In PROSPECT, a teenage girl (Cee) and her father (Damon) travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems that must be cut out of alien creatures that reside within the moon's forest similar to removing a pearl from a clam. Except in this case if you don't do it just the right way the creature emits an acid that destroys the gem and anything in proximity to it. Sometimes the acid even triggers an explosion that obliterates everything in proximity to the creatures being harvested. So this is no easy task!
Also add in to the difficulties of harvesting these gems that while the moon has a lush environment it has an atmosphere that is toxic to humans. A combination of bacteria, gasses and viruses make is so that prospectors from Earth need to constantly wear headgear with filters that scrub out the bad stuff in the air. Based upon this the moon hasn't been colonized and is primarily the destination of people looking to get rich either by prospecting for gems or robbing those who have successfully harvested them.
Cee and Damon's spacecraft malfunctions while landing on the moon placing them off target from their job site and forcing them to navigate through the harsh environment to get there. While roving through the wilderness their situation quickly devolves into a fight to survive. Forced to contend not only with the dangers of the moon's forests but also with her own father's greed-addled judgment, Cee finds she must carve her own path to get off the moon alive.
I had the opportunity to review an advance screener of PROSPECT before the movie's theatrical premiere courtesy of Gunpowder & Sky and really enjoyed the film. It is an indie-style film that isn't filled with big budget CGI effects, but that is a good thing as the movie has more of a focus on story telling compared to many of the shows you'll see at theaters today that are more about simply wowing viewers with special effects. Science Fiction fans will appreciate this movie because it delves into a story that transports audiences to a California Gold Rush type scenario taking place in outer space. PROSPECT takes a classic Western movie style with prospectors and outlaws and puts a Sci Fi spin on it setting the film on futuristic alien landscape.
While the movie doesn't feature the special effects of a blockbuster movie, its imagery still provides an immersive experience that compliments the story. Practical effects and costumes utilized for PROSPECT provide a gritty, realistic view of what space travel may actually look like in the future compared to the fantasy imagery of Star Trek and Star Wars. The movie makes you feel as if you are in a time and place where people are using the spaceship equivalent of covered wagons to set out into the wilderness in search of making themselves a fortune.
PROSPECT depicts space travel as a grind on people and alien environments as being tricky places to survive. Tech is expensive and often old, faulty, and second-hand. Yet technology has reached a point where even down and out people hoping against all odds for a chance at a fresh start can cobble together enough resources to get themselves transported into the stars in search of making a fortune. This movie isn't about intergalactic battles or saving the universe from super villains but rather tells the story of ordinary people just trying to improve the everyday status of their lives. In PROSPECT, we join in on an adventure with people who are pushed into the treacherous frontiers of space out of economic desperation putting their lives on the line to change their personal status quo.
PROSPECT earns A Geek Daddy nod of approval for its realistic portrayal of a futuristic adventure with a plot that captivated my interest in what the outcome for its characters would be throughout the movie. I appreciated that this was something different from today's standard fare of science fiction movies and television shows which makes PROSPECT stand out. This indie movie obviously was created by science fiction fans for sci fi fans. If you appreciate classic science fiction stories than this movie is a must see. Catch it while you can on the big screen!
PROSPECT is rated R and has a runtime of 97 minutes. For more information about this movie written and directed by Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell, head over to shepfilms.com/prospect
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