Pandorum
Encyclopedia
Pandorum is a 2009 German-British science fiction
thriller film written by Travis Milloy, directed by Christian Alvart
and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson. 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, and on October 2, 2009 in the UK. The film's title refers to the fictional psychological condition of astronauts who fly through deep space
.
to the crew of the 60,000-passenger sleeper ship
Elysium
. Another power surge manages to awake Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid
) who is also suffering from amnesia. They are unable either to access the ship's bridge or to communicate with anyone else, including the three-man flight crew team they are supposed to relieve. With the ship wrecked by power surges from a failing reactor, Bower assumes he must be a technician automatically awakened by the principal on-board computer in order to effect repairs.
Bower begins exploring the spacecraft under Payton's radio guidance. Noticing odd physical symptoms, Bower talks with Payton about Pandorum, a psychological condition brought on by extended periods of deep-space travel and hypersleep. Its symptoms and effects include severe paranoia, vivid hallucinations, and epistaxis. Payton recounts the story of another ship called the Eden
, whose Captain went insane and became convinced that the ship was cursed, so he jettisoned 5000 hibernating passengers casting them out into space to their death.
As Bower continues searching the ship - partially in hopes of finding answers, and partially to find his wife - he encounters dead bodies, fast-moving humanoid tribal creatures (dubbed Hunters), and non-lethal (but deadly up close according to Payton) energy projectile weapon which he uses. Escaping from one of the creatures, he encounters other amnesia suffering survivors: Manh (Cung Le
), a Vietnamese man working in Agriculture, and Nadia (Antje Traue
), a partly barefooted German genetic engineer safeguarding millions of samples of plant and animal life from Earth who attempted to rob Bower of his supplies and shoes for her own survival. In a fight with each other, Bower convinces them to assist him.
On the flight deck, Payton discovers another crew member, Corporal Gallo (Cam Gigandet
), who reveals that he was part of the flight crew that received the final message from Earth. He claims that his other two crew mates suffered from an onset of Pandorum, and that he had to kill them in self-defense. Payton is wary of Gallo, noting his strange behavior.
While crossing the main hunting ground of the creatures the trio find themselves in a fight with one of the Hunters. After slaying it, they then realize that other Hunters were watching the entire fight and give the trio a chance to run. As they flee, the Hunters feed on the corpse of their own and another passenger woken up by a power surge.
Bower, Manh, and Nadia run into the lair of Leland (Eddie Rouse) who has been awake for years. There Nadia gives her theory of what the creatures might be, which she assumes are the passengers who have mutated due to an enzyme that was given to them in their feeding tubes that was intended to accelerate evolution so that their bodies may adapt to living conditions on Tanis, but instead have adapted to the ship. This causes Bower to question why they are not affected by the enzyme which she replies by saying that passengers could have been out longer than even Leland. After hearing this, Leland corrects her by telling them a story that he heard from others about how the Hunters truly came to be in a mythological matter and shows depictions of the events through carvings on the walls in his lair. At the same time Gallo tells Payton about what happened to his team. Earth, suffering from massive overpopulation
, launched the Elysium on a 123-year voyage to an Earth-like planet
called Tanis to create a settlement
, with its passengers being seen as "Hero
es". When the ship received a message of Earth's destruction (either through war or natural disaster), conflict had happened between the crew leaving only one alive (Gallo) whom Leland describes as both God and The Devil. He would deem himself as a king and became home to his "sin
" which is depicted in the form of lightning bolts appearing around his head while having epistaxis (referencing Pandorum). He had then awakened some of the passengers to play devious games with them by sending out those who had obeyed his will into the hold of the ship to fight each other and feed on the corpse of the fallen, much like what the trio had witnessed at the main hunting ground. The passengers who had taken part in these acts were also depicted as having Pandorum. When he grew tired of this, he went back into suspended animation, and left the rest of the passengers awake. While he slept the passengers had, over time, adapted to their animalistic living conditions by becoming the primitive creatures that now roam the ship, which Leland describes as " a whole new world of evil".
Listening to this story, the survivors lose consciousness, having been gassed by their host. While at the same time Payton starts to show symptoms of Pandorum after hearing what had happened to Earth. Upon awakening, they find themselves in shackles, with Leland preparing to kill them for food. Nadia then berates Leland, to which he responds by stabbing her. He prepares to kill her first but is convinced by Bower to allow them to restart the ship's nuclear reactor, which is about to shut down. En route, they pass through the passenger hypersleep chamber, which prompts Bower to recall the truth - his wife left him before he left Earth, and was left behind as the planet died. At the same time, he realizes that something is amiss about Payton.
