A three person mission to Mars faces disaster when they discover a stowaway aboard threatening all of their lives. 

Stowaway is the ethical dilemma known as “The Trolley Problem” writ large on a science fiction canvas. As with all good science fiction films, it uses speculative and futuristic concepts to explore human behaviour. In this case, when a mission equipped with enough oxygen for three people suddenly has four people what do you do? Do nothing and all four people die. Or take action to reduce the number of people to three? 

Throughout Stowaway’s entire running time we only see or hear the four people on the ship heading for Mars. The mission commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette) is the seasoned professional, on her third and final space mission. Zoe Levinson (Anna Kendrick) is a doctor trained as an astronaut to conduct research on Mars. David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) is a botanist trained as an astronaut to investigate the creation of oxygen on Mars. Whilst Michael Adam’s (Shamier Anderson) is our stowaway. As with all good astronauts in exploration films they are highly intelligent and like to solve complex problems. But what will they do with a question that has no answer? 

I really enjoyed Stowaway. Co-writer and director Joe Penna creates a good balance between philosophical argument, existential despair and adventure throughout. The film gives us enough credit to not over explain every facet of the story and presents characters behaving in realistic, authentic ways. 

Will the crew solve the dilemma? I suggest you watch and see.