The 2019 sci-fi movieAd Astramay not have been a roaring box office success, but it seemed to leave an impression on fans of heady sci-fi narratives. Directed by James Gray, who made a name for himself directing more earthbound stories likeWe Own the Night,The Yards, and the critically acclaimedThe Lost City of Z,Ad Astrais a sci-fi adventure that is, at its core, less about the future of humankind than it is about the fractured relationship between a father and son.
Starring Brad Pitt andTommy Lee Jones in the central roles,Ad Astraraises a number of questions about interpersonal relationships and the possibility of life beyond the solar system. So what does it all mean, and what can be said aboutAd Astra’s ending?
RELATED:Solaris Ending, Explained
Ad Astratakes place in the near future. It is a time when space travel has been commodified, and humanity’s next project is making contact with intelligent life. Brad Pitt plays Roy McBride, a SpaceCom Major who has dedicated himself to his work. Roy is hyper-focused to the point of detachment, putting all of himself into his professional endeavors and costing him his relationship with his wife, Eve.
After a series of power surges threaten Earth, Roy is informed that the source of these surges is an anti-matter reaction that has seemingly originated from the Lima Project, a mission near Neptune that was led by Roy’s father, Clifford McBride. Though the ship Clifford was on went missing 16 years ago, Clifford is believed to still be alive. Roy is tasked with contacting Clifford from the last securecommunication hub on Mars. The hope is that the message will elicit a response whose signal can be tracked to Clifford’s location. If the mission fails, continued anti-matter surges could mean the end of all life in the solar system.
It’s clear that Roy believes his father to be a hero, noting to his travel companion, Colonel Pruitt (Donald Sutherland) that he believes SpaceCom is trying to smear his good name. As time goes on and Roy gets deeper into what occurred at Project Lima, he begins to question what exactly it was that his father was doing out there while still putting him on a pedestal. Even still, the hurt Roy felt at his father leaving him keeps him from wanting to be like him.
Thecomplicated relationship between father and sonis a driving theme ofAd Astra. Roy’s conflicting feelings about his father drive his need to find him. Roy, more than anything, needs the closure that he was never able to get after Clifford left Earth for the final time. For him, the mission is a personal endeavor, rather than one driven by his duty to SpaceCom.
After arriving on Mars, Roy is told that the Lima Project crew had planned to mutiny against Clifford. Driven only by the mission, Clifford disabled the life support systems, killing the entire crew and carrying on by himself. Roy also learns that the crew heading to Project Lima from Mars is carrying a nuclear bomb, which will be used to destroy Project Lima once it is located, regardless of Clifford’s status.
Roy makes a final push toward Neptune, spending his solitary time on the long journey inan almost dreamlike state. Clifford’s words layer over each other, becoming almost incomprehensible. Images of Roy’s relationship with Eve fade in and out, signifying Roy’s mental deterioration. Finally, Roy arrives at the location of Project Lima for a final confrontation with Clifford.
Roy boards the ship and finds the bodies of the murdered crow floating in zero gravity before finally coming face to face with Clifford. It’s clear that the only thing that ever mattered to Clifford wasthe mission of finding intelligent life. Though Roy seems to have made peace with the fact that Clifford didn’t value anything from his life on Earth, it’s still heartrbreaking to hear him say it to his son’s face.
Clifford finally admits that what Project Lima discovered is that humanity is all alone; there is no other intelligent life to be found. Clifford believes that he has failed, prompting Roy to say, “It happened. Now we know we’re all we’ve got.” Roy arms the bomb and prepares to leave with Clifford.
While leaving the ship, Clifford propels himself away into space. Though Roy tries to save him, Clifford tells him to let him go. It is in this moment that Roy must both physically and emotionally release himself from his father in order to carry on. Like his father, Roy feels in this moment that he has failed and is on the verge of giving up. However, it iswhen he sees Earth in the far-off distance, that Roy makes the decision to forge his own path, to not be like Clifford.
Roy returns to Earth, and though the findings from Project Lima confirm that humanity is alone in the galaxy, Roy’s final report, coupled with the images of his reuniting with Eve, show that he has gained a new perspective. The ending ofAd Astrasuggests that by finding the closure he needed and letting his father go, Roy will not end up like him. He has seen how far away someone can be when they isolate themselves, in both a figurative and literal sense.Despite the vastness of space, and the myriad possibilities throughout the universe, what is most important is within reach.
