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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
• 485 User reviews
• 100 Critic reviews
• 44 Metascore

Top cast 41

• Christopher

• (as Isaac Hempstead-Wright)

• Mission Director

• IVF Technician

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

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Did you know

• 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).

Richard : I want to be honest with them about everything. Otherwise, they'll lose faith in me.

• 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 485

• May 4, 2021
• How long is Voyagers? Powered by Alexa
• April 9, 2021 (United States)
• United States
• Czech Republic
• United Kingdom
• Official Facebook
• Official Instagram
• Bản Năng Hoang Dại
• Bucharest, Romania
• AGC Studios
• Fibonacci Films
• Freecs Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $29,000,000 (estimated)
• Apr 11, 2021

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 48 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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Director Neil Burger's 'Voyagers' launches a colony ship to the stars

Writer-director Neil Burger is well known for his provocative cinematic projects, most notably 2006's period-set magician movie "The Illusionist," 2011's psychological thriller "Limitless," and a trio of "Divergent" films adapted from author Veronica Roth's young adult sci-fi novels. 

Now Burger has his eyes fixed on the stars with his new science fiction adventure flick, " Voyagers ," which revolves around the perils inside a generation spaceship carrying 30 home-grown candidates on a one-way mission to settle an exoplane t 86 years from Earth.

Lionsgate will release "Voyagers'' nationwide on April 9. The film'syouthful cast includes Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead, Chanté Adams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Viveik Kalra, Archie Madekwe, Quintessa Swindell, Madison Hu, and Colin Farrell. The premise finds the crew discovering that they're being drugged with an emotional suppressant called "The Blue," and centers on the heightened chaos that ensues when they stop drinking their medicine.

Related: Astronauts on Mars missions could suffer cognitive and emotional problems

Here's the official "Voyagers" synopsis:

"With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women, bred for intelligence and obedience, embark on an expedition to colonize a distant planet. But when they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into chaos, they're consumed by fear, lust, and the insatiable hunger for power."

Space.comspoke with Burger on the genesis of "Voyagers," what sort of mood and visual style he hoped to attain, the origins of the azure-hued cocktail known as "The Blue," his inspiration for the plot, and visiting SpaceX to create a realistic set environment for his actors.

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Space.com: What was the creative seed for writing and directing "Voyagers?"

Neil Burger: I was interested in human nature in a vacuum. We've seen other space movies that are going to a distant planet, but I wanted to delve into the idea of what's it really like to be confined on one of these ships if we were really going to go someplace and how does that work. It's not a shopping mall in space, you need to conserve weight and conserve fuel and it's all the bare minimum. It's tight quarters so we designed this set with these long narrow hallways leading to confined compartments. So then it's how do people hold up under that kind of pressure for their entire lives. And if things do start to break down what’s that look like?

Space.com:You've explored elements of human potential and limitations in other movies. How does "The Blue" operate as a narrative device in the screenplay’s framework?

Burger: Basically, they put these young people on the ship who are going to just live their lives and procreate on the ship and have the next generation and then the next generation, and that's how they're going to get there. The mission planners have accounted for everything, so they have them on what we call "The Blue." It’s like a sedative. It's something making them docile and dulled down so that they don't act out and procreate at the right time to conserve food. They don't know that's what it’s doing to them, they think it's some vitamin supplement.

But they're super smart and one of them hacks into a computer and stumbles upon the truth of what this is. So he and his friend go off of it and they suddenly awaken to this emotion and human sensation that they've never felt before. In a way, going off the drug is like being on a drug for them. It's intoxicating. Slowly the whole crew goes off of it and all hell breaks loose.

Related: Is Interstellar Travel Really Possible?

Space.com: What were some of your influences and inspirations in creating a mood and tone for "Voyagers?"

