The lone survivor of an enigmatic spaceship incident hasn’t returned back home alone – hiding inside his body is a dangerous creature.
“Sputnik” takes place in Russia in 1983, at the height of the Cold War. When Orbit-4, a spaceship carrying two astronauts, returns to earth after a mission in space, Commander Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov) has no recollection of what happened before their craft landed on earth. When he is found, he is bleeding and his fellow astronaut, co-pilot Kirill (Aleksey Demidov), lies inside the cabin, covered in blood and in a coma. They are moved to a secluded government facility in the middle of the Russian countryside under the watchful eye of Colonel Semiradov (Fyodor Bondarchuk), a military advisor who wants to know what happened.
He brings in Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina), a doctor of neuropsychiatry who is about to be fired from her current job for dubious practices. Semiradov likes that she is willing to take chances and once she agrees to be a part of the project, he tells her he just wants her to study Konstantin. According to the press, both astronauts are recovering from some technical issues that transpired as their craft re-entered the earth’s atmosphere and they should be back in the public eye again soon. What starts out as a mundane assignment, he repeatedly tells her he cannot remember anything before the landing, quickly does an about-face when she witnesses on security cameras the first night, an amphibian-like parasite emerging from his mouth.
Semiradov apologizes for not telling her sooner but wanted to see how she would react and informs her that he needs to know how the creature was able to get inside Konstantin in the first place and how and why, every night, after it leaves him for a period of time, it is eventually able to re-enter his body with such ease. Upon further analysis, they discover that it is symbiotic and that when it is inside him during the day, Konstantin’s vitals are absolutely perfect but when it leaves him at night, he rapidly begins to deteriorate. Tatyana bonds with Konstantin and eventually tells him what is going on and much to her surprise, he tells her that he knows, he is just acting dumb so Semiradov will eventually have to release him.
When Semiradov tells Tatyana that the creature would make the perfect weapon, unkillable and able to maneuver stealthily, she realizes that he is never going to release Konstantin and will spend the rest of his life analyzing and experimenting on him, demanding he control the creature for his own nefarious agenda. Tatyana proposes to Konstantin that they try to escape and make it to Moscow where she knows how to separate the two and while initially hesitant, he too realizes what is going to happen to him if he stays but when the time comes for them to flee, their plans are thwarted and backed into a corner, he has no choice but to let the creature out!
“Sputnik” was obviously inspired by John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and Ridley Scott’s “Alien” but that is as far as it goes, imitation may have set the wheels in motion but the film takes on a life of its own and thankfully, never plagiarizes either movie. The military compound is bleak and filled with uninspiring dreary colors, from mint green to arid grey, it is perfect for the ’80s setting as the Cold War rages outside. Being in the middle of nowhere adds an unnerving atmosphere and the fact that the personnel who inhabit the building are all innocuous beings with no emotions, makes you actually wonder who the real aliens are. Director Egor Abramenko never lets you jump ahead of the things he has planned, you might think you know where you’re going but in the end, he is telling this story and by God, you will adhere to his guidance. The acting all around is solid, with Pyotr Fyodorov and Oksana Akinshina the real standouts.
The creature is reminiscent of the Hammerpede indigenous worms of “Prometheus,” along with blade-tipped fingers that can tear its prey apart in seconds and the few scenes of it feeding on humans are quite disturbing. While the film moves along at a deliberate, steady pace, it is somewhat let down by an unsatisfying finale. One last scene gives the impression that the writers didn’t know how to end the movie and you are left scratching your head in sheer bewilderment. You don’t know if they were trying to set up a sequel or deliberately trying to perturb you, one last wink at the audience. This one facet aside, “Sputnik” delivers the goods in terms of good storytelling, top-notch acting, deft direction, and plenty of sci-fi thrills. Definitely keep an eye out for this one.
In Select Theaters, on Digital, and Cable VOD Friday, August 14th
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