Film

Ad Astra

Name: Ad Astra
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama
Released: 2019
Cast: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tyler, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland

A near-silent character study wearing the space epic's clothes. Brad Pitt narrates his own numbness as he travels to the edge of the solar system chasing his father's ghost, and the film trusts long, cool visuals and interior monologue over spectacle. It's for people who want 2001's hush with a wounded, human centre.

TMDb rating

6.1

If you liked this

Interstellar2014

Same DNA: a father-shaped hole at the centre of an enormous, awe-struck space journey, with the emotion turned up where Ad Astra keeps it clenched shut.

But Christopher Nolan wants you to cry on cue and isn't subtle about it; the score alone will tell you when.

First Man2018

Ryan Gosling plays the same kind of shut-down astronaut, grief rerouted into procedure and switches, and it's grounded in the real Apollo programme's grinding tedium and terror.

But Deliberately airless and undramatic by design — thrilling if you want realism, dull if you wanted a rocket movie.

Gravity2013

Strips space travel down to pure physical dread and isolation, with visuals that make Ad Astra's void feel almost cosy by comparison.

But Less interested in psychology than survival mechanics — you get white knuckles, not a character study.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Apocalypse Now1979

Ad Astra is explicitly built on this film's Heart of Darkness structure — the mission becomes a pilgrimage toward a man who's become a myth, and myths are dangerous to meet.

A soldier travels upriver into the unknown to find and possibly kill a legendary father figure who's gone rogue at the edge of the map — literally the plot of Ad Astra, just swapped from orbit to jungle.

But Brutal, hallucinatory war violence rather than sci-fi restraint; it earns its unease the hard way.

Moon2009

A cheap, brilliant chamber piece about a man alone on a lunar base slowly discovering the mission has lied to him — same isolation, tighter and stranger.

But Low-budget seams show, and the twist changes the film's shape in a way not everyone loves.

Arrival2016

Another hushed, cerebral sci-fi that cares more about grief and meaning than action, with a similarly controlled, mournful lead performance.

But Its emotional reveal depends on a structural trick that rewards patience some viewers won't have.

Contact1997

Jodie Foster's scientist chases proof of something vast while working through her own father's absence — the emotional algebra is nearly identical.

But Talkier and more openly philosophical, with a late shift into faith-versus-science debate that can feel heavy-handed.

The Martian2015

If you want the same setting with the mood inverted — competence, wit, and problem-solving instead of dread — this is the tonic.

But Almost defiantly cheerful; anyone drawn to Ad Astra's melancholy might find it a bit weightless.

Solaris1972

Tarkovsky's original meditation on space, memory and the people we can't let go of is the clear ancestor of Ad Astra's slow, interior style.

But Genuinely glacial pacing by modern standards — this asks for patience Ad Astra only flirts with.

2001: A Space Odyssey1968

The granddaddy of contemplative space cinema — visuals over dialogue, silence over exposition, humanity dwarfed by the cosmos.

But Almost no plot in the conventional sense, and its ending is deliberately, famously opaque.

For All Mankind1989

Where Ad Astra imagines the psychological cost of deep space, this shows you the real thing, in the real words of men who actually felt it.

A documentary assembled entirely from real Apollo footage, it captures the actual astronauts' voices describing the loneliness, wonder and dislocation Ad Astra fictionalises.

But No plot, no actors, no drama beyond what really happened — a meditative watch, not a narrative one.

Event Horizon1997

Same premise, inverted register — a rescue mission unravelling the fate of a vanished crew leader who went too far into the dark, played for dread and shock instead of grief.

A rescue crew is sent to investigate a lost, silent expedition ship at the edge of known space and finds its missing astronaut has become something monstrous — the horror-movie version of Roy's journey to his father.

But Gleefully gory and over-the-top where Ad Astra is restrained; this is B-movie nightmare fuel, not prestige drama.