Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is working on a communication tower that reaches to space when a power surge hits. He falls from the tower and plummets earthward. For a long time. He's unconscious for part of the fall. He wakes up in time to pull his chute. Soon after the incident, he is called to a meeting where he learns that his father, Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones) - who has been missing for over 20 years when the Lima Project was assumed to have failed - may still be alive in orbit around Neptune. As the power surges that are causing trouble on Earth originate from Neptune, Roy is the perfect person to establish contact with his father. Roy soon catches a rocket to the moon and thence to Mars. After several laser transmissions to the Lima Project station, there is a response. Roy is not privy to the response. Determined to reconnect with his father, Roy stows away on the ship that is dispatched. Will he be able to stop his father or is he too emotionally involved?
The movie is slow paced. Though there are several action scenes, the silence of space gives them an antiseptic feel. A page was taken from The Expanse. Roy is the coolest of customers, always calm and in control. He saves the day repeatedly in high stress situations. However, his emotionlessness gives him a detached quality. His wife left him because he was never around, even when he was around. Clearly, his absent father - who set out for Neptune when Roy was a teenager - has dramatically impacted him and also led him to follow his father's career path. If not for Roy's narration, his character would have seemed distant indeed.
More of an interesting movie than an entertaining one. Yes, the stakes are high and the journey is epic, but it plays like a meditation session that has the occasional break for exercise.
Just okay.
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