Film

Prospect

Name: Prospect
Genre: Science Fiction
Released: 2018
Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Pedro Pascal, Jay Duplass, Andre Royo, Sheila Vand

A grimy, procedural sci-fi film about a teenage girl and her father mining a hostile alien moon. Prospect feels like a Western crossed with a heist: scrappy, skeptical, visually inventive on a modest budget. It's for people who want spaceships to look dirty and used, and who'd rather watch someone problem-solve than deliver exposition.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like grimy, low-fi science fiction where the world feels used up and the characters are chasing money through it, and you're happy to let a tense mood carry the story.

Skip it if you want big set pieces and quick plotting, since this one lingers on atmosphere and spends much of its runtime on hushed, nervy tension rather than spectacle.

What it asks of you: At just under ninety-eight minutes it moves unhurriedly through long stretches of murky forest and explains little, so attention pays off more than dialogue.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Expanse2015

Hard sci-fi that respects your intelligence, with gritty space-mining economics and characters who speak in technical jargon. Slow-burn worldbuilding and genuine stakes that accumulate across seasons.

But Takes a season to find its rhythm, and the politics-heavy middle arcs will lose you if you need constant action or spectacle.

Aliens1986

A woman and a scrappy crew facing overwhelming odds on a hostile world, solving problems with ingenuity rather than firepower. Cameron proved action could be intelligent, tense, and character-driven all at once.

But 1980s pacing means it builds differently than modern thrillers; the first hour is talk and prep rather than chaos.

Severance2022

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But Deliberately paced and oblique. If you need clear answers, the unresolved questions will frustrate you deeply.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Prospect

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Come and See1985

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Cargo2009

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Under the Skin2014

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Slow Horses2022

Smart, character-driven espionage about misfits and overlooked people in a dysfunctional intelligence agency. Excellent writing and performances that make procedure and consequence feel thrilling.

But British spy fiction assumes you know the genre conventions; newcomers may find it dry and impenetrable at first.

High Life2018

Sci-fi stripped down to isolation, desperation, and impossible choices aboard a prison ship. Visually stunning and philosophically unsettling, asking what we owe to the powerless.

But Deliberately obscure, sexually transgressive, and narratively fragmented. Not a story so much as an experience that resists comfort.

Dune2021

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But Three hours of setup with intentionally incomplete resolution. The massive budget and scale might feel indulgent if you prefer intimate stories.

Mandy2018

Both films use sci-fi/genre framing as permission to explore emotional extremity and catastrophe without the comfort of mainstream storytelling.

A revenge film told through fever-dream visuals and overwhelming sensory assault. It's genre cinema deformed by style into something that feels hallucinatory and inescapable, where every frame is strange and every moment is soaked in dread.

But Intentionally ugly and difficult to watch. Its structure and pacing are unconventional; it privileges mood and sensation over plot coherence.

Stalker1979

Both treat alien/extraordinary spaces as places where ordinary people confront their own limitations and desires, without mythologizing the journey.

A Soviet science fiction masterpiece about a guide leading clients through a mysterious zone to a room that grants wishes. Philosophical, patient, and built on lingering takes that force you to study the world. Every detail matters because Tarkovsky believes cinema is about time, not plot.

But 163 minutes of meditative sci-fi. It moves at half the speed of contemporary films. If you need momentum, this will feel glacial and pointless.