Welcome back to Movie Recaps.
Today I will show you a thriller, sci-fi film from 2021, titled Settlers.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
It's an ordinary day on Mars.
From a space base, Ilsa, Reza and their daughter Remmy see the stars in the sky.
She spots one in particular, bigger and brighter than any other.
She knows it's not a moon, so deduces it's the Earth, thousands of miles away from them.
The family spends their days doing manual labor in the base, trying to survive the planet's
arid environment with few resources, but with the facility of having terraformed at least
a portion of the region, which allows them to walk freely in the open.
A time cut shows Ilsa calling Remmy, who was running away to look for her lost father in
the vastness of the horizon.
A few hours later, Remmy and her mother have a math class but are interrupted by the sudden
appearance of Reza, who looks agitated after his reconnaissance trip.
Still, he goes to wish a happy night to his daughter, who knows that her suspicions of
strangers nearby are real.
Reza tries to calm her down by telling her that they are the only humans on the planet,
but the girl doubts his words.
At a late-night family meeting, Remmy asks her father if he has ever seen animals, along
with the reasons why they went all the way to Mars.
Reza just says that he haven’t seen any animals, that Earth isn't like it used to
be and that someday, the red planet will be just as good as their former home.
The following day, Remmy senses something in the distance, so she jumps up and goes
to the living room to find 'LEAVE' written in red paint on the windows.
Her parents find out and panic, with Reza even pulling out a gun in case he needs to
defend themselves.
Somehow, they spot at least three individuals somewhere pretending to be six, but are unable
to see them.
They spend the rest of the afternoon cautiously, anxious to know if their barnyard pigs are
okay.
Moved by uncertainty, Remmy decides to inspect, finding an unprotected piglet, their only
living creature so far.
Ilsa notices this, and when she calls her daughter out, a couple of strangers appear
at full speed wanting to take the girl, but Reza manages to intercept them, shooting them
head-on to save his kid.
Just as another of the enemies was about to take Remmy, Ilsa arrives at her rescue, attacking
the stranger until she is unable to stand up.
Everyone runs for cover as the bandits start shooting from afar.
The girls manage to get inside, and with Ilsa's help, Reza fires a shot at the last enemy,
wounding him in the leg.
The father leaves them to inspect while the mother investigates the bodies with the girl.
It is perhaps the first time Remmy sees another human being other than her parents, and to
her bad luck, it ends up being a dead body.
They wait for Reza until dawn, fearful that some stranger would have attacked him far
from there.
They even hear some firing at some point, fearing the worst.
After a spontaneous trip to the bathroom the lights go out, and they remain in darkness
for the rest of the night.
Upon awakening, Ilsa arms herself with a machete to inspect, but she and Remmy are surprised
by a wounded man who breaks into their home.
It’s the same man from yesterday, who claims that the family does not belong there, as
the place originally belonged to his parents before they took it from them.
After many years and several difficulties, the man is able to regain his home and allows
Ilsa and her daughter to stay under the condition of not making any trouble.
On the contrary, he will deal with Ilsa, leaving her daughter alone with him.
However, they reject the proposal, fleeing and taking refuge near the central base.
Ilsa takes the opportunity to enter once the man goes off guard, taking the first thing
she can in the kitchen to ambush him.
Upon entering, the man realizes Ilsa’s plan, so he subdues her, receiving a new wound in
the leg.
He asks her to give him thirty days off from assassination attempts, as he has big plans
for the station.
He actually wants to reactivate and bring out the true potential of the place for a
better living not only for him, but for the girls.
The only condition Ilsa asks of him is a proper burial for Reza, clarifying his death.
He gives them so, burying Reza in a nearby mountain next to the man’s former comrades.
It is then that they begin to live with the mysterious man, who is still suspicious of
Ilsa and her daughter.
Even so, Remmy keeps an eye on the man, who possesses a vast array of weaponry, and when
she has the opportunity to go through his things in secret, she finds a drawing of a
woman, the same one her mother fought to protect her the day before.
She takes the drawing and keeps it for herself.
In the evening, the man tells Ilsa that he has made improvements to the station and that
now they can even have the faucet system working, something they previously hadn’t.
Not only that, but the next day, a little box-shaped robot starts working, which Remmy
takes a liking to and names it 'Steve,' making it her first mascot and friend.
After dinner, the man introduces himself to Ilsa as Jerry, starting a conversation to
build trust.
In turn, she tells him that they were taken into the place by her father initially, rather
than having taken it by force.
However, Jerry’s father rejected them when he learned they were from Earth, so they had
to defend themselves.
Still, they were responsible for Jerry’s mother’s exile, so he still has some resentment
towards them.
There is tension on the base the following days, even if they are no longer trying to
attack each other.
Jerry asks Remmy if she took his drawing, but she denies it.
Knowing this is a lie, the man lets her have it, as she treats it as a treasure.
Gradually, a physical attraction develops between Ilsa and Jerry, something Remmy notices
and, moved by discomfort, decides to leave the station on her own, not even letting Steve
follow her.
Her plans are cut short when she reaches some kind of force field that serves as a barrier
that marks the limit of the habitable perimeter, something that makes Remmy obfuscate, and
she ends up giving up her plans.
However, she comes across a giant door that leads to a dark corridor.
Not knowing what she might find there, Remmy enters, and already a few meters in, the door
closes behind her.
