My quick rating - 4.9/10. After spending months in space, The Astronaut, Sam Walker (Kate Mara), returns to Earth only to find that her biggest problem isn’t gravity, it’s what might have followed her home. Stuck in a high-security NASA facility that looks like a cross between a rehab center and an Airbnb with trust issues, Sam begins experiencing strange phenomena that suggest her mission didn’t quite end when she landed.
Mara does most of the heavy lifting here—emotionally, that is. She delivers fear, paranoia, and cosmic dread like a pro, even though the script doesn’t give her a lot to work with. It’s the kind of role where she has to sell both the “terrified astronaut” and “questionable decision-maker” sides of the character, and somehow she mostly pulls it off. Unfortunately, her choices, particularly when it comes to her health and her family’s safety, make about as much sense as volunteering for a second trip to space right after you’ve been probed by an alien lifeform.
Laurence Fishburne steps in as her father, bringing his usual commanding gravitas. He could read the NASA cafeteria menu and make it sound profound, so every scene he’s in feels instantly more important. The movie itself starts decently enough—a low-key sci-fi thriller with a mild horror vibe that keeps you watching without ever making you grip your seat. The pacing is steady, the visuals fine, the effects serviceable, and the performances strong enough to keep it from drifting into space debris territory.
Jess Varley, pulling double duty as writer and director, clearly aims for deeper themes about humanity, acceptance, and the emotional aftermath of exploration. And to her credit, those ideas do poke through now and then. The middle section even delivers some effective tension and genuinely eerie moments. But the final act, where the twist lives, feels rushed and underbaked, like the story reentered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up on descent. I thought the twist itself works; it’s everything around it that falls apart.
And when you think it’s over, the final credits surprise with a burst of breathtaking otherworldly imagery—fleeting glimpses of what The Astronaut could have been if it had leaned harder into its cosmic mystery instead of playing it safe. It’s like realizing the dessert you’ve been craving was in the kitchen the whole time, but the chef forgot to serve it.
The Astronaut isn’t bad, it’s just not the stellar experience it wants to be. A competent, mildly eerie, and occasionally thought-provoking space thriller, just don’t expect it to stick the landing. A decent one-time watch, especially for fans of slow-burn sci-fi, but not one you’ll likely revisit.
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