Burger: Because I wanted it to be about human nature in a vacuum, I wanted to strip everything down with the ship. Which sort of makes sense they'd have a minimal craft to take them there. So simple rooms and simple corridors all in white. I like that because it featured the human aspect of it. Certainly the ship is a character but it's just white ceilings and white floors. And I also saw it, because of the confinement and claustrophobia, as a little bit like a submarine movie.  So I looked a lot at " Das Boot " to see how those sailors were dealing with the stressors of being confined underwater. This is different, but it's a similar thing.  

Space.com: In your research, what were some shocking or surprising facts you discovered about colony ships and space travel?

Burger: Once I came up with the idea, for me it always has to be based in reality. I wanted it to all ring true.  The most wonderful thing we did is spend time at SpaceX in California. [SpaceX's headquarters and rocket factory are in Hawthorne, Calif.] We went there and went through the whole design process and hung out with their engineers and got to sit in a capsule and see how their controls were done. So that was very informative, what they were working on, and to see how they were simplifying everything. You look at these old spaceships or even old airplanes and there’s a million different switches and toggles. They brought it all down to basically an iPad's worth of touchscreens . It was just inspiring to be there.

Space.com: Would you climb aboard a starship and blast into space if given the chance?

Burger: I would go up in space, yeah. I think it would be amazing. People don't realize the stresses it puts on you. I would love to do it. 

You live your life on Earth and get into all your petty concerns and worries. To be up in the heavens looking down would put it all in perspective.

"Voyagers" launches into theaters Friday, April 9. The PG-13 movie runs 1 hour, 48 minutes. 

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

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Voyagers Ending, Explained: What Happens to Sela and Christopher?

Neil Burger’s hefty portfolio of features might include the likes of a few you’ve seen or perhaps heard of. However, each feature is as memorable as it gets. From 2002’s ‘Interview With The Assassin’, to his ever popular ‘ Divergent ’, Burger has paved the way for like-minded filmmakers to explore nuances that drift away from the typical.

One such sci-fi feature is 2021’s Voyagers ,’ a film that tells the tale of Earth’s inevitable demise and the journey of a future generation to a planet that will serve as its successor. The journey is stricken with mishaps and challenges as the crew navigates not only the vastness of space but also the complexity of human nature. What happens when they have to experience all that in the close quarters of the ship? SPOILERS AHEAD

Voyagers Plot Synopsis

The Earth is ravaged by heat and drought. Humanity’s only hope is to find Earth’s successor, a planet that could be colonized by the future generations of the planet. Scientists find this planet in the year 2063. The journey to the planet will take 86 years, and hence, only the first crew’s grandchildren will be able to set foot on the planet. Richard Alling, played by Colin Farrell, is the lead scientist on the mission. The crew is trained in isolation to survive the confines of the ship.

The crew is bred through IVF and, at a young age, are launched within a ship to their destined planet. After a decade of being onboard crew members, Christopher and Zac discover that “the blue” they’ve been consuming is actually a drug that suppresses their pleasure response and sex drive, keeping them docile and manageable.

Both Christopher and Zac stop taking the chemical. The duo begins feeling a resurgence of adolescent hormones. Their pleasure response has also seemingly been reactivated. Soon, others also stop consuming the blue chemical. Raging hormones aboard the confines of the ship spell a recipe for disaster as the young men and women give into their most primal urges. The film explores many themes, such as adolescence, hierarchy, a lust for power, and the importance of human communication.

Voyagers Ending: Does the Alien Really Exist?

While the existence of the alien could have been an intriguing turn of events in the film, the alien does not exist. Here’s what we know about the alien. Over the course of time, the crewmates begin to hear strange noises on the ship. Nothing peculiar comes up when they check the surveillance systems onboard. Upon asking Richard about these noises and what they could be, he explains that it’s just the ship contracting due to negative temperatures. The crewmates, particularly Zac and Christopher, already know that they’re being drugged by consuming the Blue. Hence, they do not trust Richard’s explanation even in the slightest.

