A man is on the mission to save a dying planet in George Clooney’s sci-fi film, “The Midnight Sky.” The movie is based on the book Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Throughout the entire movie, there are many references to similar sci-fi movies such as Gravity, Interstellar, and Ad Astra. Clooney himself has referenced “Gravity” as an influence for the movie. The movie was made with a budget of approximately $100 million, but failed at the box office, earning only about $62,557. Though, the posters and trailers of the movie are definitely eye-catching.

Clooney himself plays the main character of Scientist Augustine Lofthouse. The character itself is not very convincing to the audience as it fails to play up to the expectations. Augustine Lofthouse decides to stay on the dying planet, whereas a group of scientists is abroad a spacecraft called Aether, which has failed on its mission to find a new habitable planet and are on their way back “home,” however, they are unaware of the destruction of the planet. Lofthouse takes it upon himself to warn the scientists to not return home as danger awaits. However, the location that Augustine resides in has very poor communication signals with the Aether. To complete his mission, Augustine travels across the Arctic to get a stronger signal. He is accompanied by a young girl named Iris, played by Caoilinn Springall, who was left behind during the evacuation.

 The portion that involves space is filmed with great expertise, though, they lack the human connection. It fails to gain viewers’ attention. On the contrary, the scenes that take place in the arctic are more impressive technically and grabs the attention of the audience. However, the plot still makes no sense. Clooney has given many instances throughout the movie that create intense drama but he does not seem to carry through with the scenes. The movie is filled with twists and turns and flashbacks. The flashbacks contribute very poorly to the plot while the twists and turns look devious. Despite the poor plots, the characters of Iris and Augustine seem to make good chemistry and please the audience with the sweet relationship. 

The actors of the movie had done a great job in doing their part, but the director seems to have focused on the little details of the story so much that he forgot to put all of those puzzle pieces together. The heartbeat of the movie is missing. When you watch it you experience weightlessness like space. The movie is now streaming on Netflix. 

Director: George Clooney

Writers: Mark L. Smith

Producer: Grant Heslov, George Clooney, Keith Redmon, Bard Dorros, & Cliff Roberts

Cast: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, Demian Bichir, Kyle Chandler, & Caoilinn Springall

Duration: 118 minutes