Cargo

Cargo is a science fiction film from Switzerland that came out in 2009. In my mind, Switzerland is the last place I would expect a sci-fi film to come from, which might be why I was so surprised at how well done it was. The story is set in the year 2267, when Earth has taken a turn for the worst and is no longer inhabitable. People live aboard overcrowded space stations around Earth's orbit waiting for the chance to be able to go to a planet called Rhea that has been colonized. Our main character is Dr. Laura Portmann who boards the run-down spaceship Kassandra which is on a eight year flight to an unmanned space station, in hopes to make enough money to join her sister on Rhea.

The crew consists of five different passengers, with a last minute addition of a security guard due to recent terrorist threats by a group of extremist bent on changing the system.

The crew takes turns in cryosleep for stretches of 2 1/2 months at a time. Toward the end of Laura's shift, she starts to hear things and feels she is being watched. She prematurely wakes the captain and the security guard, who find that certain doors on the space shuttle have been tampered with and begin an investigation. As they inspect there cargo, they find that they are not hauling what they thought they were.

To me, movies that take place on spaceships and large metal ocean tankers can be quite scary. Both vessels always have sounds that you just can't quite place, whether it's the creaking of the ship, things in space settling or something more sinister. I find that my mind always starts to wonder to the worst places as the characters walk down these dimly lit and often tight corridors, never knowing what's around the next turn. Your mind starts to play tricks on you and you expect the worst. Movies always work well in these types of scenarios as your mind will create scarier visions then anything the director could show you.

Cargo does one other thing well and that's it's miniatures and use of CGI. The shots in outer space of the planets, spaceships, and infinite nothing are some of the best I've seen in a long time. Stanley Kubrick would be proud. In the beginning I said that I was surprised at how well Cargo was done. The movie works well as a spooky sci-fi movie for the first half of the film and is shot beautifully. However, once things start to become known, the movie changes it's pace and to me starts to fall flat. I enjoy a good sci-fi movie but I want to be rewarded with a decent ending. Cargo did not provide that ending as it led me to believe in the first half. If you into mysteries and not monsters or your a die hard science fiction fan, you'll enjoy this movie for what it is. If your looking for something with a little more payoff(think Alien or Pandorum), don't waste your time.