She moves forward with the help of a flashlight ball, but when a light at the end of the tunnel
appears in the distance, Remmy faints over the pressure and the lack of oxygen.
She is rescued by Jerry and wakes up in her bed next to her mother back at home base.
Jerry and Remmy converse, and he tells her that there is nothing but rocks and dust beyond
the barrier.
He says he came from the war and that little by little, the artificial atmosphere they
created is leaking out into space and that the sooner she accepts it, the better it will
be for her.
Remmy marks the days with dust in a mirror, passing a month since she lost her father,
her mother tries to comfort her, but it doesn't seem to have much effect.
The next day, Jerry finds a guitar, and asks Ilsa to play a song.
Out of sadness, Remmy goes to the greenhouse when she hears her mother sing.
In there, she confesses to her mother that she hates her for faking everything is okay.
In the kitchen, Jerry ditches his gun, giving Ilsa the chance to go against him.
However, she later discovers that there are no bullets in the gun, so it is useless, so
she decides to go and grab something else sharp to protect her daughter.
Inside, the two adults struggle out of sight of the girl, but when Jerry gets out badly
wounded, Remmy fears the worst, running away.
Jerry intercepts her and asks her to stay with him, but to wait until it is safe for
her to enter the base, so she won't find her mom's body.
Ilsa is buried on the same mountain as Reza and the other humans, leaving only her daughter
at the mercy of Jerry, who promises not to hurt her.
Years pass, and now the two live together in relative harmony, improving the central
base and the surrounding area to the point of having more pigs, chickens, and vegetables
and bringing vegetation to various parts of the territory.
A young adult Remmy meets Jerry at an artificial pond, and he urges her to give it a try, leaving
her alone.
She does so at night, diving in for the first time, and after sharing some alcohol with
Jerry, they return to the house so that Jerry can surprise her with a gift.
It was a drawing of her mother, which Jerry made waiting for Remmy to grow up a little
more to not lose details.
The girl ends up crying, being consoled by Jerry.
However, he takes advantage of the situation and kisses her, causing her rejection.
Now the atmosphere between the two becomes tenser.
Jerry wants to get closer to initiate a possible repopulation that he believes it’s absolutely
necessary, but Remmy flatly refuses the idea, not caring if they are the last human beings
in the universe.
The two argue, and Jerry asks her to reconsider his proposal.
Steve tries to cheer Remmy up with a ball game, but she refuses to participate and goes
to her room.
Thinking to be safe, she finds Jerry inside, holding Remmy's oxygen mask, which she would
use to escape the barrier eventually.
Jerry gets angry and leaves with the mask, but Remmy tries to take it back so she can
go outside and see the truth by herself, even if Jerry tells her there is no one else out
there.
The two struggle and Jerry makes her fall to accidentally smash her head on the floor
with a valve.
Jerry is shocked to see that the only one who witnessed the event was Steve the robot.
Waking up with a wound on her head, Remmy realizes that she is tied up, with Jerry on
top of her.
He tries to calm the situation, but the girl despairs.
He tells her that there is still hope for humanity, but it causes the opposite effect
on the girl, who hyperventilates and starts struggling on the bed.
Jerry apologizes, saying that he doesn't like doing those kinds of things either and that
everyone else is forcing him to act in order to survive.
The desperation reaches such a point that Jerry is forced to threatening her if she
doesn’t calm down.
While the girl becomes even more desperate, at least she remains quiet from now on, fearful
of what might happen.
Just as Jerry is about to proceed, he is shot by Steve, who comes to the girl's rescue.
Jerry is seriously wounded in the neck, and instead of staying with Remmy, he prefers
to approach the robot and shoot it to destruction.
Remmy manages to free himself and flees while Jerry struggles in the kitchen.
He sees through the reflection of the window the girl aiming at him.
He tries to save himself by telling her that she needs him as much as he needs her, but
Remmy disagrees.
Jerry was about to take his gun to defend himself but preferred to cease because of
the genuine fondness he had for the girl.
Remmy manages a direct headshot, leaving her alone not only on the base but also in the
entire territory.
All she can do is sit and cry all night long.
She buries Jerry's body in the mountain, making her the last survivor in the base, and the
only living thing aside the plants and the few animals.
She takes a shower and surveys the area, knowing that no one else will appear.
She manages to reactivate her robot friend, but it's not enough to bring Steve back to
her side.
Remmy spends her days alone, watching the animals and subsisting by her own.
Still, she becomes sedentary, careless, and sluggish, believing she has been touched by
her mother in her sleep.
She also begins to have visions of Jerry prowling the base, concluding with screaming at the
top of her lungs in case anyone else could hear her.
Her only company is the tiny Earth in the distance, wondering if there are other people
there.
Still, she persists in repairing Steve and after many attempts, manages to get him functional
again to say goodbye for her next voyage.
The machine is saddened to lose its friend, and Remmy goes to farewell all the deceased
on the mountain one last time.
Her last vision of her home is Steve taking care of the pigs, and then she sets out to
march to the cave entrance.
Remmy moves forward, wearing her mask that provides her with oxygen on her walking, and
makes it through to the other side as if nothing had happened.
She is both excited and nervous of seeing the great beyond, and to her surprise, she
sees only miles and miles of wasteland, completely booked for her to explore.
There aren’t any human civilizations on the horizon, just dirt and sand.
She feels something behind her, and the girl sees the tunnel gates close behind her, alone
in the massiveness of the red planet.