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‘Voyagers’ Review: In Space, Everyone Can Hear You Scream

Emotional anarchy derails a space mission in this insipid sci-fi drama.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Essentially a zero-gravity “Lord of the Flies,” Neil Burger’s “Voyagers” nevertheless plays like a CW sci-fi pilot for those who find “The 100” too unsanitary. Set aboard a sterile spaceship hurtling toward a distant planet — though any claustrophobic, closed-off environment would have served just as well — this dull dig into human nature owes more to the aesthetics of Calvin Klein than the terrors of outer space.

The year is 2063, Earth is heating up, and a couple of dozen children have been trained to colonize a new world. Bred for intelligence and compliance, these docile pioneers, watched over by a sad-eyed surrogate father named Richard (Colin Farrell), begin an 86-year journey. Almost all will be dead before they reach their destination, so they have been designed to reproduce at timed intervals. Considering they’ve all grown into lissome, blandly attractive young adults, this should not be a problem.

We soon learn, though, that the crew’s universally robotic affect is not simply a deficit in the cast’s acting ability, but the result of a sedative designed to suppress emotion. Figuring this out, Christopher (Tye Sheridan, all pout and pique) and his friend Zac (Fionn Whitehead, in the film’s only vivid performance), stop taking the substance and discover that they’re both hot for the same woman (Lily-Rose Depp). In short order, the noncompliance spreads and the situation on board devolves predictably into an orgy of dancing, wrestling, copulating and running down long corridors. Worse is to follow.

A movie of cold light and hard surfaces, “Voyagers” owes its antiseptic glamour to the cinematographer Enrique Chediak, whose talents far outclass Burger’s underdeveloped script. Mysteries abound, including why Richard (who has been sidelined by an incident I won’t spoil) chose to accompany the voyagers, and why he wears a permanently pained expression.

“I wouldn’t miss a thing,” he tells superiors before he leaves Earth, hinting at a tragic past that’s never explained. Neither is the alien that might be messing around outside the ship — or, as the increasingly maniacal Zac suggests, inside one or more of the crew.

In replicating a society torn apart by lies and fear and gaslighting, “Voyagers” might feel, for some, a bit too close to home for comfort. And as the chaos and violence escalated and rival factions formed, I amused myself by pondering who might be running the ship. I concluded it was the alien.

Voyagers Rated PG-13 for picturesque coupling and ugly behavior. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.

Cast & crew
User reviews

Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp in Voyagers (2021)

A crew of astronauts on a multi-generational mission descend into paranoia and madness, not knowing what is real or not. A crew of astronauts on a multi-generational mission descend into paranoia and madness, not knowing what is real or not. A crew of astronauts on a multi-generational mission descend into paranoia and madness, not knowing what is real or not.

Neil Burger
Colin Farrell
Tye Sheridan
Lily-Rose Depp
485 User reviews
100 Critic reviews
44 Metascore

Christopher

(as Isaac Hempstead-Wright)

Mission Director

IVF Technician

Marianne Sancar
Christopher - 4 Years Old
Zac - 4 Years Old
Sela - 4 Years Old
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia The movie is considered to be a futuristic version of the 1954 William Golding novel Lord of the Flies (1990) .
Goofs The outer airlock hatch is left open for two minutes and twenty seconds, minimum, after the antagonist explosively opens the inner airlock hatch. The air rushes past the individuals in the lock at a high rate of speed, rapidly depressurizing the ship (as evidence by ship warnings declaring emergency oxygen is being released into the ship). This goes on and on, while the heroes spend a lot of time struggling with Zac. In reality, the wind would die down quickly, and a good portion of the ship would be in a severely depressurized atmosphere in a very short time, causing almost immediate loss of consciousness for anyone not holding their breath (which Zac clearly was not doing, as he can be heard grunting and gasping for breath while struggling).

Christopher : We didn't ask to be here.

Richard : Nobody chooses what they're born into. But you have to find a way to live your life. You gotta decide what kind of person you want to be. You gotta try to be good.

Connections Featured in WhatCulture Originals: 10 Recent Movies That Blew Great Concepts (2021)
Soundtracks Fidelio, Op. 72: Overture Written by Ludwig van Beethoven Performed by Das Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester (as WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln) and Günter Wand Courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.

User reviews 485

dark41969-818-469810
Oct 11, 2021
How long is Voyagers? Powered by Alexa
April 9, 2021 (United States)
United States
Czech Republic
United Kingdom
Official Facebook
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Bản Năng Hoang Dại
Bucharest, Romania
AGC Studios
Fibonacci Films
Freecs Films
See more company credits at IMDbPro
Apr 11, 2021

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 48 minutes
Dolby Atmos

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Common sense media reviewers.

Formulaic, soapy teen space drama has lust, sex, violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Promotes teamwork, courage, perseverance. Story re

Richard cares about the kids and the mission. He w

At least five characters die in various ways. Thre

Discussion of how a drug suppresses sexual desire

"Liar," "have you all gone crazy?," "fat pus-fille

The teens take a vitamin supplement that's actuall

Positive Messages

Promotes teamwork, courage, perseverance. Story reveals importance of impulse control, collaboration, and honesty.

Positive Role Models

Richard cares about the kids and the mission. He willingly leaves Earth to accompany them on their mission, even though he knows he'll die on it. Sela is intelligent and kind. Christopher is brave, wants everyone to work together. Zac acts like a hedonist and sociopath who believes everyone should do whatever they want. Although supporting cast is diverse, main characters are White and heterosexual. The only prescient voice of reason is a young Black woman who's repeatedly told to shut up (and called fat because she's 10 pounds heavier than all of the other supermodel-thin young women).

Violence & Scariness

At least five characters die in various ways. Three are killed by weapons or by being brutally beaten (a bloody, dead body is visible). One is kicked out of the ship after a prolonged fight. A few frenzied chases by armed characters looking for unarmed characters. In a flashback, a character's death is revealed not to be accidental. A young man sexually assaults (gropes above her clothes) a young woman.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Discussion of how a drug suppresses sexual desire and pleasure. When young adults stop taking their hormone suppressants, they start having bolts of lust and desire, depicted by quick images of women and men touching and kissing. Two young men look at the same young woman longingly, with one staring at her neck, her face, etc. Once others stop taking the drug, there's lots of flirting, touching, sex. One quick glimpse shows a couple having sex standing up in a semi-public place; in other scenes, there's implied sex (a couple makes out in bed and next morning is shown wearing just underwear; a bunch of semi-clothed people are shown on a bed together, touching; a few different couples kiss passionately). Some characters hang out shirtless (males) or in bras.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Liar," "have you all gone crazy?," "fat pus-filled face," "genetic defect," "shut up."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The teens take a vitamin supplement that's actually a drug that suppresses hormones and stabilizes mood/behavior. The medical officer injects someone to incapacitate them.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Voyagers is a sci-fi thriller about a group of 30 children-turned-teens who are on a one-way space mission to find a potentially habitable planet for humans to colonize. The movie, which has been compared to everything from Lord of the Flies to The 100 , stars Colin Farrell as the one adult aboard the spaceship; the rest of the starring cast is young-adult actors like Tye Sheridan , Fionn Whitehead , and Lily-Rose Depp . There's a fair bit of non-graphic sex and romance involved, as well as violence after the teens stop taking hormone-suppressing, mood-stabilizing drugs disguised as vitamin supplements. Some scenes get quite dark, with moments ranging from a woman's body being groped to the disturbing deaths of at least four young people at others' hands. Language is very mild ("shut up," "liar," "shut your fat face"), and there's no iffy substance use. While the supporting cast is diverse, the main characters are White, and a young Black woman who's the only voice of reason is repeatedly told to shut up. Families with teens can discuss the concept of nature vs. nurture, as well as the movie's messages about the importance of impulse control, collaboration, and honesty. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (1)
Kids say (6)

Based on 1 parent review

Lord of the Flies is much better, spend your time reading that instead - meh, movie is a solid meh

What's the story.

VOYAGERS is writer-director Neil Burger's sci-fi space opera about a near future in which Earth has become increasingly uninhabitable. The world's scientists find a possible solution: a planet that could be habitable by humans. It will take 86 years -- three generations -- to arrive there, so a group of specifically bred babies is brought up indoors to make up the crew of 30 students who will begin the mission. Scientist Richard ( Colin Farrell ) offers to accompany the children, who are 8 when they take off. Ten years later, Christopher ( Tye Sheridan ), one of the brilliant now-18-year-olds, discovers that a daily "vitamin supplement" they've all been ingesting is actually a hormone suppressant and mood stabilizer. Christopher and his best friend, Zac ( Fionn Whitehead ), decide to stop taking the daily supplement and have a nearly instantaneous awakening to feelings of lust, jealousy, competition, and aggression. The sudden influx of hormones coupled with a tragedy creates a toxic, divisive environment for the newly "liberated" teens onboard.

Is It Any Good?

Neil Burger's sci-fi thriller would have been a better series than this slick but underwhelming (and predictable) teen flick. Like Lord of the Flies meets The 100 in space, Voyagers ' plot starts off promisingly, even though audiences will have questions after it's revealed that the children were initially expected to be on the ship by themselves, without an adult present. From there, viewers may wonder how the brightest minds in the world ever thought that filling a ship with unsupervised tweens and teens would lead to anything but mayhem. Plot roadblocks aside, however, Sheridan does a good job as an older teen who starts to question what mission control -- and, by extension, Richard -- has told them all about the drug that's being forced upon them. Farrell does his best to be a father figure and leader, but never underestimate the power of the teen libido, Burger seems to say. What's slightly laughable is that on a ship full of attractive, diverse young people, both Christopher and Zac (who are both White) must of course fall for the same White girl -- in this case, medical officer Sela ( Lily-Rose Depp , who doesn't demonstrate much acting range in the role).

The only prescient voice of reason is Phoebe (Chanté Adams), a Black mission specialist who's repeatedly told to shut up (and, ludicrously, is called fat because she's 10 pounds heavier than all of the other supermodel-thin young women). It doesn't take psychic powers to determine early on that she's the Piggy of this group. The movie's cinematography and editing are well executed, and the actors don't have to do much more than act some combination of compliant, scared, aroused -- or, in the case of a couple of the baddies, psychopathic. Whitehead, with his Tom Hiddleston -like cheekbones and narrowed eyes, is well cast as the beautiful but bad villain. If audiences want to see a cast of attractive early 20-something actors in life-threatening and sexy situations, there are far better films than this eye-rollingly formulaic movie.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Voyagers. Is it necessary to the story? Why, or why not?

What do you think the movie's message is about "nature vs. nurture"? Is there any reason to expect that the "gifted" and "brilliant" biological children of world-class scientists, artists, engineers, and so forth are "above" baser behaviors?

How would you characterize the diversity and representation (or lack thereof) in this film? Why is the other characters' treatment of Phoebe especially problematic?

Did you notice the characters demonstrating teamwork , courage , and perseverance ? Why are those important character strengths ?

Discuss the use of a "love triangle" in the movie. Is it effective? Does it make sense? Why do you think so many teen-focused stories feature a love triangle?

