Jupiter Ascending: 8 Things You May Have Missed

Terry Gilliam's cameo was just the tip of the space-berg.

Jupiter Ascending, the latest film from Matrix directors The Wachowskis, is finally in cinemas. And finally really is the word to use, because it's been a long time coming. First conceived back in 2009, shot in 2013 and set for release in Summer 2015, the film was pushed back at the last minute by Warner Bros. for rather flaky reasons. And that has come to dominate the movie's reputations already. It's impossible to discuss Jupiter Ascending without, in at least some part, addressing the delay and vastly out-of-control budget. Like Waterworld and The Lone Ranger before it, this is a film arriving in cinemas with a legacy as a box office bomb already certain, the big question now how badly it'll wind up costing the studio. All that chatter, however, can distract from the movie itself - film criticism isn't industry analysis, after all - which really isn't as bad as everyone's saying. Oh, it's a narrative mess and sees Eddie Redmayne deliver a performance so bad it could cost his an Oscar, but it's a fun romp that's so silly it's hard to get angry about. At the very least, it's a great show of production design, with the wider universe of humanity meticulously realised in a complexly mythologised story. And with that area comes some great hidden easter eggs and references for eagle-eyed viewers to pick up on. Here are eight things you may have missed in Jupiter Ascending.

Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.