I was motivated to watch this movie through some Facebook comments made to a robot/android picture. A friend had remarked that the “drones from Silent Running are there.” I had not recognized the robots and being the geek that I am, had to remedy the situation.
The Drones are named Dewey (Drone 1) and Huey (Drone 2) which become more human-like after their operator Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) did some modifications to them. In a futuristic world, there is no more plant life on earth. No trees, no plants, no weeds, and apparently no women…well at least on the space ship. A team of four men pilot a huge space terrarium through space. Each ship holds six domes containing trees, flowers, fruits, vegetables, small animals and birds, and water falls (no nuts, because they’re flying the ship.)
The gist of the movie is that a few ships were commissioned from American Airlines (I noticed the large logo on the ships) to fly about until such time as Earth is ready to replant the greenery. People are currently enjoying synthetic food (and apparently air which is never addressed) and really see no reason for plants. Except for Freeman.
Dern has creeped me out in many other movies, and this one is no different. Do you have anyone who just gives you the “willies?” Well Dern is mine. When the command decides the fleet has been goofing off in space long enough, they give orders to blow up the domes with nuclear charges, and return the ships to Earth to be used for other things. The three other men (who are non-consequential and thus not named here) are happy to be finally going home, but for the druid like Freeman, life has now been rendered worthless since it was he who was solely in charge of all the agriculture on the Valley Forge ship.
What does creepy man do? He freaks out as they start jettisoning the domes, and kills the rest of the crew. Then he fakes a nuclear accident on the ship and hides the Valley Forge on the dark side of Saturn. That’s where the weird 2001: A Space Odyssey feel begins, and no wonder, it’s directed by Douglas Trumbull, who was the special effects supervisor on 2001. The movie theme becomes: “One guy alone in space trying to teach Huey and Dewey how to play poker, having a good ol’ time, until the plants start dying.” What could be happening? Life was so good, I was such a fool, as I imagine Freeman felt. I hope the many people who have seen this film, realized there is no Sun behind Saturn, and I bet they realized it earlier than my fair space guy. I know I did.
They portray the drones as human like, feeling pain, sorrow (at the loss of Drone 3 early in the movie), guilt, and concern, especially when Freeman runs into Dewey while racing about on a really cool ATV. The movie ends with the fleet finally finding them in their heroic “never leave anyone behind” search. Freeman realizing his butt was toast, and launches the Huey, working drone, into space inside the last dome (now with sunlamps powered by some mysterious source.) Then he blows himself, and the injured drone up. Yep… that’s as good as it gets. So many unanswered questions… like how the hell did a human walk around in the really odd shaped drone suits? Watch it if you want to say you did, fake it by quoting my review, but it was free on Netlfix and worth every penny.
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