At the start of this slow-burn sci-fi, Nasa pilot Captain Sam Walker (Kate Mara) crash lands in the ocean; she is retrieved by her employer and placed in a very swanky safe house. The quarantine is standard, the location isn’t; she has her CIA honcho father (Laurence Fishburne) to thank for this unexpectedly aspirational hideout, all sleek glass and angular, impersonal interior design. Most of the film then unfolds in this luxe-but-remote location, where it’s a toss-up between what is more disturbing: Sam’s newfound ability to levitate an egg, or the things that go bump in the night and also leave residue on the floor.
The egg levitation suggests that not only is Sam possibly being menaced by external entities unknown, but she must also contend with changes to her own body. A grey bruise on her hand keeps getting worse, and she is experiencing migraines and hallucinations. What, exactly, is going on? Initially, director Jess Varley does a really fine job of setting up and starting to unravel these mysteries; she is aided by a committed cast, with Fishburne providing gravitas as Sam’s dad, Gabriel Luna doing a soulful, wounded turn as the other half of Sam’s troubled marriage, and newcomer Scarlett Holmes as the couple’s adorable daughter.