Movie Details

In theaters : April 9, 2021
On DVD or streaming : April 30, 2021
Cast : Tye Sheridan , Lily-Rose Depp , Fionn Whitehead
Director : Neil Burger
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Science Fiction
Run time : 108 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : violence, some strong sexuality, bloody images, a sexual assault, and brief strong language
Last updated : March 2, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Voyagers Is Just Lord of the Flies in Space

The characters in Voyagers are the middle children of an 86-year colonization mission — born on Earth but never really of it, and also unlikely to survive long enough to see the new planet they’re traveling toward. Their lives are slated to unfold almost entirely onboard the spaceship Humanitas , on which they’re both the crew and the future parents and grandparents of the eventual settlers. In an effort to make this regimented existence more tolerable, the planners behind the mission gestated their intergalactic travelers in a lab and raised them in a sealed facility so they wouldn’t get attached to family or to the dying Earth they’d soon leave behind. The crew is also drugged with a substance they call “blue” that dulls their senses, makes them more biddable, and dampens their sex drives, which becomes relevant as the kids grow up into a bunch of dewy-skinned teenagers living in close quarters with no clue that their state of chaste docility is chemically enforced. Then two of their number, Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead), figure it out and stop taking their daily doses, setting off a chain of events that throws the careful order of life onboard into chaos.

On one hand, the premise of Voyagers is a heady one, asking what gives a life meaning when its course is already set, and that same life has been surrendered in service of a future that won’t be experienced. On the other, it offers all sorts of potential for soapy sci-fi shenanigans when the 30 crew members, a diverse group united in looking like they could at any moment star in a Gap ad, go cold turkey and are all plunged into hyperadolescence at the same time. But the film, which was written and directed by Neil Burger (of The Illusionist , Limitless , and more recently, The Upside ), walks a fine line between the philosophical and the frothy, managing with impressive precision to avoid being smart or fun. There is, at least, a short, giddy window in which Christopher and Zac find themselves awakening to emotional and physical sensation, racing down the hallways, zapping their fingers with electricity, and noticing the same nubile colleague, Sela (Lily-Rose Depp). But Zac acts on his newfound attraction by groping Sela against her will, and then challenges Richard Alling (Colin Farrell), the ship’s lone adult, about why he can’t just do whatever he pleases. “We’re just going to die in the end, so why can’t we do what we want? What’s the difference whether we’re good or not?”

There’s a sinking feeling accompanying the realization that, as Christopher and Zac start vying for leadership, Voyagers is becoming Lord of the Flies in space. It’s not just that divisions form in predictable and dramatically inert ways, the performances universally flat and unengaging as one side rebels against the group’s elected leader, giving into paranoia and opting for violence. It’s also that, as the film goes on, there’s a niggling sense that this futuristic retread of a familiar story is meant to say something about our moment — about, say, tribalism and strongman leadership. After a mysterious accident leads to the death of a crew member, Zac goes from “guy who just never thought about consent before” to full-on villain, leveraging fears that there’s an alien in the group’s midst to position himself as a protector and to label anyone who speaks up against him a possible carrier. His turn toward the manipulative and brutal is written as taking place so abruptly that it’s impossible to grasp him as a character or to understand how he’s able to take control so quickly. Rather than show the potential for both brutality and order in the human psyche, even in characters who’ve essentially started as blank slates, Voyagers ends up presenting Zac as an aberration leading the crew into a bout of hysterical overreaction. As allegories for the last few years go, it’s not one that offers much by way of compelling insight.

There have been a few noteworthy movies grappling with the idea of long-term space travel out in the past few years. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar pitted a father’s conflicted desires against the nightmarish stresses of time dilation, his children getting older and older every minute he’s away from Earth, decades slipping away. There was the dismal Passengers , the movie Voyagers most seems to want to echo, a movie about how the vastness of possible years in isolation makes the most inconceivable crimes forgivable. There was Claire Denis’s High Life , equal parts sexy and repulsive, with its coerced crew of criminals hurtling resentfully toward a black hole. But the best recent film to pit the human lifetime against the impossible hugeness of space is the Swedish Aniara from 2018, which is about a luxury liner that’s sent permanently off course on a routine trip taking passengers from Earth to Mars — a kind of serious take on a scenario shared by Armando Iannucci’s Avenue 5 . As the years roll on in the film, the passengers embrace bursts of hedonism and develop new forms of spirituality and contend with all-consuming depression.

It’s a film that might come to mind when watching Voyagers , not just because it actually digs into the possibilities of its premise, but because it really engages with the idea of a life lived in transit without a destination, and with the idea of how different that really is from the lives we’re living now. Voyagers , in keeping its focus where it does, feels like a waste not just because of how predictable its beats are, but because it ends just when it feels like it’s getting interesting.

movie review
neil burger
tye sheridan
lily-rose depp
fionn whitehead
colin farrell

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Voyagers Reviews

Voyagers ends where it should have begun, taking one too many detours to tell the compelling story of the first generation of lab-bred humans on a scouting mission to space.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 26, 2023

What starts as an interesting and intriguing concept unfortunately turns into an uncomfortable, bland and lacklustre sci-fi movie that is a chore to get through.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 6, 2023

Voyagers holds a well-known, successful sci-fi formula and takes it through the most uninteresting, unsurprising, frustratingly generic development path. It’s tough to find a positive aspect in such a hollow movie.

Full Review | Original Score: D- | Jul 24, 2023

The problem is that the film is mostly made of misdirections as it gestures towards interesting elements, both narratively and visually, that are far too short lived for their own good.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 17, 2022

You can’t help but think a deeper and slightly darker version of this movie would give some of its themes even more bite.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 17, 2022

The script fails to create a captivating plot and fills its landscape with shallow characters that are nowhere near compelling.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jun 8, 2022

The film, above and beyond anything else, is a terrible blend of uncomfortable morals and annoying immaturity that makes it clear that this project should be sent into space away from anyone who might think it is worth the time of day.

Full Review | Feb 22, 2022

Although many of Burger's visual techniques look neat enough, his screenplay proves unconvincing and overstated.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 12, 2022

Think of Voyagers as High Life for himbos.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 3, 2021

Its microcosmic allegory is thin, and the execution is unconvincing.

Full Review | Oct 13, 2021

Colin Farrell brings some weight to the proceedings but even he can't distract from the predictable teens-gone-wild-in-space plot.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 12, 2021

Ultimately, Voyagers might appeal to a very specific YA crowd, but even they might poke their holes through this one.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2021

"Lord of the Flies meets Sex Education in space" sounds like an unmissable yarn, yet nothing at any point in this criminally undernourished sci-fi lives up to the potential of its premise.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 8, 2021

All in all, a serviceable YA sci-fi story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 7, 2021

A low-grade thriller that plays out like a zero-gravity Hollyoaks.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 7, 2021

The film relies too much on sci fi clichés and the plot holes become difficult to ignore. While the acting is good, the characterisation is lazy and dull. Moreover, the production design is wanting.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 6, 2021

Outside of the Lord of the Flies parallels, Voyagers is a familiar and rather derivative Young Adult thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 5, 2021

Burger guides a world that looks and moves slickly, with clean production design suiting the sleek looks of crew members who could pass as fashion models.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2021

You can imagine a teacher showing this in school and then leading a class discussion about ethics until the bell rings for lunch.

Full Review | Jul 14, 2021

Neil Burger has updated and adapted 'Lord of the Flies' to teenagers in outer space but the characters are hopelessly superficial, chasing one another down long, antiseptic corridors.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 13, 2021

Voyagers Review

Ad(olescent) astra..

Voyagers premieres in theaters on Friday, April 9. Read more on IGN's policy on movie reviews in light of COVID-19 here . IGN strongly encourages anyone considering going to a movie theater during the COVID-19 pandemic to check their local public health and safety guidelines before buying a ticket.

Set aboard a starship run by a crew of genius teens who won't live long enough to see their destination, Voyagers -- which is touted more broadly as "Lord of the Flies in Space" -- is a sci-fi thought experiment that, at times, is too obvious and on-the-nose for its own good.

Written and directed by Neil Burger (Divergent, Limitless), Voyagers has the makings of a well-meaning message all burrito'd up in a science-fiction casing, a time-honored trick of the genre, but it also has the trappings of a project that doesn't know when to hold back and trust its audience enough to work out some of the ethical equations for themselves. Yes, despite an intriguing concept, and solid performances from its young cast (plus an errant Colin Farrell), the film is too blatant with its themes and, because of that, too safe with its payout. An allegory this thinly-veiled maybe should have gone even further, and been even harsher, with its story and not played things as safe as it does.

Tye Sheridan (X-Men franchise, Ready Player One) and Lily-Rose Depp (Yoga Hosers, The King) capably lead a cast of young performers meant to represent humanity's last hope. Fionn Whitehead, as Zac, is the crew's wild card who embodies our base and undisciplined desires while Game of Thrones' Isaac Hempstead Wright - er - curiously vanishes from the film, it seems, halfway through. Regardless, the ensemble, which also features Farrell as the adult chaperone of the group, is nicely set up as a bomb with a rather lengthy fuse. The question then becomes, onboard a sterile ship that's designed to be aesthetically muted and blandly functional, what will light said fuse and send everyone spiraling?

We've seen sci-fi, and other genres, tackle the idea of starter societies. Stories that study the ins and outs of what ultimately goes wrong when the best-laid plans feel rather foolproof. What is it about our species that steers us toward ruin, even in the midst of a utopia? Voyagers, however, adds an extra layer to this ancient puzzle by giving us a crew whose only mission is to help future generations. They're literally meant to breed and die, in space, so that their grandchildren can land on a new world. Because of this, they've been created in a lab and raised in studious confinement without attachments. It's an interesting premise because these humans, essentially, have no meaningful history of their own.

Inevitably, despite the mission directives, and Farrell's mindful Dr. Richard, these dutiful youths begin to crack. Rejecting their "blue drink," which they discover contains a chemical that inhibits their emotions, they start to warp and run amok. They entertain simply taking what they want and shirking their jobs while quickly learning that fear is a powerful tool to use in order to control others.

Once chaos begins to reign, Voyagers sadly slips a bit. The characters actually start to ask the big questions out loud, depriving the film of any subtlety. And in a bizarre stylistic choice, found footage of volcanos erupting and/or animals stalking each other flash in front of the viewers' eyes whenever a character experiences violent or carnal urges. These images aren't in the character's heads , they're meant for us. And it feels pretty juvenile.

Voyagers: Colin Farrell Sci Fi Thriller First Look

Sheridan's Chris and Whitehead's Zac are set up too easily as opposite sides of the good/evil coin while Depp, more than she should be, is relegated to being the object of the two boys' affections. It's a love triangle where one corner, mostly, wants nothing to do with it. Again, the cast is very good, and the way they all have to transform from an automaton state into wildlings is an intriguing metamorphosis, but the script lays everything out in too predictable a manner.

On one level, you can certainly appreciate Voyagers as a fable, where knowing how the story's going to play out is part of the journey, but other than that the film sits sort of uncomfortably between perhaps being more cerebral by holding back and a project that makes things even crazier, and consequences more brutal, so to balance out the all-but-transparent subtext. The end result is a cool concept hampered by unsubtle execution.

While sci-fi is generally rife with allegories, a steadier hand was needed here in Voyagers. The messaging, though noble and necessary, feels obvious to the point that it takes you out of the film. The cast is talented and the premise is promising, but the story plays out in a predictable fashion, which also works, in a way, to undercut the meaning.

Where to Watch

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Ign recommends.

Voyagers review: Lord of the Flies in space is full of mystery

By Gregory Wakeman

29 June 2021

Lily-Rose Depp stars as Sela

Courtesy of Lionsgate

Voyagers opens in the year 2063 with Earth on the brink of destruction due to climate change . After discovering a new planet 86 years away, scientists have genetically engineered children , raised them in isolation and sent them to this distant world so that their offspring will ultimately colonise it and save humanity.

Ten years into their journey, the children start to question their lives onboard the spaceship Humanitas when Christopher (Tye Sheridan) discovers that they are being drugged to suppress their personalities. Mission commander Richard (Colin Farrell) originally tries to squash their concerns, but the teenagers on board begin to reject their docile existence.

