Europa Report
Europa Report | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Sebastián Cordero |
Screenplay by | Philip Gelatt |
Produced by | Ben Browning |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Enrique Chediak |
Edited by |
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Music by | Bear McCreary |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Magnet Releasing Magnolia Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | Less than $10 million[1] |
Box office | $125,687[2] |
Europa Report is a 2013 American science fiction film directed by Sebastián Cordero, starring Christian Camargo, Anamaria Marinca, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Karolina Wydra and Sharlto Copley. A found footage film, it recounts the fictional story of the first crewed mission to Europa, one of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. Despite a disastrous technical failure that causes the loss of all communications with Earth, and a series of further crises, the crew continues its mission to Europa and finds mounting evidence of life on this Galilean moon of Jupiter.[3]
Plot[]
Dr. Unger (Embeth Davidtz), CEO of Europa Ventures, narrates the story of the Europa One mission. Six astronauts embark on a privately funded mission to Jupiter's moon Europa to find potential sources of life.[4] The crew members are commander William Xu (Daniel Wu), pilot Rosa Dasque (Anamaria Marinca), chief science officer Daniel Luxembourg (Christian Camargo), marine biology science officer Katya Petrovna (Karolina Wydra), junior engineer James Corrigan (Sharlto Copley) and chief engineer Andrei Blok (Michael Nyqvist).
After six months of mission time, a solar storm hits the ship, knocking out communication with mission control. Blok and Corrigan perform an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) to repair the system from outside but an accident rips Blok's suit. While he is being guided back into the airlock, Blok notices that Corrigan's suit has been coated with hydrazine and he cannot enter the airlock or else he would contaminate the rest of the ship. Blok attempts to save Corrigan by taking him out of his suit, but he blacks out from a lack of oxygen. Knowing there is no hope for himself, Corrigan pushes Blok into the airlock, thus propelling himself away from the ship as it continues its journey to Europa. Stranded, he dies in space; the crew continue with the mission, demoralized by Corrigan's death.
After twenty months, the ship goes into orbit around Europa and its lunar lander lands safely on Europa but misses its target zone. The crew drills through the ice and releases a probe into the underlying sea. Blok, who is sleep-deprived and eliciting concern in the rest of the crew, sees a light outside the ship but he is unable to record it or otherwise convince the crew of its occurrence. The probe is struck by an unknown lighted object and contact with it is lost.
Petrovna insists on collecting samples on Europa's surface; the crew votes and she is allowed to go. Analyzing the samples, Luxembourg discovers traces of a single-celled organism. Petrovna sees a blue light in the distance and decides to investigate it. As she approaches the light the ice below her breaks and she falls through. Her head-mounted camera continues to broadcast, displaying her terrified face as the blue bioluminescence is reflected in her eyes, before cutting out.
The crew agrees to leave to report their discovery to Earth but the engines malfunction. As the lander hurtles back to Europa's surface, Xu unbuckles from his seat to dump water shielding to reduce the impact speed. Remarkably, the ship crashes at the originally-targeted landing site. On impact, Xu is killed and the lander is damaged, leaking oxygen and losing heat. It begins to sink into the ice.
Blok and Luxembourg suit up to make repairs outside the ship. Luxembourg tries to descend but falls through the ice. Blok knows that there is no chance that he alone will be able to repair the lander before it sinks. Instead, he manages to fix the communication link to the orbiting mother ship, at the expense of turning off the life support systems, just before the same blue light Petrovna saw approaches and he appears to fall through the ice as well.
Dasque re-establishes communication with Earth; all the collected images and data that have been saved since the solar storm are relayed to Earth via the mother ship, just as the ice cracks and the lander begins to sink. Alone and anticipating her death, Dasque opens the airlock to flood the lander in hopes of revealing the source of the light. As the water rises to the cockpit, she sees a tentacled, bioluminescent creature[5] rising toward her, before the camera cuts out.
In the epilogue, narrator Samantha Unger confirms that the crew of Europa had discovered life and exceeded every expectation, as the footage plays from an earlier scene of the crew posing in front of the camera.
