50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

When making Ad Astra, writer-director James Gray sought to create the most realistic depiction of space ever seen on screen, and we’ll be damned if he didn’t do it.

Astronaut Roy McBride is recruited to try and establish communication with his father Clifford, who went missing on a voyage with the Lima Project out to Neptune 16 years previously. Fearing that Clifford may be alive and intending to use the nuclear device on the Lima for nefarious means, SpaceCom sends Roy to Mars to make contact via a long-range comms station, but once out there, Roy finds he can’t go back without some answers.

Ad Astra captures the grand majesty of space, often in darkness and silence - two elements so underused (outside of horror) in science fiction cinema - and Gray employs the lesser-spotted composer Max Richter to channel the spirit of the music from Kubrick’s 2001, while also transforming data recorded from different planets and parts of space into real sounds.

Every space-scape feels real, every planet and trip haunting and breathless, and yet this realism doesn’t translate through posters and screengrabs. Few of the stills from the film capture just what an all-encompassing thrill it is to watch. Quite simply, Ad Astra is a movie that must be experienced to be understood, and which you must give your attention over to entirely to fully appreciate.

And if you can, well, “epic” doesn’t quite cut it.