‘Stowaway’ Brings the ‘Extremely Terrifying’ Reality of Space to Netflix

Breathe in. Now breathe out. You’ll never take oxygen for granted again after watching the tense space thriller Stowaway.

During a two-year mission to Mars, a three-person crew — commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), medical researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) and biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) — discover they’re not alone…and in grave danger. Structural engineer Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson) has mistakenly ended up on the ship too. There’s not enough fuel to turn back to Earth, and the life support system can’t sustain all four of them.

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“It becomes extremely terrifying,” Anderson says. “Michael’s presence puts the mission and everyone on the ship in peril, which weighs very heavily on him.” As Michael grapples with guilt, practical Marina and professionally ambitious David consider a gut-wrenching solution, while idealistic Zoe comes up with a creative but risky idea for survival.

The cramped spaceship set (scenes were shot on a Munich soundstage) helped Anderson tap into his character’s feelings. “I would often arrive a few hours early to sleep in the tight space and create a feeling of claustrophobia in my mind,” he adds.

(Credit: © 2021, Stowaway Productions, LLC, Augenschein Filmproduktion GmbH, RISE Filmproduktion GmbH. All rights reserved)

Anderson’s dedication to keeping his performance authentic mirrors the writers’ desire to have the story be scientifically accurate. According to cowriter Joe Penna, “We wanted this film to be as close to reality as possible.” And that’s more frightening than any alien encounter.

Stowaway, Movie Premiere, Thursday, April 22, Netflix