.” was released with nary a notice in the US back in January, making very little in its domestic run, despite a dark and intriguing trailer that made me curious enough to plunk down $5.99 for a YouTube rental. 

The premise, as given away in the trailer, follows two rookie American astronauts who are joining a Russian-American crew aboard the International Space Station; the real-life orbital outpost where nations work together (sans politics)purely for scientific research and the betterment of our species.  While this crew of self-described “evolved humans” gets along swimmingly in space, nuclear war between Russia and the United States breaks out on Earth. The fiery devastation quickly reaches orbit, as this non-political crew are suddenly pitted against each other by orders of their warring governments.

The tension and paranoia are amped up for this intriguing little movie, which tells its story efficiently and effectively in 95 minutes. 

“I.S.S.”

The movie opens with American astronauts Dr. Kira Foster (Ariana DeBose), a former US Marine, and Christian Campbell (John Gallagher Jr), a divorced dad, arriving at the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Kira has minor jitters during her first spaceflight, but overall the former Marine takes it in stride, as the Soyuz autonomously docks with the ISS.

Note: Ariana DeBose recently won an Oscar for her role in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story” (2021). The actress also made a bit of Oscar history by being the first openly queer Afro-Latina to win the award. Going from a big, splashy Hollywood musical to a small-budgeted independent space movie really highlights DeBose’s range as a performer.  

Once docked, Christian tells her to wait for the Russians’ three signature knocks at the airlock hatch; which they do, and hatch is opened.  Russian cosmonauts Weronika Vetrov (Masha Mashkova), along with brothers Nicholai Pulov (Costa Ronin) and his brother Alexey (Pilou Asbæk) welcome the newly-arrived Americans aboard.  Also on-hand to greet them is the station’s commander, Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina), who’s been carrying on a not-so-secret affair with Weronica, who prefers to go by “Nika.”  Nika also has an immediate bond with newbie astronaut Kira Foster, the only other woman aboard.

Note: Two of the Russian cosmonauts are played by real-life Russian actors, Masha Mashkova and Costa Ronin, while Alexey is played by Danish actor Pilou Asbæk.  Speaking only a bit of patchy Russian myself, Asbæk certainly seems authentic.  It’s interesting that Mashkova’s character of Nika Vetrov doesn’t have the feminized ‘a’ at the end of her last name. This was something I assumed (?) was nearly uniform in the Russian language (i.e. Leonov becoming Leonova, Tarkovsky becoming Tarkovskaya, etc). If any Russian-speaking readers know a reason for this (other than the script being written by American Nick Shafir), I’d be curious to hear it.

Settling in to do her experiments with the station’s depressed lab mice, Kira realizes she shares elbow-to-elbow lab space with her colleagues, as the space station is cramped with tons of wires, knick-knacks, computers and scientific gear.  There are also safety magnets, handles and footholds everywhere, to hold floating crew members in place during their duties.  All of this clutter instantly gives viewers a sense of claustrophobia, despite the freedom of weightlessness.  Once she’s settled in, the veteran crew take Kira and Christian for a look through the station’s cupola window—which provides a view of unparalleled scope, and is said to forever change the perspective of those privileged enough to use it. Kira, however, doesn’t seem as awed as the others had hoped—giving something of a ‘meh’ response to one of the station’s key attractions.

Note: Maybe it’s just me, but the ISS’s cupola window very much resembles the windows on a Star Wars Imperial TIE fighter…just sayin.’ The movie also does its homework with regard to the cramped and cluttered interiors of the ISS, which look surprisingly authentic, given the movie’s low budget and limited means.

Over dinner and a token holiday gift exchange, the crews bond.  Christian gives shipmate Kira a toy Russian rocket with a lanyard attached. The veteran Russian cosmonauts and their American commander then tell their new arrivals there are certain unspoken rules of conduct aboard the ISS; they do NOT discuss politics, or any other Earthly conflicts.  Nika tells Kira that she and her ISS colleagues represent an ‘evolved’ humanity that work together for the betterment of all humans, not any single nation or nations.  It’s a lovely sentiment that’s soon put to the test…

