THE SPACE BETWEEN US .
US, 2017, 120 minutes, Colour.
Asa Butterfield, Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, Britt Robertson, Janet Montgomery, B.D. Wong.
Directed by Peter Chelsom.
This is an unusual film about space exploration. It is focused for a younger audience as well as adults, especially with the central teenage characters and their situation.
The film opens in the present, Gary Oldman is the founder of a space exploration company, sponsored by NASA, infusing enthusing about a mission to Mars and the establishment of a colony, East Texas. The astronauts are presented to acclaim.
There is an initial plot complication when it is discovered that the leader of the expedition, Sarah Elliott (Janet Montgomery) is pregnant. There is a dilemma about making this news public, risking public opinion, dropping financing, or to keep the issue secret. It is kept secret.
16 years later, the baby, Gardner (Asa Butterfiled), is now an adolescent, not knowing the details of his mother’s dying in giving birth. He has a robot assistant but disables it and is able to enter the computers, finding footage about his mother, about his father, raising a great desire to go to Earth to find his father. In the meantime, he is corresponding with a schoolgirl in Colorado.
He is cared for by a mother-figure, Kendra (Carla Gugino). After some discussion it is agreed that he can run the risk of coming to Earth. After many medical tests, he escapes, goes to find Tulsa (Britt Robertson) who, unfortunately, looks much older than the schoolgirl she portrays. The film shows their adventures, the search for the father, flight and a plane crash, stealing cars, going to New Mexico, the Indian reservation to search for information about the marriage, to Las Vegas, to the California coast.
In California, it will certainly dawn of the audience who the father is, just before it is explicitly made known.
Asa Butterfield, who has made a number of significant films, include The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Hugo, Ender’s Game, x + y, is credible as Gardner.
And there is a, comparatively, happy ending.
1. The title, earth and Mars? Gardner and Tulsa?
2. The near future? Space exploration? Voyages to Mars? Colonies?
3. The Earth sequences, NASA? The 2030s, Colorado and the mountains, New Mexico and the desert, Las Vegas, California and the coast? The musical score?
4. The plausibility of the plot? The voyage to Mars? The pregnancy of the leader? The difficult birth, her death? The raising of the boy? His adaptation to conditions and gravity on Mars, not Earth? Preparing him for a journey to Earth? Exercise and medical tests?
5. The opening and the focus on space? NASA? Shepherd and his speech, enthusiasm, the dinner guests? The arrival of the astronauts, the questions, courage and heroism? The guests hurrying out, the launch of the rocket, NASA following it, success?
6. The personalities of the astronauts, Sarah Elliott as the leader, her strength? Becoming sick, her pregnancy? NASA studying it? The dilemma about bringing the expedition back, the birth, publicity, finances, secrecy? Shepherd’s decision? The role of Tom Chen and his advice, decisions?
7. 16 years later, Shepherd and his disappearance, his return? Concern about Gardner?
8. Mars, the development in 16 years? Gardner, his robot assistant and their verbal clashes, disabling him, entering into the computers, finding the secret information, about his mother, the birth, the video? his mother’s ring? His communicating with Tulsa by computer? Explaining that he was at a penthouse in New York? His driving out in the vehicle to his mother’s grave? Kendra telling him the truth?
9. His desire to go to Earth? Shepherd’s reaction? The arguments? His physiology and the dangers? The agreement, his doing the training, running with Kendra?
10. Coming to Earth, the long voyage, his communications with Tulsa, explaining the voyage?
11. Arriving on Earth, Shepherd welcoming him? Shepherd blaming Kendra for the difficulties? In hospital, the range of tests, increasing tests?
12. His decision to escape, the workmen and taking his clothes, the homeless man and changing sunglasses? The money? His having the picture of his parents? Going to find his father? In the bus, the surly passenger? Stowing away? Arriving at the school, the encounter with Tulsa?
13. Shepherd and Kendra, the helicopters, tracking Gardner, tracking the couple, the pursuit?
14. Tulsa, her background story, foster father, her resentments, being able to fly the crop duster? Surliness towards Gardner, thinking him insane? His explanations? Her experiences of lies and being discarded? Taking the plane, their flight, landing on the highway, the plane crashing in the shed? Tom Chen and the other searching, no bodies?
15. Tulsa, her ingenuity, the car salesman, taking the car? Going to the takeaway? The iPad in the diner, the young man and his help with the computer? Buying the clothes? The travel to New Mexico, the reservation, the Indian celebrant, the explanation of the ring? The photo, his computer records?
16. Gardner collapsing, going to hospital – and escaping?
17. The visit to New Mexico, the beauty of the scenery, the night together, love, sexuality and Gardner’s first experience?
18. In Las Vegas, the artificiality? Going to California, discovering the house, the confrontation with the man, his being disturbed, the revelation that Sarah was his sister? The audience then realising who Gardner’s father was?
19. Gardner, going to the water, illness, wanting to drown, Shepherd rescuing him? Gardner realising that Shepherd with his father?
20. The plane, Shepherd and the simulations, flying the plane into the stratosphere, balancing Gardner’s sense of gravity?
21. His having to return to Mars, with his father, the farewell to Tulsa? Being home?
