Well, World War III could break out between the two countries, and both teams could receive orders to commandeer the space station by any means necessary.
What Goes On
“I.S.S.” begins when astronaut-scientist Dr. Kira Foster (Oscar winning Ariana DeBose of “West Side Story”) arrives at the space station via a Russian Soyuz rocket.She’s an organ regrowth specialist who, like a multi-stage rocket, has detached from a tumultuous earthly personal life in order to study little white mice in zero gravity.
We quickly meet the other members of the I.S.S.: Fellow American scientist-astronaut Christian Campbell (John Gallagher, Jr.), who often refers to his children back on Earth; and the likable, mustachioed astronaut Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina).
On the likewise friendly Russian team are Weronika Vetrov (Masha Mashkova), Pilou Asbæk (Alexy Pulov), and Nicholai Pulov (Costa Ronin).
Can We All Get Along?
After having received the war declaration and hostile-action instructions from the American military, Foster—in opposition to her American colleagues—opts to pursue a collaborative solution where nobody gets killed. Without teamwork, the space station will soon fall out of its orbit and commence a deadly swan-dive to Earth. The only means of escape is the Soyuz rocket. But where would the crew take it? Planet Earth is on fire! Maybe they can worry about that after they manage to collectively board it?
But at some point, Foster has to recognize the inevitable: that her new Russian friends most likely received their own set of stealth instructions to take over the station. Something’s suddenly wrong with the exterior antenna. Isn’t there always something wrong with the antenna in space movies? Something that inevitably necessitates a tricky evacuation of the space station? In the case of “I.S.S.,” the short straw goes to Gordon. He must make the ubiquitous one-man spacewalk to repair the antenna.
We Probably Can’t All Get Along
In keeping with 1980s’ Cold War movie tropes featuring Soviets, the Russians aren’t as concerned about the preciousness of human life as Americans are, when the inevitable all-out battle commences.
Overall, competent performances allow “I.S.S.” to stand on its own as a small-scale outer space thriller. Unfortunately, the dearth of character development, along with an overall lack of chemistry as friends, undermines the proceedings.
Although it borrows some material from Alfonso Cuaron’s 2013 Academy Award-winning outer-space thriller “Gravity,” nobody in the “I.S.S.” six-person ensemble cast is allowed to become interesting enough to merit any real emotional investment in them, as either heroes or villains.
By not tapping into 1980s’ patriotism or current moral relativism, there simply isn’t enough narrative significance with which to render “I.S.S.” a competent vehicle for conveying a good moral.
I will say that shots of the blue planet blooming with nuclear weapon strikes are a tad terrifying. By which I mean that “I.S.S.” has a certain built-in credibility, given the current state of the world.