During this period, Voyagers showcases plenty of potential. Writer and director Neil Burger, who showed he is a dab hand at overseeing young adult stories and sci-fi films with Divergent , doesn’t get bogged down in the detail of why they are leaving Earth. Instead, he sets this up in a succinct and expert fashion, as well as teasing the psychological struggles that the teenagers will go on to confront.

Voyagers has an impressive young cast that is able to realistically depict these issues, too. Sheridan, Fionn Whitehead and Lily-Rose Depp become more and more convincing as their characters turn from passive passengers to increasingly intrigued individuals.

Throughout, Burger adds to the sci-fi thriller’s sense of foreboding and mystery. Cinematographer Enrique Chediak’s eerie visuals and production designer Scott Chambliss’s sleek but claustrophobic set also enhance this ambience, while Burger incorporates moments of cinematic flair that suggest Voyagers might actually build to something that is both epic and resonant.

It doesn’t take long for the film to falter, though. All of the thematic possibilities that Voyagers flirted with exploring dissipate away, replaced by a predictable plot that is reminiscent of dozens of stories told before it. In fact, as it progresses, the film begins to play out like a carbon copy of William Golding’s seminal 1954 novel Lord of the Flies . Minus the gravity.

Even though it continues to look pretty, there is a complete lack of depth, tension and surprise. Voyagers merely plods along exactly as you expected, while its haunting aesthetic and premise vanish from the film like air leaving a deflating balloon.

At least the performances remain strong, as the actors gallantly try their best to inject some much needed energy and heart into the proceedings. But the the dearth of characterisation leaves Voyagers feeling hollow.

Its final act in particular is especially gruelling to watch. Burger tries to ramp up the action and spectacle, but by this point you will have long given up caring for any of the characters involved, let alone whether they will be able to save humanity from extinction.

Voyagers is released in the UK on 2 July.

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‘Voyagers’ Review: Colin Farrell Chaperones a YA Thriller That Re-Stages ‘Lord of the Flies’ in Space

David ehrlich.

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Neil Burger only directed the first installment of the ill-fated “Divergent” series before moving on to more lucrative problems (“Billions,” “The Upside”), but his latest film — a self-generated story that re-stages “Lord of the Flies” on a cramped spaceship full of horny teens — suggests an enduring fascination with the same kind of YA futurism that was all the rage back when Lionsgate was hoping to make Beatrice Prior into the next Katniss Everdeen. Between its dystopian overtures, antiseptic white sets, and diverse-ish cast of talented young actors forced to subsume their colorful screen personas into embryonic characters whose dialogue is limited to lines like “what does it feel like to feel something?,” “ Voyagers ” may chart an 86-year course across the galaxy but it certainly doesn’t take viewers anywhere they haven’t already been.

For better or worse, Burger knows it doesn’t have to. The middling but enjoyable “Voyagers” is meant to be a timeless parable about the primitive essence of human nature; if its space-age shenanigans are broadly identical to the beats of a book William Golding wrote about a group of preadolescent boys who crash on a deserted island during World War II, that’s more of a feature than it is a bug. It doesn’t excuse the script for being a universe wide and an inch deep, or let Burger off the hook for telling a story about chaos that follows the cleanest possible route to its predetermined destination, but it does make it easier to appreciate “Voyagers” for the bolder choices that it makes along the way.

Choices like assigning its young space cadets a chaperone played by Colin Farrell. The year is 2063, and — surprise, surprise — Earth isn’t doing so great. It turns out that denying the reality of climate change didn’t make the problem go away, and now humanity has to find a new rock to call home. The good news is that we’ve found one; the bad news is that it will take almost a full century for our scouting vessel to reach the distant planet and determine its viability. The solution: we’ll create a genetically engineered fleet of gifted children (the offspring of MIT scientists and Nobel laureates) whose sole purpose in life will be to repopulate aboard the Humanitas so that their grandkids will one day be alive to touch down in the new world.

“Voyagers” is never more engaging than when it confronts the underlying truth of this grim mission: We all inherited the same one. We’re all hurtling through space and wrestling with our directives as we chart a course towards a future we’ll never live to see, the only difference is that we have the luxury of being distracted from the task at hand.

Farrell plays Richard, a scientist and sad-eyed father figure whose job is to make sure that these star children keep their eyes on the prize. Implausibly (yet now undeniably) one of the best actors in the Milky Way, Farrell has been known to show off his soft underbelly when the mood strikes, but he’s never been quite as sweet or tender as he is here in the role of a man who volunteers to lead all 30 of his step-kids into the void. All parents ask themselves why they brought their children into this world; the pained wrinkle Richard wears on his face is that of someone who’s cursed to know the answer. Also maybe that of someone who’s cursed to single-handedly supervise 30 pre-adolescents at an intergalactic daycare until he dies.

Fortunately for Richard — and unfortunately for the dramatic intrigue of the film around him — everyone aboard the Humanitas is made docile by the blue space drink they take every day. They just don’t know that yet. The ultra-obedient kids mature into ultra-obedient young adults who are happy enough to live like lab rats, wear sexless blue uniforms, and keep their minds on the mission and off of each other… even though Burger’s photogenic cast seems less like the progeny of scientists and Nobel laureates and more like the progeny of hot actors and even hotter actors. Alas, shit goes sideways in a hurry once the blandly virtuous Christopher ( Tye Sheridan , his face morphing into Sidney Crosby) and the blandly malevolent Zac (“Dunkirk” lead Fionn Whitehead , here given actual dialogue) discover what’s in the water and decide to rebel. Sorry for wanting to keep a bunch of hormonal teenagers from getting handsy and overpopulating the ship that’s entrusted with saving the human race, you guys.

You know what happens from there. One minute the boys are looking at the comely Sela (a stoic Lily-Rose Depp ) as if they’ve never seen her before, and the next they’re screaming the deep space equivalent of “kill the pig!” as they hunt each other to death through the ship’s corridors. Burger assembles a smart and eclectic group of super promising young actors — the supporting cast includes “Blinded by the Light” breakout Viveik Kalra, “Game of Thrones” survivor Isaac Hempstead Wright, “Roxanne Roxanne” star Chanté Adams, and Disney Channel graduate Madison Hu — but none of them are given much to do beyond picking sides and providing a fragile sense of community.

Whitehead sharpens Zac into a dangerous shiv of unchecked id, but “Voyagers” is often rendered inert by the same tabula rasa tenor that inspired this project. For all of the patience and fatalistic grace that Burger mines from the initial half of the film, there’s something inherently dull about watching grown-ish people cycle through our most primitive emotions for the first time, and Burger veers off course by positioning the blunt forces of lust and rage as spectacles unto themselves rather than as means to an end. (At one point, the characters watch a montage of animalistic behavior that peaks with a clip from “The Cabin in the Woods.”)

The script is peppered with all of the expected lip-service about reason and compromise — about the tenuous balance between identity and groupthink in a moral vacuum where everyone dies at the end of the day — but “Voyagers” is far more interested in the first stirrings of feeling than it is exploring how civilization depends on taming our true nature. The predictability inherent to any honest “Lord of the Flies” riff becomes a problem in a movie that’s literally on auto-pilot, if only because “Voyagers” is as enamored by its discoveries as the characters are themselves, and races through their consequences with all the nuance of a story that needs to clean up the entire mess of human nature in the span of a single action sequence.

And yet any old story being retold by virtue of a new setting is going to live or die on the strength of that setting, and that’s where “Voyagers” delivers the goods. Production designer Scott Chambliss hasn’t taken a radical approach to the look of the Humanitas — it’s the kind of spaceship Jony Ive might create, all clean lines and smooth plastics — but the utopian vibe offers an effective counterpoint to the anarchy that soon floods the hallways. Cinematographer Enrique Chediak shoots the action with an inventive streak that plays up the “mouse in a maze” of it all, as his camera rig speeds along the ceiling in pursuit of characters who are suddenly realizing how little space they have to live. If only the rest of this destination-oriented thriller were as thoughtful about the journey required to get there.

Lionsgate will release “Voyagers” in theaters on Friday, April 9.

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Voyagers Review: Lord Of The Flies In Space Never Leaves Its Orbit

The Commercial Space Age is seemingly before us, as we’re slowly seeing an exploration of exciting journeys out of Earth’s atmosphere. Neil Burger ’s Voyagers challenges the freedom that Star Trek or Star Wars often depict when traveling among the stars. This science fiction thriller imagines the long jaunt of a group of children raised in space – doomed to spend their whole lives on their way to a destination on another world. Although it serves as an interesting thought experiment, the movie's most burning question in its space expedition is simply a sullen, “Are we there yet?”

Voyagers establishes a world where a hospitable planet away from Earth has been discovered, but it takes 86 years for its crew to arrive. In order to start a colony of humans on this new world, a crew of 30 children are placed aboard a mission to grow up together and procreate in hopes that their children will eventually arrive safely and settle. The movie follows the crew as young adults when one discovers that they’ve been given a drug that suppresses their ability to truly feel human their whole lives, and a Lord of the Flies scenario ensues.

Voyagers has a solid, immersive concept... until it cuts the cord.

Neil Burger is a solid filmmaker to bring a science-fiction concept such as Voyagers to life. The writer/director memorably made 2011’s Limitless , which conversely explores a drug that opens up an expansive world to Bradley Cooper ’s leading character. Burger also successfully played around with YA dystopia with 2014’s Divergent . Voyagers feels like a bit of a remix of these two films, but unfortunately does not take its concept across that line that previous sci-fi films of its kind have dared to go.

The first half of Voyagers is well executed. The cinematography is stylistic and successfully envelopes the audience in the spaceship these 30 kids grew up on. The heart of the film feels carried in Colin Farrell ’s character, who is the only human on the crew who was not born on the ship. It’s interesting to understand the mission through his eyes, as Farrell bonds with the rest of the crew as he explains to them about how their existence will usher in generations of life, even though their own lives must be suppressed to living on a ship with the same routine day-to-day.

Voyagers is less of a science fiction action-adventure, and more so a claustrophobic thriller and introspective piece on how a group of young adults may react to its premise. The two concepts that end up being discussed here are whether one should suffer today to benefit future generations, or go prioritize self-focused autonomy – which some members of the crew start to adopt as they challenge both their upbringings and mission. But when Voyagers enters its second half it becomes more of a tired arguing match than an intriguing commentary.

The talented Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp are not given enough to work with.

The two actors that seek to anchor Voyagers are Tye Sheridan ( Ready Player One, X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Lily-Rose Depp ( The King , Yoga Hosers ). They each offer solid performances on their own, along with Fionn Whitehead ( Dunkirk , Black Mirror: Bandersnatch ). The chemistry is overall thin and it feels as though they were restrained by the content of the script. Voyagers is basically about a group of young people who lack personality because they have been shielded from culture and pleasure and with that it becomes difficult to empathize with them.

There absolutely could have been a version of Voyagers that explored its concept and allowed room to show off complex and interesting characters, but the movie is so focused on being plot driven that it doesn't have that capacity.

Voyagers is a sci-fi film that is much too safe and confining to satisfy.

Voyagers also misses the mark on exploring the euphoria of these young people learning about their sexual desires for the first time. The movie’s use of sexuality ends up being disappointing because it's more so explored in a predatory, empty kind of way. Overall, the movie glosses over one of the most intriguing aspects sparked throughout the film, and when the crew has the chance to dive deeper into its characters it stays on the surface.

