Supernova (2000)
Supernova plot
The following content describes the plot for the movie.
Supernova chronicles the search and rescue patrol of a medical ship in deep space in the early 22nd century and its six-member crew which includes captain and pilot A.J. Marley (Robert Forster), co-pilot Nick Vanzant (James Spader), medical officer Kaela Evers (Angela Bassett), medical technician Yerzy Penalosa (Lou Diamond Phillips), search and rescue paramedic Danika Lund (Robin Tunney), and computer technician Benjamin Sotomejor (Wilson Cruz). Aboard their vessel, the Nightingale 229, they receive an emergency distress signal coming from an ice mining operation on the moon Titan 37, over 3000 light years away.
The crew answers the call and “dimension jumps”, arriving in the path of Titan 37’s debris cloud, some of which damages the ship and causes the loss of 82% of its maneuvering fuel. Worse still, Titan 37 orbits a blue giant, and its high gravity field will pull the ship to the point where it will be incinerated in 17 hours, 12 minutes – which happens to be almost the same amount of time that the Nightingale will need to recharge its jump drive, their only possible hope for escape.
With only an 11-minute window for error, the crew soon find themselves in danger from the disturbing young man (Peter Facinelli) they rescue, and the mysterious alien artifact he has smuggled aboard. This artifact is analyzed by the ship’s computer and is said to contain “Ninth Dimensional Matter”.
It is ultimately discovered that the young man who called for rescue is actually “Karl Larson”, an old former lover of Kaela’s (it is implied they had an abusive relationship). Karl came into contact with the ninth dimensional matter after recovering the artifact, and it somehow enabled him to acquire super strength, supernatural healing abilities, and made him younger (such that Kaela did not recognize him).
Karl murders most of the crew except Kaela, and strands Nick on the mining platform. Karl unsuccessfully attempts to romantically reconcile with Kaela. Nick finds his way back to the medical ship through a rescue pod left on the mining platform, and a battle ensues between Nick and Karl. Karl is ultimately killed using explosives placed near the alien artifact which Karl was obsessed with retrieving. The explosion ejects the artifact into space, hurtling it towards the blue giant.
With moments left before the “dimension jump” activates, Kaela and Nick place themselves into the only remaining “dimensional stabilization chamber” (Karl had destroyed all but one) which is the only thing that enables human beings to survive the ship’s dimensional jump drive. The pods are only meant to hold one person, however – two subjects might be genetically mixed during the dimensional jump.
Before Nick and Kaela enter the only remaining pod, the computer warns them that the 9th dimensional matter is reacting with the gravity of the blue giant sun and will cause a 9th dimensional reaction that will spread in all directions, such that the reaction’s resulting supernova will reach Earth within 51 years.
The computer hypothesizes that the reaction will either destroy life on Earth or “enable humankind to achieve a new level of existence”. Just before the blue giant supernovas, the ship engages in a dimensional jump which brings Nick and Kaela back to Earth. As a result of their being in the same pod, Kaela is now pregnant with Nick’s child, and the two of them each have one eye of the other person’s original eye color.
Source: Wikipedia
Our verdict: Half decent sci-fi movie. Good production values but doesn’t really excite enough.
Related items: Supernova on DVD and Blu-ray available to order/pre-order from AMAZON.