Neil Burger’s Voyagers is an ambitious new film that walks the line between the real-life Stanford Prison Experiment and traditional Western movie tropes set against a vast, yet claustrophobic, spaceship heading for a new world.
The science part of this science fiction morality play is simple enough: a new world has been discovered millions of miles from Earth.
In order to populate this new world, a crew of children, all of whom have been genetically engineered from only the best batch of genius donors, will undertake the long journey which is expected to last longer than their own lives.
This will leave their descendants to pick up their mantle and colonize the new world.
Voyagers doesn’t spend much time on the millions of questions this experiment poses because the kids have Richard.
Richard, played by Colin Farrell in a terrifically understated performance, selflessly decides to go along with the children on this fateful journey. Knowing he will die long before the ship ever reaches their new home, Richard provides a much-needed father figure in this high-concept adventure.
Although Richard claims his presence will allow the ship to launch several years before schedule, it’s clear his motivation is much more heartfelt, as he has grown fond of the kids in his care.
As the years pass, the kids grow into teenagers and begin to ask questions. This is where the film truly begins. Burger chose a spaceship to a new world but could have just as easily chosen an underground bunker during the Cold War, or a nuclear submarine that can’t surface until the radiation is safe enough.
Their first question comes with “the blue,” a drink that all the kids are to have every day which is clearly a cross between Gatorade and saltpeter. It is meant to suppress their anxiety, emotions, and raging hormones. They are supposed to drink it without question. Although Richard does his best to dismiss their concerns, he is ultimately unable to stifle their genius curiosity about the mandatory beverage. Once the kids go off the blue, all hell breaks loose in what will inevitably be described as Lord of the Flies in space.
What happens over the rest of the film will become the biggest fodder for debate. It’s easy to dismiss as a viewer, watching teens go wild seemingly for the first time, that this is only a movie. Kids, especially genius kids, wouldn’t really act this way, would they? The historical precedent of the Stanford Prison Experiment says they most certainly would.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Stanford Prison Experiment, it was a study done at Stanford University in 1971. The social experiment attempted to study the psychological effects of perceived power using the model of prisoners and guards. It was shut down after only six days. Student volunteers, many of whom were previously friends, picked out of a hat their role of either prisoner or guard. Cruelty, laced with sexual sadism, then reared its ugly head. There are many documentaries and articles on the Stanford Prison Experiment, as well as an underrated docudrama film in 2015 starring future Flash Ezra Miller and Tye Sheridan among many other great actors. Sheridan, who always gives interesting performances, also plays the main protagonist in Voyagers.
The power struggle on the ship pits Sheridan’s Christopher against Fionn Whitehead’s (Dunkirk) perfectly wicked antagonist Zac. Each teen leads a traditional good vs. evil faction struggling for the soul of the ship. Lily-Rose Depp’s (The King) Sela rounds out the cast of main characters as the genius girl with affections that won’t be compromised.
What follows is a conflict inside the newly emotionally-born teens as they struggle through every one of the seven deadly sins on their way to either redemption or ruin. Will the crew side with Zac, who encourages his faction to indulge in gluttony, sex, and violence? Or will they side with Christopher, the level-headed fair leader who… well, you already see where this is going.
I won’t spoil the more salacious choices made by the kids as they find their darker natures, but I do want to explore what I found the most thought-provoking and controversial scene. While the kids suddenly deal with a wave of hormones sparking them through jealously, envy, and perceived sexual ownership of their chosen mates, I wasn’t expecting the kids to suddenly discover racism. While Voyagers does a great job making the genetically brilliant children diverse, it does cast the three leaders of the future world as white men, beginning with Farrell’s Richard, then later with the struggle between Christopher and Zac. There are many different races aboard the ship but only these guys seem to get consideration as leaders.
The two featured African American women onboard are played by Chante’ Adams, who gave a brilliant performance in 2017’s Roxanne Roxanne, and newcomer Quintessa Swindell, who made her debut on HBO’s controversial series Euphoria. What I found curious is how Adams’ character Phoebe is hazed horribly as a genetic defective while Swindell’s Julie is over-sexualized by the suddenly horny crew. While it’s clear Julie owns her own sexual choices, it was a sharp contrast finding one a subject of lustful desire, while the other was horribly ridiculed as defective. Phoebe and Julie find themselves in opposing camps in the war between Christopher and Zac. Watching the kids loudly tease Phoebe was so disturbing it made me not want the see the mission to repopulate a new world succeed at all.
I’m certain Neil Burger will be asked about this scene the most in years to come. Although it doesn’t expressly say this is racism, their natures present as pitting lighter and darker skin colors as desirable vs. defective.
Voyagers employs many of Burger’s signature visual styles including the never-ending tunnel shot he’s become known for in films like Limitless, starring Bradly Cooper. Much like Limitless, Burger explores similar themes of what someone would do with sudden unregulated power.
Ultimately Burger has created an interesting morality play with Voyagers, one that will lure people in perhaps unknowingly. In essence, come for the sci-fi, stay for the human nature. In addition to the fine group of actors Burger assembled for Voyagers, Game of Thrones fans should look for Bran himself, Isaac Hempstead Wright, as the data-driven intellectual Edward.
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Produced by Brendon Boyea, Stuart Ford,
Neil Burger, Basil Iwanyk, Greg Shapiro
Written and Directed by Neil Burger
Starring Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead,
Colin Farrell, Chanté Adams, Isaac Hempstead Wright,
Viveik Kalra, Archie Madekwe, Quintessa Swindel