Curious to know what’s really happening, they begin hypothesizing possibilities. After hearing the noises again, Christopher and Zac go to the main surveillance room. Edward is stationed there and is also curious to know where these noises are coming from. While Christopher believes there’s a logical reason for it, Zac thinks there might be an external force at hand. Edward additionally hypothesizes that if the planet they’re going to has life, then there is a possibility of it existing out in space where the ship is.

This essentially plants a seed in Zac’s mind. He begins to believe that it could very well be alien life that’s making sounds somewhere within the ship. As the movie progresses, a malfunction in the communication systems outside the ship prompts Richard, accompanied by Christopher, to conduct a check-up. During the checkup, a bizarre energy is seen attacking Richard, which results in his death. At this time, the surveillance systems picked up something strange before corrupting its files. The only person to witness these events is Edward. He describes it as an entity or force that consumed Richard until he was unresponsive.

While others might have taken this information with a grain of salt, Zac had no trouble accepting it. As the story progresses, Christopher is elected as Chief Officer and is tasked with overseeing all the operations on the ship. This doesn’t sit well with Zac, as he believes he is a better fit. After convincing others to stop taking the Blue liquid, Zac forms his own group, rebelling against Christopher.

Zac has now fully embraced the idea that the alien exists and that it killed Richard. Christopher and Sela, on the other hand, do not believe in it. They set out in search of any missing surveillance footage of the incident, believed to be lost. Christopher, Sela, and others stumble upon footage of Kai in a control room operating an external instrument that he was assigned. With him is Zac, enraged by Richard’s decision to opt for Christopher instead of him.

Kai suggests to “Give him a little zap for his trouble…” indicating that the external equipment they’re handling could be manipulated to cause injuries. Within the footage, the same noises can be heard, but Zac dismisses it, saying it’s just noises from the ship. With this, Sela, Christopher, and others realize that Zac has been faking it all along. He sold this idea to the rest of the crew, claiming he could protect them from this alien.

As the footage plays out, Zac is seen manipulating the electricity surge to the external equipment, gradually increasing it. He does this until the surge is at its maximum, electrocuting Richard. The Surge also damages many other systems aboard the ship. Christopher, Sela, and the others now have firm proof that Zac was the one who killed Richard and doesn’t believe in the alien. They back the footage up in a memory drive and hide it so no one tampers with it.

They use the opportunity to play the footage on a display in the dining room, where everyone meets for meals. Christopher plays the footage and explains to the rest of the crew that Zac is the origin of all the issues. Even after the footage is shown, Zac seemingly convinces his group that the alien could be anywhere, and he wants to protect them from it. To prove his point, he randomly selects crewmate Peter and begins interrogating him on the spot. He says that Peter has the alien in him and that he should be killed.

Zac’s group needs little to no convincing of this. They chase him down and brutally beat Peter to death. Christopher, trying to stop them, also gets hurt in the process. The group realizes what they have done, but Kai persuades them they did the right thing. Directly from the story, we get a clear image of how power-hungry Zac really is. He is equipped and ready to fabricate any story that will keep him on top. He even goes to the extent of killing Richard.

The alien is nothing but a mere made-up story driven by its mysterious setting and unsettled listeners. It all began when Edward initiated the possibility of it being an external influence to Zac, using the story for his power-hungry needs. He actually didn’t even need to convince the rest of the crew; the noises helped him without trying. It just goes to show how gullible people can be within a herd mentality. In this setting, the alien is really Zac’s lust for power; although intangible, it can become a reality if the need for it is larger than life.

What Was in the Secret Compartment of the Ship?

When Christopher figures out the real composition of the Blue, he also stumbles upon another secret that the mission withheld from the crew. Within the bounds of the ship is a secret compartment, Pod-23 , that contains something mysterious. Christopher found the compartment in the ship’s plans. Curious about this, he discloses this information to Zac and some others.

