Dave Cunningham
2020 was a year the world was, figuratively and literally, tested. As people all over the world cope with the pandemic, it’s a little stretch if you’re trying to know whether or not people are still up for a movie about an apocalyptic event––threatening all lifeforms on Earth.
Well, that’s basically what George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky is in a nutshell. By the time you’re reading this, you would’ve already watched the sci-fi drama that he directed and starred in.
Based on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s 2016 novel, Good Morning, Midnight, the movie revolves around a spaceship returning to Earth after the astronauts were given a mission to discover other habitable planets around the solar system. Their journey, however, wasn’t as worth it as most would think as a global catastrophe wipes out all of Earth. Clooney, in the film, plays a scientist and loner who has decided to just stay in his Arctic station. Eventually, he realizes that the astronauts are in no way informed about the ride home––risking his life to warn them.
One of those astronauts is played by David Oyelowo, the same actor you played as civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., in Selma. I recommend this film a hundred times over if you’re interested.
Just finished watching The Midnight Sky on @netflix thoroughly enjoyed it. Not your typical SciFi thriller. Great story, excellent effects and a great cast – George Clooney (also The Director), Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo #TheMidnightSky
— DAZ (@DAZtweats) December 23, 2020
“What drew me to the material was how despite the fact it’s a sci-fi movie, it’s a space movie, it’s a big movie, that it actually dealt with the story in a very personal, intimate way,” Oyelowo said in an interview with CNET.
“Then you juxtapose that with this crew of astronauts who have been tasked with finding a planet that humanity can now colonize, because we have so detrimentally affected our own planet,” he added. “You see in the characters, played by myself and Felicity Jones, that they also have problems with connection. You could argue that’s why they can make peace with being away from Earth for two years as they go and find another planet. But in running away from Planet Earth, they find each other.“
Finding a silver lining during doomsday is, in fact, very optimistic from Oyelowo. The British actor also hopes that the message of the film will be taken to heart––that whatever ends, a day or the world, people are people and people make sacrifices for those they love. Whatever it was, finishing the movie before the pandemic and lockdowns was a blessing in itself––and the message grows bigger and taller as days go by.
