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A crew of astronauts on a multi-generational mission descend into paranoia and madness, not knowing what is real or not. A crew of astronauts on a multi-generational mission descend into paranoia and madness, not knowing what is real or not. A crew of astronauts on a multi-generational mission descend into paranoia and madness, not knowing what is real or not.

• Neil Burger
• Colin Farrell
• Tye Sheridan
• Lily-Rose Depp
• 478 User reviews
• 100 Critic reviews
• 44 Metascore

• Christopher

• (as Isaac Hempstead-Wright)

• Mission Director

• IVF Technician

• Marianne Sancar
• Christopher - 4 Years Old
• Zac - 4 Years Old
• Sela - 4 Years Old
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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia The movie is considered to be a futuristic version of the 1954 William Golding novel Lord of the Flies (1990) .
• Goofs The outer airlock hatch is left open for two minutes and twenty seconds, minimum, after the antagonist explosively opens the inner airlock hatch. The air rushes past the individuals in the lock at a high rate of speed, rapidly depressurizing the ship (as evidence by ship warnings declaring emergency oxygen is being released into the ship). This goes on and on, while the heroes spend a lot of time struggling with Zac. In reality, the wind would die down quickly, and a good portion of the ship would be in a severely depressurized atmosphere in a very short time, causing almost immediate loss of consciousness for anyone not holding their breath (which Zac clearly was not doing, as he can be heard grunting and gasping for breath while struggling).

Christopher : We didn't ask to be here.

Richard : Nobody chooses what they're born into. But you have to find a way to live your life. You gotta decide what kind of person you want to be. You gotta try to be good.

• Connections Featured in WhatCulture Originals: 10 Recent Movies That Blew Great Concepts (2021)
• Soundtracks Fidelio, Op. 72: Overture Written by Ludwig van Beethoven Performed by Das Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester (as WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln) and Günter Wand Courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.

User reviews 478

• monaharfmann
• Jun 2, 2021
• How long is Voyagers? Powered by Alexa
• April 9, 2021 (United States)
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• Bản Năng Hoang Dại
• Bucharest, Romania
• AGC Studios
• Fibonacci Films
• Freecs Films
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• Apr 11, 2021

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 48 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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‘Voyagers’ Review: In Space, Everyone Can Hear You Scream

Emotional anarchy derails a space mission in this insipid sci-fi drama.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Essentially a zero-gravity “Lord of the Flies,” Neil Burger’s “Voyagers” nevertheless plays like a CW sci-fi pilot for those who find “The 100” too unsanitary. Set aboard a sterile spaceship hurtling toward a distant planet — though any claustrophobic, closed-off environment would have served just as well — this dull dig into human nature owes more to the aesthetics of Calvin Klein than the terrors of outer space.

The year is 2063, Earth is heating up, and a couple of dozen children have been trained to colonize a new world. Bred for intelligence and compliance, these docile pioneers, watched over by a sad-eyed surrogate father named Richard (Colin Farrell), begin an 86-year journey. Almost all will be dead before they reach their destination, so they have been designed to reproduce at timed intervals. Considering they’ve all grown into lissome, blandly attractive young adults, this should not be a problem.

We soon learn, though, that the crew’s universally robotic affect is not simply a deficit in the cast’s acting ability, but the result of a sedative designed to suppress emotion. Figuring this out, Christopher (Tye Sheridan, all pout and pique) and his friend Zac (Fionn Whitehead, in the film’s only vivid performance), stop taking the substance and discover that they’re both hot for the same woman (Lily-Rose Depp). In short order, the noncompliance spreads and the situation on board devolves predictably into an orgy of dancing, wrestling, copulating and running down long corridors. Worse is to follow.

A movie of cold light and hard surfaces, “Voyagers” owes its antiseptic glamour to the cinematographer Enrique Chediak, whose talents far outclass Burger’s underdeveloped script. Mysteries abound, including why Richard (who has been sidelined by an incident I won’t spoil) chose to accompany the voyagers, and why he wears a permanently pained expression.