Note: Nika’s line about the ISS crew representing an ‘evolved’ humanity seems like an in-joke from Star Trek, whose producer/creator Gene Roddenberry often said in interviews and at conventions that his characters on that series represented an “evolved humanity” (that exact phrase). That phrase also found its way into “Star Trek: First Contact” (1996), when Capt. Picard failingly tried to defend his quest for revenge against the Borg by telling 21st century Lily Sloane that the evolved humans of the 24th century don’t succumb to revenge.  Lily called Picard’s feeble defense “bullshit,” as most of us would.  Humanity has been warlike and half-savage since the early hominids, and I’d safely (and sadly) bet that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Kira has trouble sleeping in her first night aboard the station (which experiences 16 sunrises over 24 hours, but is still governed by Earth time), as she sees her colleague Christian sleeping unnervingly with his eyes open (foreshadowing).  Kira’s new friend Nika shows her the ropes when it comes to space slumber.  The following morning, Kira decides to give the cupola another try, and she notices a sudden bright plume rising from the surface, which she mistakenly believes to be a volcano.  She’s quickly proven wrong as more and more such plumes begin rising all over the Earth’s surface.  It’s a nuclear war.  Station commander Gordon and Nicholai each check their laptops for messages from their governments confirming their observations.  Gordon learns the Russian military has waged an all-out nuclear attack on the United States.  By direct order of the United States government, Gordon is ordered to seize control of the ISS “by any means necessary.” He quietly advises fellow Americans Kira and Christian to assume the Russians have received the same order from their government. 

Note: The image of a burning Earth, which moments before was a healthy blue, is a horrifying reminder of the sheer power humanity possesses to destroy our fragile and finite habitat. 

The station’s power then hiccups, and there’s speculation it might’ve been caused by long-range effects of an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) from the nuclear weapons being used below.  They also realize that the station’s orbit is decaying. The situation will become fatal if the orbit isn’t boosted by ground controllers within 24 hours.  Nicholai then reports that communications with Earth are down, possibly the result of a faulty external antenna. This will require a spacewalk to repair, and the only one qualified to do so is Gordon.  He suits up, and exits the station’s airlock, with Kira keeping in constant touch via his suit radio.  Seeing the Earth in flames below, Gordon advises Kira to keep the crew away from the windows, for morale’s sake.  Gordon and Kira keep each other distracted by smalltalk, in which he learns she was an ex-Marine, and that she’d recently broken up with her girlfriend.

Note: If only Gordon had seen 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” he’d have realized that a ‘faulty antenna’ is the number one ruse pulled by killer supercomputers and rogue Russian cosmonauts.  It’s during this sequence that we learn the character of Kira is gay, and I wonder if this was written specifically for queer Oscar-winner DeBose, or if it was part of the character’s original identity. Either way, it’s only mentioned once, but it helps to broaden our understanding of Kira.  It’s also a fitting (perhaps unintentional) tribute to the late Dr. Sally Ride (1951-2012), the first American woman in space, who later came out as gay herself, in a prepared statement just before she passed away from cancer nearly 12 years ago.

Meanwhile, Nicholai gives his brother Alexey a direct order to sabotage communication between Gordon and Kira by cutting a single wire behind a panel, and replacing it with a dummy wire, to avoid detection. With great reluctance and personal anguish, Alexey obeys his brother on behalf of Mother Russia. 

Note: This was the same Russian-American crew who proudly declared only hours earlier to be above Earthly politics and strife. Such a shame that it only takes two conflicting orders from their governments to set this alliance ablaze. In real life, there is a treaty in effect to prevent this scenario from happening aboard the real ISS (see: International Space Station legal framework).  However, this is a movie, and I accept any minor tweaks to our reality as simply the way things work in this movie’s variant of our own universe. Now eat your popcorn…

Outside the station, Gordon reaches the antenna and finds nothing wrong with it; the antenna’s control panel lights are all green.  However, cold-blooded Nicholai is determined to keep that revelation a secret by manually using the station’s external remote manipulator arm to knock Gordon off the station’s hull, seemingly killing him. Nika then sees Gordon free-falling past a station window, and immediately realizes there is deadly skullduggery afoot with her fellow Russians.  Horrified by the presumed death of her lover Gordon, Nika takes a moment during the crisis to process her powerful grief.

Note: Nicholai’s use of the station’s remote manipulator arm to (seemingly) kill Gordon looks like yet another maneuver Nicholai stole—er, borrowed—from the HAL 9000 computer of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which similarly used a remote-controlled pod’s manipulator claws to sever astronaut Frank Poole’s oxygen line.