Later on in the film, Christopher and Sela recognize that the compartment actually contains weapons. Sela mentions to Christopher that Richard had provided this information earlier. Hiding from the rest of Zac’s followers, Christopher ventures out searching for this compartment, but to the dismay of his stealth skills, is unable to and leads Zac and his followers straight to it. The weapon’s cache is now in the hands of Zac and his peers, adding even more chaos.

The reason behind the weapons cache existing on the ship is clearly mentioned in the film. The mission integrated the weapons into the ship, only to be used by the generation that reached the planet. They would use these weapons for self-defense if they encountered any threat on the planet. After all, it is imperative for the crew of the ship to survive on the planet if they are meant to colonize it. Therefore, having weapons is a must.

The secret compartment helps us understand how intelligent the crew members really are. Anything that is kept secret will eventually be unearthed, especially when confined to a particular space, which in this case is the ship. It paints a picture of adolescent curiosity, something that can uncover several mysteries if it wants to. Human ingenuity knows no bounds, and considering the crew members are genetically enhanced for their intellect, it would be concerning if they didn’t find the cache.

Purely from a narrative perspective, the weapons play a vital role in storytelling. Without the guns, the intensity and thrill displayed towards the end of the film would not exist. In the hands of these young adults, the weapons are a symbol of power. Others would fear them because they possess it. This is precisely what Zac wanted: power, and he got even more of it with the weapons. Zac tells his peers that he’ll protect them from the alien, and with the acquisition of the weapons, Zac can carry out his claims.

The secret compartment of weapons isn’t just there to add a feature to the narrative. It has systematically been placed by the writers to help its viewers understand the scenario onboard the ship. It is a symbol of intelligence, power, fear, and hatred, traits that readily appear in the film.

Are Sela and Christopher Alive at the End?

Details about Sela and Christopher dwindle towards the end of the film after the birth of their children. While it is unknown whether they survived the journey in its entirety, from a purely cinematic perspective, this could be plausible. The odds aren’t necessarily in their favor. To understand if they survived, we must know how old they could be at the end of the film.

Using the information provided at the beginning of the film, it is assumed that the children were conceived right after the exoplanet was found. We can confirm from the movie itself that it is an exoplanet, as displayed during the initial presentation by the mission director at the start of the film. The chart indicates that the spacecraft will be traveling to Alpha Centauri, which in reality is the nearest solar system from ours, about four light-years away.

Using the information provided in the film, the children were conceived right after the exoplanet was found. This means the children are born approximately one year after the planet was found in 2063. If the children were born in 2064, they were launched within Humanitas (the spacecraft) only during their pre-teen years, ages 9 to 12. If the average age of the children is nine years, they were launched into space in 2073.

After the 10-year jump, Sela and Christopher are 19 years old. While most of the film is accompanied by suitable answers, time-frames have fallen short. Information about the time frame between Richard’s death and Sela becoming Chief Officer is quite foggy. However, if the time frame lies between a few months to a year, Sela and Christopher could have given birth to their child at the age of 21.

If they stuck to the designated age provided by the rules of the mission of 24 years, it would alter the trajectory of their ages. Sela would have ample time to re-adjust the state of affairs onboard the ship and bring consensus and peace among the crew after the events that took place when they were 19. Sticking to this route, Sela would give birth to her child at the age of 24, 15 years after the launch of the mission.

If the crew sticks to the same pattern, then Sela’s children will also give birth at the age of 24. Sela would be 48 years old during the birth of her grandchildren, 39 years into their journey. Gen 1 would give birth to Gen 2 at the age of 24; Gen 2 would give birth to Gen 3 when Gen 1 is 48 years. Sela and Christopher would need to survive another 47 years before landing on the exoplanet at the age of 95.

The average life expectancy worldwide is around 73.4 years, which means Sela and Christopher would be in a minimal percentage of people who live to the age of 95. According to other academic records, the centenarian (people who are 100 years old and above) percentage around the world is around 0.017%. This could indicate that Sela and Christopher have a very minute chance of living that long, irrespective of other conditions.