Despite its character flaws, the movie does manage to be entertaining to some degree. It takes an old school science fiction approach that calls for performance over big effects or expertly-choreographed action sequences. A studio film going for a more intimate, dramatic approach for this genre of film is rare, but there’s just not enough appeal on an intellectual or thematic level to engage the viewer with this approach. Voyagers is overall disappointing, but is not without some heart and allure.

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.

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Summary With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women, bred for intelligence and obedience, embark on an expedition to colonize a distant planet. But when they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into ch ... Read More

Directed By : Neil Burger

Written By : Neil Burger

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Colin Farrell

Tye sheridan, christopher, lily-rose depp, fionn whitehead, chanté adams, quintessa swindell, archie madekwe, isaac hempstead wright, viveik kalra, archie renaux, april grace, mission director, laura dreyfuss, ivf technician, veronica falcón, marianne sancar, patrick bucur, christopher - 4 years old, rufus bateman, zac - 4 years old, jaquelin capusan, sela - 4 years old, rafi wilder, christopher - 8 years old, antonia dragoman, sela - 8 years old, critic reviews.

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An adult and child astronauts board a spacecraft.

In Theaters

April 9, 2021
Tye Sheridan as Christopher; Lily-Rose Depp as Sela; Fionn Whitehead as Zac; Chanté Adams as Phoebe; Quintessa Swindell as Julie; Archie Madekwe as Kai; Isaac Hempstead Wright as Edward; Viveik Kalra as Peter; Madison Hu as Anda; Archie Renaux as Alex; Wern Lee as Tayo; Colin Farrell as Richard

Home Release Date

April 29, 2021
Neil Burger

Distributor

Movie review.

When scientists discover that the Earth will soon no longer be able to sustain human life, they start searching for a new planet to call home. In 2063, they find one. But it’ll take 86 years to travel there, and they have no idea what they’ll find there once they arrive.

But the future of the human race is at stake. So, they breed a group of children in a lab using artificial insemination and incubation—to send them to humanity’s new home.

These kids are the genetic offspring of bio engineers, physicists and the like. Raised in a lab, they’ve never known anything of the outside world. They’ve been trained their whole lives to perform specific jobs on the spaceship in order to maintain it and ensure it reaches its final destination. And someday, they’ll create children the same way they were created, train them to perform their jobs and then die before they ever reach the planet, leaving it to their “children” and “grandchildren.”

But when they uncover some disturbing secrets about their mission—like a hidden, classified compartment on the ship and a chemical they’re being fed to suppress their emotions—the kids, who are now teens start rebelling.

They stop taking the mysterious blue medication that was created to dull their personalities and decrease their pleasure responses. They stop doing their jobs to keep the ship running.

And pretty soon, emotions like fear, anger, jealousy and lust take over, resulting in chaos and endangering not only the mission, but their lives as well.

Positive Elements

Richard, one of the scientists who helped raise the kids, becomes quite attached to them. And, having no family left on Earth, he decides to accompany them on their mission as the sole adult to act as their mentor and guide as they transition from children into adults.

Part of the reason that the kids were raised in complete isolation was to prevent them from developing Earthly attachments and to preserve their mental health. Why? So they won’t miss what they’ve never had. However, Richard argues against this approach, explaining that the scientists should trust the kids to make their own decisions and allow them to experience the things in life that make it pleasurable. He also expresses discomfort with lying to them, since they are smart enough to figure things out on their own.

As the ship descends into chaos, a few of the teens fear that hatred and violence are part of their true natures. They wonder what the point of “being good” is if they’re going to die anyways.

However, Sela, the crew’s medical officer, doesn’t believe this. She states that she isn’t prone to violence and that they can control their actions. This is backed up by other members who try to uphold their “goodness,” believing they can still enjoy life without giving in to every impulse. And later, when other members realize they’ve been lied to, they stop acting out and try to restore some order.

Spiritual Elements

Sexual content.

Two teens have sex, and we see part of the boy’s exposed backside. Other couples kiss and touch each other sensually. Christopher (the chief engineer) and Sela make out on a bed; we see close ups of their bare skin (though nothing explicit); we later see them wake up together in their undergarments.

As the teens experience new sensations, we see close-up flashes of skin that represent the lust they are now experiencing. Teens walk around in their underwear.

Christopher pretends to have sex with Sela in order to protect her from Zac, who is willing to hurt her to get what he wants. Later, Sela tries to seduce Zac to trick him.

[ Spoiler Warning ] We later see some characters pregnant and children running around the ship, indicating that the crew eventually reproduced.

Violent Content

Zac, Christopher’s friend who stops taking the blue medicine with him, scares the crew into believing that an alien killed Richard and is now hiding inside one of them. (Richard is dead, but not because of an alien.)

Zac accuses one boy of having the alien inside him, and the boy runs away, convincing the others he must be guilty. They chase after him and tackle him to the ground, punching and kicking him repeatedly. Christopher tries to stop them but gets elbowed in the face. The mob swarms the boy, and we later see his dead body covered in blood. (Several people are later traumatized by their own actions, but Zac seems to have enjoyed it.)

When someone tries to kill them, Sela and Christopher fight back, hitting him over the head with a fire extinguisher and injecting him with a lethal substance from a syringe.

Zac and his minions find a cache of weapons intended for the defense of the generation that would be landing on the planet. A girl is killed with one of these guns. Zac shoots repeatedly at Christopher and Sela, trying to kill them. He also stabs Sela in the leg with a knife.

One person is electrocuted, and we see severe burn marks on his corpse. Three teens fight inside the airlock, with two of them getting shoved out into space. (One, who wasn’t wearing a spacesuit, starts turning blue from the lack of oxygen.) We see flashes of war, death and animals eating each other from movies that the kids are watching.

Zac touches Sela on her face and shoulder before grabbing her breast. When she pushes his hand away, he gets aggressive and continues to grope her while she tries to fight him off until Richard sees and pulls him off of her. He later threatens her and others, so she arms herself with a scalpel.

People shove each other and beat each other up. One boy hits another in the head with a hammer. Several people grab him to stop him, but Christopher has to punch the boy in the face multiple times before he lets go of the weapon. Teens play-wrestle, but Zac takes it a step further by choking people out.

Crude or Profane Language

Drug and alcohol content.

Zac and the others call the blue medicine a drug and refuse to take it.

Other Negative Elements

Richard and the kids hear strange creaking noises on the ship throughout the film. Richard explains that it’s the result of a temperature drop, but some of the kids believe the ship is either going to capsize or that something outside is trying to get in.

Zac exploits this fear of a potential alien either outside or onboard the craft. He manipulates his fellow voyagers with an elaborate story about how the alien could potentially have gotten onboard. And he continues to use the fear of an alien to leverage power and turn members of the crew against each other.

Many of Zac’s (and the other crew members’) actions stem from the fact that he never learned impulse control. While the blue medication did help to pacify the kids, it also took away their ability to process emotions—because they never had them—and to respond to their feelings in a mature manner. Before long, they all neglect their duties, opting to do what pleases them individually rather than what’s necessary to ensure everyone’s survival.

Several people mock a girl who insists on following the rules laid out for them by mission control. Two boys set a room on fire to destroy the surveillance records that would implicate them. Two teens sneak out of their rooms at night to hack into the ship’s computer system.

In a rather philosophical sense, Voyagers is an examination in human nature.

There’s the good —Sela, Christopher and others who choose to do good not because they have to but because they want to. They are inspired enough by the “noble” cause to preserve the human race that they’ll sacrifice a few of their own desires to ensure everyone’s survival.

Then there’s the bad —Zac and his little band of misfits. Of course, even this is more complicated than that. Technically, they do know better, they just don’t see the point. Why should they give up something they want now for a generation that might not even make it to the new planet? It’s not that they want to be bad, it’s just that they don’t see the point of being good.

It’s an intriguing study in human psychology and motivation, one that broadly echoes similar dynamics in William Golding’s classic story Lord of the Flies.

But that doesn’t make it a story that everyone will want to watch. Though Voyagers is free of really explicit content, it’s still chockful of PG-13 levels of violence and suggestive scenes. People kill one another. Teens experience sexual desire for the first time (enough that Voyagers is one of the rare films with this rating to be labeled by the MPAA as having “some strong sexual content). And to be honest, it’s a little frightening how quickly these kids go from being brainwashed by the blue drug given to them to being brainwashed by their peers.

So, while some might be interested in seeing where Voyagers goes, others will likely want to skip this cinematic journey altogether.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Voyagers takes an initially intriguing sci-fi premise down a predictable path with no surprises. What begins as a thoughtful exploration of human nature devolves into Generation Z's Lord of the Flies in space. While most of the primary characters are one-note with little depth, a solid lead performance from Tye Sheridan adds the needed gravitas to stave off absurdity. His ability to bring a realistic demeanor to fantastical situations serves the film well; but not enough to overcome several glaring plot holes and an obvious final act.

In 2063, humanity discovers a habitable planet in distant space. Earth will not recover from climate change, overpopulation, and pollution. A decision is made to send a ship to prepare the planet for colonization. The near hundred year voyage will need multiple generations to complete the mission. Embryos are genetically engineered using the best minds available. The resulting children are raised in isolation as a group. Dr. Richard Alling ( Colin Farrell ) asks to accompany the children as they embark on the journey.

Years later in space, the crew has matured to teenagers. Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead) start to have questions about the mission. Richard alleviates their concerns, but notices the changes in behavior. When the boys start deviating from protocols, the opposite sex becomes noticeable. Christopher and Zac now see Sela ( Lily-Rose Melody Depp ) in a different light. The young crew is forced to take control of the ship after a mysterious accident. Their newfound freedom and authority leaves all inhibitions unchecked.

Voyagers had an opportunity to be daring. The premise establishes a petri dish of closed society where all facets of human behavior is allowed to bloom. Sex and aggression lurches to the forefront as unbridled carnality runs amok. It's a frat party in space as the bad boys become violent alpha males with no moral compass. The Lord of the Flies analogy is fitting. The problem is that we've seen this all before ad nauseam. The character interactions play out exactly as expected. Writer/director Neil Burger ( Limitless , Divergent ) succumbs to formula when he could have been bold.

Two issues perplexed me utterly throughout the film. First is Neil Burger's use of cutaway shots. In the first act, he inserts random titillating images when the male characters become aroused. Then he abandons this style choice completely for the remainder of the runtime. It's as if Burger had a cinematic change of heart, which ends up looking awkward and disjointed on screen. There's a primary setting of a sterile, long white corridor in the ship. In Star Trek , they cleverly angle filming so it looks like the characters are walking around a larger environment. In Voyagers , it seems like the characters are just running up and down the same set. It makes the ship boring. That's a critical flaw in space based science fiction .

Tye Sheridan excels in visual effects heavy films. He does a good job of conveying emotions without dialogue. Sheridan elevates Voyagers script by showcasing complexity when it's not spoken. The film needed much more nuance and character development to be successful. Voyagers is a production of Thunder Road Films and AGC Studios. It will be released theatrically on April 9th by Lionsgate.

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Voyagers (2021)
Tye Sheridan

Fionn Whitehead smirks rebelliously amid a crowd of blank-faced teenagers in Voyagers

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The disastrous science fiction movie Voyagers is basically Star-lord of the Flies

It’s a familiar story, but in space, and turned dull-witted and dumb

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Everything old is eventually new again, and the tiresome science fiction drama Voyagers offers nothing more than that cliché. Filmmaker Neil Burger, who directed the first Veronica Roth adaptation, Divergent , returns to the young-adult world with Voyagers — not to be confused with Passengers , another sci-fi film where a male character manipulates a woman trapped on a spaceship with him. Voyagers has the same setup as so many space films, with a crew isolated in space and increasingly divided by fear and paranoia. But Burger doesn’t bring anything new to the material, which was lifted practically beat for beat from William Golding’s classic novel Lord of the Flies . And he ignores every opportunity to deviate from that predictable narrative path.

