welcome back to movie recaps today i
will show you a sci-fi film from 2018
titled oniara spoilers ahead watch out
and take care
the aniara is an interplanetary
spaceship meant to take humans to the
terraformed mars because the
environmental collapse of earth has made
the planet barely habitable
the effects of this crisis happening in
the distant future can be seen both on
land and on the human population
traveling off world in search of a
better life
the vessel works as an all-encompassing
traveling hotel which has everything one
can possibly imagine
from restaurants and malls to spas pools
and nightclubs
as the captain would later reflect it's
their own little planet they have built
inside of a spaceship
in fact as you will discover every
aspect of the ship is meant to mirror
life on earth
both literally and symbolically the main
character whose experience we will
follow on the aniara is a mimoroban or
mr for short
a mymoroban is a person that works in a
special part of the ship
the mema that is meant to give people an
escape from the realities of their
current situation and virtually whisk
them away into a time when the earth
wasn't destroyed
the technology is so potent that
everyone who steps inside the mema room
instantly falls into a kind of daze that
can only be avoided by proper training
to gain focus and control over its
effects
mr has had such training but she can
still use the benefits of mima and lose
herself inside it for a brief moment of
surrender before her shift begins
the astronomer is one of the side
characters in the film that will reflect
its darker themes more directly later on
but for now she explains how the
passengers can expect their journey on
the on yard look like for the next three
weeks
the passengers are led into their rooms
by the personnel and aided to strap into
their beds until the gravitational load
has adapted to the vessel's cruising
speed
mr will be sharing a bunk bed with the
astronomer for what is to be a routine
voyage for the two of them
the beginning of the first hour on the
aniara goes on without a hitch
some of the passengers have gathered
before the mima to enjoy its effects
though not many are interested in them
for the moment mr takes the passengers
inside the meema room and explains how
it works
the meme is control over one's
consciousness becomes more intense as
one stays in its proximity
mr uses one of the passengers capiba to
show the rest what they can expect to
see once the full effects of mima have
entered their minds
as well as their memories and she does
it through a tiny monitor device
suddenly the aniara experiences a
critical hit that pretty much
destroys its propulsion systems the
command bridge tries to do some damage
control by ejecting the fuel so they
don't explode
while the pilot isagel observes how
their course has been dramatically
altered because of the accident
some of the systems on the ship come
back online but the trouble with aniara
is only just beginning as the captain
will soon inform everyone on board
the crucial information that the captain
shares with the passengers and everyone
else is that they no longer have control
of the ship and to get back on course
they will have to wait for a celestial
body to use its gravity and slingshot
back on track
however since they don't know when they
will be able to do that the journey to
mars will be prolonged from three weeks
to a couple years which naturally
doesn't bode well with the passengers to
illustrate how some handle the news
we see a woman in the next scene the
beatle being dragged into mima by mr to
calm her awful panic attack
kepa is there to help but she checks out
fast as well
it's week three since the accident and
things seem superficially calm on board
the aniara the passengers find different
ways to escape their daily realities on
the ship
so mima also gets many more visitors
than before
realizing this new influx of customers
mr wants to speak to the captain so that
he could assign more people to the mima
to help her out
she gets stressed as well and can't
sleep so she goes to the pool to relax
where isajel goes to do the same
mister is attracted to isagel but
doesn't know how to approach her yet
when she gets back to her room she has
an illuminating conversation with the
astronomer
who tells her something she probably
would have been better off not knowing
the old woman in a very dry
matter-of-fact fashion
tells mister that they will not be
coming in close contact with a celestial
body anytime soon
in fact she's sure the captain is aware
of that as well but he's keeping the
information from the others to avoid the
negative reaction it can produce
mr also has trouble handling the fact
that they are doomed to drift in the
vastness of space for an indefinite
amount of time
even though unlike most of the others
she has no one waiting for her on mars
she panics and tries to find some
comfort and alcohol and mima
lying down in the fetal position and
finally drifting off in the virtual
space of the device
mr isn't the only one suffering panic
attacks as we can see in the next scene
where a passenger has also found out the
same truth from the astronomer
while trying to calm him down so she can
take him to mima mr drops another
devastating truth about the hellish life
conditions on mars which he
fortunately doesn't hear because his
translator knows better than to share it
with him
mr takes the passenger to the already
full mema and finds him a spot next to
the others while also managing to grab
the security guard just before he can
fall completely under its control
sometime later she finally gets to see
the captain to make her request for
assistance in mima
telling him that she will need around
five to six people that will also need
to be trained to resist mima's images
mr thinks that the influx of clients in
memo will be even greater when the
