Common Sense Media Review
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Violence, language in clever, brutal deep-space chiller.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Slingshot
What's the Story?
In SLINGSHOT, astronaut John (Casey Affleck) wakes up from hypersleep aboard the Odyssey-1. He's traveling through deep space, bound for Saturn's moon Titan, accompanied by Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne) and crewmate Nash (Tomer Capone). The drugs that are necessary for hypersleep seem to be causing some disorientation, and John keeps seeing and hearing the voice of Zoe (Emily Beecham), a woman he met just before his journey began. Then a panel on the ship mysteriously comes loose, although neither the diagnostics nor the video feed show anything amiss. Nevertheless, there's damage to the hull, and Nash starts to fear that the ship won't be able to withstand the slingshot maneuver around Jupiter that will allow them to complete their mission. He wants to turn around and head home and tries to get John on his side, while Captain Franks is determined to keep moving ahead. As time goes on, it becomes harder and harder to discern what's real and what's in their heads.
Is It Any Good?
An unsettling, cleverly effective sci-fi movie that centers on just a few characters and a single, sterile location (not counting flashbacks to Earth), this chiller will have your brain buzzing. With Slingshot, Swedish-born director Mikael Håfström returns to the territory he explored in his best movie to date, 1408. That film also had just a couple of major characters and a single setting, and everything that happened was imagination, experience, and sensation; there was nothing tactile or dependable.
Things feel similar here. From the moment Slingshot begins, a computer voice tells John that the hypersleep drugs can cause "confusion, nausea, dizziness, and disorientation," and viewers can feel that in the slightly off-kilter way Håfström uses the space. And Affleck's sleepy performance lets us know that he's not quite connecting to everything around him. The more typical flashbacks to John and Zoe getting to know each other may seem like a distraction, but they're necessary to the movie's rhythm (they offer rest periods), as well as to its emotional construction. Just about every scene leaves off with at least two possibilities (was that real or not real?), and that tension increases as things move along. Slingshot is a tightly constructed gut-punch of a movie, sometimes ruthless but endlessly intriguing.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Slingshot's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
How did you interpret the movie's ending? What do you think really happened on board the ship?
Do characters demonstrate courage? What would it take for someone to sign up for a space mission like this one?
Movie Details
- In theaters : August 30, 2024
- On DVD or streaming : September 17, 2024
- Cast : Casey Affleck , Laurence Fishburne , Emily Beecham
- Director : Mikael Hafstrom
- Inclusion Information : Black Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Bleecker Street
- Genre : Science Fiction
- Run time : 109 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : language and some violence/bloody images
- Last updated : September 16, 2024
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate