The lousiest movies I see are the ones that end with 'it was just a dream', or 'it was just virtual reality'. Well, once in a blue moon the latter works, but this movie had no point whatsoever. What was the plot purpose of the unknown man/the virus at all? The only element of tension?
I liked the movie as a psychological drama, but when it ended I was nothing but bleeding disappointed. You have to look long and hard for a worse cop out ending.
I agree that this movie in and of itself had an unsatisfying ending. However, it's pretty clear that this was a pilot for a series that never got picked up, so the producers purposely left mysteries and plot threads dangling in order to hook the viewer into watching subsequent episodes.
Which were never made.
All Art is pretense.
I agree it was disappointing. The ending was meant to be the "hook" for a series I guess. What seemed the most likely scenario, from even at the start of the film, was that NONE of them was on the ship as such and in fact the space trip itself was a Virtual Reality scenario for a reality show in which non of the participants realised they were in a VR world.
That way the death of the captain was yet another device to heighten the drama and keep viewers watching. The Captain was "killed" because he figured it out too early. However what about the man appearing in each of the VR sessions? Two main scenarios:
* He was someone trying to break into the VR world to get a message across to the participants (who had either had parts of their memory altered or tricked into thinking they're on a real mission); or
* He was a stooge of the producing company, and the VR segments were also broadcast to the viewers.
Either way the pilot fails to actually get the audience caring about the characters, and that is ultimately why it fails.
Laura Ess