Like the recent Cosmic Sin , Voyagers feints toward using its space setting as an opportunity for insight about the human condition, but its execution is as lackluster as that film’s sleepwalking version of Bruce Willis. Cosmic Sin tried and failed to make some kind of point about the cost of war and the sacrifices soldiers make to protect us. Voyagers tries and fails to make some kind of point about the cost of progress and the sacrifices explorers make to protect us. But Burger plays this story so straight, with no hint of humor or irony, that Voyagers also offers no surprises. The plot reveals all its beats within the first 10 or so minutes.

It also pales in comparison to the other genre pictures it evokes: Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca , Drake Doremus and Nathan Parker’s Equals , and Claire Denis’s High Life . Those films were purposeful in depicting the implied elitism of exploration, humanity’s hubris in attempting to control the stars, and the lawlessness of space as the “final frontier.” Voyagers , meanwhile, uses stock footage of dilated pupils and crashing waves to communicate love. And when things go bad on the spaceship, he communicates adolescent viciousness by killing off mostly Black and brown teenagers. Each attempt at nuance is increasingly more facile than the last.

A nervous-looking teenage girl in a yellow spacesuit, peering out through a huge round hatch in Voyagers

A self-serious opening sequence explains that Earth in 2063 is ravaged and ruined, so some humans decide to send a group to a newly discovered planet that has both water and oxygen. (Burger is so disinterested in his world-building that his script leaves it unclear whether these people are a multinational group of scientists, or some kind of elected officials, or former astronauts themselves, or what.) Because the journey will take 86 years, they send a group of children genetically engineered to be the best of the best, with mission chief Richard (Colin Farrell) along for the ride as a sort of hybrid leader, babysitter, and therapist.

The children are raised in sterile, all-white storage containers that are isolated from the rest of the world. They learn on screens and laptops, not from teachers. They don’t laugh, talk amongst themselves, or really interact with each other. They’re told every day by tinny audio recordings that they’re special, their grandchildren born on the same spaceship will colonize the planet they’re traveling to, and their sacrifice is appreciated by the world they’re leaving behind. The adults rationalize this project by saying the children won’t miss Earth because they never truly knew it. Richard has the utmost faith that these children will grow into teenagers, then adults, who do their jobs and fulfill the mission.

But 10 years later, when the children are adolescents, they aren’t as docile. Close friends Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead) collect information about the ship as if each new insight will help clarify how they came to be born in this place, at this time, and with this responsibility. They hack into the ship’s database and discover two things that kick-start the plot: There is a hidden compartment somewhere in the vessel, and the mandatory “Blue” drink the teens are given every day has a worrying secret ingredient. What is Richard hiding from them in that room? Why is he lying to them about Blue? And what other secrets could he be harboring, especially related to his relationship with Sela (Lily-Rose Depp)?

When Christopher and Zac stop drinking Blue, Voyagers fully embraces Lord of the Flies mimicry. Divisions form within the group. The teens become feverishly obsessed with a mysterious enemy. And laziness, aggression, and heterosexual experimentation spread. (Weird and noticeable: the way the film’s Black and brown characters primarily emerge as antagonistic, promiscuous, or duplicitous.) The teens rebel, which is an understandable reaction for young people bred to die for strangers.

A group of rebellious space-teenagers in matching blue shirts, clutching futuristic plastic guns and standing in front of space-charts

And yet there’s no sense that Burger has any real sympathy for these characters, or empathy about the confusion and aimlessness they must be feeling. The story is black and white, evil people vs. good people, with those designations being hammered home during numerous altercations in the ship’s mess hall, systems room, and sleeping quarters. There is no nuance to the conversations the teenagers have about bullying, sexual assault, or personal responsibility, but Voyagers insists upon them rather than indulging in any potential B-movie appeal. A malevolent force is introduced, but dropped. The script floats the idea that the teens could be forced to reproduce against their will, but that idea is abandoned, too. There are legitimate dangers in Voyagers that Burger’s script could have considered, but instead, Christopher and Zac just argue over and over again about right and wrong. Get over yourselves!

The most tiring aspect of Voyagers is the way Burger falls into a pattern where practically every action onscreen is then repetitively described by the characters present. When the power goes out, someone says, “They cut the power.” Moments later, when the antagonists look in through the door, a protagonist worriedly remarks, “They’re here.” The reliance on that kind of simplistic, descriptive dialogue means that Voyagers doesn’t dig into the larger philosophical questions that science fiction normally explores, and that this setup invites. Burger doesn’t care to contemplate whether humanity is inherently selfish, or expound on the narrative that these kids are essentially sacrificial lambs. He doesn’t even develop his characters very well: Christopher is the protective one, Sela is the logical one, Zac is the devious one. (At least Whitehead seems to be having fun with the smirking, bullying role.) There isn’t much more to them.

Voyagers ’ posturing toward being an edgier, grittier movie than it turns out to be is captured in the film’s poster. In the promo image, Sheridan and Depp’s practically nude bodies lie together in a sexually charged pose, with Earth in their rear view. They’re leaving humanity behind, the poster suggests, while wrapped up in each other instead. In reality, Voyagers is never that explicit in its depiction of a romance between Christopher and Sela, nor that pointed in its repudiation of Earth as a failed planet. Instead, Burger has crafted a shrug of a movie that insists teenagers should follow the rules and submit to the greater good, but fails to imagine what toll that kind of sacrifice would really take. It almost makes Divergent look good.

Voyagers opens in theatrical release on April 9. Before visiting a theater, Polygon recommends reading our guide to local theater safety precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voyagers Movie

Who's Involved:

Colin Farrell, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Fionn Whitehead, Tye Sheridan, Neil Burger, Lily Rose Depp, Archie Madekwe, Quintessa Swindell, Viveik Kalra, Veronica Falcón, Archie Renaux

Release Date:

Friday, April 9, 2021 Nationwide

Plot: What's the story about?

With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women, bred for intelligence and obedience, embark on an expedition to colonize a distant planet. But when they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into chaos, they’re consumed by fear, lust, and the unsatiable hunger for power.

3.20 / 5 stars ( 10 users)

Poll: Will you see Voyagers?

Who stars in Voyagers: Cast List

Colin Farrell

The Penguin (series), Dumbo

Lily Rose Depp

Yoga Hosers, The King

Tye Sheridan

Asphalt City, Grass Stains

Fionn Whitehead

Emily, The Children Act

Isaac Hempstead Wright

The Blue Mauritius, The Boxtrolls

Veronica Falcón

Imaginary, Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe

Viveik Kalra

Lift, Three Months Later

Archie Madekwe

Gran Turismo, Saltburn

Quintessa Swindell

Black Adam, The Master Gardener

Archie Renaux

Alien: Romulus , Upgraded

Who's making Voyagers: Crew List

A look at the Voyagers behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Neil Burger last directed The Upside and Divergent . The film's writer Neil Burger last wrote The Mistaken and The Lucky Ones .

Neil Burger

Screenwriter

Production Company

AGC Studios

Thunder Road Pictures

Watch Voyagers Trailers & Videos

Official Trailer #1

Teaser Trailer

Production: what we know about voyagers, filming timeline.

2021 - March : The film was set to Completed status.
2020 - May : The film was set to Post-Production status.
2019 - May : The film was set to Pre-Production status.
2019 - April : The film was set to Development status.

Voyagers Release Date: When was the film released?

Voyagers was a Nationwide release in 2021 on Friday, April 9, 2021 . There were 7 other movies released on the same date, including The Last Right , The Tunnel and My True Fairytale .

Q&A Asked about Voyagers

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Follow the Updates

Sun., Apr. 4, 2021
added a running time of 108 minutes
set the MPAA rating to PG-13 (for violence, some strong sexuality, bloody images, a sexual assault and brief strong language.)
changed the movie production status to Completed
added photos to the photos gallery
added Official Trailer #1 to movie trailers & videos
added a link from facebook.com
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added Teaser Trailer to movie trailers & videos

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The Ending Of Voyagers Explained

Voyagers , the latest science fiction film starring Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp is, in a way, a sort of Lord of the Flies set on a starship far from the reaches of Earth and human civilization. While the children in Lord of the Flies wind up trapped on an island by accident, the young people onboard this starship (which is more of an ark) are there by design. In both cases, the adolescent ensemble has to reckon with the chaos of a world without adult rules.

On its face, Voyagers has a familiar sci-fi premise: The Earth's time is running out. Richard ( Colin Farrell ), a scientist with a plan, takes a crew of young people who have never interacted with the rest of the world into space, where they will live and eventually breed the next generation of humans. The hope is that their children will eventually arrive on a new world for humanity to populate. So, a pretty standard execution of the generation ship trope.

The stars of Voyagers will never see that new world. They are the intermediary generation between the humans of Earth and their children, who will hopefully be the ones to kickstart human civilization all over again someplace new. The end of Voyagers and its meaning are tied to the chaos of what happens aboard that lonely vessel in the blackness of space. Here's the ending of Voyagers explained. Major spoilers ahead.

Voyagers ending isn't about the future, it's about right now

Richard's big plan once everyone's on the ship is to trick the kids into self-medicating with something called "The Blue," which is essentially a cocktail of anti-androgens and other meds designed to keep everybody sexless and docile. But the kids find out about the drug, and they stop taking it. Without The Blue, the kids become volatile, which results in Richard's death, leaving the kids to fend for themselves.

These kids may not have experienced much of Earth, but they're still human, so they do exactly what humans do — they vie for power through violence and manipulation. They even create a pretend evil alien designed to explain away Richard's death. More crewmembers die and, for a while there, it seems like the entire mission will end with no survivors.

The movie actually ends with a détente, however. Two male leaders, Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead), who have been struggling for control of the mission, accept the compromise that Sela (Lily-Rose Depp) the medic will take charge. Christopher and Zac step down and cease hostilities, but they agree that everyone will stop taking The Blue.

The movie ends showing that these people do age, and do indeed procreate. Their progeny do make it to a new world. The resolution is a major contrast with the rest of the chaotic and violent third act. It begs a metaphorical reading of the movie's plot: Earth is our vessel, and like the crew of the fictional starship, we are often manipulated by one another into doing self-harm. We have these periods of volatility, during which we wonder if the human species will make it to see another day, but even when our interests seem diametrically opposed, it's the process of reconciliation that guarantees our future.

Voyagers looks to this future, but it reminds us of our past, too. It reminds us that there has always been chaos caused by humanity, which carries the risk of extinction. We've survived wars, we've endured genocides, and we've navigated the creation of planet-destroying weapons. All of these wounds are self-inflicted, and yet we are still here. What Voyagers is daring us to believe with its ending is that we will not only keep surviving, but that we'll thrive for so long that we'll reach out into the farthest parts of the galaxy to inhabit new worlds. It's an optimistic movie in the end.

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Movie Review: Voyagers

Voyagers is essentially ‘Lord of the Flies’ in space, taking William Golding’s classic narrative into a new and modern environment. Written and directed by Neil Burger, who’s best known for The Upside , Limitless and The Illusionist , he continues his venture into sci-fi after Divergent . Unfortunately, while a sleek undertaking with a handsome cast, Voyagers is hamstrung by its young adult posturing and justifiably numb disposition.

Capturing a clinical and calm mood much like Gattaca , Burger casts a broad and diverse group of young adults. While Colin Farrell is positioned as a headline act, bringing his name to the project, Voyagers is actually centred on its younger stars in Tye Sheridan ( Ready Player One ), Fionn Whitehead ( Dunkirk ) and Lily-Rose Depp ( The King ).

