STOWAWAY (2021)

Name: STOWAWAY (2021)
Item: STOWAWAY (2021)
Author: Tess Farrand

"Sacrifice Gives Life Meaning"

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

STOWAWAY is a science fiction television drama on Netflix. An unexpected stowaway endangers the lives of a three-person mission to Mars. The man somehow became trapped in the ship’s life support compartment. The crew discovers that an important panel system in the life support compartment is damaged beyond repair. Also, there’s not enough fuel to turn the ship and head back to Earth. Their best chance for survival is to break out the biological algae they were going to use to create a breathable air system on Mars for future missions. When even that solution fails, however, they are left with two unpalatable choices.

Despite some slow moments in the beginning, STOWAWAY tells a gripping, nail-biting survival story that keeps viewers engaged. At a few points in the story, the four characters consider the horrible idea that one or two of them will have to die to save the others. Eventually, however, the story is life-affirming. It also concludes that sacrifice makes life meaningful. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution, however, for several “f” words and other strong foul language in STOWAWAY.

Content:

(C, BB, Pa, LL, V, N, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Light Christian, redemptive worldview and premise sends the overt message that sacrifice ultimately gives life meaning, with some strong moral elements extolling life, though there’s some discussion about taking a life to save three other lives, plus a Mission Control person tells three astronauts good luck during launch but also wishes them “Godspeed”

Foul Language:

15 obscenities (including five “f” words), one strong Jesus profanity, two light profanities, and astronaut vomits into vomit bag after launching into spaceship

Violence:

Light violence includes unconscious man falls out of spaceship compartment and has a bloody wound on his side, ship doctor stitches up the wound, three people euphemistically discuss having to kill a stowaway because their damaged spaceship won’t have enough breathable oxygen for him too, man gives the stowaway a poisonous needle to kill himself, but woman talks stowaway out of it, and two perilous walks into space occur

Sex:

No sex

Nudity:

Upper male nudity in two scenes as female doctor treats man’s side wound

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Life and death issues involve some difficult choices, plus two female characters are white, one male character is black and a second male character is Asian, but the story avoids making any political points about skin color.

More Detail:

STOWAWAY is a science fiction television drama on Netflix about a three-person mission to Mars where an unexpected stowaway endangers the lives of the crew. Despite some slow moments and plot questions, STOWAWAY is a gripping, suspenseful survival story with an inspirational message that sacrifice gives meaning to life, but it’s marred by several “f” words and other strong foul language.

The movie begins with the three-person crew of a spaceship bound for Mars blasting off into space. Looking like a moduled space station, the ship is tethered to a solar array and a booster rocket to be used for the return trip home. A woman named Marina captains the crew, with another woman, Zoe, as the ship’s doctor, and a man, David, serving as the ship’s biologist. Their two-year mission is to help David grow plants and algae on Mars to provide oxygen for future missions to the red planet.

No sooner has the crew gotten settled on the ship hurtling toward Mars when the body of an unconscious, wounded ground engineer falls out of the ship’s life-support compartment. The man, whose name is Michael, has a wound on his side. Zoe stitches the wound.

The crew tries to fix the life-support panel system removing carbon dioxide from the ship, but it’s beyond repair. Also, there’s not enough fuel to turn the ship around and head back to Earth. Their best chance for creating enough breathable air is to break out half of the biological algae David was supposed to use on Mars. However, the crew soon discovers that the algae won’t remove enough carbon dioxide and create enough oxygen to save Michael’s life as well as their own. So, they start considering the possibility that Michael will have to die. There’s another choice, however, but it’s an extremely dangerous one that could kill them all.

STOWAWAY is a little sketchy on the details of the crew’s mission and why the ship is tethered to both a solar array and its booster rocket. The movie is a little slow in the beginning, too. Despite this, STOWAWAY tells a gripping, nail-biting survival story that keeps viewers fairly engaged.

Though the three crewmembers discuss among themselves politely but matter-of-factly the need for Michael to die so they can survive, Zoe successful lobbies the captain to wait until they exhaust all possibilities. They have 20 days before they must decide one way or another, but the captain agrees to wait 10 days before making that choice. Eventually, the story becomes life-affirming. It also affirms the message that sacrifice makes life meaningful. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution, however, for several “f” words and other strong foul language in STOWAWAY.

Watch STOWAWAY (2021) →

Quality:

- Content: -2