people find out that they won't be able
to turn back
the captain agrees to grant her request
and tells her that the rest of the
people will be informed of the situation
once they get used to eating the algae
that will soon become their only source
of food
after three years of drifting the algae
situation on the aniara is causing a
little bit of a problem with the
filtration systems on
board the passengers are keeping it
together somehow
mostly by using mima or other ways to
divert their attention away from their
doom state
mr keeps falling more for isagel even
though she has one night stands with men
that mean nothing to her
she talks to the astronomer about what
she feels for isagel
but the woman just diverts the
conversation into a fatalistic and
defeatist acceptance of the human
condition and all its marginal nonsense
like love
in her worldview their lives their loves
and the aniara are just as miniscule and
meaningless in the vastness of space
as the little bubble of air in her
whiskey glass mister tries to escape
those ideas in the comfort of mima
but as she will soon discover the device
itself is no better at dealing with
their predicament than the humans
seeking refuge in her delightful calm as
it can be seen in the horrible images of
the birds disappearing or dying
the mimora band can't find what exactly
is the problem with the device's clients
begin to come in for a session
mr welcomes all but mimi begins
unraveling once again
spouting what seems like nonsense and
causing terrible nightmares in the
clients
mr sees the nightmares with her
monitoring device first in one client
then in all of them
and quickly calls quits to the session
getting everyone out and not allowing
anyone in
regardless of how many have flocked to
enjoy the serenity of mima
we see the beatle again very
disappointed that she won't get into
mima for a session
mr gets a scolding from the captain for
closing down mima
even though she reminds him that it
needs to rest considering it can see
and feel everything that the passengers
have gone through the captain doesn't
care for her explanations because he
wants to keep the new
ecosystem on the ship working and mima
is a great part of that
mr continues to work with mima jotting
down everything that the magical device
states
as a kind of therapy to let it get out
its innermost thoughts about the
horrible visions it has received of
mankind
mima is on its very edge when people
begin to enter the room and don't
respond to misters yells to get out
libido stares into the dying device when
it explodes in what was probably a way
to end its own life and suffering
in the next shot we see mr who is not
taking nima's death easily
but neither is anyone else on the ship
with libido already spreading rumors
about mr and her involvement in mima's
demise
isagel goes to talk to the captain on
mr's behalf so that she doesn't get
punished for what happened
but since he needs a scapegoat for his
own wrongdoing he's willing to accept
the rumors about mr as truth
the captain taunts isagel in their
conversation prompting her to hit him
so she gets arrested and mister faces
the same fate just some moments later as
the guards catch her in one of the
hallways of the aniara and beat her up
quite gruesomely before they take her in
custody
the fourth year on the aniara rolls by
and things become truly dire
some of the people on board in need of
any kind of meaning and reassurance
begin to form cults
while others commit suicide in
ever-growing numbers isagel and mr have
gotten close during their years of
imprisonment and we can see them now
getting chosen to be part of the
additional staff of the aniara
tasked to maintain some of the ship's
most important systems and resources
the two of them however get different
directions with isigel getting back to
logistics and mister getting a teaching
position
they even get new lodgings together
which just strengthens their bond
further
when mr walks through the ship after her
one-year imprisonment she can see how
changed and rugged it has become
just like the cult of science which mr
is now a part of as a teacher
the other more nonsensical ones continue
to grow on the aniara this is something
that isagel and mr find out during a
session in the spa when kapiba asks them
to be a part of the libido and the
libido is called
mr rightfully thinks that they would
want to sacrifice her for killing mima
but kapiba tells them her cult believes
that mima killed herself out of grief
in the next sequence of events we see
the ritual to canonize mema that begins
innocuously with the ceremonial painting
of their faces and a prayer for mima
libido leads the women of the cult into
another room where the men join them and
opens the floor for a ceremonial
gathering
the people of the libido cult have
exchanged the pleasure they would have
received from mema for the pleasure they
can now receive from each other
while mister is fully immersed in the
experience isagel doesn't seem too
excited for it but sleeps with one of
the men nonetheless
in the fifth year of aniara's endless
journey isagel and mr are expecting a
baby butt
isagel unlike mr isn't happy about it
dispassionately reflecting on their
hellish predicament on the ship
in a bid to help isagel and the others
mr decides to build a beam screen
outside the windows of the aniara to
bring back the light on the ship
sharing that idea with the astronomer
who has been in a constant drunken
stupor for the last couple of years
isn't the smartest thing she could do
the drunkard laughs at her
saying that she wants to build a
substitute for what itself was a
substitute
that doesn't stop mr from trying to get
to the captain and share her ideas with
him
his reaction while not as full of
ridicule as the astronomers
is a definite no explaining that her
place as a teacher is infinitely more
