Ad Astra 2019

As the world teeters on the brink of destruction, Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) finds himself at the forefront of a desperate bid to save humanity. Hailed from the International Space Antenna, a colossal communication tower suspended high above Earth’s surface, Roy is catapulted into action when an enigmatic power surge ravages the planet, threatening to annihilate all life. Forced to leap from the Tower’s lofty heights and plummet towards the ground, Roy’s daring freefall culminates in a controlled descent, courtesy of his trusty parachute.

As the Solar System remains shrouded in mystery, Roy’s personal history is forever entwined with that of his illustrious father, H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), a celebrated astronaut whose top-secret mission, the Lima Project, launched 26 years prior to unravel the secrets of the cosmos. With Clifford having vanished without a trace for 16 years after reaching Neptune, Roy is thrust into the unenviable role of his father’s potential rescuer.

Commissioned by U.S. Space Command (SpaceCom) to journey to Mars and establish communication with the Lima Project’s sole survivor – potentially his own father – Roy embarks on a perilous quest, accompanied by his father’s old associate, Colonel Pruitt (Donald Sutherland). As he navigates the unforgiving vastness of space, Roy’s stoic demeanor is periodically punctuated by flashes of emotional detachment, an eerie calm that belies the turmoil brewing beneath the surface.

Informed of Eve’s (Liv Tyler) decision to leave him, a development that would shake the foundations of any ordinary individual, Roy remains steadfast in his resolve, his pulse never rising above 80 beats per minute even as the stakes escalate. The revelation that Clifford may still be alive fails to stir a emotional response from Roy, whose very existence is now inextricably linked to that of his father – and potentially the fate of the Solar System itself.

As the lunar rovers carrying Roy (Matthew McConaughey) and Pruitt rumble across the moon’s barren landscape, the tranquility is shattered by a surprise attack from scavenging pirates, leaving their military escort in a heap. With Pruitt’s life hanging precariously in the balance, they finally arrive at the SpaceCom base, where he is rushed into intensive care. In his final moments, Pruitt imparts a dire warning to Roy: if he fails to make contact with his estranged father, Clifford, and the surges continue, SpaceCom will stop at nothing to destroy Clifford’s station.

Roy transfers to the Cepheus, bound for Mars, but their journey is interrupted by a distress signal from a Norwegian bio-medical research space station. Despite Roy’s reservations, the ship’s captain decides to investigate, and Roy and his commander make their way to the abandoned facility. As they split up to search for signs of life or answers, Roy stumbles upon an unsettling scene: the captain’s corpse, being devoured by a baboon test subject that has escaped its containment. The animal attacks Roy with ferocity, but he manages to subdue it and lock it away in another module.

However, his ordeal is far from over. A second baboon, driven by hunger and desperation, attempts to attack Roy once more. With calculating precision, he dispatches the creature, then tapes over the captain’s broken helmet visor and carries him back to the ship. The somber news of the captain’s passing is met with a solemn service, where his body is released into space. Throughout this grim sequence of events, Roy’s emotional landscape remains eerily flat, betraying no hint of distress or remorse. Instead, he appears to be fueled by an inner rage, one that echoes his father’s own fiery outbursts.

As the Cepheus’s engines sputter, Roy (character) stands firm against the chaos, his calm demeanor a beacon of hope in the face of uncertainty. With the ship manual-landing on Mars, he seizes control from the interim captain, guiding it to a safe touchdown with ease. The journey next takes him to an underground SpaceCom base, where he meets Director Helen Lantos (Ruth Negga), who assigns Roy the task of recording emotional appeals to Clifford, hoping against hope that the Lima Project’s leader will respond.

But Roy’s scripted messages soon give way to an unscripted, heartfelt plea to his father, a moment of vulnerability that catches the attention of the mission control team. Recognizing the immediate response they’ve received, Roy is taken off the mission, relegated to a “comfort room” where he’s left to process his emotions.

It’s there that Lantos visits him, revealing her own connection to Mars and the Lima Project. As she shares classified footage depicting Clifford’s crew members’ desperate attempt to return to Earth, only to be met with tragic consequences, Roy is forced to confront the harsh realities of his mission. With the news that the Cepheus’s crew intends to destroy the Lima Project station using a nuclear payload, Lantos and Roy devise a plan for him to confront Clifford himself.

Under the cover of darkness, they sneak Roy onto an awaiting rocket, where he must use all his wits to survive against the crew members instructed to eliminate him. The brutal fight claims the lives of everyone on board, leaving Roy as the sole survivor. As he reflects on his relationships with his father and Eve (character), the isolation and stress of the mission take a profound toll on his mental state.

But Roy presses on, driven by a sense of purpose. He pilots the Cepheus to Neptune’s orbit, where he discovers the Lima Project craft in disarray. Abandoning ship, he takes a shuttle to navigate the treacherous rings of Neptune, his journey finally bearing fruit as he arrives at the Lima Project.

As the shuttle drifts away from the station, its damaged hull a testament to the catastrophic collision with Neptune’s rings, Roy (character) embarks on a perilous spacewalk, entering the abandoned outpost via a precarious and potentially deadly maneuver. The eerie silence is shattered by the sight of lifeless bodies, once the station’s crew, now frozen in time. With a sense of grim determination, Roy sets about planting the nuclear payload, only to be confronted by Clifford, the sole survivor, who reveals the shocking truth: the ship’s malfunctioning antimatter power source, damaged during the mutiny, is the source of the devastating energy surges. Despite the overwhelming evidence pointing to the futility of his mission, Clifford has continued to work tirelessly on the project, driven by an unwavering faith in the possibility of discovering non-human intelligent life. His reluctance to return to Earth stems from a sense of purposelessness, admitting that he does not love his own son or wife.

As Roy prepares to leave with the payload armed and ready, Clifford agrees to accompany him back to Earth, only to suddenly use his spacesuit’s thrusters to launch them both into space, pleading with Roy to untether himself. With a mix of fear and trepidation, Roy reluctantly complies, propelling himself towards the Cepheus using his own suit and a makeshift shield fashioned from the station’s hull debris. The desperate bid for survival is aided by Neptune’s rings, whose deadly fragments are temporarily neutralized by the shock wave generated by the impending nuclear explosion.

Back on Earth, the data retrieved from the base suggests that humans are the only intelligent life in the universe, a crushing blow to Clifford’s hopes and dreams. However, his extensive collection of information about other planets serves as a beacon of hope, illuminating a vast expanse of unknowns. Roy, inspired by this revelation, rediscovers his connection with those closest to him, reuniting with Eve and rediscovering the joys of human connection. As he reflects on his experiences during the psychological evaluation, Roy’s newfound optimism shines through, a testament to the transformative power of discovery and the enduring bonds that tie us together.