'400 Days': Astronauts are lab rats in experiment that might be real
It's no accident that Dane Cook, as one of the four astronauts locked in an isolated underground spaceship simulator for more than a year, starts singing "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do" toward the end of the science fiction psych-out 400 Days.
It's no accident that Dane Cook, as one of the four astronauts locked in an isolated underground spaceship simulator for more than a year, starts singing "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do" toward the end of the science fiction psych-out 400 Days.
That is, of course, the jaunty ditty that HAL, the renegade computer of 2001: A Space Odyssey, recites when Dave decides to shut him down. The spaceship operating system in Stanley Kubrick's classic is cracking up. The quartet of glorified lab rats in writer and director Matt Osterman's low-budget thriller are similarly at their wits', and synapses', ends.
The inaugural theatrical release from the SyFy Channel's new film division, 400 Days stars Cook as the testy, testosteroned Dvorak; Brandon Routh (Supey from Bryan Singer's 2006 Superman Returns) as Theo, the crew's just-off-a-bender commander; Caity Lotz as Emily, the levelheaded doc; and Ben Feldman as Bug, a techie whose boyishness is illustrated by the teddy bear he keeps on his bed.
An "elaborate dress rehearsal" overseen by the privately funded Kepler Industries and its somewhat sinister namesake, the experiment is launched (so to speak) with a news conference, after which the astros climb down into their "ship" for 13 months and change. The idea is to see how they function in close quarters, to track their cognition, their memory, the physical effects of being without sunlight. But when, weeks into the project, the whole subterranean module suddenly jolts and shimmies, and the power and oxygen levels begin to fluctuate dramatically, the crew is left wondering if this is a simulation at all.
Anxiety, paranoia, and a stray mouse enter the picture, causing all sorts of problems. Other characters enter the picture, too, but let's not go there.
As low-budget sci-fiers go, 400 Days is not without its merits, although the recent Stanford Prison Experiment covered some of the same psychological territory, and 2014's The Signal, from filmmaker William Eubank, offered a vastly more compelling is-this-really-happening kind of creep-out.
srea@phillynews.com
215-854-5629
@Steven_Rea
400 Days **1/2 (Out of four stars)
StartText
Directed by Matt Osterman. With Dane Cook, Ben Feldman, Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh. Distributed SyFy Films.
Running time: 1 hour, 30 mins.
Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (profanity, violence, adult themes).
Playing at: PFS at the Roxy.