The group fights their way down to the reactor, where the mutants have taken refuge. While Manh lures some of the cannibals away, Bower activates the reactor, averting disaster. After a climactic battle, Manh defeats the Hunter leader, only to be killed by a seemingly harmless Hunter child. Leland, Bower and Nadia make a break for the bridge.
Payton also regains his memories and realizes that Gallo is a hallucination. In truth he is Corporal Gallo and lost all knowledge of his crimes and real identity during hypersleep. Soon afterwards he dispatches the newly-arrived Leland with a lethal stab from a sedative gun and retreats to the bridge. It is there where Bower and Nadia confront him and "Payton" concedes his true identity. Gallo then retracts an inner bulkhead, apparently showing a view of space, though it is ominously void of any stars.
Noticing that Bower is suffering from Pandorum, Gallo tells him that he should embrace it due to the fact that humanity had ruined the Earth and defines the condition as a form of "enlightenment" that will free him of human qualities such as morality. Bower then starts to hallucinate and imagines the aforementioned "sin" appear around Gallo as he tries to convince him to perform the same acts as the passengers that he had driven mad. Stating that his motivation was to create a natural state where life devours life, so that overpopulation would be prevented.
At this time, they see fluorescent sea creatures outside, revealing that the view outside is of a deep-sea environment. The ship is already on Tanis, having crash-landed and sunk to the bottom of an ocean. The ship's log finishes compiling the total running time of the trip and the 123-year mission is shown to have been going on for 923 years, revealing that the Hunters are not mutated passengers as they thought, but devolved descendants of them.
Bower responds by attacking Gallo who manages to overpower him as he becomes overwhelmed by the symptoms of Pandorum. This causes Nadia to step in and confront Gallo, but due to her injury that she received earlier he manages to defeat her. When Gallo prepares to kill Nadia with her own knife Bower starts to hallucinate again. Imagining one of the creatures in front of him he fires at it with his weapon which accidentally causes a hull breach by cracking one of the windows. The water pressure breaks the screen and floods the ship, presumably drowning Gallo and any surviving creatures. Bower snaps back to sanity and escapes with Nadia to the ocean's surface in his own hypersleep pod. The damage to the ship triggers an emergency evacuation, ejecting 1211 other hibernating, healthy colonists onto the surface of the Earth
-like planet Tanis.
and Cung Le
were inmates. Ben Foster's character was a non-prisoner who did not trust anyone. The producers gave the script to director Christian Alvart who was thunderstruck by the similarities to his own screenplay titled No Where. His dramatic story was about four astronauts aboard a settlers' ship who suffer from amnesia. Alvart decided that they should weld the two screenplays together, and the producers and Milloy agreed.
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 movie was financed by Constantin Film
through a joint venture deal with subsidiary Impact Pictures. The partnership helped fund the $40 million production. 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 $6 million to the production, the fund's second-largest 2008 payout after $7.5 million for Ninja Assassin
. Filming took place at Babelsberg Studios
in Potsdam
in August 2008.
. The ship is addressed to as its own world
twice in the film, especially in its backstory told by Eddie Rouse's character which spoken in a strong mythological
tone that involved the presence of a god/devil-like figure responsible for the "evils" in that world and the degradation of the human condition, somewhat similar to the stories in the poems Works and Days
and Paradise Lost
. The film's title also appears to be derived from two names that are present in the poems, Pandora
and Pandæmonium
.
Another mythological reference is the name of the ship, Elysium, which was the resting place for heroes in classical mythology that bordered the River Lethe
, the part of the underworld where the memories of "earthly lives" were erased so that souls could be reincarnated
--similar to how the characters onboard the Elysium mostly have no memory of their lives on Earth and are even referred to as "heroes". Another reference to the underworld is the Hunter lair that Leland calls "Hell itself", resembles The Third Circle of Hell that Dante Alighieri
crossed during his journey through Hell into the "Earthly Paradise" in The Divine Comedy
. Addictionally the poem also mentions Elysium and features a confrontation with the Devil.
. 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 well Impact Pictures may greenlight one or more sequels.
