The Space Between Us (film)

Plot

In the near future, Nathaniel Shepard, CEO of Genesis, launches the first ever mission to colonize Mars. During the journey, the lead astronaut, Sarah Elliot, discovers she is pregnant. Shortly after landing, she dies from complications while giving birth to the first human born on Mars. The father of the child is unknown. In a dilemma, Nathaniel eventually decides to keep the child on Mars as a secret, to avoid a PR disaster for his company.

16 years later, her son, Gardner Elliot, has grown into an inquisitive, highly intelligent boy who has only ever met 14 people in his very unconventional upbringing. One day, in order to find out more about his mother, he hacks into Centaur, a robot he helped build, to gain access to the ship's storage. There, he retrieves his mother's items. Among them, a wedding ring and a USB drive, from which he plays a video of her and a man in a beach house. Convinced that the man is his father, he becomes determined to find him.

Gardner logs on to an Internet chatroom, where he has struck up an online relationship with Tulsa, a street smart girl from Colorado who is constantly being shuffled from one foster home to the next. Under the guise of being confined to a penthouse, due to osteogenesis imperfecta, they discuss their plans for the future. Gardner promises to come see her, someday. His mother figure, astronaut Kendra Wyndham, video calls Nathaniel and Genesis director Tom Chen, to inform them of Gardner's extraordinary intelligence and to beg them to allow him to return to Earth. Nathaniel refuses, as Gardner would have to undergo a highly risky surgery to increase his bone density, and then train to adapt to Earth's atmospheric pressure. Gardner undergoes the surgery anyway, and after training, he, Kendra, and some other astronauts board a space shuttle for Earth.

On the day of the space shuttle's arrival, Nathaniel discovers that Gardner is on board. He angrily confronts Tom, who hid this from him. Despite his anger, Nathaniel visits Gardner, who is being quarantined in NASA while undergoing medical tests to determine whether he is fit for life on Earth. After a visit from Kendra, Gardner manages to discover that he is not fit for life on Earth. Upset, he stages a daring escape and hitches a ride to find Tulsa. Upon seeing him, Tulsa hits him as she is upset at Gardner for 'ghosting' her for 7 months. However, she forgives him and he convinces her to help him find his father. They stop by her house to get supplies for the journey, but are found by Nathaniel and Kendra. While trying to convince him to return, Gardner angrily confronts Kendra with her own admission of not wanting children, and escapes with Tulsa on an old plane her foster father was working on. The plane abruptly loses oil pressure while still in the sky. Tulsa manages to crash-land the plane into an old, abandoned barn, causing a fiery explosion. They escape safely to a diner where they determine the location of the shaman that married Gardner's parents, Shaman Neka.

Believing that Gardner has died, a grieving Nathaniel and Kendra let out their rage at one another. After discovering that no bodies were found in the wreckage, they receive some devastating news - Gardner's body contains dangerously high levels of troponin, meaning that he has an enlarged heart. His heart is unable to stand Earth's atmospheric pressure, and so Gardner must be returned to Mars immediately if he is to survive. The search is resumed with renewed fervor, and they discover CCTV footage of Gardner and Tulsa in a supermarket parking lot, where they have bought clothes and supplies for the journey. During the journey, Gardner tells Tulsa the truth - that he was born and raised on Mars. Unwilling to accept the truth, she forces him out of the car but forgives him once he promises never to lie to her again, although she still does not believe him.

At night, they camp out under the stars, where they kiss and have sex. In the morning, they are discovered by a follower of Shaman Neka and are brought to him. He agrees to help them. Gardner's nose starts bleeding, a fact he conceals while Tulsa accesses the records to get the location of the beach house, which is in New California.