After confronting Nicholai and Alexey with Gordon’s death, Nika realizes she only has one possible trustworthy ally left on the station; Kira.  Nika floats over to Kira and seeks a moment of privacy with her.  Once beyond the range of Gordon’s prying ears, Nika offers Kira her the key to Alexey’s experiments locker, called Node Zero.  In it, there is a formula for a unique drug which can counter radiation sickness.  She instructs Kira to take the drug, head to the Soyuz capsule, and use it to help anyone she can.  To buy Kira some time, Nika will draw Nicholai and Alexey’s attention somehow.  Kira takes the key—ignoring the order not to trust the Russians.

Note: Granted, a miracle drug for radiation sickness would be an invaluable discovery, but I doubt its potential impact to help much on Earth, given the sheer level of devastation witnessed from orbit.  One can assume that the planet’s manufacturing bases would be greatly impacted by the war as well, so the ability to replicate the drug there would be dubious, at best. Reproducing the drug would also be problematic in Earth gravity, since pharmaceuticals produced on the ISS use microgravity as part of their manufacturing process.  On a side note, actress Masha Mashkova gives a truly stellar performance as Weronika.

Kira takes the key and heads to the laboratory lockers, where she finds Christian. She asks for his help in locating Node Zero, but Christian tells her there is no Node Zero.  Immediately, Kira concludes she was lied to, and they head back to find Nika.  Nika is in the middle of a tense standoff with Nicholai and Alexei as she threatens to destroy the station with canisters of combustible gas and a flame thrower.  This was Nika’s bluff to buy Kira time for escape, but it’s backfired; Kira and Christian float up behind her, and Christian brains Nika with a heavy oxygen canister, crushing her skull and killing her instantly.  Alexey and Nicholai take Nika’s body back to the lab, where she is pronounced dead.  Nicholai then asks his brother’s help in killing the remaining Americans, but the conflicted Alexey refuses—forcing Nicholai to grab a sharp screwdriver and take care of the Americans himself.  

Note: We see blobs of blood rising from Nika’s head, which is a grisly, but medically accurate detail in zero gravity.  However, when Nika came to confide in Kira earlier, she cried for her presumed dead lover, Gordon, and we saw tears streaming down her face. This is a detail that 2013’s “Gravity” also got wrong, as Sandra Bullock’s tears flowed downward before they floated off her skin. That’s not how tears work in space. In microgravity, tears would simply blob in front of the eyes, leaving the crier momentarily blinded by their own tears, until wiped away.

In a surprise twist, Alexey finds Gordon still alive, and clinging to the outer hull of the station. Using the same remote manipulator arm that nearly killed Gordon earlier, Alexey swings it around and offers Gordon a ride back to the airlock.  Once inside, Gordon learns that Nika was killed and he becomes enraged. Gordon then goes after Nicholai.  Alexey realizes that rookie astronaut Kira is the only rational person left on the station, and he helps her hide in the station’s garbage compartment to keep her safe from Nicholai.

Note: It’s almost like a twist out of Star Wars, but yes, there is an actual area aboard the ISS where bags of trash are stored until the next available robot cargo ship (the Russian-made “Progress” craft) can pick them up and safely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere with the bags aboard. Writer Nick Shafir and director Gabriela Cowperthwaite smartly utilize real features and functions of the ISS as often as possible for the good of the movie. One issue the movie dramatizes heavily for drama’s sake is the availability of escape craft docked at the station; there are usually one or two vehicles (a Russian Soyuz and an American SpaceX Dragon) standing by to accommodate all evacuees in the event of an ISS emergency.

Predictably, Gordon traps Nicholai in a passage conduit of the station, and they attack each other with a screw driver and a mechanical drill—after a savage battle, they die in each other’s arms; a perfect metaphor for the ultimate futility of human violence, as both men are locked in an eerie, floating embrace of death.  Things go from bad to worse when Kira returns to the experiments module and finds a locker labeled “Node 0.” She realizes her late friend Nika wasn’t lying.  Kira then goes looking for Christian in his sleep pod, but finds a prepped spacesuit and the Russian anti-radiation notes, instead.  Christian lied to Kira to take all the credit for himself. He planned on returning to Earth as a lone hero.  Back in the common area, Kira finds the unstable Christian making a sandwich with a very sharp knife, as Alexey watches nearby.  Christian offers to make Kira a sandwich as well, but after she confronts him with his escape plan, the station’s fans stop—indicating a life-support failure. Christian immediately tries to frame Kira as the saboteur, but Alexey doesn’t buy it. 

