Rubikon

• Directed by Magdalena Lauritsch
• September 15, 2022 (Austria)

After an environmental catastrophe, the crew of a space station must decide whether or not they help a group of survivors.

I picked Rubikon to watch because I was interested in watching a science-fiction movie. Nothing more. Perusing the offerings on streaming this looked like an adequate option. And it was.

And that is rather sad. There is some real effort put in here. The sets are pretty good and the effects shots are not bad at all. This is not the most expensive film, but it does not look cheap either. There was an aim for quality here probably because they looked to say something with this movie. But aside from “Do not muck with the environment!” the rest gets lost.

The permafrost melts and releases toxic gases that apparently killed everybody on Earth quickly. That leaves three people living on a space station that uses an algae system to produce air and food. This all takes place in a near future where there are no real countries anymore but rather things are run by corporations. If that is not a heavy-handed comment on the present I do not know what is.

There is an implication of a conspiracy with the inclusion the character of Hannah Wagner (Julia Franz Richter) who works for one of the companies. She’s there to get the mother cultures for the algae process. But then the catastrophe strikes and she is stuck there on the space station  Rubikon.

Aside from beating you over the head with their attempted message, there is a complete personality change in Hannah in order to just move the story forward. She starts out as a corporate loyalist dedicated to her mission and job to a motherly type trying to decide what to do. And what is that? She gets a message from some survivors who are the corporate bigwigs that survived. The thing is they left all their employees outside to die. So now she must decide whether to help them or let them die by suffocation. And that includes their families that had nothing to do with the whole situation.

The narrative waffles back and forth on should they or shouldn’t they and even tosses a pregnancy into the mix as Hannah hooked up with Gavin Abbott (George Blagden). One could argue that the power of his penis caused her to rethink things, but he is no James Bond who did much the same.

There’s a lot of should we or shouldn’t we and people looking out for themselves before giving a big middle finger to the survivors and not help at all. The thing is by the time of the credits it is revealed the air is clearing up and there are multiple survivor groups. Not that the adults on the station are aware of it as the juvenile son stumbles upon this revelation. Hannah believes death is imminent without the algae and she makes the decision that they should die.

Gavin is suicidal and believes that a very delicate balance exists on the station between the people and the algae. In order to force Hannah into helping he kills himself but surprise! It was all a lie to guilt him into living that Hannah believed too making his sacrifice ultimately pointless.

People surviving without any assistance came off as a way to keep Hannah from looking like a total turd for attempting genocide. Seriously. It ultimately negates any consequences or moral points that those making this tried to state. Heck, it even says the environment will be just fine no matter what we do to it.

All deeper ideas or discussions are ultimately negated. It makes the whole exercise pointless and the message of the movie muddled at best. Should or would you save the remnants of the human race if those remnants were of the influential and powerful? Does it matter that they have children? Unfortunately any meaning to those questions is unimportant since everything turns out okay. It’s even hinted that those selfish people that caused the problem with their pollution and profit seeking have learned their lesson.

The direction is okay and the performances are okay. And that’s the best it gets. A mediocre ‘okay’. This movie is harmed by playing it safe to keep the main character in a relatively adequate light and avoid a very bleak ending. They straddled the fence and watered down the final product.

Rubikon is okay science fiction that could’ve been good science-fiction. It is completely ruined by the ending. You won’t be disappointed and you will be entertained. It’s just so much less than it could’ve been.