Pandorum
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Pandorum is a 2009 German/British science fiction horror film, with elements of Lovecraftian horror and survival adventure. The film was directed by Christian Alvart and produced by Robert Kulzer, Jeremy Bolt and Paul W. S. Anderson, the latter two through their Impact Pictures banner. Travis Milloy wrote the screenplay from a story by Milloy and Alvart. It stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster.
The film's title is a fictional slang term for a form of psychosis called Orbital Dysfunctional Syndrome (ODS) caused by deep space and triggered by emotional stress. This leads to severe paranoia, delirium, and nosebleeding.
The film was poorly received and a box office flop. Despite this, the film has garnered a cult following within the past years as an "underrated gem".
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Plot
After human overpopulation depletes Earth's resources, humanity builds an interstellar ark, the Elysium. It carries 60,000 people on a 123-year trip to colonize Tanis, an Earth-like planet. The passengers are placed in hypersleep, and a rotating crew wake biennially to maintain the ship. Eight years into the mission, the ship receives a transmission from Earth: "You're all that's left of us. Good luck, God bless, and godspeed."
Some unknown time later, two members of the flight crew, Corporal Bower and Lieutenant Payton, awaken. Improper emergence from the hibernatory state leaves them both with partial amnesia and possibly suffering from pandorum, a space-related disorder that causes psychosis when under emotional duress. The ship experiences power surges caused by an unstable nuclear reactor, and they are unable to enter the bridge. While Payton stays behind to access the ship's computer, Bower uses the ventilation system to search for the reactor.
Bower first finds a disemboweled body and a wounded mechanic who tells him to escape "them". The noise summons a group of cannibalistic humanoids who appear to respond mostly to sound. He continues on and encounters an environmental scientist, Nadia, and a farmer, Manh, who does not speak English; both are hostile. He encourages them to band together, and the trio flees into a barricaded chamber, where they find a cook named Leland. Leland has been awake for years, living off the water leaking into the ship, the algae it creates, and resorting to cannibalism. Payton encounters Corporal Gallo, who claims the ship is lost in space and that he killed his team in self-defense.
Leland feeds Bower's group and shows them mural drawings depicting what has happened: after Earth vanished following an unknown catastrophe, Gallo went insane, killed his crew, and induced pandorum in other passengers. After goading them into a violent and tribal culture, Gallo went back into hypersleep. Aided by accelerated evolution from an enzyme meant to help colonists adjust to life on Tanis, the descendants have turned into cannibalistic mutants. Leland gases the group, intending to eat them, but Bower convinces him the reactor must be stabilized.
As they search the ship for the reactor, Bower hopes to find his wife in an area for family in hypersleep but remembers that she died with everyone else on Earth when she refused to join him. This revelation almost makes him give up and pushes him closer to insanity. After surviving an encounter with the cannibals, Bower's group finds the reactor. A crowd of mutants sleep under the reactor, and Bower crosses a walkway to reset it. The walkway collapses, and Bower climbs down into the mutant pit to reach a ladder. While Manh distracts the mutants, Bower restarts the reactor, killing many mutants. Leland flees, and Manh is cornered by the mutant leader. Manh kills the leader but is killed by a mutant child he hesitates to slay.
Gallo becomes increasingly agitated, and Payton prepares a sedative. As they wrestle over the sedative, Gallo is revealed to be a hallucination as Payton IS Gallo. Gallo killed the real Payton long ago when he developed pandorum upon hearing Earth was gone. Because he went into Payton's pod, Gallo mistakenly believed himself to be Payton when he woke up with amnesia. Leland reaches the bridge, and Gallo kills him with the sedative. When Bower and Nadia confront him, Gallo opens the shutters on the bridge's windows, revealing that the ship is adrift in deep space with no stars visible. The shock pushes Bower further toward insanity. Taking advantage of Bower's mental state, Gallo argues they must maintain the violent society rather than revive civilization.
Nadia observes bioluminescent ocean life through the windows, and the computer displays that 923 years have elapsed since the mission launched. The ship reached Tanis 800 years ago and landed itself in the ocean. Bower hallucinates a mutant attack and breaks a window. As water pours into the ship, Nadia and Bower climb into a hypersleep pod and eject it. The flood triggers an emergency protocol which ejects the remaining 1,211 pods to the surface, while Gallo and the remaining mutants drown. Bower and Nadia surface near a lush coastline, and they witness the other pods ascend.
Cast
- Dennis Quaid as Lieutenant Payton/Older Corporal Gallo – The Ship's Lieutenant and captain, later revealed to be Corporal Gallo
- Ben Foster as Corporal Bower – The ship's Corporal and presumed head mechanical engineer
- Cam Gigandet as Younger Corporal Gallo – A Corporal who went insane and killed his team, and believed himself to be Payton throughout most of the movie
- Antje Traue as Nadia – the ship's environmentalist, who teams with Bower
- Cung Le as Manh – an agricultural farmer, who teams with Bower and Nadia
- Eddie Rouse as Leland – the mentally unstable cook who has resorted to cannibalism.
- André Hennicke as hunter leader – leader of the Hunters
- Norman Reedus as Shepard – a mechanic whom Bower encounters
- Wotan Wilke Möhring as Young Bower's Father
- Niels-Bruno Schmidt as Insane Officer Eden
Soundtrack
Track listing
- "All That Is Left of Us" (2:43)
- "Pandorum" (3:58)
- "Anti Riot" (4:17)
- "Shape" (2:03)
- "Hunting Party" (2:48)
- "Kulzer Complex" (4:40)
- "Tanis Probe Broadcast" (2:01)
- "Scars" (2:20)
- "Fucking Solidarity" (3:28)
- "Gallo's Birth" (2:22)
- "Biolab Attack" (2:25)
- "Kanyrna" (3:22)
- "The Stars All Look Alike" (4:32)
- "Boom" (3:55)
- "Reactor" (4:08)
- "Skin on Skin" (3:21)
- "Fight Fight Fight" (2:56)
- "Bower's Trip" (7:51)
- "Discovery / End Credits" (7:55)
See also