The DVD
and Blu-ray release occurred on January 19, 2010 in the United States over Anchor Bay Entertainment
.
The director and producer commentaries on the DVD indicate that a unrated version of the movie exists but has not been released.
reports the film as holding a 28% approval rating. The site's 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." At Metacritic
, which judges on a 0-100 scale, the film holds a "generally unfavorable" score of 28 based on 13 reviews. 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. Film Ireland
also gave Pandorum a positive review, appreciating the film's synergy of cinematic techniques, set design, and developed characters. 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+.
, the film has grossed $US20,213,552. The film opened number 6 at the US box office with weekend receipts totaling $US4,424,126.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
thriller film written by Travis Milloy, directed by Christian Alvart
Christian Alvart
Christian Alvart is a German filmmaker and screenwriter.Prior to working in the film business Christian Alvart worked in various positions, most recently as a senior editor at Filmmagzin X-TRO. In 1999 he made his debut as a film director with the thriller Curiosity & the Cat, for which he also...
and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson. The film stars Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
and Ben Foster. Filming began in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in August 2008. Pandorum was released on September 25, 2009 in the United States, and on October 2, 2009 in the UK. The film's title refers to the fictional psychological condition of astronauts who fly through deep space
Deep Space
- Star Trek :* Battle of Deep Space Nine, the first major battle of the Dominion War* Deep Space Nine , space station in the fictional Star Trek universe* Deep Space Nine relaunch, number of novels released since 2000...
.
Plot
Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) wakes up from hypersleep by a power surge to find himself alone, with no memory of who he is or what happenedRetrograde amnesia
Retrograde amnesia is a loss of access to events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease....
to the crew of the 60,000-passenger sleeper ship
Sleeper ship
A sleeper ship is a hypothetical type of manned spaceship in which most or all of the crew spends the journey in some form of hibernation or suspended animation. There is currently no known technology that allows for long-term suspended animation of humans....
Elysium
Elysium
Elysium is a conception of the afterlife that evolved over time and was maintained by certain Greek religious and philosophical sects, and cults. Initially separate from Hades, admission was initially reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes...
. Another power surge manages to awake Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
) who is also suffering from amnesia. They are unable either to access the ship's bridge or to communicate with anyone else, including the three-man flight crew team they are supposed to relieve. With the ship wrecked by power surges from a failing reactor, Bower assumes he must be a technician automatically awakened by the principal on-board computer in order to effect repairs.
Bower begins exploring the spacecraft under Payton's radio guidance. Noticing odd physical symptoms, Bower talks with Payton about Pandorum, a psychological condition brought on by extended periods of deep-space travel and hypersleep. Its symptoms and effects include severe paranoia, vivid hallucinations, and epistaxis. Payton recounts the story of another ship called the Eden
Eden
Eden may refer to:* Garden of Eden, a place described in the biblical book of Genesis-Film and television:* Eden , a character from the Aladdin television series...
, whose Captain went insane and became convinced that the ship was cursed, so he jettisoned 5000 hibernating passengers casting them out into space to their death.
As Bower continues searching the ship - partially in hopes of finding answers, and partially to find his wife - he encounters dead bodies, fast-moving humanoid tribal creatures (dubbed Hunters), and non-lethal (but deadly up close according to Payton) energy projectile weapon which he uses. Escaping from one of the creatures, he encounters other amnesia suffering survivors: Manh (Cung Le
Cung Le
Cung Le is a Vietnamese-American Sanshou kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and actor from Saigon, Vietnam currently competing in the UFC. He is the former IKF Light Heavyweight San Shou World Champion and has a professional San Shou record of 16-0 before moving to mixed martial arts...
), a Vietnamese man working in Agriculture, and Nadia (Antje Traue
Antje Traue
Antje Traue is a German actress. She speaks both German and English fluently, and appeared in her first English-language role in the film Pandorum.-Life and career:...
), a partly barefooted German genetic engineer safeguarding millions of samples of plant and animal life from Earth who attempted to rob Bower of his supplies and shoes for her own survival. In a fight with each other, Bower convinces them to assist him.
On the flight deck, Payton discovers another crew member, Corporal Gallo (Cam Gigandet
Cam Gigandet
Cam Joslin Gigandet is an American actor, whose roles have included Twilight, The O.C., Never Back Down, The Roommate, Burlesque and Priest.- Career :...
