Sputnik - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

By the 1980’s the space race was over, man had orbited the earth, set foot on the moon, established space stations and accomplished numerous other feats in the realm above the Earth. Although the race was over, travel into the orbit of the Earth was still in full swing as the Cold War ran it's course and the U.S. and U.S.S.R. kept jockeying for the upper hand against each other. Sputnik was the name of a series of satellites and spacecrafts the Russians were sending into the Earth's orbit through the duration of the Cold War. A new Russian language film by the same name tells the story of two men on one of these random trips to space by the former Soviet Union back in the early 1980's. This movie is an original and inventive take on the sci-fi/alien/space travel premise, the tension hangs thick in the air and the mood is foreboding, it's well paced even if a bit on the slower side with an almost two hour runtime. But don't let the foreign language and pacing issue dissuade you from jumping in and taking a dark and wild ride on Sputnik.

This space flight begins with two Soviet cosmonauts orbiting the Earth, they're preparing for reentry when they spot something moving outside the craft. The two men, Yan (Anton Vasiliev) and Konstantin (Pyotr Fyodorov) move their eyes in the direction the thing is moving, the hull door, and we start hearing loud bangs. The scene cuts away and we're taken to a man in Soviet controlled Kazakhstan finding the crash site of smoking debris, Yan is, let's just say . . less than alive and our man Konstantin isn't doing great either. As we skip forward again, the government has a facility run by Colonel Semiradov (Fyodor Bondarchuk) that's holding Konstantin and in enters Tatyana (Oksana Akinshina), a neurophysiologist the Colonel recruits to figure out what happened during the crash. As Tatyana and Konstantin start their therapy sessions together, Tatyana is let in on the little secret that there's an alien being hiding inside Konstantin that comes out for a couple hours each night. After Tatyana and the creature are able to meet face to face, she begins working to figure out why it seems content to chill in Konstantin's chest cavity, sort of an anti-chest bursting Alien. The Colonel is focused on figuring out a way to weaponize the creature for a military advantage while Tatyana genuinely wants to help Konstantin and separate him from the alien if possible. While they initially share the same objectives, eventually they become diametrically opposed in their efforts to save Konstantin and his internal visitor. As Tatyana uncovers more of the truths surrounding the alien and what it's capable of, the film hits a dark, cold and somber tone as all the characters are working to manipulate each other into reaching their own objectives.

Eventually we're left with a suspenseful and gripping finale, the dynamics of two people resisting the government with one of them possibly being controlled by an extra-terrestrial entity makes for some unique cinema. While the jump scares may not be at the levels of the Quiet Place or Alien films, with such an intriguing premise and creatively designed creature, the twists and turns are more than enough to keep things engaging and moving along. Although the main character we follow is Tatyana, Konstantin and his companion and their interactions with her, separate and together, are the highlights of the film. The score and visual effects are both well done, the silvery and slimy creature looks fantastic along with the gray and green color palette the film works with. The screenplay is also nicely constructed with the build ups and tension picking up momentum into the second half of the film. And despite being almost completely unknown, the entire cast is doing some really great acting work as ensemble.

SUMMARY - Sputnik is available to stream on Hulu and worth the focus needed to read subtitles for those that don’t speak Russian. What really works is the cold, dark mood the film creates that’s as chilling as the cold vacuum of space that the creature comes from. So take Sputnik for a spin, it’s a great time for any sci-fi fans out there hungry for a alien encounter gone wrong.