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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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‘Voyagers’ Director Neil Burger on Channeling ‘Lord of the Flies’ in Space

By Brent Lang

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Neil Burger ‘s sci-fi thriller “ Voyagers ” follows a team of hormonal, interplanetary teenage explorers as they slowly shed their civilized veneers and take a walk on the primal side.

The film unfolds almost entirely on a shuttle barreling through the deepest recesses of space, with its young crew tasked with a multi-generational mission to colonize a distant world. That premise has drawn comparisons to William Golding’s seminal 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies,” and the similarities between the book and film is one that Burger readily acknowledges and embraces. The film was conceived and shot before COVID, but the feelings of isolation and hopelessness that the characters experience and the paranoia that seizes hold of the crew is instantly recognizable for moviegoers who have spent the last year in semi-lockdown.

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“Voyagers,” which stars Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead and (as the only adult in the room) Colin Farrell, opens on Friday. Burger spoke with Variety about working with his youthful cast and the futuristic adventure’s unexpected topicality.

Popular on Variety

What inspired “voyagers”.

Stories come to you in so many different ways. In this case, two images popped into my head. One was of these young people sitting on the floor of a space ship, kind of zoned out and looking like they were disheveled and spent after a hunt. I had this other image of young people chasing someone down the very narrow corridor of a spaceship and catching and beating him to death. That intrigued me and caused me to tease out a larger scenario, one that tied into the idea of who are we as human beings? But first, I had to create a story to explain why there would be young people and only young people on a space craft.

This movie has been described as “Lord of the Flies” in space. Do you think that’s an accurate depiction?

It is. I love the book “Lord of the Flies” and I love the Peter Brook movie . Once I wrote the script, I wondered if what I was doing was what that story had done. Rather than trying to run away from it, I decided to lean into it.

But it does have differences. “Lord of the Flies” is very much about those boys reverting to male British behavior involving hunting and war. In our case, the crew of young men and women have no cultural references at all. When we strip away everything, what we’re looking at is human nature in a vacuum. They’re not reverting to any cultural stereotype. This allows us to think about ideas like, at our core, who are we? Are we naturally good or are we just animals looking to satisfy our appetites?

Where did you land in terms of our primal state?

I swing back and forth between pessimism and optimism. Having the movie coming out now makes it more relevant because of the year we’ve just been through in terms of the pandemic and our confinement and the political situation. We’ve seen how fear can be stoked and manipulated and used by people in power for their own ends. People can be pushed into paranoia and mob violence. Human history has mostly been a march towards an expansion of rights for people and of people trying to figure out a way to look out for others and alleviate human suffering. But there are also a lot of steps backwards in that constant attempt to improve things.

The movie was produced and written pre-COVID. Does the film land differently now?

It feels less like a cautionary tale and more like a commentary on what happened.

Did you do a lot of rehearsing with your cast?

I had 30 actors who were around the age of 20 on set. Their characters were a little like horses that had never been let out of the stall. If you take a horse that’s never been let out of the stall and you put in the field, it doesn’t start running. It just stands there because that’s all it knows. Its whole being has been reduced to dull nothingness. For these young people, I wanted them to have a sense that they were playing characters who had the slowest internal metronome possible. They had nothing to do on the ship — it runs itself. Their job was to eat and sleep and do some minor maintenance and, at a certain point, to procreate. We did group meditation where we tried to instill a stillness in them. There could be no nervous energy. That could not initially be part of this movie. Then they felt wonderful when they could erupt into this atmosphere of wild abandon

Your movies jump between a lot of different genres — from thrillers (“Limitless”) to character-based dramas (“The Upside”) to franchise films (“Divergent”). Is there any thematic tissue that connects your work?

All the movies I make seem very different from each other, but to me, there is a through line to them. Often they deal with questions about whether or not we can change who we are.

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