“I wouldn’t miss a thing,” he tells superiors before he leaves Earth, hinting at a tragic past that’s never explained. Neither is the alien that might be messing around outside the ship — or, as the increasingly maniacal Zac suggests, inside one or more of the crew.

In replicating a society torn apart by lies and fear and gaslighting, “Voyagers” might feel, for some, a bit too close to home for comfort. And as the chaos and violence escalated and rival factions formed, I amused myself by pondering who might be running the ship. I concluded it was the alien.

Voyagers Rated PG-13 for picturesque coupling and ugly behavior. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Formulaic, soapy teen space drama has lust, sex, violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Promotes teamwork, courage, perseverance. Story re

Richard cares about the kids and the mission. He w

At least five characters die in various ways. Thre

Discussion of how a drug suppresses sexual desire

"Liar," "have you all gone crazy?," "fat pus-fille

The teens take a vitamin supplement that's actuall

Parents need to know that Voyagers is a sci-fi thriller about a group of 30 children-turned-teens who are on a one-way space mission to find a potentially habitable planet for humans to colonize. The movie, which has been compared to everything from Lord of the Flies to The 100 , stars Colin…

Positive Messages

Promotes teamwork, courage, perseverance. Story reveals importance of impulse control, collaboration, and honesty.

Positive Role Models

Richard cares about the kids and the mission. He willingly leaves Earth to accompany them on their mission, even though he knows he'll die on it. Sela is intelligent and kind. Christopher is brave, wants everyone to work together. Zac acts like a hedonist and sociopath who believes everyone should do whatever they want. Although supporting cast is diverse, main characters are White and heterosexual. The only prescient voice of reason is a young Black woman who's repeatedly told to shut up (and called fat because she's 10 pounds heavier than all of the other supermodel-thin young women).

Violence & Scariness

At least five characters die in various ways. Three are killed by weapons or by being brutally beaten (a bloody, dead body is visible). One is kicked out of the ship after a prolonged fight. A few frenzied chases by armed characters looking for unarmed characters. In a flashback, a character's death is revealed not to be accidental. A young man sexually assaults (gropes above her clothes) a young woman.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Discussion of how a drug suppresses sexual desire and pleasure. When young adults stop taking their hormone suppressants, they start having bolts of lust and desire, depicted by quick images of women and men touching and kissing. Two young men look at the same young woman longingly, with one staring at her neck, her face, etc. Once others stop taking the drug, there's lots of flirting, touching, sex. One quick glimpse shows a couple having sex standing up in a semi-public place; in other scenes, there's implied sex (a couple makes out in bed and next morning is shown wearing just underwear; a bunch of semi-clothed people are shown on a bed together, touching; a few different couples kiss passionately). Some characters hang out shirtless (males) or in bras.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Liar," "have you all gone crazy?," "fat pus-filled face," "genetic defect," "shut up."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The teens take a vitamin supplement that's actually a drug that suppresses hormones and stabilizes mood/behavior. The medical officer injects someone to incapacitate them.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Voyagers is a sci-fi thriller about a group of 30 children-turned-teens who are on a one-way space mission to find a potentially habitable planet for humans to colonize. The movie, which has been compared to everything from Lord of the Flies to The 100 , stars Colin Farrell as the one adult aboard the spaceship; the rest of the starring cast is young-adult actors like Tye Sheridan , Fionn Whitehead , and Lily-Rose Depp . There's a fair bit of non-graphic sex and romance involved, as well as violence after the teens stop taking hormone-suppressing, mood-stabilizing drugs disguised as vitamin supplements. Some scenes get quite dark, with moments ranging from a woman's body being groped to the disturbing deaths of at least four young people at others' hands. Language is very mild ("shut up," "liar," "shut your fat face"), and there's no iffy substance use. While the supporting cast is diverse, the main characters are White, and a young Black woman who's the only voice of reason is repeatedly told to shut up. Families with teens can discuss the concept of nature vs. nurture, as well as the movie's messages about the importance of impulse control, collaboration, and honesty. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 1 parent review

Lord of the Flies is much better, spend your time reading that instead - meh, movie is a solid meh

What's the story.

