Pandorum

Pandorum
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Christian Alvart
Produced by	Paul W. S. Anderson, Jeremy Bolt, Robert Kulzer
Written by	Travis Milloy, Christian Alvart
Starring	Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster
Music by	Michl Britsch
Cinematography	Wedigo von Schultzendorff
Editing by	Philipp Stahl
Studio	Constantin Film Produktion, Impact Pictures
Distributed by	Overture Films
Release date(s)	September 25, 2009 (US) October 2, 2009 (UK)[1]
Running time	108 minutes[2]
Country	Germany, United States
Language	English
Budget	US$40 million
Gross revenue	$13,323,798 [3]

Pandorum is a 2009 German/American science fiction/horror film written by Travis Milloy and directed by Christian Alvart. The film stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. Filming began in Berlin in August 2008. Pandorum was released on September 25, 2009 in the United States,^[4] and on October 2, 2009 in the UK.

Plot

Two astronauts, Bower (Foster) and Payton (Quaid), wake up from suspended animation to find themselves alone, with no memory of who they are, what they are doing, or what has happened to the crew of their 60,000 passenger sleeper ship, the Elysium. They are unable to access the ship's bridge, and cannot communicate with any other members of the crew, including the flight team they are to relieve.^[5] While exploring the spacecraft under Payton's radio guidance, Bower talks with Payton about Pandorum, a psychological condition brought on by extended periods of hyper-sleep (suspended animation) and its symptoms and effects, including severe paranoia, vivid hallucinations, and homicidal tendencies.

As Bower explores on, he encounters dead bodies, and fast-moving humanoid creatures. Escaping from one of them, he then encounters other human survivors, and they work together to reach the ship's nuclear reactor. The reactor will fail permanently if Bower does not reset it soon. Moving on, the group encounters another survivor, who tells them the story of what had happened before they awakened. Their mission is revealed to be one of desperation. Earth, suffering from massive overpopulation, dispatched the sleeper ship and its crew on a 123-year voyage to a new, Earth-like planet called Tanis to create a settlement. When the ship receives one last message from Earth, informing them that Earth was no more and that they were the last survivors, one of the three crew members (as there are usually three flight crew active at any one shift) turned insane, killed his other two crew mates, then played God by awakening most of the crew and doing what he pleased with them. When he grew bored of it, he went back into suspended animation and left the rest of the crew wakened. Genetic augments that every crew member had received prior to the mission (for quick adaptation to the new planet) had instead adapted them to the ship, turning them into the cannibalistic monsters that Bower and the other survivors have been encountering. This survivor then knocks them out with gas. Upon awakening, they find themselves chained up, with the survivor about to kill them for food.

Meanwhile, Payton discovers another crew member, Gallo, who reveals to him that he was part of the flight crew that received the message from Earth. After receiving the Earth's last message, Gallo gives a different account from what Bower has heard, that the other two crew mates with Gallo had an onset of Pandorum and, eventually, Gallo was forced to kill them in order to survive. By now, most of the ship's population is either dead or mutated.

Bower manages to convince the survivor to allow them to restart the ship reactor. The group fights their way to the ship's reactor, and Bower eventually restarts it. While moving through the passenger hypersleep storage area, he sees the pod for Payton's wife, and his memories now allow him to realize that Payton is not who he says he is. Payton is actually Gallo, and the "Gallo" that the audience has been seeing, is actually just the other part of "Payton's" consciousness, and the man who has been calling himself Payton is in fact the aged Gallo, who was the one to succumb to Pandorum and kill his other two crew mates. Bower then fights with Payton/Gallo while simultaneously battling the symptoms of Pandorum, and during this he inadvertently causes a hull breach. The ship at this point is revealed to have actually been under water for a long time now, having landed on the Earth-like planet of Tanis, their original destination. The ship's log shows the mission has been ongoing for 923 years. Water then starts pouring in, killing Payton/Gallo.

