The Last Scout (2017)

As someone else said this movie is so much better than it's getting credit for. Yes it should have at least half an hour of the more boring parts cut out. The special effects at times are kind of poor. Most of the plot issues can be easily explained away, like why is everyone so angry at each other? Maybe there's a minor leak of something toxic making everyone agro or maybe everyone is just really rattled by all of humanity being nuked. Parts of that should definitely be cut, in fact some enterprising video editors could fix the movie in a snap. What's the opposite of a director's cut? But the movie did give me the lost-in-space creepies even if only a fraction as much as Pandorum did. I think a lot of people who hated it didn't like how dark it was and how ridiculously combative everyone was on it. Put in a news clip at the very beginning explaining away how long range space travel makes a tiny percentage of people very crazy. With a few bandaids and half an hour cut this could go from a good movie to a great one.But the hiccups didn't bother me much at all and almost every plot point seemed imminently plausible. The movie is just too damned long and slow at a few points, someone get in there and fix it for us.If you like dark space horror you might like this movie a lot like I do.

This film is more about personalities than plot, although the plot does ultimately appear in the last half. Most of the tension is about which jerk is going to become a villain and if the ship is going to fall apart. I'm not sure how this movie would play to someone who has never been in a small group of people trying to do something vital, at least to our livelihood, with inadequate resources. It gets a bit weak at the end, but remains very moving because the characters have earned our concern. This turns out not to be surprising, as most of the top billed actors, director and writer have made multiple movies and TV shows together. This was even picked up as a series for 2018. In one scene two characters watch The Night of the Living Dead, and they have made zombie films together. The atmosphere throughout is a little like that of the Nostromo, without the alien. There aren't jokes, but there is humor, especially from the chat bot ship's computer. If you liked Europa Report you should like this, although they don't go to the trouble to simulate no gravity.The main trouble, and it is a big one, is that there is constant background noise, with the ship rumbling, creaking and banging and the sound mixing is poor, so much of the dialogue is lost. I re-watched certain parts with CC and am upping this movie another star. I have gone through IMDb selecting films this crew have made together and hope some are available.