VOYAGERS is writer-director Neil Burger's sci-fi space opera about a near future in which Earth has become increasingly uninhabitable. The world's scientists find a possible solution: a planet that could be habitable by humans. It will take 86 years -- three generations -- to arrive there, so a group of specifically bred babies is brought up indoors to make up the crew of 30 students who will begin the mission. Scientist Richard ( Colin Farrell ) offers to accompany the children, who are 8 when they take off. Ten years later, Christopher ( Tye Sheridan ), one of the brilliant now-18-year-olds, discovers that a daily "vitamin supplement" they've all been ingesting is actually a hormone suppressant and mood stabilizer. Christopher and his best friend, Zac ( Fionn Whitehead ), decide to stop taking the daily supplement and have a nearly instantaneous awakening to feelings of lust, jealousy, competition, and aggression. The sudden influx of hormones coupled with a tragedy creates a toxic, divisive environment for the newly "liberated" teens onboard.

Is It Any Good?

Neil Burger's sci-fi thriller would have been a better series than this slick but underwhelming (and predictable) teen flick. Like Lord of the Flies meets The 100 in space, Voyagers ' plot starts off promisingly, even though audiences will have questions after it's revealed that the children were initially expected to be on the ship by themselves, without an adult present. From there, viewers may wonder how the brightest minds in the world ever thought that filling a ship with unsupervised tweens and teens would lead to anything but mayhem. Plot roadblocks aside, however, Sheridan does a good job as an older teen who starts to question what mission control -- and, by extension, Richard -- has told them all about the drug that's being forced upon them. Farrell does his best to be a father figure and leader, but never underestimate the power of the teen libido, Burger seems to say. What's slightly laughable is that on a ship full of attractive, diverse young people, both Christopher and Zac (who are both White) must of course fall for the same White girl -- in this case, medical officer Sela ( Lily-Rose Depp , who doesn't demonstrate much acting range in the role).

The only prescient voice of reason is Phoebe (Chanté Adams), a Black mission specialist who's repeatedly told to shut up (and, ludicrously, is called fat because she's 10 pounds heavier than all of the other supermodel-thin young women). It doesn't take psychic powers to determine early on that she's the Piggy of this group. The movie's cinematography and editing are well executed, and the actors don't have to do much more than act some combination of compliant, scared, aroused -- or, in the case of a couple of the baddies, psychopathic. Whitehead, with his Tom Hiddleston -like cheekbones and narrowed eyes, is well cast as the beautiful but bad villain. If audiences want to see a cast of attractive early 20-something actors in life-threatening and sexy situations, there are far better films than this eye-rollingly formulaic movie.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Voyagers. Is it necessary to the story? Why, or why not?

What do you think the movie's message is about "nature vs. nurture"? Is there any reason to expect that the "gifted" and "brilliant" biological children of world-class scientists, artists, engineers, and so forth are "above" baser behaviors?

How would you characterize the diversity and representation (or lack thereof) in this film? Why is the other characters' treatment of Phoebe especially problematic?

Did you notice the characters demonstrating teamwork , courage , and perseverance ? Why are those important character strengths ?

Discuss the use of a "love triangle" in the movie. Is it effective? Does it make sense? Why do you think so many teen-focused stories feature a love triangle?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 9, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : April 30, 2021
• Cast : Tye Sheridan , Lily-Rose Depp , Fionn Whitehead
• Director : Neil Burger
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Run time : 108 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : violence, some strong sexuality, bloody images, a sexual assault, and brief strong language
• Last updated : March 2, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Our editors recommend.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Interstellar

Lord of the Flies

Sci-Fi Movies

Teen romance novels.

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Time Out says

Drugged teens cooped up in a starship that'll take an age to get anywhere. What could go wrong?

