Voyagers (2021)

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Writer/director Neil Burger (Divergent, The Illusionist) presents a futuristic story about children genetically engineered and sent into space on an 86-year mission to colonize a distant planet. Once they’re teenagers, however, the kids become too smart for their own good. When they realize their impulse control and libidos have been held at bay through medicated meals, they quit cold turkey. The once docile crew of young people becomes hormonal, paranoid, and dangerous. After their only adult supervisor (Colin Farrell) dies in a tragic accident, they divide into warring factions and threaten the entire mission.

If all this sounds like William Golding should be getting residuals, you’re not alone. Voyagers is very much Lord of the Flies in outer space. But I was also taken by how much it parallels our current political climate, with factions lying to their constituents to secure power — even when it means risking our very existence. The young cast are largely up to the task, led by Tye Sheridan (Mud, Ready Player One) and Lily-Rose Depp (Yoga Hosers) on the side of reason, and Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) representing the side of madness. There are some indulgent moments of MTV-style editing meant to depict surging hormones that aren’t necessary, but Voyagers moves with remarkable momentum, aided by colorful cinematography and sleek production design. The film succeeds in generating a fair amount of tension as the odds stack up against Sheridan and Depp — and indeed, all hope for humanity’s future.

With Isaac Hempstead Wright (Game of Thrones) and Chanté Adams as an approximation to Golding’s ill-fated Piggy character.