After a Thermonuclear War Humanity's last hope is for a small crew of a Spacecraft, the Pegasus, not made for Long Term, Long Range Space Flight to find a habitable World. As basically a One Way Trip (Do or Die). Many other Spacecraft like the Pegasus were also launched, like the Utah, and failed. An encoded message from the Utah was received by the Captain of the Pegasus from the Utah, before the Utah was lost.The small crew, barely enough, to keep the Scout Ship running, with anti matter nearly gone.After 7 years of being confined to the Spacecraft and near their destination, encounter a Chinese Spacecraft of the same PT 32 design. They decide to board the Chinese Spacecraft with the intent of obtaining the Chinese Anti Matter, Medical Supplies, Chinese Ship's Computer Data, after the Chinese Spacecraft fails to respond to signals from the Pegasus.A lone survivor is found on the Chinese Dragon Spacecraft, a young Chinese Boy, that was not murdered by one of the Insane Chinese Crew Members then jettisoned into Space like the other Crew Members. The Chinese Dragon Spacecraft does not have Anti Matter, the Escape Pod is missing.Something happens and the Pegasus' Engineer, Pete, gets trapped on the Chinese Dragon Spacecraft that is going critical, members of the crew of the Pegasus say goodbye to Pete. The Chinese Dragon Spacecraft then goes critical and explodes.The Crew of the Pegasus continue their Mission.A probe is launched from the Pegasus to determine if their Mission Targeted Planet is Habitable.Data from the Chinese Dragon Spacecraft indicates that the Chinese found Two Possibly Habitable Worlds after launching Two Probes. As "Two Rolls of the Dice" instead of one.The decision is made and the Pegasus, lands. The Planet is not habitable. The Pegasus is damaged and uses more Anti Matter on take off.Enroute to the Second possible Habitable Planet crew member, Blake, while at the Pegasus' Bridge gets his throat cut. Most think that the Chinese Boy murdered Blake, as the same Hatred and Mistrust that caused the Thermonuclear War.Somebody is sabotaging the Pegasus from Engineering.The Captain finds a panel open after finding that the Chinese Boy is still restrained. The Captain repairs the cut wiring, the Internal Sensors are restored and from the Bridge, the Computer indicates that there are Two Survivors from the Chinese Dragon Spacecraft.The Chinese Man as the Second Survivor struggling with the Captain is then shot and killed.There is the plot twist, as even after the Chinese Man was shot and killed, more of the Crew are Murdered.Crew member Jerry has a disease and will soon die and has gone crazy and is killing the other Crew members. Mike figures this out and is murdered by Jerry. Jerry takes Haley hostage and goes to the Bridge and murdered the Pegasus' Pilot Jane.The Captain decides to put young child Lila and the young Chinese child into the Pegasus Escape Pod and launch to the second possible Habitable Planet. The probe is seen by the Chinese Captain of the Dragon Spacecraft from the Habitable Planet, possibly the father of the Chinese Boy.The Captain goes to the Bridge and fights with Jerry, shooting and killing Jerry. The Pegasus is out of Anti Matter. Nearly out of power the Captain and Haley decide to launch a communications probe to tell the Fleet about the Habitable Planet they found.The Pegasus is seen burning up in the atmosphere from the Habitable Planet by the Chinese Captain, the Chinese Boy, and Lila.This movie is NOT a bang bang shoot em up, explosions every couple of minutes, with extraordinary unbelievable Heroes, but accurately depicts the long 7 year one way trip, boredom, monotony everyday, psychological stress of years of confinement, possible problems that the Actual First Inter Planetary (Inter Galactic) Space Explorers will Encounter, as Serious Actual Science Fiction (that may turn into Science Fact someday), instead of Entertainment for those with Attention Deficit Disorder, that must have violence, sex, explosions, aliens, monsters, lasers shooting, immense battles, chase scenes occurring every few minutes. Before getting insulted and demanding this Review be Censored the History of Attention Deficit Disorder, is simple, the Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder did not exist before the Pharmaceutical Corporations started giving Doctors (Psychiatrists)"Incentives" to Prescribe their Products as Free All Expenses Paid Vacations, Money (Bribes), New Cars, New Boats, other Free Expensive Drugs, even Prostitutes (according to investigative News Journalists), these Attention Deficit Disorder Drugs would addict children for the rest of the Lives making the Pharmaceuticals Corporations Hundreds of $Billions A Year.

First to say, this is not a new 'Sunshine' (2007), nor 'Pandorum' (2009) . If you want one of those, you have to look elsewhere. The basic story is quite similar though - a spaceship, here not so big, and with only a few people on board, searching for the last resort of mankind , while earth herself is nearly destroyed. The main difference to 'Sunshine' and 'Pandorum' is the amount of bloodshed, and also the budget, which was approx. a tenth of each of the former's.It may be true that the first 40 minutes are a bit hard to overcome for the average sf-action lover. There we learn to know the crew, which is a bit of a family since they are now together for seven years, as we are told. The movie takes it's time to establish a certain mood of day-life, instead of bringing up severe conflicts or delusions and problems immediately. That's OK, if you ask me, I do sometimes like a more lifelike approach. And who, when not astronauts, should be able to live through such a long journey ?When the ship encounters the derelict ship, as described in the story-line, the movie gains momentum as it should, and it doesn't lose it until the end, providing enough tension and action for a rainy evening in front of the flat-screen. Acting is solid, directing and special effects are OK for a Direct-to-Video or Video-On-Demand production (which I assume it is).As the budget may dictate, 'The last scout' cannot claim to be special or outstanding, like said examples, and it doesn't want to. Instead, it tells its story, and this is where it looses some stars, the story ingredients are too much copied from those other movies, minus a certain amount of their violence, to be suitable for families, I think. It would have taken only a bit of time to form a more creative and interesting solution within the premises, at least avoiding said big models. So, for the SF veteran, the outcome and the explanations toward the end are a bit disappointing.I can give the movie yet 6/10, as 5 would be too low in my eyes.