‘It’s Lord of the Flies...  in SPACE.’ You can hear the elevator pitch for writer-director Neil Burger’s sluggish, unconvincing sci-fi. It mines familiar territory to anyone with a passing knowledge of dystopian futures, a field the director has a track record in, having helmed Hunger Games knock-off Divergent , and steered Bradley Cooper through smart pills thriller Limitless .

You’ve heard the set-up a million times. Humanity has bled Earth dry, and needs a new home to trash. They’ve found a likely candidate across the stars, now they just have to get there. But while many of these movies opt for the hypersleep option, here the twist is that the ship is going to take 80 or so years to get where it’s going. The kids who have been raised in science lab isolation – so as not to get too attached to Mother Earth – will live and die on the starship. Only their children’s children will make it with their youth to spare.

An oddly gawky Colin Farrell plays the substitute dad sent to accompany this next generation. He’s also in charge of overseeing their unwitting duping. Every day, the young guns are fed a blue liquid that drugs them into an emotionless state, effectively rendering them docile workers. They are not permitted sexual urges. The next wave of humanity will be born in test tubes.

This has the unwitting side effect of making the movie a little dull for at least its opening half hour. When these young drones inevitably cotton on and start to rebel, society unravels fast, just like the famous William Golding novel about boys stranded on a desert island. Some of the young actors emerge from their zombie-like drudgery more convincingly than others. The Dancer star Lily Rose-Depp brings some screen presence, as does Ready Player One’s Tye Sheridan.

Surprisingly, it’s Dunkirk actor Fionn Whitehead who lets the side down with a cartoon bad-boy act. Burger’s school of stating-the-bleeding-obvious dialogue doesn’t help, with various clangers crashing like the strange, possibly alien rumbling that wracks the ship. That mystery also deploys a piece of visual misdirection that proves deeply irksome once the truth will out.

Voyagers  is not a film blessed with subtlety, especially not when it comes to laughable wild animal montages when the kids go, err, wild. It does, at least, look good – if again working a very recognisable sci-fi cool white and blue palette. If you’re at a loss what to do one night, it’s not the worst idea to get lost in space with this crew, but it never quite takes off.

Out now in Australian cinemas.

Cast and crew

• Director: Neil Burger
• Screenwriter: Neil Burger

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Voyagers Review: Lord Of The Flies In Space Never Leaves Its Orbit

The Commercial Space Age is seemingly before us, as we’re slowly seeing an exploration of exciting journeys out of Earth’s atmosphere. Neil Burger ’s Voyagers challenges the freedom that Star Trek or Star Wars often depict when traveling among the stars. This science fiction thriller imagines the long jaunt of a group of children raised in space – doomed to spend their whole lives on their way to a destination on another world. Although it serves as an interesting thought experiment, the movie's most burning question in its space expedition is simply a sullen, “Are we there yet?”

Voyagers establishes a world where a hospitable planet away from Earth has been discovered, but it takes 86 years for its crew to arrive. In order to start a colony of humans on this new world, a crew of 30 children are placed aboard a mission to grow up together and procreate in hopes that their children will eventually arrive safely and settle. The movie follows the crew as young adults when one discovers that they’ve been given a drug that suppresses their ability to truly feel human their whole lives, and a Lord of the Flies scenario ensues.

Voyagers has a solid, immersive concept... until it cuts the cord.

Neil Burger is a solid filmmaker to bring a science-fiction concept such as Voyagers to life. The writer/director memorably made 2011’s Limitless , which conversely explores a drug that opens up an expansive world to Bradley Cooper ’s leading character. Burger also successfully played around with YA dystopia with 2014’s Divergent . Voyagers feels like a bit of a remix of these two films, but unfortunately does not take its concept across that line that previous sci-fi films of its kind have dared to go.

The first half of Voyagers is well executed. The cinematography is stylistic and successfully envelopes the audience in the spaceship these 30 kids grew up on. The heart of the film feels carried in Colin Farrell ’s character, who is the only human on the crew who was not born on the ship. It’s interesting to understand the mission through his eyes, as Farrell bonds with the rest of the crew as he explains to them about how their existence will usher in generations of life, even though their own lives must be suppressed to living on a ship with the same routine day-to-day.

