Laurence Fishburne’s ‘Slingshot’ Dethrones Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ on Streaming!

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Should Tom Cruise maintain his reign atop the streaming charts, it’s likely to be challenged by none other than Laurence Fishburne. His upcoming 2024 sci-fi film, “Slingshot,” has already dethroned Top Gun: Maverick from the number one spot on Paramount+’s streaming chart.

In the movie, Casey Affleck portrays John, who teams up with Captain Franks played by Fishburne. Tomer Capone appears as Nash, while Emily Beecham takes on the role of Zoe, John’s girlfriend. The film is directed by Mikael Håfström (known for “1408”). Essentially, “Slingshot” tells a story about a crew of astronauts embarking on an extended voyage to Saturn’s moon Titan in order to collect diverse natural resources that can benefit Earth.

In a method known as the “slingshot technique,” the spacecraft utilizes the planet’s gravitational pull to propel itself forward, conserving fuel in the process. The crew endures 90-day periods of hibernation for their extended journey. Upon awakening from one of these hibernations, John starts experiencing feelings of paranoia and detachment from reality.

If you’re not familiar with the film called Slingshot or if it slipped your mind entirely, that’s understandable. It premiered in cinemas on August 30, 2024, but it wasn’t long before it faded away. The global box office earnings for this movie were only $818,279, with the bulk coming from North America.

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a disappointing 38% rating from critics, but a more favorable 68% score from the audience. Critics’ general consensus is that while Casey Affleck’s performance is compelling, the movie fails to go anywhere despite its attempts. It currently holds a rating of 5.7 out of 10.

I found myself drawn to a film with an intriguingly fragmented storyline as described by Will Sayre in his MovieWeb review. He commended the acting, particularly Ben Affleck’s performance. Interestingly, he pointed out that other space-themed films, such as ‘Moon’ featuring Sam Rockwell and both iterations of ‘Solaris’, delivered a more compelling portrayal of astronauts losing their sanity in space.

Make it an Astronaut Film Festival with Slingshot and Other Films

If you’re aiming to create a mini-festival of suspenseful space dramas or terrifying cosmic stories around watching “Slingshot”, here are some movies to consider for your watchlist.

In my humble opinion, Duncan Jones’ masterpiece, the 2009 film titled Moon, presents a gripping tale where Sam Rockwell portrays an astronaut on a three-year lunar stint mining helium-3. However, as the story unfolds, he starts experiencing unsettling hallucinations and paranoia. The narrative of Slingshot, while not identical, bears striking resemblances: it revolves around characters mining resources on the moon to aid Earth, with the added twist of a prolonged mission that leaves them separated from their loved ones for an extended period.

There are two different films titled Solaris, one released in 1972 directed by renowned Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, and another from 2002 helmed by Steven Soderbergh with George Clooney and McElhone in the cast. Both movies are adaptations of Stanislav Lem’s novel about a psychologist who visits a space station orbiting an enigmatic planet called Solaris, exploring the events that transpired there.

In the realm of sci-fi and horror, Paul W.S. Thomas’ 1997 film, “Event Horizon,” is another intriguing choice. The production design is impressive, though the movie itself has received mixed feedback; it’s still worth checking out. This film shares a similar plot element as “Slingshot” in space travel, but here, they use a wormhole for traversal instead of a conventional slingshot method.

For a mini-film festival focusing on sci-fi/space horror/astronaut movies, besides Christopher Nolan’s gripping “Interstellar” and Ridley Scott’s 2015 hit “The Martian” with Matt Damon as the stranded Mars astronaut, consider adding:

1. Andy and Barry Weir’s chilling “Moon” (2009), starring Sam Rockwell as a solitary lunar miner whose sanity is tested when he encounters an eerie doppelganger.

2. Alfonso Cuarón’s visually stunning masterpiece, “Gravity” (2013), featuring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts trying to survive after a catastrophic accident leaves them adrift in space.

These films offer unique perspectives on the challenges of space travel and will keep audiences on the edge of their seats!

Slingshot is now streaming on Paramount+.

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2025-01-17 21:32