Sputnik (film)

''Sputnik'' () is a 2020 Russian science-fiction horror film directed by Egor Abramenko in his feature directorial debut. It stars Oksana Akinshina as a young doctor who is recruited by the Soviet military to assess a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious space accident and returned to Earth with a dangerous organism living inside him. Alongside Akinshina, the film's cast includes Pyotr Fyodorov and Fyodor Bondarchuk.

''Sputnik'' was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020 prior to the festival being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was released on video-on-demand in Russia on April 23, 2020. It received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

In 1983, two Russian cosmonauts hear something moving outside their ship before it crashes in Kazakhstan. The sole survivor, Konstantin Veshnyakov, is taken to a military research facility run by Colonel Semiradov.

Semiradov recruits the controversial psychiatrist Dr. Tatyana Yuryevna Klimova. Veshnyakov cannot remember the crash, despite hypnosis treatments by facility scientist Yan Rigel. Klimova quickly discerns that Veshnyakov shows subtle symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

That night, Semiradov shows Klimova an alien emerging from Veshnyakov's mouth. Semiradov explains the creature emerges every night without Veshnyakov’s knowledge as he sleeps, and that it is responsible for Veshnyakov’s miraculous survival. The facility tried to extract the alien, but it is now symbiotically bonded to Veshnyakov and both will slowly die if separated too long. Klimova agrees to investigate how to separate Veshnyakov from the alien permanently – much to Rigel's jealous chagrin.

To test how Veshnyakov’s hormones react to stress, Klimova accuses him of killing his fellow cosmonaut, and taunts him about a son he abandoned to go to space. Afterwards, Klimova asks for Veshnyakov to stay in a normal room during daylight hours instead of a cell, to see how he reacts to normal civilian interactions. She apologizes to Veshnyakov for her harsh words, and he tell her that he only found out about his son one week before his space mission. He planned to meet his son after going home.

At night, Klimova interacts with the emerged alien from behind protective glass. She notices it fixate on a toy that belongs to Veshnyakov, and daringly asks to remove the glass so she can give the toy to the alien. The creature ignores Klimova to play with the toy. But when Klimova tries to touch the creature, it attacks her. Soldiers extract Klimova and contain the creature.

Klimova theorizes the alien is one with Veshnyakov, and it took interest in the toy because it reminds Veshnyakov of his son. She requests to take Veshnyakov to Moscow for treatment. Semiradov reveals this is impossible. His superiors in Moscow want to terminate Veshnyakov, and Semiradov has been lying about their research progress to keep Veshnyakov alive.

While reviewing surveillance footage of the alien, Klimova realizes it is edited. She confronts Rigel, and he takes her to see Semiradov feeding live humans to the alien at night. Rigel reveals that the creature needs cortisol from a living, terrified human to keep itself and Veshnyakov alive.

Disgusted, Klimova discreetly asks Veshnyakov to meet secretly. After Veshnyakov incapacitates his guards, Klimova shows him the bodies of the alien's victims. She explains the alien chose Veshnyakov as its host because his co-pilot had Addison's disease. Veshnyakov reveals he can remember everything the creature experiences, but hides it because he wants the Moscow authorities to approve his release. Klimova is horrified that Veshnyakov could accept sacrificing human lives, but Veshnyakov tells her that he will do anything to leave the facility and take care of his son and his mother.

Semiradov summons Klimova and reveals he knows she spied on the feeding. He defends his actions by explaining the alien is a powerful weapon the Soviets need to maintain peace, and that he only feeds it prisoners who have committed monstrous crimes. Semiradov allows Klimova to watch another feeding. However, Klimova requests to enter the feeding area and sings Veshnyakov's favourite song to the alien. At first, the creature softens and backs away. But when its food tries to run, the creature kills the prisoner anyways.

Klimova decides she must stop the experiment and help Veshnyakov escape. She convinces Rigel to help her. Then she convinces Veshnyakov that Semiradov will never let him leave. She plans to inject Veshnyakov with hormones that simulate Addison's disease, tricking the alien into rejecting Veshnyakov and permanently separating them. Rigel gives Klimova and Veshnyakov a set of car keys, and then confesses everything to the Moscow authorities by telephone just before Semiradov murders him.

