SCI-FI ENTERTAINMENT A JOURNEY INTO ORBITAL DYSFUNCTIONAL SYNDROME

by Keith ‘Doc’ Raymond

The movie Pandorum released in 2009, a collaboration between German and British filmmakers was a flop, financially. Christian Alvart directed the film, and it was produced by Robert Kulzer, Jeremy Bolt and Paul W. S. Anderson, with the latter two through their Impact Pictures banner. Travis Milloy wrote the screenplay from a story by Milloy and Alvart. But for those of us that enjoy dark science fiction, it is a secret gem, and one that I feel we should share. They billed it as science fiction with elements of Lovecraftian horror blended into a survival adventure. Think of it as I am Legend in space. Yet it is far more interesting in scope and vision.

The problem with the film involves all the story expositions being there, except they jumbled them up in such a way that the viewer has to put the puzzle pieces together. Information that should appear early shows up late, and they provide later information early and out of context. To add another layer of complication, two scenes happen simultaneously, somehow linked, to provide the viewer with insight. So the first viewing of the movie is confusing at best. And most folks don’t go back to see it again because of the gruesome sequences.

The screen writer and director knew what was going on, but the audience didn’t. This also happens with young writers, where they know what to expect in their stories, but it does not quite get to the page. Then you add a layer of insanity to the mix, and any sane viewer can’t keep up. More on this shortly.

The word Pandorum is a slang word coined in the script and movie to define Orbital Dysfunctional Syndrome. Orbital Dysfunctional Syndrome (ODS) is a condition caused by deep space and triggered by emotional stress. It is first introduced as ODS without explanation. The symptoms include severe paranoia, delirium, and nose bleeding. And of course, the lead characters suffer from it or succumb to it, adding a dimension and further complication to the plot. Because you do not know if something is actually happening, or simply in the character’s hallucination.

So consider this a guide to the movie, best read beforehand to get the full measure of the tale. The massive colony ship they are on is called Elysium. Carrying over 60,000 passengers in hyper-sleep, plus embryos of multiple Earth species, the ship has only a handful of crew awake on a rotating basis. It is not just a haunted house, but actually a character in the story and an evil one. Elysium departs Earth in 2174 on its 123 year trip to the planet Tanis. An exoplanet in the habitable zone of another star system with true Earth-like qualities, oceans, land masses with plants, and other primitive lifeforms.

The population of Earth at their departure is 24.3 billion. Humanity and all life are dying quickly. Food shortages, loss of biodiversity, war, and pollution make life nearly unlivable there. Eight years into Elysium’s mission, the Captain, first officer, and

Lieutenant Payton/Gallo receive a transmission from Earth:

‘You're all that's left of us. Good luck, God bless, and Godspeed.’

Payton/Gallo doesn’t take it well, and succumbs to Pandorum. He kills the Captain and First Officer, and tucks himself into hyper-sleep intermittently, presetting the timer to wake up later in the flight. Other flight crews, surprised by the lack of reception by the flight crew rotating out, do their duty, pushing aside the inconvenience. The story begins when Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) wakes disoriented for his schedule rotation. Bower is on flight crew five and is a mechanical engineer.

Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) wakes up shortly before and is equally disoriented, or in fact, just living out his deranged plans in ODS. Lt. Payton and Corporal Bower find themselves trapped in the engineering section, unable to get to the bridge or the rest of the ship. Payton orders Bower to open the door to the rest of the ship, since the controls to do so are outside the engineering door. So he climbs into an access tube and heads aft.

He makes his way through a hellacious forest of tubes into the main part of the ship. But the ship’s power is fluctuating and the urgency of the situation demands he get to the Reactor and reactivate it before it fails completely. This leaves Payton in the engineering section with his alter-ego and younger self, Gallo (Cam Gigandet), who is frankly insane and deep in Pandorum, to wrestle and argue.

Bower is heading toward the reactor at the back of the ship when Nadia (Antje Traue), a genetic environmentalist, attacks him. Her job is to mind all the embryos, and she has been in survival mode and awake for a ‘long’ time. They settle their differences and work together. But then, almost immediately after, cannibalistic humanoids attack them. Entities that have adapted to the ship, following dosages of an accelerator enzyme given in hyper-sleep to help them adapt to Tanis.

Instead of Tanis, they adapt and mutate to survive on the Elysium. Nadia and Bower escape after a harrowing chase and meet up with other human ‘survivors’, both good and evil, en route to fix the reactor. Some, like Manh (Cung Le), who doesn’t speak English, have other skills. He works in agriculture and is a good fighter.

The cannibalistic humanoids have a king (Andre Hennicke), who leads the hunters to predate on those coming out of hyper-sleep. This all begs the question, why is this happening? Why is the reactor failing and these mutant cannibals on-board? We do not learn this until the end of the movie. We, like Nadia and Bower, discover the ship already crashed on Tanis and is deep underwater. Over nine hundred years have passed since it left Earth!

And no, I’m not giving away the ending, and the above is the straightforward plot. But straightforward isn’t the way, because they break up these important expositions into a mosaic of bits scattered throughout the plot. Add to that the ultra-violence and horror, and it was a turnoff to moviegoers, but I believe it was an awesome concept.

The film has a happy ending, sort of. The only thing that makes little sense is when Bower succumbs to Pandorum, during the fight scene, when he is, in fact, never exposed to deep interstellar space. Extreme stress certainly, but he has only been awake a short time.

One other important point: Orbital Dysfunctional Syndrome was first encountered on another colony ship, Eden. On Eden, the Captain hallucinated, had nose bleeds, handshaking, and paranoid delusions after a long time in deep space while awake. The tragedy is that he ejects all the hyper-sleep pods while the Eden is in deep space, essentially killing everybody.

To avoid this, the Elysium went to rotating up to six flight crews. They are awake for short periods, then put back to sleep. The knowledge that the people on Elysium were the last survivors of Earth drove Lt. Payton to become his schizophrenic split personality, the insane Gallo.

The richness of the story is compelling. There is always something of interest to focus on for science fiction aficionados, but there are numerous balls in the air, and new information coming all the time. So it is easy to get lost in the film. In fact, for me, it was only in the second viewing that I really enjoyed it because I wasn’t struggling to understand what was going on. So even with this article, consider watching the film several times before dismissing it.

I believe Pandorum has a lot to offer and really is under appreciated. Check it out!

By the way, Paul W. S. Anderson wrote and directed many other top science fiction and horror films. So if you are seeking something to watch in those genres, investigate his other movies.