Voyagers is less of a science fiction action-adventure, and more so a claustrophobic thriller and introspective piece on how a group of young adults may react to its premise. The two concepts that end up being discussed here are whether one should suffer today to benefit future generations, or go prioritize self-focused autonomy – which some members of the crew start to adopt as they challenge both their upbringings and mission. But when Voyagers enters its second half it becomes more of a tired arguing match than an intriguing commentary.

The talented Tye Sheridan and Lily-Rose Depp are not given enough to work with.

The two actors that seek to anchor Voyagers are Tye Sheridan ( Ready Player One, X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Lily-Rose Depp ( The King , Yoga Hosers ). They each offer solid performances on their own, along with Fionn Whitehead ( Dunkirk , Black Mirror: Bandersnatch ). The chemistry is overall thin and it feels as though they were restrained by the content of the script. Voyagers is basically about a group of young people who lack personality because they have been shielded from culture and pleasure and with that it becomes difficult to empathize with them.

There absolutely could have been a version of Voyagers that explored its concept and allowed room to show off complex and interesting characters, but the movie is so focused on being plot driven that it doesn't have that capacity.

Voyagers is a sci-fi film that is much too safe and confining to satisfy.

Voyagers also misses the mark on exploring the euphoria of these young people learning about their sexual desires for the first time. The movie’s use of sexuality ends up being disappointing because it's more so explored in a predatory, empty kind of way. Overall, the movie glosses over one of the most intriguing aspects sparked throughout the film, and when the crew has the chance to dive deeper into its characters it stays on the surface.

Despite its character flaws, the movie does manage to be entertaining to some degree. It takes an old school science fiction approach that calls for performance over big effects or expertly-choreographed action sequences. A studio film going for a more intimate, dramatic approach for this genre of film is rare, but there’s just not enough appeal on an intellectual or thematic level to engage the viewer with this approach. Voyagers is overall disappointing, but is not without some heart and allure.

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.

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Voyagers Review: A Gen Z Lord of the Flies in Space

A young crew breaks down into factions on a journey to a distant planet in Voyagers, starring Lily-Rose Depp, Tye Sheridan and Colin Farrell.

Voyagers takes an initially intriguing sci-fi premise down a predictable path with no surprises. What begins as a thoughtful exploration of human nature devolves into Generation Z's Lord of the Flies in space. While most of the primary characters are one-note with little depth, a solid lead performance from Tye Sheridan adds the needed gravitas to stave off absurdity. His ability to bring a realistic demeanor to fantastical situations serves the film well; but not enough to overcome several glaring plot holes and an obvious final act.

In 2063, humanity discovers a habitable planet in distant space. Earth will not recover from climate change, overpopulation, and pollution. A decision is made to send a ship to prepare the planet for colonization. The near hundred year voyage will need multiple generations to complete the mission. Embryos are genetically engineered using the best minds available. The resulting children are raised in isolation as a group. Dr. Richard Alling ( Colin Farrell ) asks to accompany the children as they embark on the journey.

Years later in space, the crew has matured to teenagers. Christopher (Tye Sheridan) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead) start to have questions about the mission. Richard alleviates their concerns, but notices the changes in behavior. When the boys start deviating from protocols, the opposite sex becomes noticeable. Christopher and Zac now see Sela ( Lily-Rose Melody Depp ) in a different light. The young crew is forced to take control of the ship after a mysterious accident. Their newfound freedom and authority leaves all inhibitions unchecked.

Voyagers had an opportunity to be daring. The premise establishes a petri dish of closed society where all facets of human behavior is allowed to bloom. Sex and aggression lurches to the forefront as unbridled carnality runs amok. It's a frat party in space as the bad boys become violent alpha males with no moral compass. The Lord of the Flies analogy is fitting. The problem is that we've seen this all before ad nauseam. The character interactions play out exactly as expected. Writer/director Neil Burger ( Limitless , Divergent ) succumbs to formula when he could have been bold.

