Overview: Space Films Have to have Suspension of Disbelief – ‘Stowaway’ Is No Exception

Stowaway | Official Trailer | Netflix

Flicks set in space are almost as lousy as time-vacation movies thanks to the level of suspension of disbelief you need to take for an pleasing viewing.

House films centered on true situations like Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff (1983) or Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 (1995) are exceptions for noticeable good reasons. But for hits like Duncan Jones’ Moon (2009), Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (2013), Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), Ridley Scott’s The Martian (2015), and sure, even Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A House Odyssey (1968), you have to agree going in that this is far more fantasy than reality.

Joe Penna’s new sci-fi drama Stowaway on Netflix inherently suffers from disbelief simply because of its contrived plot.

We’re introduced to a compact spaceship crew of commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), health care researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) and biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) as they are getting off for a two-year journey touring to and exploring Mars. Only a day right after raise-off, an unconscious stowaway, start system engineer Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson), is found and neither he nor the crew can figure out how he acquired there.

When trying to accommodate their surprising passenger, items promptly go from poor to even worse with concerns like absence of oxygen and radiation leakage.