), who reveals that he was part of the flight crew that received the final message from Earth. He claims that his other two crew mates suffered from an onset of Pandorum, and that he had to kill them in self-defense. Payton is wary of Gallo, noting his strange behavior.
While crossing the main hunting ground of the creatures the trio find themselves in a fight with one of the Hunters. After slaying it, they then realize that other Hunters were watching the entire fight and give the trio a chance to run. As they flee, the Hunters feed on the corpse of their own and another passenger woken up by a power surge.
Bower, Manh, and Nadia run into the lair of Leland (Eddie Rouse) who has been awake for years. There Nadia gives her theory of what the creatures might be, which she assumes are the passengers who have mutated due to an enzyme that was given to them in their feeding tubes that was intended to accelerate evolution so that their bodies may adapt to living conditions on Tanis, but instead have adapted to the ship. This causes Bower to question why they are not affected by the enzyme which she replies by saying that passengers could have been out longer than even Leland. After hearing this, Leland corrects her by telling them a story that he heard from others about how the Hunters truly came to be in a mythological matter and shows depictions of the events through carvings on the walls in his lair. At the same time Gallo tells Payton about what happened to his team. Earth, suffering from massive overpopulation
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...
, launched the Elysium on a 123-year voyage to an Earth-like planet
Terrestrial planet
A terrestrial planet, telluric planet or rocky planet is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets are the inner planets closest to the Sun...
called Tanis to create a settlement
Space colonization
Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...
, with its passengers being seen as "Hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
es". When the ship received a message of Earth's destruction (either through war or natural disaster), conflict had happened between the crew leaving only one alive (Gallo) whom Leland describes as both God and The Devil. He would deem himself as a king and became home to his "sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
" which is depicted in the form of lightning bolts appearing around his head while having epistaxis (referencing Pandorum). He had then awakened some of the passengers to play devious games with them by sending out those who had obeyed his will into the hold of the ship to fight each other and feed on the corpse of the fallen, much like what the trio had witnessed at the main hunting ground. The passengers who had taken part in these acts were also depicted as having Pandorum. When he grew tired of this, he went back into suspended animation, and left the rest of the passengers awake. While he slept the passengers had, over time, adapted to their animalistic living conditions by becoming the primitive creatures that now roam the ship, which Leland describes as " a whole new world of evil".
Listening to this story, the survivors lose consciousness, having been gassed by their host. While at the same time Payton starts to show symptoms of Pandorum after hearing what had happened to Earth. Upon awakening, they find themselves in shackles, with Leland preparing to kill them for food. Nadia then berates Leland, to which he responds by stabbing her. He prepares to kill her first but is convinced by Bower to allow them to restart the ship's nuclear reactor, which is about to shut down. En route, they pass through the passenger hypersleep chamber, which prompts Bower to recall the truth - his wife left him before he left Earth, and was left behind as the planet died. At the same time, he realizes that something is amiss about Payton.
The group fights their way down to the reactor, where the mutants have taken refuge. While Manh lures some of the cannibals away, Bower activates the reactor, averting disaster. After a climactic battle, Manh defeats the Hunter leader, only to be killed by a seemingly harmless Hunter child. Leland, Bower and Nadia make a break for the bridge.
Payton also regains his memories and realizes that Gallo is a hallucination. In truth he is Corporal Gallo and lost all knowledge of his crimes and real identity during hypersleep. Soon afterwards he dispatches the newly-arrived Leland with a lethal stab from a sedative gun and retreats to the bridge. It is there where Bower and Nadia confront him and "Payton" concedes his true identity. Gallo then retracts an inner bulkhead, apparently showing a view of space, though it is ominously void of any stars.
Noticing that Bower is suffering from Pandorum, Gallo tells him that he should embrace it due to the fact that humanity had ruined the Earth and defines the condition as a form of "enlightenment" that will free him of human qualities such as morality. Bower then starts to hallucinate and imagines the aforementioned "sin" appear around Gallo as he tries to convince him to perform the same acts as the passengers that he had driven mad. Stating that his motivation was to create a natural state where life devours life, so that overpopulation would be prevented.
At this time, they see fluorescent sea creatures outside, revealing that the view outside is of a deep-sea environment. The ship is already on Tanis, having crash-landed and sunk to the bottom of an ocean. The ship's log finishes compiling the total running time of the trip and the 123-year mission is shown to have been going on for 923 years, revealing that the Hunters are not mutated passengers as they thought, but devolved descendants of them.
