The journey involves months-long periods of hibernation induced by drugs that may have dangerous side effects, including paranoia, hallucinations, and mistrust.
Two additional astronauts accompany Affleck's John on his voyage, Laurence Fishburne's Captain Franks and Tomer Capone's Nash.
Named Odyssey-1, the Titan-bound vessel’s cramped surroundings regularly are pierced by flashbacks to the relationship John formed with Zoe (Emily Beecham), a scientist who helped prepare the mission.
Working from a screenplay by R. Scott Adams and Nathan C. Parker, Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom focuses on emerging tensions among the astronauts. Alarmed by a problem with the ship, Nash wants to abort the mission; all-business Franks insists on continuing; John vacillates between the two views.
Hafstrom creates an environment of uncertainty about what's real and what’s not. Is John hallucinating when he sees Zoe aboard the ship? Are Nash's worries the result of scientific calculation or drug-induced paranoia?
Though obviously laid out, such questions create a bit of ambiguity and suspense, building toward a third act that plays with expectations as we try to anticipate the story's outcome.
For a drama that’s meant to brim with psychological tension, Slingshot remains low-key, and Affleck's performance hardly can be called magnetic, a problem for a movie that makes him the centerpiece of a drama about astronauts who might be losing their grip.
Slingshot pays homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the characters are as pinched as the ship they occupy, the romance between John and Zoe remains lukewarm, and there’s no HAL to serve as a worthy antagonist on a journey that too often seems routine.
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