As Brad Pitt’s Major Roy McBride ventures into deep space in James Grey’s upcoming space thriller Ad Astra, the famed legacy astronaut’s mind is pushed to its limits both by the unknowable darkness he literally finds himself surrounded by and the metaphorical darkness about his father’s past actions that might have jeopardised all life in the galaxy.
While earlier trailers have emphasised how McBride will have to fight for his life as he falls from space and gets into high-speed chases on the surface of far-off planets, the new IMAX trailer promoting the film’s release leans heavily on the spectre of McBride’s father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones), who’d previously travelled deeper into space than any other human.
The exact nature of what the elder McBride did during his own journey is surrounded in mystery, but it’s seemingly reacted to the freak occurrences in the presence involving antimatter. Jones’ brief voice over suggests that Clifford wants his son to find something, out there. But what it is and whether it’ll lead to humanity’s destruction is anyone’s guess.
Ad Astra hits theatres September 19.