Bower responds by attacking Gallo who manages to overpower him as he becomes overwhelmed by the symptoms of Pandorum. This causes Nadia to step in and confront Gallo, but due to her injury that she received earlier he manages to defeat her. When Gallo prepares to kill Nadia with her own knife Bower starts to hallucinate again. Imagining one of the creatures in front of him he fires at it with his weapon which accidentally causes a hull breach by cracking one of the windows. The water pressure breaks the screen and floods the ship, presumably drowning Gallo and any surviving creatures. Bower snaps back to sanity and escapes with Nadia to the ocean's surface in his own hypersleep pod. The damage to the ship triggers an emergency evacuation, ejecting 1211 other hibernating, healthy colonists onto the surface of the Earth
-like planet Tanis.
Cast
- Dennis QuaidDennis QuaidDennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...
as Lieutenant Payton - Ben Foster as Corporal Bower
- Cam GigandetCam GigandetCam Joslin Gigandet is an American actor, whose roles have included Twilight, The O.C., Never Back Down, The Roommate, Burlesque and Priest.- Career :...
as Corporal Gallo - Antje TraueAntje TraueAntje Traue is a German actress. She speaks both German and English fluently, and appeared in her first English-language role in the film Pandorum.-Life and career:...
as Nadia - Cung LeCung LeCung Le is a Vietnamese-American Sanshou kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and actor from Saigon, Vietnam currently competing in the UFC. He is the former IKF Light Heavyweight San Shou World Champion and has a professional San Shou record of 16-0 before moving to mixed martial arts...
as Manh - Eddie Rouse as Leland
- André HennickeAndré HennickeAndré Hennicke is a German actor.Hennicke was born in Johanngeorgenstadt in Saxony. He was awarded a German television award for his work in Toter Mann in 2002...
as Hunter Leader - Norman ReedusNorman ReedusNorman Mark Reedus is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal as Murphy MacManus in the 1999 film The Boondock Saints as well as its 2009 sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day and for the character of Daryl Dixon in the AMC television series The Walking Dead...
as Shepard - Wotan Wilke MöhringWotan Wilke Möhring-Life and work:He grew up in Herne. His father was an Army officer and his mother worked as a teacher. He has a sister and two brothers. One of them, Sönke Möhring is also an actor....
as Young Bower's Father - Niels-Bruno Schmidt as Insane Officer Eden
Production
Travis Milloy wrote a preliminary script which was set on a prison ship. The characters played by Antje TraueAntje Traue
Antje Traue is a German actress. She speaks both German and English fluently, and appeared in her first English-language role in the film Pandorum.-Life and career:...
and Cung Le
Cung Le
Cung Le is a Vietnamese-American Sanshou kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and actor from Saigon, Vietnam currently competing in the UFC. He is the former IKF Light Heavyweight San Shou World Champion and has a professional San Shou record of 16-0 before moving to mixed martial arts...
were inmates. Ben Foster's character was a non-prisoner who did not trust anyone. The producers gave the script to director Christian Alvart who was thunderstruck by the similarities to his own screenplay titled No Where. His dramatic story was about four astronauts aboard a settlers' ship who suffer from amnesia. Alvart decided that they should weld the two screenplays together, and the producers and Milloy agreed.
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 movie was financed by Constantin Film
Constantin Film
- History :Constantin Film Distribution GmbH was founded by Waldfried Barthel and Preben Philipsen on April 1, 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany. On December 21, 1964, the name of the company was changed to Constantin Film GmbH....
through a joint venture deal with subsidiary Impact Pictures. The partnership helped fund the $40 million production. 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 $6 million to the production, the fund's second-largest 2008 payout after $7.5 million for Ninja Assassin
Ninja Assassin
Ninja Assassin is a 2009 American martial arts film directed by James McTeigue. The story was written by Matthew Sand, with a screenplay penned by J. Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5. The film stars South Korean pop musician Rain as a disillusioned assassin looking for retribution against his...
. Filming took place at Babelsberg Studios
Babelsberg Studios
The Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1912, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there...
in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
in August 2008.
Allegory
According to the bonus content on the DVD Christian Alvart had claim he approached the film as an allegory for human life on EarthLife on Earth
Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough is a television natural history series made by the BBC in association with Warner Bros. and Reiner Moritz Productions...