Much like ‘Lord of the Flies’, the focus is on a group of youngsters who become isolated, this time in deep space rather than stranded on an island. A spacecraft carries a crew who are undertaking an interplanetary journey that will see them pass the torch to their progeny when they reach a distant yet inhabitable planet to start a new colony. Raised to be comfortable living in isolated conditions, the young crew are given suppressants to keep them calm and out of trouble. When a Cain & Abel duo stop taking the daily sedative, they discover their true nature as urges arise and things begin to spiral out of control.

“I’ve made a huge mistake.”

The sleek visuals of the spacecraft’s interiors create a clinical backdrop as factions arise from the chaos of a new order. While an accomplished filmmaker, Burger’s struggle is in translating or landing the deep-seated themes about human nature. Being subdued by the blue liquid sedative at first, it’s difficult to gauge performances from a group who have led sheltered lives and learned what they do know about normal life on earth from video footage. Trying to stay true to their insulated back story, this buffer hurts the actual storytelling but does create a curious escalation as basic instincts emerge and morality is questioned.

A much darker rendition of Voyagers would have given it the grittiness and primal discord needed to rise above its young adult constraints. The clean-cut sci-fi thriller didn’t need to be as unsettling as Event Horizon but could have ramped up the suspense with a greater degree of imminent danger. While it doesn’t really break new ground and is blunted by its wide-eyed and lightweight exploration, it remains entertaining, nimble, fierce and thought-provoking.

The bottom line: Slick

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Review: 'Voyagers' film comes apart at the seams

For everyone eager to return to life in all its infinite pleasures after a pandemic, "Voyagers" is bound to touch a nerve.

This psychological thriller, set in space and entering theaters this week, is all about what happens to our heads and hearts after we emerge from a lockdown.

Sadly, the usually astute writer-director Neil Burger ("The Illusionist," "Limitless," "The Upside") botches his provocative premise: What if 30 test-tube babies who never see sunshine or the outside world are sent on a space mission to colonize a new planet since Earth has been infected and climate-changed into near oblivion.

The catch? The mission will take 86 years, which means the colonizing will have be done by the kids' children and grandchildren since the originals are around 10 at takeoff. Don't look here for deep-sleep, sci-fi clichés where everyone wakes up daisy-fresh and youthful after nearly a century of cryogenic hibernation. Every year takes its toll on these space babies.

MORE: 'The Midnight Sky' review: George Clooney's film finds its heart in its actors

At least the kids are bred for smarts. An early lab scene shows an egg being fertilized as a voice says, "poet laureate meet MIT genius." Even so, these prodigies need adult supervision. They get it in Richard, a simpatico scientist played by Colin Farrell, who accepts he's on a one-way trip as the ultimate father figure.

Download the all new "Popcorn With Peter Travers " podcasts on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Tunein , Google Play Music and Stitcher .

So far so intriguing. Except for a prologue and epilogue, "Voyagers" focuses on these guinea pigs when they're 24 and ready to raise their own test-tube babies. Hey, aren't their hormones raging? They would be were it not for "The Blue," a pacifier they think is a vitamin supplement. But it's really suppressing emotions such as love, hate, anger, fear and that old devil sex drive.

When the kids learn they've been duped, all hackneyed hell breaks loose and the film comes apart at the seams. The plot pits noble Christopher (Tye Sheridan) against hothead Zac (Fionn Whitehead) for control of the ship and the affections of medical officer Sela (Lily-Rose Depp -- Johnny's daughter). That leaves three fine, young actors struggling with roles the script forgot to develop.

And what of the other voyagers? They barely register, running around in black T-shirts looking hot and unbothered. That is until they stop taking "The Blue," then they smolder and seethe. There's no same-sex attraction among the ethnically diverse crew even when they wrestle (yes, there's a gym on board). I guess gender fluidity was not in the Voyagers PG-13 program.

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Burger falls back on achingly familiar violence to spark his film into life. Zac terrifies his shipmates by claiming there's an alien on board. And when a cache of weapons are discovered, Zac and his newly formed stormtroopers, now hungry for power and fascistic dominance, threaten Christopher and Sela, who represent civilization in a battle against savagery.

Yes, folks, "Voyagers" thinks it's "The Lord of the Flies" in space, with none of the urgency and political relevance of William Golding's landmark 1954 novel. What's left is a paint-by-numbers outline for a film that never makes sense of its borrowed convictions or any sense at all.

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Voyagers Ending, Explained: What Happens to Sela and Christopher?

Neil Burger’s hefty portfolio of features might include the likes of a few you’ve seen or perhaps heard of. However, each feature is as memorable as it gets. From 2002’s ‘Interview With The Assassin’, to his ever popular ‘ Divergent ’, Burger has paved the way for like-minded filmmakers to explore nuances that drift away from the typical.

One such sci-fi feature is 2021’s Voyagers ,’ a film that tells the tale of Earth’s inevitable demise and the journey of a future generation to a planet that will serve as its successor. The journey is stricken with mishaps and challenges as the crew navigates not only the vastness of space but also the complexity of human nature. What happens when they have to experience all that in the close quarters of the ship? SPOILERS AHEAD

Voyagers Plot Synopsis

The Earth is ravaged by heat and drought. Humanity’s only hope is to find Earth’s successor, a planet that could be colonized by the future generations of the planet. Scientists find this planet in the year 2063. The journey to the planet will take 86 years, and hence, only the first crew’s grandchildren will be able to set foot on the planet. Richard Alling, played by Colin Farrell, is the lead scientist on the mission. The crew is trained in isolation to survive the confines of the ship.

The crew is bred through IVF and, at a young age, are launched within a ship to their destined planet. After a decade of being onboard crew members, Christopher and Zac discover that “the blue” they’ve been consuming is actually a drug that suppresses their pleasure response and sex drive, keeping them docile and manageable.

Both Christopher and Zac stop taking the chemical. The duo begins feeling a resurgence of adolescent hormones. Their pleasure response has also seemingly been reactivated. Soon, others also stop consuming the blue chemical. Raging hormones aboard the confines of the ship spell a recipe for disaster as the young men and women give into their most primal urges. The film explores many themes, such as adolescence, hierarchy, a lust for power, and the importance of human communication.

Voyagers Ending: Does the Alien Really Exist?

While the existence of the alien could have been an intriguing turn of events in the film, the alien does not exist. Here’s what we know about the alien. Over the course of time, the crewmates begin to hear strange noises on the ship. Nothing peculiar comes up when they check the surveillance systems onboard. Upon asking Richard about these noises and what they could be, he explains that it’s just the ship contracting due to negative temperatures. The crewmates, particularly Zac and Christopher, already know that they’re being drugged by consuming the Blue. Hence, they do not trust Richard’s explanation even in the slightest.

Curious to know what’s really happening, they begin hypothesizing possibilities. After hearing the noises again, Christopher and Zac go to the main surveillance room. Edward is stationed there and is also curious to know where these noises are coming from. While Christopher believes there’s a logical reason for it, Zac thinks there might be an external force at hand. Edward additionally hypothesizes that if the planet they’re going to has life, then there is a possibility of it existing out in space where the ship is.

This essentially plants a seed in Zac’s mind. He begins to believe that it could very well be alien life that’s making sounds somewhere within the ship. As the movie progresses, a malfunction in the communication systems outside the ship prompts Richard, accompanied by Christopher, to conduct a check-up. During the checkup, a bizarre energy is seen attacking Richard, which results in his death. At this time, the surveillance systems picked up something strange before corrupting its files. The only person to witness these events is Edward. He describes it as an entity or force that consumed Richard until he was unresponsive.

While others might have taken this information with a grain of salt, Zac had no trouble accepting it. As the story progresses, Christopher is elected as Chief Officer and is tasked with overseeing all the operations on the ship. This doesn’t sit well with Zac, as he believes he is a better fit. After convincing others to stop taking the Blue liquid, Zac forms his own group, rebelling against Christopher.

Zac has now fully embraced the idea that the alien exists and that it killed Richard. Christopher and Sela, on the other hand, do not believe in it. They set out in search of any missing surveillance footage of the incident, believed to be lost. Christopher, Sela, and others stumble upon footage of Kai in a control room operating an external instrument that he was assigned. With him is Zac, enraged by Richard’s decision to opt for Christopher instead of him.

Kai suggests to “Give him a little zap for his trouble…” indicating that the external equipment they’re handling could be manipulated to cause injuries. Within the footage, the same noises can be heard, but Zac dismisses it, saying it’s just noises from the ship. With this, Sela, Christopher, and others realize that Zac has been faking it all along. He sold this idea to the rest of the crew, claiming he could protect them from this alien.

As the footage plays out, Zac is seen manipulating the electricity surge to the external equipment, gradually increasing it. He does this until the surge is at its maximum, electrocuting Richard. The Surge also damages many other systems aboard the ship. Christopher, Sela, and the others now have firm proof that Zac was the one who killed Richard and doesn’t believe in the alien. They back the footage up in a memory drive and hide it so no one tampers with it.

They use the opportunity to play the footage on a display in the dining room, where everyone meets for meals. Christopher plays the footage and explains to the rest of the crew that Zac is the origin of all the issues. Even after the footage is shown, Zac seemingly convinces his group that the alien could be anywhere, and he wants to protect them from it. To prove his point, he randomly selects crewmate Peter and begins interrogating him on the spot. He says that Peter has the alien in him and that he should be killed.

Zac’s group needs little to no convincing of this. They chase him down and brutally beat Peter to death. Christopher, trying to stop them, also gets hurt in the process. The group realizes what they have done, but Kai persuades them they did the right thing. Directly from the story, we get a clear image of how power-hungry Zac really is. He is equipped and ready to fabricate any story that will keep him on top. He even goes to the extent of killing Richard.

The alien is nothing but a mere made-up story driven by its mysterious setting and unsettled listeners. It all began when Edward initiated the possibility of it being an external influence to Zac, using the story for his power-hungry needs. He actually didn’t even need to convince the rest of the crew; the noises helped him without trying. It just goes to show how gullible people can be within a herd mentality. In this setting, the alien is really Zac’s lust for power; although intangible, it can become a reality if the need for it is larger than life.

What Was in the Secret Compartment of the Ship?

When Christopher figures out the real composition of the Blue, he also stumbles upon another secret that the mission withheld from the crew. Within the bounds of the ship is a secret compartment, Pod-23 , that contains something mysterious. Christopher found the compartment in the ship’s plans. Curious about this, he discloses this information to Zac and some others.

Later on in the film, Christopher and Sela recognize that the compartment actually contains weapons. Sela mentions to Christopher that Richard had provided this information earlier. Hiding from the rest of Zac’s followers, Christopher ventures out searching for this compartment, but to the dismay of his stealth skills, is unable to and leads Zac and his followers straight to it. The weapon’s cache is now in the hands of Zac and his peers, adding even more chaos.

The reason behind the weapons cache existing on the ship is clearly mentioned in the film. The mission integrated the weapons into the ship, only to be used by the generation that reached the planet. They would use these weapons for self-defense if they encountered any threat on the planet. After all, it is imperative for the crew of the ship to survive on the planet if they are meant to colonize it. Therefore, having weapons is a must.

The secret compartment helps us understand how intelligent the crew members really are. Anything that is kept secret will eventually be unearthed, especially when confined to a particular space, which in this case is the ship. It paints a picture of adolescent curiosity, something that can uncover several mysteries if it wants to. Human ingenuity knows no bounds, and considering the crew members are genetically enhanced for their intellect, it would be concerning if they didn’t find the cache.