Before they begin their journey, they make a detour to Las Vegas. Gardner's nose starts to bleed again and he collapses and is taken to a hospital. After seeing the carbon tubes in his bones on the results of an X-ray at the hospital, Tulsa tells Gardner she now believes he was born on Mars, but plans to leave him in the hospital, before foster care can come, as he is too sick to continue their journey. Gardner reveals that he knows he won't last anymore on Earth, and all he wants is to meet his father before he dies. Tulsa gives in and helps him escape. They steal a car and drive to the beach house. There, they meet the man from the video, who reveals that he is not Sarah Elliot's husband, but her brother. However, he thinks that the two are lying to him. Gardner runs down to the sea, where he tells Tulsa that this is where he wants to die. He collapses. Tulsa tries frantically to drag him to the shore, but he is too heavy for her. Nathaniel and Kendra arrive just in time to save him. While Nathaniel performs CPR on him, Gardner asks him about his mother, and reveals that he knows Nathaniel is his real father. Nathaniel, Kendra, and Tulsa rush Gardner to a Dream Chaser. They plan to launch into the stratosphere to stabilize him. When that proves to not be enough, a desperate Nathaniel takes control and launches into outer space. Miraculously, this suicidal mission works and Gardner is revived.

Soon, Gardner boards a space shuttle to Mars. Tulsa and Gardner have an emotional parting. Kendra, who is staying on Earth to train astronauts for Mars, adopts Tulsa. Determined to join Gardner on Mars, Tulsa joins Kendra's program. Back on Mars, with his father Nathaniel, Gardner enjoys life.

Cast

Production

In 1999, Universal Pictures and Mike Lobell Productions acquired a screenplay, then titled Mainland, about a rebellious teen born on the moon who desired to come to the earth but whose physiology, it was feared, would not be able to take the translation. After failed rewrites by Allison Burnett (Autumn in New York), the project was placed in turnaround, as Lobell left Universal for a deal at Castle Rock Entertainment. The project remained unproduced for over a decade.

On March 13, 2014, The Tracking Board revealed that a science fiction-adventure film titled Out of This World was in development at Relativity Media, scripted by Allan Loeb. Later in August 2014, it was reported that Peter Chelsom, who had previously directed Hector and the Search for Happiness for Relativity, was hired to direct the film, while Relativity would produce and distribute. Southpaw Entertainment's Richard B. Lewis was attached to produce the film.

On February 2, 2015, Asa Butterfield was tapped to play the lead character in the film, a teen who was raised on Mars, and who falls in love with a girl on Earth he has been communicating with. Chelsom and Tinker Lindsay rewrote the screenplay. On July 13, 2015, it was announced that Relativity was selling the project to STX Entertainment, in order to reach an agreement with its creditors and avoid having to file for bankruptcy. STX produced and distributed the film, while Lewis only served as a producer. On July 31, 2015, Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, and Britt Robertson joined the cast of the then-untitled film. Robertson would play the female lead, a teen girl from Colorado. On September 8, 2015, it was announced that the title of the film would be The Space Between Us, and B. D. Wong and Janet Montgomery were added to the cast. On September 30, 2015, Trey Tucker joined the film to play an astronaut, and on October 23, 2015, Scott Takeda was cast to play a doctor in the film.

Principal photography on the film began on September 14, 2015, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Andrew Lockington composed the film's score, which was released through Sony Music Entertainment.

Release

In August 2015, STX Entertainment scheduled the film to be released on July 29, 2016. The release date was later switched with STX's other release, Bad Moms, and was pushed back from July 29, 2016 to August 19, 2016. However, since June 2016, as Kubo and the Two Strings, Ben-Hur, and War Dogs were all set a release date for August 19, 2016 the film was pushed back from August 19, 2016 to December 21, 2016, allowing more time for work on the visual effects. The film's release was later moved up from December 21, 2016 to December 16, 2016, before being pushed back from December 16, 2016 to February 3, 2017.

Box office

In North America, The Space Between Us was released alongside Rings and The Comedian, and was projected to gross $8–10 million from 2,812 theaters during its opening weekend. The film ended up grossing $1.4 million on its first day and $3.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing well below expectations, and 7th at the box office. In its third weekend the film grossed $260,000 after being pulled from 2,441 theaters (dropping 84.6% to 331), marking the 6th biggest theater drop in history.

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 17%, based on 105 reviews, with a weighted average of 4.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Space Between Us strands its star-crossed young lovers in a mind-numbingly vast expanse of shameless cheese that will send all but the most forgiving viewers eye-rolling for the exits." On Metacritic, the film holds a score 33 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Writing for IndieWire, David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "C," calling it a "guileless and good-natured sci-fi love story". Kevin Maher gave a scathing review in The Times, writing that the film is "notable only for some horrendously bad science and a career-low performance from Gary Oldman".