. The ship is addressed to as its own world
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
twice in the film, especially in its backstory told by Eddie Rouse's character which spoken in a strong mythological
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
tone that involved the presence of a god/devil-like figure responsible for the "evils" in that world and the degradation of the human condition, somewhat similar to the stories in the poems Works and Days
Works and Days
Works and Days is a didactic poem of some 800 verses written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. At its center, the Works and Days is a farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts...
and Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
. The film's title also appears to be derived from two names that are present in the poems, Pandora
Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts...
and Pandæmonium
Pandæmonium (Paradise Lost)
Pandæmonium is the capital of Hell in the epic poem Paradise Lost by the 17th century English poet John Milton."Pandæmonium" stems from Greek "παν", meaning "all" or "every", and "δαιμόνιον", meaning "little spirit" or "little angel", or, as Christians interpreted it, "little daemon", and later,...
.
Another mythological reference is the name of the ship, Elysium, which was the resting place for heroes in classical mythology that bordered the River Lethe
River Lethe
River Lethe is located 18 km west of Mount Katmai, Alaska Peninsula, and is the middle branch of the Ukak River. It flows through the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and meets the Ukak at ....
, the part of the underworld where the memories of "earthly lives" were erased so that souls could be reincarnated
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
--similar to how the characters onboard the Elysium mostly have no memory of their lives on Earth and are even referred to as "heroes". Another reference to the underworld is the Hunter lair that Leland calls "Hell itself", resembles The Third Circle of Hell that Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
crossed during his journey through Hell into the "Earthly Paradise" in The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...
. Addictionally the poem also mentions Elysium and features a confrontation with the Devil.
Release
Summit Entertainment is handling foreign sales and presented Pandorum to buyers at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival2009 Cannes Film Festival
The 62nd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 13 to May 24, 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert was the President of the Jury. It was announced on March 19, 2009, that Pixar's film Up would open the festival...
. Overture Films
Overture Films
Overture Films, LLC is an American film production and distribution company. It is a subsidiary of Liberty Media ....
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 well Impact Pictures may greenlight one or more sequels.
The DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray release occurred on January 19, 2010 in the United States over Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
.
The director and producer commentaries on the DVD indicate that a unrated version of the movie exists but has not been released.
Reception
The film received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports the film as holding a 28% approval rating. The site's consensus is that "While it might prove somewhat satisfying for devout sci-fi fans, Pandorum
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which judges on a 0-100 scale, the film holds a "generally unfavorable" score of 28 based on 13 reviews. 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. Film Ireland
Film Ireland
Film Ireland is a cultural cinema magazine published on a bimonthly basis by Filmbase Centre for Film and Video in Dublin, Ireland. It is Ireland's longest-running film publication.-History:...
also gave Pandorum a positive review, appreciating the film's synergy of cinematic techniques, set design, and developed characters. Audience reaction was mostly positive at website Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
; their polls report that on a scale of A+ to F, the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was B+.
, the film has grossed $US20,213,552. The film opened number 6 at the US box office with weekend receipts totaling $US4,424,126.
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
- Hull Zero ThreeHull Zero ThreeHull Zero Three is a science fiction novel from Greg Bear. It was published on November 22, 2010. It is set on a generation ship that has lost its way under mysterious circumstances.-Critical reception:...
- Orphans of the SkyOrphans of the SkyOrphans of the Sky is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, consisting of two parts: "Universe" and its sequel, "Common Sense" . The two novellas were first published together in book form in 1963. "Universe" was also published separately in 1951 as a 10¢ Dell paperback...
- Non-Stop (originally titled Starship)
- Metamorphosis AlphaMetamorphosis AlphaMetamorphosis Alpha is a science fiction role-playing game. It was created by James M. Ward and originally produced by TSR, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons...
- The Ark In SpaceThe Ark in SpaceThe Ark in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 January to 15 February 1975.-Plot:The TARDIS materialises in a darkened room on board the station...
- The StarlostThe StarlostThe Starlost is a Canadian-produced science fiction television series devised by writer Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada and syndicated to local stations in the United States. The show's setting is a huge generational colony spacecraft called The Ark, which has gone off-course...
- Ship of Fools (Russo novel)Ship of Fools (Russo novel)Ship of Fools is a science fiction novel by Richard Paul Russo. First published in 2001, it won the Philip K. Dick Award for that year.The novel has been rereleased by Orbit Books under the name Unto Leviathan.-Overview:...