Purely from a narrative perspective, the weapons play a vital role in storytelling. Without the guns, the intensity and thrill displayed towards the end of the film would not exist. In the hands of these young adults, the weapons are a symbol of power. Others would fear them because they possess it. This is precisely what Zac wanted: power, and he got even more of it with the weapons. Zac tells his peers that he’ll protect them from the alien, and with the acquisition of the weapons, Zac can carry out his claims.

The secret compartment of weapons isn’t just there to add a feature to the narrative. It has systematically been placed by the writers to help its viewers understand the scenario onboard the ship. It is a symbol of intelligence, power, fear, and hatred, traits that readily appear in the film.

Are Sela and Christopher Alive at the End?

Details about Sela and Christopher dwindle towards the end of the film after the birth of their children. While it is unknown whether they survived the journey in its entirety, from a purely cinematic perspective, this could be plausible. The odds aren’t necessarily in their favor. To understand if they survived, we must know how old they could be at the end of the film.

Using the information provided at the beginning of the film, it is assumed that the children were conceived right after the exoplanet was found. We can confirm from the movie itself that it is an exoplanet, as displayed during the initial presentation by the mission director at the start of the film. The chart indicates that the spacecraft will be traveling to Alpha Centauri, which in reality is the nearest solar system from ours, about four light-years away.

Using the information provided in the film, the children were conceived right after the exoplanet was found. This means the children are born approximately one year after the planet was found in 2063. If the children were born in 2064, they were launched within Humanitas (the spacecraft) only during their pre-teen years, ages 9 to 12. If the average age of the children is nine years, they were launched into space in 2073.

After the 10-year jump, Sela and Christopher are 19 years old. While most of the film is accompanied by suitable answers, time-frames have fallen short. Information about the time frame between Richard’s death and Sela becoming Chief Officer is quite foggy. However, if the time frame lies between a few months to a year, Sela and Christopher could have given birth to their child at the age of 21.

If they stuck to the designated age provided by the rules of the mission of 24 years, it would alter the trajectory of their ages. Sela would have ample time to re-adjust the state of affairs onboard the ship and bring consensus and peace among the crew after the events that took place when they were 19. Sticking to this route, Sela would give birth to her child at the age of 24, 15 years after the launch of the mission.

If the crew sticks to the same pattern, then Sela’s children will also give birth at the age of 24. Sela would be 48 years old during the birth of her grandchildren, 39 years into their journey. Gen 1 would give birth to Gen 2 at the age of 24; Gen 2 would give birth to Gen 3 when Gen 1 is 48 years. Sela and Christopher would need to survive another 47 years before landing on the exoplanet at the age of 95.

The average life expectancy worldwide is around 73.4 years, which means Sela and Christopher would be in a minimal percentage of people who live to the age of 95. According to other academic records, the centenarian (people who are 100 years old and above) percentage around the world is around 0.017%. This could indicate that Sela and Christopher have a very minute chance of living that long, irrespective of other conditions.

2021, PG-13, 108 min. Directed by Neil Burger. Starring Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Colin Farrell, Fionn Whitehead, Chanté Adams, Archie Madekwe, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Quintessa Swindell, Madison Hu.

Reviewed by josh kupecki , fri., april 9, 2021.

If you’ve been paying attention to the world, to history, or to your own personal motivations, it becomes pretty clear that more often than not, humanity’s baser, compulsory urges are pulling the strings. Centuries of art and philosophy may have mapped out our nature and cautioned against misbegotten trajectories, but when reality increasingly eclipses Swift, Orwell, Atwood et al., those stories become downright quaint by comparison. A misanthropic worldview, perhaps, but healthy skepticism is standard issue in today’s mental toolkit. And while the “ Lord of the Flies in space” premise of Voyagers has the obvious potential to examine trenchant and timeless issues of human nature, the resulting film is a toothless morality tale bereft of even a dash of uniqueness. Quaint, indeed.

In a thankfully brisk opening 10 minutes, we learn A) Earth in 2063 is dying, must find new planet; B) New planet is 86 years away, must genetically manufacture beings with the best DNA to send so their grandchildren can colonize new planet; C) Rigorous structure is needed so space kids don’t go crazy living entire life on spaceship, must send Colin Farrell as shepherd/father figure. The film cuts to a decade later, and the cute space kids are now the beautiful space teens. There is Christopher (Sheridan), earnest and thoughtful, the natural leader due to his reluctance to be one. There is Zac (Whitehead), mischievous and slightly cruel, the natural antagonist in the coming conflict. Completing the triangle is Sela (Depp), taciturn and somber, the natural catalyst to the dissolution of this social microcosm. Well, first there is the discovery of the drug that they’ve been given to numb them from their sex drives and impulse control. Farrell’s Richard attempts benevolent misdirection, but sows further dissension, and once he is removed, and the drug’s effect removed, the colony ship turns into every unsupervised teenage house party. Fights and chaste couplings are augmented by existential queries on the unimportance of their lives, and whether they should even continue their mission since their role in saving the human race is utterly thankless. Zac turns up the heat by manufacturing an alien presence on the ship, the classic fear and suspicion gambit, making everyone choose sides and setting up the third act.

Even forgetting the missed opportunities in Voyagers (there are many), the way the film does address these themes of civilization vs. savagery, man’s inherent evil, mob mentality is summed up in this exchange: “Why have they all gone crazy?” “Maybe they haven’t. Maybe this is what they’re really like.” Look, if you’re gonna hinge the movie on a line like that, you better be distracting us with wildly entertaining spaceship action. Not the case here, unfortunately, as mostly you’re just dabbing space movie bingo slots: secret weapons cache, something needed is conveniently destroyed, scurrying around in ducts, and ever the center square, climactic airlock confrontation. More thought seems to have gone into the future foodstuff and eating utensil design than in the narrative. It’s a lazy film, one whose future will most likely live on in mediocre undergraduate term papers. Oh, the humanity.

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Movie Review J.P. Devine

MIFF Movie Review: ‘The Ghost Trap’ an engaging, professional voyage that is easy on the eyes, J.P. Devine writes

'The Ghost Trap' plays Wednesday, July 17, and Saturday, July 20, at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.

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In a scene from “The Ghost Trap” are Zak Steiner, left, and Sarah Catherine Hook. Maine Film Center photo

“THE GHOST TRAP”

I write not just for a Maine newspaper, but a central Maine newspaper, where most folks love lobster, but with prices soaring, cannot afford it. We know zip about the craft of lobstering, but come to stories about it with open eyes and hearts.

This week, I’ve been assigned to write about “The Ghost Trap,” a film scheduled to open Wednesday July 17, at the 27th Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.

It is based on the novel of the same name, by K. Stephens, and was directed by James Khanlarian, in his directorial debut. To this reviewer, Khanlarian, a young fellow, knows and loves what he’s doing. It always helps.

“The Ghost Trap” is engaging, professional and easy on the eyes. Treat it with respect.

His film happens to be is set in the lobster business, about which I know less than space travel. But I used to work in the movie world, which I loved, and I am always happy to see a well-written, well-directed film, like this one. Advertisement

Khanlarian is lucky to have one set on the sea and Maine coast that is splendidly photographed by cinematographer artists Matthias Schubert and Michael P. Tedford. It is well-made, carved by caring and professional hands, and definitely worth your attention.

This is what I learned: A lot of folks go down to the sea each morning to search for a beloved emblem of Maine — the imperial lobster, not often found on the dinner table of Maine workers.

This film is not at all about lobsters, of course, but about the men and women of the sea, who work on dangerous crafts, stand perilously close to falling in and lower wicked-looking baskets, called traps, into the sea to catch … lobsters

I learned this as well: A g host trap is a working trap that has been lowered into the water that “catches and holds lobsters, but when cut off, with its line severed, is no longer connected to the buoy bobbing at the water’s surface, becoming a ghost trap, unseen, lost and then forgotten.”

Wow! Did I get that right?

Writer/director Khanlarians goes down to his sea each day, not to film a documentary about lobster traps, which would’t last long on Netflix, but about the dilemma of one lobsterman, Jamie Eugley (Zak Steiner, “White Men Can’t Jump”), who is a serious film actor with a bright future. Here, he’s a good guy and a young hero battled with enemies, such as wealthy yachters and, sadly, friends who are unhappily misinformed lobstermen and yachters in polo shirts who don’t fancy lobster boats in their blue Maine waters. Advertisement

Steiner, clearly a talented and tested actor, carves his love for his girl, Anja (Greer Grammer), with gentleness, especially after a rogue wave hits his boat, knocking Anja into the water and putting her into a hospital with a brain injury.

But being folks of the sea, their love holds on.

The title, “The Ghost Trap,” I should rush to say, is a bit misleading. It’s no spook fable, and not even a documentary about lobster fishing, any more than Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not” is about the boat rental business.

It’s a movie about interesting characters — played by newcomers and veterans — who happen to work in the lobster business and are caught up in a “trap war” with a rival lobstering family.

Like Hemingway’s tale, it’s a well-written story about duplicity, jealousy and trying to get though the day — to make a buck in hard times. Like Hemingway’s Harry Morgan and like you and me.

That always works when written clearly and put together properly by gifted, trained hands, as is James Khanlarian’s wonderful voyage into the choppy seas of Hollywood.

New drama/thriller starring Zak Steiner ( Euphoria ), Greer Grammer ( Deadly Illusions ), Sarah Catherine Hook ( First Kill, White Lotus ) and Steven Ogg ( Westworld )

“THE GHOST TRAP” plays Wednesday, July 17, and Saturday, July 20, at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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Screen Rant

What robert picardo says about a star trek: voyager reunion movie.

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Star Trek: Voyager Cast & Character Guide

Jeri ryan would have turned down star trek: voyager because of 1 scene, star trek's janeway finally sees voyager's doctor as a hero.

Robert Picardo addresses the possibility of a live-action Star Trek: Voyager reunion movie, considering it unlikely due to costs and lead time.
The Doctor's return in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 showcases his mentorship role and involvement in critical missions.
Picardo expresses openness to reprising his role in live-action if a Voyager reunion does come to fruition, drawing parallels to the success of Next Gen's cast reunion.

Robert Picardo weighs in on the possibility of a live-action Star Trek: Voyager reunion movie. Picardo played The Doctor for all 7 seasons of Star Trek: Voyager , and he reprises his iconic role as the acerbic Emergency Medical Hologram in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2. As part of the new USS Voyager-A's crew, The Doctor becomes a mentor to the young Starfleet hopefuls of the USS Protostar, and he plays a key role in Admiral Kathryn Janeway's (Kate Mulgew) mission to rescue Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) from an alternate future timeline.

In an upcoming exclusive interview with Screen Rant about his comeback as The Doctor in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 , Robert Picardo was asked his thoughts about reuniting the cast of Star Trek: Voyager for a live-action streaming movie on Paramount+ . While Picardo calls a full-fledged Voyager comeback "unlikely," he also says it would be "great" if it happens. Read Robert's quote below:

You know, of course, that would be great. I think it's unlikely considering the cost and the lead time for those projects. It's unlikely but anything's possible in the world of Star Trek. And it was so successful with the Next Gen cast and who knows? Maybe we'll get the shot.

In its seven seasons, Star Trek: Voyager introduced many new faces to the Trek universe. Here is a breakdown of the show's main cast and characters.

Can A Star Trek: Voyager Reunion Movie Happen?

Star trek on paramount+ has top-secret surprises in the works.