Bower escapes with the last known survivor by ejecting his hypersleep pod from the ship. The hull breach causes the ship's computer to initiate an emergency evacuation, ejecting the remaining 1,211 (for a total of 1213 survivors) crew members still hibernating and unmutated onto the new world Tanis, with its beautiful scenery and two moons in its sky, that is to be the new home for humanity--or whatever it's going to mutate into.

Cast

• Dennis Quaid as Lt. Payton
• Ben Foster as Corporal Bower
• Cam Gigandet as Gallo
• Antje Traue as Nadia
• Cung Le as Manh
• André Hennicke as Hunter Leader
• Norman Reedus as Shepard
• Wotan Wilke Möhring as Young Bower's Father

Production

Pandorum was announced in May 2008 with Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster in lead roles. Christian Alvart was attached to direct the film, based on a script by Travis Milloy. The film was financed by Constantin Film through a joint venture deal with subsidiary Impact Pictures.^[6] The partnership helped fund the US$40 million production, as Constantin drew subsidies from Germany's Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB) regional film fund, the German Federal Film Board (FFA), and the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF). The German Federal Film Fund provided US$6 million to the production, the fund's second-largest 2008 payout, after US$7.5 million for Ninja Assassin.^[7][8] Filming took place at Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam in August 2008.^[6][7]

Release

Ben Foster, Cung Le, and Antje Traue talk about Pandorum at a panel discussion at WonderCon 2009.

Summit Entertainment is handling foreign sales and presented Pandorum to buyers at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.^[6] Overture Films will distribute Pandorum in North America, Icon in the United Kingdom and Australia, Svensk in Scandinavia, and Movie Eye in Japan. The film is set up as a possible franchise, so if it performs strongly, Impact Pictures will greenlight sequels, however this is unlikley because of the films poor performance at the box office.^[7]

The DVD and Blu-Ray release is on January 19th in the United States^[9] over Anchor Bay Entertainment.^[10]

Reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports the film as holding a 27% approval rating.^[11] The site's general consensus is that "while it might prove somewhat satisfying for devout sci-fi fans, Pandorum's bloated, derivative plot ultimately leaves it drifting in space".^[11] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film holds a "generally unfavorable" score of 28 based on 13 reviews.^[12] Science fiction magazine SFX was more positive, stating that "Pandorum is the finest interstellar horror in years", and awarding the film 4 stars out of 5.^[13] Film Ireland also gave Pandorum a positive review, appreciating the film's synergy of cinematic techniques, set design, and developed characters.^[14] Audience reaction was mostly positive at website Box Office Mojo; their polls report that on a scale of A+ to F, the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was B+.^[3]

The film opened number 6 at the box office with $4,424,126. As of November 16, 2009 (2009 -11-16)^[update], the film has grossed $13,323,798.^[3]

Soundtrack

Pandorum
Soundtrack by Michl Britsch
Released	September 25, 2009
Recorded	2009
Genre	Electronic
Length	71:06
Label	Königskinder Schallplatten GmbH
Producer	Michl Britsch

Track listing

1. "All That Is Left of Us" (2:43)
2. "Pandorum" (3:58)
3. "Anti Riot" (4:17)
4. "Shape" (2:03)
5. "Hunting Party" (2:48)
6. "Kulzer Complex" (4:40)
7. "Tanis Probe Broadcast" (2:01)
8. "Scars" (2:20)
9. "Fucking Solidarity" (3:28)
10. "Gallo's Birth" (2:22)
11. "Biolab Attack" (2:25)
12. "Kanyrna" (3:22)
13. "The Stars All Look Alike" (4:32)
14. "Boom" (3:55)
15. "Reactor" (4:08)
16. "Skin on Skin" (3:21)
17. "Fight Fight Fight" (2:56)
18. "Bower's Trip" (7:51)
19. "Discovery / End Credits" (7:55)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pandorum

• Official website
• Pandorum at the Internet Movie Database
• Pandorum at Allmovie
• Pandorum at Rotten Tomatoes
• Pandorum Trailer