Today’s quick review: Prospect. Far in the future, prospectors scour the Rim for aurelac, a valuable substance that grows in the body of an underground organism. Hoping to strike it rich, Damon (Jay Duplass) and his daughter Cee (Sophie Thatcher) travel to a remote moon, where an enormous deposit of aurelac awaits them. But their expedition gets thrown off track after a violent encounter with Ezra (Pedro Pascal), a crafty bandit.
Prospect is a science fiction Western about a prospector, his daughter, and their ill-fated journey to make the score of a lifetime. Damon and Cee must brave the hostile forests of an alien moon, harvest the aurelac, and make it back to their ship before they are stranded forever. Prospect combines the beats of a frontier story with a richly detailed science fiction world. The movie’s attention to detail will make it a hidden gem for fans of the genre.
Prospect does an excellent job of building up its setting. The props and sets are a perfect fit for a frontier planet where life is rough and a single air filter could be the difference between life and death. Prospect’s world feels lived in in a way that few other science fiction movies can match. Every piece of technology has a clear purpose, and just watching the characters interact with it is enough to piece together the way it works.
Prospect goes the extra mile with its world-building as well. Although the story only takes place on a single moon, the characters talk about other places like they’ve actually been there. The dialogue features slang and technical terms that help sell the setting without being hard to understand. The movie even shows snippets of an alien language and accompanying music, again hitting the sweet spot between exotic and familiar.
The one area where Prospect falls short of its potential is its story. Prospect has the perfect setup for a father-daughter story, but it never places much emphasis on its emotional arc. Damon, Cee, and Ezra are clearly defined characters and a great fit for the story, but they don’t grow the way they need to. Paradoxically, the same self-reliance that makes the characters so effective in-story undercuts their emotional appeal for the audience.
Prospect is a solid pick for fans of bread-and-butter science fiction. The setting alone makes it well worth a watch, and while its story is not as resonant as it could have been, it’s still a captivating tale of resourcefulness and survival. Prospect does not offer the flashy thrills or special effects of other sci-fi movies, but it achieves a much subtler form of success: a vision of the future that actually feels real.
Anyone interested in grounded sci-fi settings and tales of survival in space should check out Interstellar or The Martian. Science fiction fans looking for another movie that makes good use of a limited budget should try Moon or I Am Mother. For a non-science fiction story about the hunt for riches, try The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. For a Western with similar character dynamics and better execution, check out 3:10 to Yuma.
6.2 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 for a decent story set in an excellent world.