Note: There were a few subtle hints that Christian was a creep, beginning with his neurotic whining about his teenage daughter’s dislike of him during the movie’s opening scene when the Soyuz docked with the ISS. His distrust of heroic Kira only cements it. As cold-blooded as Nicholai was, at least he had the “I was only following orders” defense, but Christian is clearly the movie’s main mustache-twirler (think: ‘Ash’ from 1979’s “ALIEN”).

Before long, Christian goes full psycho, and it takes both Alexey and Kira to stop him.  Alexey is stabbed through his hand with Christian’s knife. Former Marine Kira then grabs her rocket lanyard Christmas gift and uses its strap as a garrote around Christian’s neck.  With the wounded Alexey’s help, they overpower and kill their unstable attacker.  Kira tapes up Alexey’s bloodied hand, and the two survivors reactivate the station life-support systems.  They also restore comms, and receive a boost signal from Earth, which saves the station from burning up.  Both the US and Russian governments ask if they’ve completed their respective missions of commandeering the station.  Instead of answering, Kira and Alexey board the docked Soyuz craft with the Node-Zero anti-radiation research in-hand.  Their new mission is to return to Earth and help anyone they can. They undock from the station, and fall back to Earth.  When Alexey asks her about their destination, Kira ambiguously answers, “I don’t know.”

The End.

Note: Not to nit-pick too much, but an unplanned free-fall to Earth is not a good idea for multiple reasons (beyond the fact that the entire planet has been ravaged by nuclear war). Reentry corridors need to be precise, otherwise a falling space capsule might easily burn up. Not to mention that if they land in an ocean, or desert, or a snowy tundra, there may not be any recovery forces available to retrieve them. Given the war, there might not be any recovery forces left anyway. But, at least the movie ends with a bit of hope.

Summing It Up

Tensely written by Nick Shafir and well-directed on a meager budget by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, “I.S.S” is an ambitious film shot aboard meticulously-created sets that vicariously place us aboard the cluttered, claustrophobic International Space Station. 

The six-member cast create characters who register in shorthand for this tense space thriller, which is essentially “Ten Little Indians” is space. The actors (literally) throw their backs into the material, enduring uncomfortable wire rigs for much of the shoot, while giving effective performances which boost the storytelling. Oscar winner Ariana DeBose does a fine job as rookie astronaut Kira Foster, who is the audience avatar, and she leads an effective international cast.

Despite the impeccable detailing of the movie’s sets, there are still a few minor cosmic gaffes (tears rolling down cheeks in free-fall, etc), but nothing that seriously risks bursting the bubble of the movie’s paranoid atmosphere.  The generous use of wire rigs is sometimes given a rest by cinematographer Nick Remy Matthews, who occasionally cheats the actors’ ‘floating’ feet by use of careful framing and pantomime; two time-honored means of cheating gravity in movies.

Overall, the movie’s almost abstract yet heavy depiction of nuclear war and its reach into orbit is sobering, even if taking control of the ISS wouldn’t be a likely priority during a full-on nuclear exchange. The ISS would have no bearing on a war, since it carries no missiles or other weapons.  Even an onboard miracle cure for radiation sickness couldn’t be mass-produced in time to help those on the ground.  Nevertheless, seeing the Earth in flames is a horrific image which only adds to the futility of the continued fighting aboard the station. There is a grim, almost 1970s-style nihilism about this movie.

The movie’s goal of commandeering the ISS is more of a means to an end—to show how close bonds between ‘evolved humans’ can be shattered in an instant due to forces beyond the control of the participants. This is something that feels all too real with currently heightened political divisions and wars breaking out spontaneously across the globe (the Israeli-Gaza conflict, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, etc). In that way, this surprisingly ambitious movie grimly succeeds, and is certainly worth a curious viewer’s time.

Where to Watch

“I.S.S” is available for streaming rental or purchase on multiple platforms, including iTunes, YouTube and Amazon Prime ($5.99-$14.99).  The movie is also available on Blu-Ray/DVD from Amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble (prices vary by seller).