Cast[]
- Anamaria Marinca as Rosa Dasque
- Michael Nyqvist as Andrei Blok
- Karolina Wydra as Katya Petrovna
- Daniel Wu as William Xu
- Sharlto Copley as James Corrigan
- Christian Camargo as Daniel Luxembourg
- Embeth Davidtz as Dr. Sanantha Unger
- Dan Fogler as Dr. Nikita Solokov
- Isiah Whitlock, Jr. as Dr. Tarik Pamuk
- Neil deGrasse Tyson as himself (archive footage)
Production[]
Filming took place in Brooklyn, New York. The first image from the film was revealed on February 11, 2012.[4] A viral website to promote the film was launched shortly afterward.[6]
The screenplay was written by Philip Gelatt and the production design was done by Eugenio Caballero.[4] It was scored by Bear McCreary.[7] The movie is a found footage film and follows a nonlinear progression.
The crew used as inspiration real footage from the International Space Station and space walks from the space shuttle.[5] The space ship was designed through computer graphics, giving high detail to the camera angles to be used in the film. Weightlessness was simulated with balance balls, suspension from wires was used for interior shots. The flooding ship was filmed on a one-third scale model.
The aspect of the moon Europa was based for accuracy on data from NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) maps of the moon's surface. The creature's design included bioluminescence from the initial concepts. The visual effects supervisor stated that the creature was based on a cross of an octopus and a squid, with early sketches resembling a jellyfish and a manta ray.[5]
An online trailer was released on May 20, 2012.[8] The film was released on Video on Demand, iTunes, and Google Play Movies & TV on June 27, 2013, and was released theatrically on August 2, 2013.[8]
Reception[]
Europa Report has received generally positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 81% "Certified Fresh" rating based on 79 reviews, its summary reading, "Claustrophobic and stylish, Europa Report is a slow-burning thriller that puts the science back into science fiction."[9] Review aggregation website Metacritic gives a rating of 68 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics, which indicates "generally favorable" reviews.[10]
Justin Chang, of Variety magazine, called the film "A reasonably plausible and impressively controlled achievement."[11] while space.com said the film was "One of the most thrilling and realistic depictions of space exploration since Moon or 2001: A Space Odyssey."[12] Fearnet said the film was "One of the most sincere, suspenseful and fascinating science fiction films of the past few years."[13]
The film was nominated for the Bradbury Award by the members of SFWA.[14]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Turan, Kenneth (August 1, 2013). "Review: 'Europa Report' gets good mileage from low-budget sci-fi". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ "Europa Report". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 6, 2013.
- ^ "Europa Report – Movie Trailers". Apple Inc. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "First look at Sharlto Copley in sci-fi film The Europa Report". Commingsoon.net. February 11, 2012. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "The Making of Europa Report". fxguide.com. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
- ^ "The Europa Report goes viral". February 13, 2012. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ "Bear McCreary Scoring 'The Europa Report'". Film Music Reporter. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Europa Report Teaser Online". Empire Online. Archived from the original on 25 July 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
- ^ "Europa Report – Rotten Tomatoes". Retrieved 11 June 2020.
- ^ "Europa Report Reviews". Metacritic. CBS. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
- ^ Chang, Justin. Variety, film Review, Europa Report, June 21, 2013. Accessed: August 9, 2013.
- ^ First Trailer for Europa Report unveiled, "Space.com", May 21, 2013.
- ^ Fearnet Movie Review: Europa Report, "Fearnet", May 20, 2013
- ^ 2013 Nebula Nominees Announced, SFWA, 02-25-2014.
External links[]
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Europa Report |
- 2013 films
- English-language films
- 2013 science fiction films
- Fiction set on Europa (moon)
- Jupiter in film
- Russian-language films
- American space adventure films
- American films
- Found footage films
- American nonlinear narrative films
- Films about astronauts
- Films directed by Sebastián Cordero
- Films scored by Bear McCreary
- Films shot in New York City