Two issues perplexed me utterly throughout the film. First is Neil Burger's use of cutaway shots. In the first act, he inserts random titillating images when the male characters become aroused. Then he abandons this style choice completely for the remainder of the runtime. It's as if Burger had a cinematic change of heart, which ends up looking awkward and disjointed on screen. There's a primary setting of a sterile, long white corridor in the ship. In Star Trek , they cleverly angle filming so it looks like the characters are walking around a larger environment. In Voyagers , it seems like the characters are just running up and down the same set. It makes the ship boring. That's a critical flaw in space based science fiction .

Tye Sheridan excels in visual effects heavy films. He does a good job of conveying emotions without dialogue. Sheridan elevates Voyagers script by showcasing complexity when it's not spoken. The film needed much more nuance and character development to be successful. Voyagers is a production of Thunder Road Films and AGC Studios. It will be released theatrically on April 9th by Lionsgate.

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Voyagers review – horny Lord of the Flies in space quickly crashes to earth

Colin Farrell leads a crew of genetically engineered and chemically subdued youths on a perilous journey in a film that doesn’t have the guts to explore its perverse premise

T here’s a tantalising R-rated premise at the centre of the PG-13-rated sci-fi thriller Voyagers. In the future, the Earth is slowly becoming uninhabitable (something that’s depressingly less fiction and more science) and so a crew is assembled, by a muted Colin Farrell , to travel to another planet to check for viability, a familiar set-up given a novel spin. Because of the length of the journey – a rather off-putting 86 years – participants will be created rather than procured, spliced together from the finest DNA and grown in a lab, their sole purpose to begin the trip, procreate and let their children and then their children lead the way.

But deep into the quest, a shocking discovery is made: the crew is being drugged. A blue liquid they’re told to take daily (explained away as some sort of enzyme mixture) is revealed to be something far more nefarious: a cocktail of chemicals aimed at subduing their impulses. By removing the ability to feel or desire extremities (fear, excitement, horniness) they are then made more docile and in turn more effective at achieving their mission. When two members decide to stop taking it, disaster strikes.

The possibilities teased by writer-director Neil Burger (who dealt with a loosely alternate version of this concept in 2011’s thrill pill drama Limitless) are intriguing. How would submissive, isolated youths growing up without any influence from the outside world deal with a sudden cracked upon universe of sexual desire and rampant emotions? With training designed specifically to cover the practical side of their trip, how would they then understand concepts of consent and responsibility? What dangers would arise? But such thorniness is soon blunted in the ho hum execution, a Lord of the Flies-lite drama that plays out more like a YA adaptation of a book fans would claim is far better.

The trippy neon trailer would have you believe that we’re entering Gaspar Noé-adjacent territory, all psychedelic head fuckery and playful perversity, but Burger is too restrained, too polite to take us anywhere quite so extreme. The heightened emotions felt by the crew are never really felt by us the audience, there’s a headiness that’s missing and in the brief moments when Burger does try to convey the characters’ giddy intensity, he relies on a failed visual motif, a dated montage of discordant images, closer to a musty 90s Windows screensaver than something from a film released in 2021. The script never really grapples with the dark implications of his conceit, how without regulation and law, the youths would embrace their wilder side in more horrifying ways, choosing instead to tiptoe rather than forcefully tread, a psychosexual cautionary tale rendered impotent.

Sex is lightly suggested (again in opposition to what the trailers promise) while any form of sexual fluidity is nowhere to be seen, Burger’s script perhaps, hopefully unintentionally implying that queerness is less nature and more nurture. But such big thinking would suggest that much thinking has actually gone into Voyagers, a generous assertion, given how anything remotely challenging is quickly chucked into deep space and replaced by rote formula. The crew inevitably divides into warring factions battling for supremacy but such little care is taken with the characters that we struggle to care who wins out. Tye Sheridan, Fionn Whitehead and Lily Rose-Depp are the only three who get the lightest of look-ins but not one of them is able to do much with the scraps they’ve been given, leaving the ramped-up conflict ineffective as the film crashes toward a predictable conclusion. The production design is sleek but anonymous and aside from the specifics of the set-up, there are no particularly inventive elements to Burger’s vision of the future, nothing to distract us from the rather dull human drama.

