Page 2 - MidWeek Kauai - May 12, 2021

2 KAUA‘I MIDWEEK MAY 12, 2021
Rotten
A Morality Play In Space
BY CHRIS MCKINNEY
PAPAYAS
There’s a fairly well- known thought exper- iment called the trolley problem. Imagine a trolley barreling on its rails, headed for five incapacitated people. You’re standing next to a lever. You can redirect the trolley, but you’ll crush one person if you send the train down the alter- native path. What do you do?
phobic setting. Space travel has often been romanticized as a sort of roomy cruise ship adventure to the beyond, but in reality, I imagine it’s just as confining as being aboard a submarine.
and have the chops to carry a story with a sparse setting.
solve the trolley problem. In fact, what the film seems to be saying is the trolley problem may look easy to solve until you’re actually standing next to the lever.
Stowaway is an impressive film whose greatest virtue — believability — may be to
some viewers its worst enemy.
chrismckinney808@gmail.com
People bring up this thought experiment when it comes to things like driverless cars and even vaccines. Is greater good for the most number of people always the right thing to do?
Another thing that stands out in this film is the acting. Make no mistake, they need to be good. It’s just four people crammed on a spaceship. In fact, this film could almost be a play. It was smart to cast Col- lette, Kim and Kendrick. All three have theater experience
Because it’s “hard sci-fi” (sci-fi that tries hard to follow the rules of science), Stowaway best compares to The Martian, but there are some very no- table differences. This film lacks the frantic pace (and the upbeat disco soundtrack) of the Ridley Scott film star- ring Matt Damon. It’s not as big (The Martian had an in- credible ensemble cast), and it doesn’t aim for humor. Also, just so you know, it doesn’t
The film doesn’t preach, and it resists the temptation to devolve into Survivor in space. The movie may move a bit too slowly for some viewers, but I liked the pacing. It made the film feel more realistic. It’s not as if you can sprint in zero gravity, and solutions hardly ever have perfect timing.
Netflix’s new feature film, Stowaway, delves into a similar moral conundrum. Three as- tronauts (Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim and Anna Kendrick) are headed to Mars. An engi- neer (Shamier Anderson) was knocked out during launch and mistakenly abandoned aboard the ship. There’s only enough oxygen for three people to survive the remainder of the voyage. What’s the right thing to do?
Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column, and 3x3 block. Use logic and process of elimination to solve the puzzle. The difficulty level ranges from Bronze (easiest) to Silver to Gold (hardest). Answers are on page 11
RATING: GOLD
The first thing I appreciated about this film is its claustro-
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