Star Trek: Prodigy is essentially a spiritual sequel to Star Trek: Voyager , with Admiral Janeway, Captain Chakotay, The Doctor, and the USS Voyager-A central to season 2. Still, Star Trek: Voyager is arguably more popular now than it was during its broadcast run in the 1990s, when Star Trek' s first female Captain to lead her own series inspired a generation of young women. A new generation has grown up watching Star Trek: Voyager on streaming, and the main actors are still working, with many involved in Star Trek on Paramount+ and, of course, Star Trek: Prodigy on Netflix.

Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) became Captain of the USS Enterprise-G in Star Trek: Picard season 3's early 25th century.

Star Trek movies made-for-streaming on Paramount+ kick off with Star Trek: Section 31 , starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh. Section 31 's potential success opens the door for more 2-hour Star Trek streaming events . As Robert Picardo alluded to, a full-fledged, live-action Star Trek: Voyager reunion would be a draw akin to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation reassembling in Star Trek: Picard season 3 . More Voyager names could easily join Star Trek: Prodigy season 3 if it happens, but the possibility of a live-action Star Trek: Voyager reunion movie is something Paramount+ should consider.

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Star Trek: Picard Almost Brought Back the Best Voyager Characters

Star Trek: Picard had some great cameos in its third season. But if showrunner Terry Matalas had his way, a few more Voyager characters would have appeared.

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Life has never been better for Star Trek: Voyager fans. Prodigy functions as a sequel to the show, with return performances by Kate Mulgrew , Robert Beltran, and Robert Picardo; Tim Russ’ Tuvok and Robert Duncan McNeil’s Tom Paris have dropped by Picard and Lower Decks ; and Seven of Nine ended Picard as the Captain of the Enterprise-G.

But the final season of Picard almost brought back even more Voyager characters to the 25th century. During a Zoom chat attended by Trek Movie earlier this year, Picard season three showrunner Terry Matalas revealed that he originally planned to bring back two other beloved members of the Voyager crew: Harry Kim and Naomi Wildman.

The latter would have appeared as part of a Star Trek version of “ Avengers: Endgame ” that Matalas envisioned. “Harry Kim appeared as the captain of the Voyager-B in the first draft of Frontier Day,” Matalas explained, but he ultimately decided to yield to another series. “ Prodigy was telling a lot of Voyager stories and we didn’t know if Harry was going to appear and we didn’t want to step on their toes.” Of course, there were also the financial restrictions that kept Matalas from bringing back Harry Kim and all the other ’90s characters he wanted. After all, he wanted more than just Voyager cameos: “I would have Kira [Nerys from Deep Space Nine ] there, even if all you get is a bridge shot. But all of that is very expensive. We were already way too ambitious.”

As most viewers know, Captain Harry Kim would be quite the upgrade from the character’s usual standing. Across all seven seasons of Voyager , Harry remained an Ensign, despite serving with distinction on the ship. Heck, even Harry’s pal Tom Paris got promoted after getting demoted from Lieutenant Junior Grade to Ensign for disobeying Captain Janeway. Sure, a couple of alternate futures saw Kim reach captain, but Picard would be the first in-canon evidence that Harry and his clarinet moved up in Starfleet.

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Meanwhile, Naomi Wildman would have enjoyed much more than a cameo, which makes sense, given Seven of Nine ‘s role in the series. A baby born on Voyager while it made its way through the Delta Quadrant, Naomi Wildman joined Nog from Deep Space Nine as one of the few times that Star Trek did kid characters right, thanks in part to her kadis-kot games with Seven.

Matalas planned to have Naomi follow Seven as an adult as well. In the initial storyline, Naomi would have reunited with Seven while the USS-Titan, on which Seven served under Captain Liam Shaw , hid among the Fenris Rangers, the intergalactic vigilantes to which Seven once belonged. “And she gets help from an older Naomi Wildman who had also followed in her footsteps as a Fenris Ranger and was a badass,” Matalas said. But instead of inspiring pride in the older woman, “Seven realizes she sort of created a monster because Naomi had become harder than she was.”

In Matalas’ description, the Seven/Naomi story sounds like the inverse of Icheb’s fate in the first season of Picard . Icheb was the most notable of the Borg children that Seven helped rescue and reform in later seasons of Voyager . Icheb returned briefly in the first season of Picard , where he was famously vivisected alive on screen. For many Trekkies, that moment of excessive cruelty, even to a little-loved character like Icheb, was a sign of Picard trying too hard to be edgy.

Naomi’s story would have helped further distract from that first season mistake, but it never worked out. “We broke the story and we had reached out to the actress who played Naomi [Scarlett Pomers],” Matalas explained, but then decided not to move forward. “[I]f you had 13 episodes, you were doing this for sure,” he admitted. “But if you had 10, you’re like, ‘I need to get to LeVar.’ It’s time to get there.”

It’s hard to disagree with Matalas’ logic, but there is still one reunion that really disappoints. Seven received her commendation from Tuvok, who was her crew mate, but not the one to whom she was closest. Initially, Matalas planned on using a different character in that scene, the one most important to Seven.

What? No, not Chakotay . Kathryn Janeway!

“We had talked about Janeway, obviously, because her name got dropped a bunch of times,” Matalas revealed. “It would have felt like if we had put Janeway in the in the finale—specifically in the last scene where [Seven] is promoted—that was the original idea, she gets a promotion from Janeway, it might have overwhelmed the scene and made it more about Janeway and less about Seven of Nine.” Beyond that emotional logic, there was a practical reason for going with Tuvok instead. “And we couldn’t afford Kate [Mulgrew] even if we wanted to. So it all worked out as it was supposed to.”

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Indeed it did. Picard ‘s third season gave fans wonderful cameos beyond the main crew. And with Voyager returning to the public consciousness once again, it’s only a matter of time before Harry Kim and Naomi Wildman get their due.

Joe George | @jageorgeii

Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!

'The Becomers' Review: Body Snatching Aliens Become Starstruck Lovers in Genre-Bending Sci-Fi Rom-Com | Fantasia 2023

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'Skywalkers: A Love Story' Review: A Daredevil Romance in the Clouds

'oddity' review: a supernatural horror that will tear you to pieces, 'find me falling' review: harry connick jr. can’t heat up this netflix rom-com.

This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist. There's no shortage of body snatching aliens in Hollywood, but none quite like those of The Becomers . That's because, instead of exploring the paranoia that comes with the suspicion that people close to you might be impostors, Zach Clark 's latest movie focuses instead on the aliens' journey while trying to fit in as part of a world they don't quite understand. It’s a refreshing take on the trope that turns things upside down while constantly challenging expectations. Yet, as inventive as The Becomers might be, Clark's audacious combination of romance, sci-fi, and absurd comedy can feel too scattered to hold an audience.

The Becomers starts like many alien movies with the arrival of an extraterrestrial creature on Earth. The opening sets the ground rules for the invading species, underlining how they are capable of claiming any human body as their own. For the next half hour, we’ll follow the alien protagonist as they jump from one host to another, slowly getting used to human vocal cords and communication habits. As simple as The Becomers can be during the first third of the movie, there’s something fascinating about this inverted journey. We follow the usual villain of body snatching movies and understand the invasion experience through their eyes. There’s an anxious atmosphere as the alien tries to fit in, afraid of being exposed as a fraud. It’s an extremely human feeling, which explains why this otherworldly adventure captures the attention despite obvious budget limitations.

After this lengthy introduction, The Becomers turns into a romantic comedy of sorts as the alien protagonist finally reunites with his lover from a distant galaxy. From that moment on, the movie is all about these two gender-fluid people doing what they can to stay together, while the necessity of using specific human bodies threatens to pull them apart. The romance bit of The Becomers is cheesy, but there’s also a certain beauty in how the movie proclaims the unstoppable potency of love. It is a force capable of shattering the barriers raised by space and time to keep soulmates apart.

RELATED: The Best Scene in This Sci-Fi Cult-Hit Has Nothing to Do With Its Aliens

'The Becomers' Genre-Bending Experiment Don’t Always Work

The film also boasts a layer of absurd comedy as the aliens discover their victims might hide dark secrets they didn’t anticipate. Not every joke lands in The Becomers , but when they do, the movie transmutes into a surreal experiment in which aliens, without full knowledge of who are the people they inhabit, get involved in all sorts of wacky situations. After all, since the aliens choose their hosts according to random opportunities, they can never know for sure what the humans were doing before being abducted.

While one can admire Clark’s ambitions in The Becomers , the movie does struggle to keep a clear tone. Genre-bending stories work best when they find a way to make their distinctive styles complement each other, forming a cohesive whole. That’s not the case with The Becomers as different plot lines are constantly competing for attention. As a result, those trying to follow the love story at the center of the movie might be disgusted by the gruesome violence that can result from the shock comedy bits. Furthermore, the initial paranoia of the movie’s intro is quickly dropped by a more sugary approach to relationships. So, instead of a unified movie that drinks from multiple sources, it’s like The Becomers is a patchwork of different stories that never blend in too well.

There’s also a distracting narrator ( Russell Mael ) making their way in between scenes to explain why the body snatching aliens have decided to come to Earth. While the narration might satiate spectators that can’t stand ambiguity, the story of The Becomers is simple enough to do without exposition. Since so much of the film is dedicated to the dynamics of the alien couple, the script had the opportunity to deal with the invaders’ backgrounds in a more organic way.

The Becomers also makes it challenging for the audience to care about its main characters as they are constantly changing faces. While the story demands the alien couple swap bodies every few scenes, the cast struggles to keep the characters' personalities consistent. Each actor seems to have a different idea of how a weird outcast alien would behave, to mixed results. As such, for some viewers, it can be hard even to identify which alien we are following in some scenes. Clark tries to make things easier by giving each alien its unique color of glowing eyes. Still, as the invaders are hiding their eyes for most scenes, the issue remains.

Even if The Becomers is undoubtedly flawed, Clark’s latest movie has too many good ideas to be ignored. Yes, it misses many shots it takes. Nevertheless, The Becomers is a movie that’s interesting even in its misfires, as there’s always something quirky and curious happening on the screen. This is not a movie that will be universally beloved, but those willing to embrace the handmade nature of Clark’s movie will find an intriguing amalgamation of cringe love and Cronenbergian body horror.

The Big Picture

The Becomers offers a refreshing take on the body snatching alien trope by focusing on the aliens' struggle to navigate an unfamiliar world.
The movie creates an anxious atmosphere as the alien protagonist try to blend in and avoid being exposed, offering an interesting exploration of the invasion experience through their eyes.
While The Becomers combines romance, sci-fi, and absurd comedy, its scattered approach and competing plot lines may make it challenging for the audience to fully engage with the characters and find a cohesive tone.

The Becomers had its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival 2023.

Movie Reviews
Fantasia Film Festival
Science Fiction

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Star Trek: Picard had some great cameos in its third season. But if showrunner Terry Matalas had his way, a few more Voyager characters would have appeared. Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab ...
'The Becomers' Review: Genre-Bending Sci-Fi Rom-Com Is Unique
The Becomers offers a refreshing take on the body snatching alien trope by focusing on the aliens' struggle to navigate an unfamiliar world.; The movie creates an anxious atmosphere as the alien ...

‘Voyagers’ Review: In Space, Everyone Can Hear You Scream

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Lord of the Flies is much better, spend your time reading that instead - meh, movie is a solid meh

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‘Voyagers’ Review: Colin Farrell Chaperones a YA Thriller That Re-Stages ‘Lord of the Flies’ in Space

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Voyagers Review: Lord Of The Flies In Space Never Leaves Its Orbit

Voyagers has a solid, immersive concept... until it cuts the cord.

The talented Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp are not given enough to work with.

Voyagers is a sci-fi film that is much too safe and confining to satisfy.

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