10 Sci-Fi Movie Clichés Everyone Secretly Loves
4. Abandoned Ships In Space Are Always A Death Trap
You know those idiotic moments in a horror film, when one character suggests everyone split up inside the murder mansion? This is it, but for sci-fi.
Space Travel Tip: If you receive a distress signal from a lost ship in space, it's definitely got something that will murder your crew on board.
Alien, Event Horizon, Ad Astra and Sunshine are just prime examples of what happens when one ship stumbles across another and decides to help. The audience knows what's going to happen. The decision of the crew comes from a dutiful, caring place. But in reality, it's a suicide mission born out of dumb curiosity.
Whether there are ghosts, aliens, feral crew-members or escaped monsters, the landing party is sure to be fodder for whatever caused that ship to be abandoned in the first place. Never has this cliche gone the other way, and everything is fine.
So why is it so fun? Because it's the catalyst move that sets up the rest of the story. The quiet eeriness worries us from the moment the landing party steps onto the abandoned ship.
It's even better, when what caused the wreckage is a complete surprise. Right Ad Astra?