Semiradov’s soldiers intercept Klimova and Veshnyakov. Cornered, Veshnyakov injects himself with the hormones prematurely, forcing the alien to emerge and attack the soldiers. The resulting chaos allows Klimova to drag Veshnyakov into the car and drive off. But Veshnyakov begins dying, and Klimova realizes he still needs the alien to live.

Klimova allows Semiradov to catch up, knowing he will bring the injured alien to force it back inside Veshnyakov. But before he can, Veshnyakov takes voluntary control of the alien and uses it to kill Semiradov and his men.

Klimova spots trucks coming from Moscow thanks to Rigel. However, Veshnyakov decides he must die with the creature to avoid more killing, and shoots himself in the head. Klimova survives and adopts Veshnyakov's son.

Cast

Production

Principal photography for the film took place in Moscow in the winter of 2018–2019. Most of the film's scenes were shot at the .

Release

''Sputnik'' was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020 before the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sony Pictures had slated a theatrical release for the film in Russia on April 16, 2020, but the film was instead released on video-on-demand in Russia on the platforms More.tv, Wink and Ivi.ru on April 23. IFC Midnight acquired the film's North American distribution rights earlier that same month. The film was released in select theaters and on video-on-demand in North America on August 14, 2020.

Upon release in Russia, over one million people streamed ''Sputnik'' on More.tv, Wink and Ivi.ru, making the film the most-streamed title across those services in two years, surpassing American titles and other Russian titles.

Reception

Box office and VOD

In its debut American weekend, the film was the fifth-most rented film on Apple TV, and also grossed around $11,000 from 32 theaters.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 121 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Effective space alien horror with a Soviet-era twist, ''Sputnik'' proves there are still some scary good sci-fi thrillers left in the galaxy." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Pavel Voronkov of Gazeta.Ru called the film's story "charmingly uncomplicated", and wrote that, unlike "'' The Blackout'' by Egor Baranov (in which Fedorov also acted), it does not hurt at all to watch." Dmitry Shepelyov of ''Igromania'' commended the film's visuals but lamented that "clichés become the main driving force of the story", concluding: "Tweak the script, write the characters better, add more bloody action, and ''Sputnik'' could be called an excellent fantasy thriller. But this is just a more or less competent B-category film."

Matt Zoller Seitz, in his review of the film for RogerEbert.com, gave it a score of three-and-a-half out of four stars, and praised the relationship between the two main characters: "The performances and characterizations add heft, and the very Russian vibe of soulful heaviness sets it apart from its American cousins." Ian Freer of ''Empire'' gave the film three out of five stars, praising its "fun creature design and good gore" and calling it a "blunt but effective thriller". Joe Morgenstern of ''The Wall Street Journal'' wrote that the film's "strong performances, strikingly spare production design and somber cinematography convey a sense of something important going on. That's no small achievement in what proves to be a creature feature with flair."

''The New York Times'' Glenn Kenny'' referred to the film as a "claustrophobic character study with gripping set pieces ndserviceable spatters of gross-out B-movie gore"; she also praised Akinshina's "charismatic lead performance", comparing the character favorably to Ellen Ripley of the ''Alien'' franchise. Conversely, John DeFore of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' wrote that the film's "intensely serious tone belies some awfully silly stuff in its plot", and summarized the film as being "Duller than it sounds."

Accolades

See also

* ''Life'' (2017 film)

References

External links

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* {{Rotten Tomatoes, id=sputnik_2020, title=Sputnik

2020 science fiction horror films
2020s Russian films
2020s Russian-language films
2020s science fiction thriller films
Russian science fiction horror films
Russian horror thriller films
Russian science fiction thriller films
Russian science fiction drama films
Russian horror drama films
Russian mystery thriller films
Films set in the Soviet Union
Films set in Kazakhstan
Films set in 1983
Films about extraterrestrial life
Films about astronauts
Fiction about parasites
Films shot in Moscow
Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Films not released in theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Films produced by Fyodor Bondarchuk
Russian-language science fiction horror films
Russian-language science fiction drama films