important for the future generations of
the ship than that of a light beam
shielding them from reality mr needs to
grow up because her baby is on its way
to as can be seen in the next shot of
isagele giving birth in their bathtub
after the baby is born isageless doesn't
get any better in fact
she's probably suffering from postpartum
depression taking a bath with the infant
isagel is seen holding it under water
for a bit longer than she should
until she is called out to the bridge mr
joins them there and she finds out that
some kind of vessel is approaching the
aniara
based on their observations it is not a
rescue ship regardless of what the
rumors on board might want to make it
look like
isagel and the captain are of the
impression that the vessel might be a
probe carrying fuel and fuel rods for
the ship
even isagel is happy about that
discovery the aniara rejoices about a
future in which they can restart their
engines and turn back home when the
vessel arrives in a year or so
the sixth year comes with a different
attitude and a different outlook on the
aniara
the crew is getting prepared to grab the
incoming vessel they see as their saving
grace by performing simulations with the
ship's grappling hooks
it's not a situation lacking in stress
for the commanding crew
considering how important they see the
mission but at least the passengers have
some hope for the future
the vessel approaches finally and the
crew instructs the passengers to get
into their cabins and lie down because
they will be upping the gravity on the
aniara considerably so they can slow it
down and grab it
the procedure starts with isagel on the
command bridge
the vessel comes close to the starship
and they engage the grappling hooks as
everyone waits in suspense
they catch it successfully and reel it
inside the aniara with a whole team
coming in to inspect it
the vessel turns out to be a complete
mystery to everyone
in a briefing with the captain one of
the younger engineers suggests that
their methods of investigating might
actually be outdated
while the second in command questions if
they should have even said that it was a
rescue probe
the captain however has an entirely
different outlook
primarily concerned with the
psychological well-being of the crew
noting how much their motivation was
umped when they heard about the probe
he even says that they should have lied
it was coming long before they actually
saw one
misters and isigel's child is growing up
happily with two mothers who have found
a new joy in life because of what they
expect the probe to be
however that is soon to change when mr
finds the astronomer drunk again at one
of the bars on the ship
she knows about the probe and soon
everyone else will too however
the way they try to extract data from
the probe nothing comes up with any
answers
luckily the astronomer is there to
remind everyone working on the probe to
adopt a nihilistic attitude as she is
once again succumbed to
in an ironic twist the captain tells her
that she will be receiving an award for
her discovery since she was the first
one to see the probe on the telescopes
he informs the rest of the people
investigating the probe that he will not
be sharing their lack of discoveries
with anyone else and
furthermore the captain forbids them
from sharing it also
the astronomer aptly comments that they
are in a coffin hurling through space
which angers the captain enough to shoot
her dead
mr reads the eulogy during the
astronomers funeral on the motivation
and happiness that was felt by everyone
before is seen leaving their minds
just as the astronomers body is sent out
to drift alone in space
one might think that mr would take her
death the worst doing hallucinogenic
drugs with her friends
but they aren't doing that great either
while the aniara is going through some
kind of space storm
mister goes dancing and falls back to
her old ways before she met and fell for
isagel
leaving her alone in their room with the
baby the storm creates another problem
on the ship
whose effects are seen in a momentary
turbulence with the aftermath of death
reaching throughout the entire ship the
beetle dies during the space storm like
many others
mister rushes into her quarters and
finds us a gel and the baby's still
alive
but not for long isa gel isn't doing
very well
sometime later the captain has at last
given mr the go ahead to make her beam
screen
outside of the ship so she continues
working trying haplessly to keep it
together
isagel tries to be happy for her but she
has other things on her mind
she sees how happy mr is and tells her
that she admires her for keeping her
hopes up after many years of darkness
mister finally gets her beam screen
running outside of the ship
she prances back happily to her room
only to be struck by the tragedy that
has occurred inside
of isagel killing both herself and their
little child
ten years later the aniara is still
operational
but with fewer passengers and even less
enthusiasm than the previous years
after one of the most depressing parties
to happen in deep space
the captain still pretends like
everything is fine even when he has
begun cutting himself
saying that the aniara is a pioneering
ship he calls mr on stage and gives her
an honorary medal for exemplary
achievement for her beam
but she isn't happy anymore nor does she
care for the metal or the ship quite
frankly
even the algae don't care anymore it is
the 24th year since the aniara started
her journey into the unknown reaches of
space
devoid of all meaning and some of the
people still persist
however they returned to cultish and
mystical thinking in their solemn
surroundings
almost 6 million years have passed with
the aniara drifting in space when it
finally arrives at a celestial body
no one is alive on board to witness it
happening
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