It was a last minute decision to go to the movies on a Thursday night, but maybe I needed the distraction. I had my eyes glued to the computer screen far too long this week leading to a bout of what I call “computer eyes,” a condition that means you need to be forcibly removed from in front of your computer screen. Although going to the movies was probably not the best treatment for this, it was a good way to relax after a busy week.
The topic intrigued me. “I.S.S.” stands for International Space Station. It is a small budget movie with a limited release in Canada and the U.S.A. It was the last day on the big screen in my neighborhood. Wow, since when did going to the big screen cost less than streaming? Note to self, this is a good deal!
The premise of the story couldn’t be more timely: a group of Americans and Russians aboard an International Space Station must cope with the outbreak of WWIII. The movie opens with a reminder of one of the original goals of the space station which was the belief in improving international relations at the end of the Cold War.
Scientists cooperating for the benefit of mankind was idealistically considered an achievable goal. Scientists, were considered the epitome of rationalism and civilization, or so it was thought and some still believe. One of the Russian scientists Weronika seems to mirror this point to an incoming American scientist Kira, who is beginning her first voyage aboard the space station.
Weronika highlights the view from space and notes there are no national boundaries from above. As the movie continues, she expresses her view of scientists having a vaunted societal role. Weronika is also in a romance with Gordon, one of the American team members of the I.S.S. This establishes her as a character more inclined towards a globalist point of view.
The Russian team also has two apparatchik characters ready to serve the motherland. In true classical Russian literary tradition, one of the men appears to have no remorse, while the other was a tortured individual. Each of the men had a little bit of “The Brothers Karamazov” characterizations within them.
As far as the American team, there is the now required gay character that Hollywood demands, and two other men who seem to have very little in common. Perhaps, this mirrors the emotional and spiritual U.S. civil war that is always part of the background noise these days. As the movie goes on, the Americans seem more self-motivated rather than motivated to do their countries bidding. I’d say the story reflects the truth that we are all sinners regardless of what nation we hail from.
But, when the story opens, the mood is one of cordiality and cooperation. The international team raises a toast to celebrate their upcoming mission together. However, cracks soon emerge due to cultural traditions and mindsets that would mock the notion of true unity.
Then, one of the characters catches a glimpse from space of the earth and what she thinks is a volcanic eruption. When the color of the earth from above turns into flames, it is then that the team realizes that the world is at war. Specifically, Russia and the United States are at war and the I.S.S. now has strategic importance. Before they lose all communications with earth, (that will happen when the weapons of modern warfare are poised and ready to shut off the electronic grid), each country tells their people to take the spaceship over by whatever means necessary.
Everything begins to fall apart immediately and each person has to decide quickly what they believe and who’s on their side. There are surprising twists and turns and changing loyalties. Are the three Russian crew members all one big happy family, are the Americans? The answer is no. The close quarters and the conditions of zero gravity make you wonder how the hardships of their physical state and the vulnerability of being on a space station would factor into the story line. All of that is part of the taut storyline.One thing that I can say is that any notion, that I had as a child of wanting to be an astronaut, were quickly ended when the movie depicted how truly difficult those conditions are.
The situational ethics of this movie, reminds me of my college philosophy class and brings up many of those old questions. This alone makes the film well worth watching if you can get it. Some of the questions that come to mind are how this story would play out if one of the Russians and one of the Americans were Christians? What if I, an American, and you, fill in your nationality, were both Christians and aboard a space station when WWIII broke out? How would the shared bond that we have as believers factor in? As Christians, we understand the difference between right and wrong, through God’s grace and a study of the Bible. We know that we must follow God and that there are rules for godly living. Can we just go along when someone tells us to do something “by whatever means necessary?” We all know the answer to that is “no.”
Then the question of whether I could actually imagine the world in a large scale war came to mind. It is shocking to think that it was not difficult to imagine that at all. In fact, the world seems dangerously close to some sort of disaster. It could be with China and Taiwan. China and the Philippians are mixing it up over International waters and Philippine territory. The disaster could be between North Korea and almost anyone. Seriously, that guy is unstable and is liable to fire his missiles and start a war with anyone. Russia and the Ukraine. As I began writing this the NATO Alliance had just scrambled some F-16 fighters over to Poland because Putin got a little closer to bringing Europe into this.
Then there is the Middle East. What can I say? Iran is out of control and the whole world seems to be going along with that. Not that I expected anything else. First, the Obama and then the Biden Administration did everything possible to destabilize the region. They shifted the balance of power dramatically towards the Iranian regime and hence its’ proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi’s. China and Russia are with Iran too. “Show me your friends and I’ll show you, yourself.”
Practically the whole world is against Israel. Isn’t that crazy. It’s just a little piece of land and it is a small tribe of people. Why, why, why do they seem to be so worthy of all this hatred and violence? If you answered the Bible predicted it, you are correct. Or, if you answered because they are God’s chosen people, you are correct. If you answered Satan has a vested interest in getting rid of them, then you are correct. God Almighty calls the Jews the “apple of his eye.” God describes Israel as his land and he instructs not to divide his land (even if the current man in the U.S. Presidential office says otherwise)
Joe Biden recently used a profanity to describe the current President of Israel. However, in my mind, I wondered if his recent spate of bad language, he also called President Trump a similar name, has more to do with his advancing neurologic impairment than anything else.
So going back to the movie, imagining a situation where there is a worldwide conflagration is not all that hard to do. What will people choose to do if the whole world seems to have gone mad? In the astronauts race for survival, I imagined my own race for survival. The desire to get out of even a desperate situation alive is instinctual. But, what will we all do to survive? What have we done? That is our ethics and it shows where we are in relationship to God.
This movie does not make anyone a hero. And in the end, the characters become less Russian, and less American as they are humbled and broken by the situation they are in. It becomes more about the humanity that we share and the sinners that we are. It seems symbolic that in the end, one Russian and one American leave the failing ship together. They are fast heading back to earth and to the unknown fate that must lie ahead.
P.S. True unity with one another comes through our faith in God through his son Jesus. With that comes an understanding of right from wrong, which leads to the basis of what our relationship with one another should be.
NEXT WEEK: Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin
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