It’s all just too sanitised and safe, a journey that stumbles as it takes us from the unknown to the familiar, a film that plods when it should stride. How did a bracing idea about rebellion, sexual awakening and lawlessness turn out so boring?

Voyagers is out in cinemas in the US on 9 April, and in the UK on 8 October on Sky Cinema and NOW.

• Science fiction and fantasy films
• Colin Farrell
• Drama films

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Voyagers Is a Heady But Uneven Exploration of Human Nature

Voyagers is often absorbing and interesting, even though its Lord of the Flies-in-space story falls apart toward the end.

Like many sci-fi stories before it, Voyagers is driven by humanity's need to find a new planet to inhabit. In this case, scientists have discovered a promising option, but it will take 86 years to reach, and they fear people who have grown attached to Earth won't be able to endure the journey. Their solution is to genetically engineer 30 children, raise them in isolation, and then launch them into space, where they can then reproduce and raise the next generation, to complete the mission. Needless to say, that doesn't go exactly as planned. Yet it's not the intricacies of the mission that interest writer and director Neil Burger. Instead, he uses his premise as a jumping-off point to explore human nature, leading to a sort of Lord of the Flies -in-space that is often absorbing and interesting, even though it falls apart toward the end.

After blasting into space, the children of Voyagers lead a dispassionate, programmed existence for years. That is, until computer whiz Christopher (Tye Sheridan) notices something is awry with the spaceship's metrics. However, when he asks Richard (Colin Farrell), the lone adult onboard, what's going on, he doesn't receive a satisfying answer. Curious, Christopher and his friend Zac (Fionn Whitehead) hack into protected files and discover the "Blue," a drink they consume daily, includes a drug that suppresses their personalities and dampens pleasure. So the next day, Christopher and Zac quietly pour out the Blue and begin to feel the full scope of human emotions for the first time.

RELATED: 8 New Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movies to Watch in April 2021

Soon, the entire crew has stopped taking the drug, resulting in them giving into their most basic instincts for anything that provides pleasure -- violence, sex and food. Of course, the characters weren't socialized in normal circumstances, so they've never learned to regulate their emotions. As a result, they cross lines without any real understanding of what they're doing and why it might be wrong. Soon, the crew has fragmented into tribes, and Zac arises as something of an autocratic figure who uses fear and scapegoats to cultivate and maintain loyalty while attacking those who disagree with him.

The first two-thirds of Voyagers presents an interesting, if sometimes familiar, portrait of the characters discovering their own human impulses. The initially disciplined nature of the crew's existence is supported by the austere, white design of the spaceship's interior and the spare tonal score. However, the clean aesthetic of the production design quickly stands in contrast to the characters as they start to experiment with what brings them pleasure and pain, and begin to use the ship's spaces in looser, messier ways -- sitting on tables, failing to pick up after themselves and breaking objects.

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Of course, not everyone reacts the same way to their newly discovered capacity for emotion, with some of the young adults maintaining self-control even as their peers behave in ways they can't comprehend. That enables Voyagers to explore fundamental but conflicting human impulses toward rationality and chaos, power and intimacy, individuality and society, and the film delves into these ideas in an interesting and layered way. Whitehead, who has the showiest role, shines in these scenes, fully committing to Zac's desire for loyalty and power.

Unfortunately, the final act devolves into a predictable, action-heavy conflict, and ultimately comes to a pat conclusion that feels much too easy given everything that came before. Yet, while Voyagers isn't always successful, for the most part it is heady sci-fi that will leave you considering the most fundamental question of all: What makes us human?

Written and directed by Neil Burger and starring Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead, Chanté Adams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Viveik Kalra, Archie Madekwe, Quintessa Swindell, Madison Hu and Colin Farrell , Voyagers premieres in theaters on Friday, April 9.

KEEP READING: Voyagers Trailer Is All About Taking Sci-Fi Ecstasy in Space

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