A lone figure stirs.Helmet cracked, fingers twitching—Riya (Eiza González) awakens aboard a silent outpost, its walls bathed in deep crimson and cobalt light. A wave of nausea hits as she staggers through fog-thick corridors, each step echoing against the lifeless bodies strewn across the floor. The oppressive stillness is shattered only by her ragged breaths and desperate heartbeat.
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Outside, the planet bleeds ash. Through a dusty viewport, a hellish, swirling sky greets her a swirling hellmouth of purple and red, illuminated by distant lightning. Beneath, the alien surface lies barren, strewed with debris and silence. Every breath becomes a gamble; every glance, a potential trap .
Suddenly, footsteps at the airlock. The hiss of pressurized metal and someone enters: Brion (Aaron Paul), claiming he came in response with a robotic surgeon to Riya’s distress beacon. His calm demeanor feels like both a salvation and a threat. Her fractured memories flicker—bodies, blood, betrayal—and Riya is forced to ask can she trust him? Or is she waking into her own nightmare?
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Working with Brion, Riya uncovers logs and EVA drone recordings revealing they discovered alien terraforming devices (“atmospheric converters”) underground, intended to change the planet’s atmosphere. When Davis was investigating, one device violently activated, causing fatal head trauma. Brion reveals that other planets in this series of missions failed, making Ash the last hope. Riya learns that she may have killed Kevin and Adhi though her memory is unclear.
Amid deteriorating oxygen, hull breaches during a meteoric storm, and system failures, Riya grows distrustful. She suspects Clarke (Kate Elliott) is psychotic and possibly the murderer. Brion pushes evacuation, but Riya insists on discovering the truth.
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With just hours left before escape is impossible, Riya confronts Clarke in the tunnels, drowning Clarke during their fight. Yet medical scans show Clarke wasn’t infected. Returning to Brion, she discovers he’s actually been dead for over two days and everything was a hallucination.
In another flashback, Riya recalls they found an alien parasite living within the station systems. It infected crew members one by one Adhi first, then Kevin turning them violent. Kevin kills Brion. Riya kills Kevin. The parasite then infects Riya. She attempts suicide via cyanide, but survives because the parasite neutralizes it. Hallucinations intensify, and in her paranoia she kills Clarke inadvertently.
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The alien parasite declares it intends to “merge and evolve” Riya and eliminate humanity. Determined, Riya undergoes a brutal self-operation using the station’s medical robot to physically extract the parasite. The creature then animates Brion’s corpse in a grotesque final form. Riya battles it through the flaming halls and destroys it with a welding torch and oxygen.
Riya repairs and launches the lander, blasting off towards the orbiting station. But before the credits, it’s revealed that the orbital facility is already infested hinting the horror may not be over.
Director: Flying Lotus
Cast: Eiza González, Aaron Paul, Iko Uwais, Kate Elliott, Beulah Koale, Lotus
Runtime: 95 minutes
Watch trailer here.
