This weekend’s latest release, Voyagers, follows a crew of 30 young men and women as a spaceship takes them on a one-way trip to a new planet. Since the promised land that awaits them will take nearly 100 years to reach, the all-star cast including X-Men actor Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead and Colin Farrell begin to feel the walls close in on their floating home by the minute. The science fiction thriller explores how closed off space travel can feel, and apparently it wasn’t too difficult to imagine on set either.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Ready Player One actor Tye Sheridan and the Voyagers cast, they broke down exactly what it was like on set filming its tense moments. In the words of Sheridan:
I think it definitely presents challenges. You’re in a really tight space trying to make a film. I think inherently the film deals with claustrophobic because in reality the spaces were very tight, but that’s kind of the nature of the movie and I think that’s what makes it so interesting and fun as a viewer.
Voyagers may remind the viewer of sci-fi classics such as Alien or Interstellar, but more than the others, the movie explores living in confinement through these characters. The movie’s premise also revolves around the discovery that the crew has been living a life of sedation thanks to a mysterious blue drug. Fionn Whitehead, who memorably fronted Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, also spoke about his experience:
It was maybe more claustrophobic [on set] actually [than it looks like in the film]. The sets were incredible, they were really amazing, very claustrophobic, quite closed off with not a lot of air circulating through it and it was in the middle of summer so it was very hot.
If you ever wondered what it feels like to work on a movie spaceship, it turns out it’s super uncomfortable. Fionn Whitehead spoke about it actually feeling more closed off in person than it does in Voyagers, as the 30-person crew find themselves in a frustrating Lord of the Flies-like situation that draws them apart.
Voyagers was written and directed by Neil Burger, who previously made 2011’s Limitless and 2014’s YA adaptation Divergent. It sees Tye Sheridan exploring sci-fi much further following his major roles in Ready Player One and as Cyclops in the X-Men prequel films. In the movie, his character, Christopher, becomes drawn to Sela, played by actress, model and daughter to Johnny Depp, Lily-Rose Depp. Fionn Whitehead’s Zac rocks the ship with some controversial ideas about how the crew should proceed after a life of sedation.
Voyagers is coming to theaters this weekend, following a landmark moment for movie theaters thanks to COVID-19 progress and the huge draw of Godzilla vs. Kong. We’ll see how Voyagers does this weekend when the Lionsgate film arrives this Friday, April 9. Check out what other new releases are coming our way with CinemaBlend’s 2021 movie release schedule.
