Cargo (2009)

Dr. Laura P. takes a job on a cargo spaceship for 4 years plus 4 years back. She'll join her sister on Rhea. 44 months later, in Laura's shift, strange things happen in cargo. The crew is reanimated and the captain dies mysteriously.

Directors:

Ivan Engler, Ralph Etter

Writers:

Arnold Bucher (story) (as Arnold H. Bucher), Ivan Engler (story)

Stars:

Anna Katharina Schwabroh, Martin Rapold, Regula Grauwiller

2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Anna Katharina Schwabroh	...	Laura Portmann
Martin Rapold	...	Samuel Decker
Regula Grauwiller	...	Anna Lindbergh
Yangzom Brauen	...	Miyuki Yoshida
Pierre Semmler	...	Pierre Lacroix
Claude-Oliver Rudolph	...	Igor Prokoff
Michael Finger	...	Claudio Vespucci
Gilles Tschudi	...	Klaus Bruckner
Maria Boettner	...	Arianne Portmann
Noa Strupler	...	Mädchen
Diego Studer	...	Kind auf Rhea
Vanessa Studer	...	Kind auf Rhea
Christina Tchernychova	...	Rhea TV Spot Modell
Roger Kaufmann	...	Sicherheitspersonal Station 30
Roman Güttinger	...	Sicherheitspersonal Station 30

Storyline

In 2270, Earth is completely depleted and no one lives there anymore. Those that have money move to Rhea; but most of the population lives in orbit in space stations. Dr. Laura Portmann decides to work in the cargo ship Kassandra in an eight year travel to Station 42 that is in orbit of RH278 to raise money to meet her sister Arianne in Rhea. They keep in touch with each other, but their messages take three years to reach the other. Laura joins Captain Pierre Lacroix and his crew composed by the First Officer Anna Lindbergh; Communication Officer Miyuki Yoshida and Igor Prokoff and Claudio Vespucci. The Sky Marshall Samuel Decker joins the team since the terrorist group Luddites, led by Klaus Bruckner, is bombing the stations. Lacroix organizes shifts of eight and half months for each crew-member while the others rest in cryogenic sleep. Three years and eight months later, Laura finds that there is apparently a stowaway in the cargo compartments and Decker and Lacroix are awakened to ...

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Plot Keywords:

23rd century | space travel | year 2270 | 2270s | product placement | 

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Taglines:

Space is cold

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Genres:

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Switzerland] (German)

Country:

Switzerland

Language:

German

Release Date:

17 March 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cargo - Da draußen bist du allein

Filming Locations:

Winterthur, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland

Box Office

Budget:

CHF 4,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Atlantis Pictures, Centauri Media, Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft (SRG)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In various scenes in the movie the Unity Engine logo can be seen, for example at 00:34 in the cargo scene, the Unity logo is clearly visible on the wall behind the two orange-clad figures. This is most likely a nod to the Unity Engine, which was probably used to render some or all of the 3D SFX for this movie. Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies that can be used to create 3D and 2D games as well as simulations.

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Goofs

Then idea of having vast empty spaces on a star ship is ridiculous, and having them pressurized and with snow flurry and a star ship accelerating for years with what looks much like rocket engines even more so. Especially on a ship with the drive going continuously to ac/decelerate at what appears to be around one g, not heating but getting rid of the excess heat would be a technical challenge. And even with an imaginary, thought-experimental drive that could transfer all the energy from hydrogen-fusion to the produced He and turn all of that energy into momentum (which is far more than the laws of physics will ever allow), to accelerate some mass for four years at 1 g, the ship would have to start with millions of billion times that mass of fuel.

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Quotes

Laura Portmann: [from trailer] It's incredibly cold here. You could hardly imagine it.

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Connections

References 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

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Soundtracks

A Place She Calls Home
Written & Performed by William White
Courtesy of William White

User Reviews

Interesting and mysterious, but somewhat problematic

Cargo is dazzling, mystifying, sometimes scary, and is able to manipulate a rather familiar plot to seem less familiar. That last one however, is just as much a weakness as it is a strength. The film's problems are not on the screen, but on the pages.

Cargo contains a weighty story line, with questionable focus and a lack of coherency. There are also places where the movie feels draggy and repetitive. Characterization gets off the ground but not quite to the degree of emotion that was probably intended.

Anyone who sees Cargo is gonna wish they had seen it in theatres. Its greatest achievement is photography. I liked Cargo for its mystique and stylistic choices, but the writing and construction need a tune up. Its facade is perfect but its soul is murky, and its story is disoriented which does not allow us to appreciate Cargo to the full.