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Aniara

  • ️Mon May 27 2024

Aniara (Film)

At some point in the future, Earth has been ravaged by pollution and natural disasters. The luxurious Aniara, a huge passenger space ship, is taking thousands of people away to live on Mars. The protagonist is a woman working onboard as a Mimarobe, assisting a kind of artificial intelligence named the Mima which can evoke the passengers' memories of Earth, letting them see their happy experiences of a verdant past.

Shortly after it begins the journey, Aniara is knocked off course while taking evasive action to avoid space debris. One piece however strikes its engines, requiring the fuel to be jettisoned so that there is no explosion. As a result, Aniara is unable to turn back or stop without slingshotting around a stellar object, which will take two years at least. Things become worse as the passengers and crew struggle for survival.

Adapting the 1956 poem, the film came out in 2018 as a co-production between Denmark and Sweden.

Tropes:

  • Adaptational Sexuality: The Mimarobe/MR is bisexual here, which isn't the case in the original poem.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Double Subverted. It is the humans' requests of recalling bad memories which causes Mima to self-destruct.
  • All for Nothing:
    • The "spear", an unidentified metal object found floating through space, serves to give the residents and crew of the Aniara a semblance of hope after its discovery. After 14 months of preparation and training to capture it, the crew are completely unable to identify, open, or use it in any way, making it a complete dead-end for the ship and increasing everyone's despair.
    • Everyone dies in the end, no matter how hard they tried to survive.
  • Artificial Gravity: The Aniara has it, due to unxplained physics breakthroughs which MR teaches her class about.
  • Benevolent A.I.: The Mima. It's a machine that allows people to re-live their memories and dreams, providing the only semblance of escapism aboard the ship, which can also communicate and is considered by some to have free will. Shortly after the ship is knocked off course, the greatly increased workload and lack of downtime, combined with the abject despair of the customers, burns the machine out, culminating in its "suicide".
  • Burial in Space: The Astronomer's coffin is launched into space after her funeral.
  • Cargo Cult: A cult springs up around the Mima, a destroyed artificial intelligence, seeing it as a benevolent god and performing fertility rituals in its name through orgies. The last surviving people worship the only lamp left.
  • Colony Ship: The Aniara is a miles-long ship designed to provide a luxury travel experience for a few thousand people for the three-week journey to Mars.
  • Cosmic Horror Story: A very unique instance in that while this film doesn't involve a single Eldritch Abomination as typical of the genre, it does have humanity at the mercy of the unknown, in this case the vastness of space itself, as well as an oppressive atmosphere, overwhelming sense of inevitability and lack of escape, and a bleak, hopeless ending.
  • Cult: Several arise after the people stuck on the Aniara start falling into despair, such as one worshiping the stars apparently, the other around the Mima, while another goes down the corridors asking for forgiveness over whatever their sins might have been which brought this on. The very last scene with living people shows they're worshiping the last lamp still on the ship.
  • Dance of Romance: After they get released from the brig MR and Isagel enjoy one together while in their new quarters, then kiss, showing they're a couple.
  • Deadly Distant Finale: The end cuts ahead to year 5,981,407, almost six million years after Aniara began her voyage, and shows the ship finally reaching a planet orbiting GM-54, a (fictional) star in the Lyra constellation. Of course, the Aniara is now derelict and frozen, and everyone on board is long dead.
  • Despair Event Horizon: An important theme of the story is what happens when a group of humans are stranded on a spaceship in the vastness of space for the rest of their lives.
    • It’s not pretty, with people starting various cults to cope, and many killing themselves until none are left.
    • Isagel laments having to bring a child onto the doomed ship, openly stating that he's been born into a prison with no escape. During her birth, her screams of pain are almost matched by her sorrow. She later kills him, then herself.
    • MR clearly reaches hers after coming home to find Isagel and their young son dead, screaming in abject pain and loss. After this she's shown to be quiet, listless and devoid of all hope.
  • Disappeared Dad: Daisi is only shown visiting his son once, appearing to leave him raised by his mother Isagel and MR, whom the boy sees as his second mother.
  • Downer Ending: The film ends with the Aniara finally arriving at a planet after a whopping 5,981,407 years. The planet is lush and green and looks livable for humans to settle on, but the ship has become derelict, and everyone has died and turned to dust.
  • Driven to Suicide: Exceedingly common after the Aniara is knocked off course, especially after the Mima breaks down. Isagel ends up performing a Murder-Suicide with her son.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: After being told by the Astronomer that Aniara can't actually be turned back, MR goes to get drunk, nearly having a full-blown panic attack. The Astronomer herself later becomes a hopeless alcoholic to cope.
  • Dwindling Party: The ship’s population gradually dies out over the years and by the end, the Aniara is abandoned. The last scene with living humans shows less than ten people telling stories around the last remaining lamp.
  • Earth-That-Was: Aniara left Earth when it was still technically habitable, but on the way out due to radioactive fallout and pollution.
  • The Eeyore: The Astronomer becomes completely bitter and hopeless about the chance of anyone on the Aniara surviving, telling everyone she can they're wrong to hope. The captain eventually kills her over it, but she's right-they all die.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
    • The protagonist is a Mimarobe, and everyone calls her MR for short. Her given name is never revealed.
    • The Astronomer is not addressed by name either, only her profession.
  • Fan Disservice: Several supporting characters who aren't attractive get shown completely naked, mostly before and during the orgy.
  • Fan Service Extra: Some of the characters who are only shown briefly during the orgy get stripped naked before having sex, while they're attractive young people.
  • Gaia's Lament: The Earth has become ravaged to the point of uninhabitability.
  • Gender Flip:
    • The protagonist, who's a man in the original poem, was made a woman here.
    • Daisi, conversely, is a woman in the poem but became a man here.
  • Generation Ship: One of the cruelest aversions in sci-fi. While the Aniara was never intended for inter-generational travel, the captain insists that MR teach science and engineering to the children unlucky enough to have been brought aboard. No one survives for much longer than twenty four years, with MR being in the last group seen. By the time Aniara at last reaches an inhabitable planet, it's over five million years later, with the ship derelict.
  • Ghost Ship: What Aniara eventually becomes. The penultimate section of the film is titled Sarcophagus.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong:
    • The evasive maneuver from space debris and damage to the engine sends the Aniara off into interstellar space, with no hope of them returning.
    • MR spends years creating a way to project photos of Earth's greenery and natural beauty outside the windows of the ship. While pretty, it's strongly implied that this reminder only serves to drive the surviving colonists further into despair, possibly including Isagel's Murder-Suicide of her infant child, since they have no prospect of ever really seeing them again.
  • Groin Attack: Isagel kicks the captain right in the groin when he mocks her for showing emotion and pokes her chest too.
  • Hairy Girl: All of the women who are shown naked in the film have unshaved pubic hair.
  • Hope Spot:
    • The crew detects a probe launched towards them and believe it contains fuel and supplies to help them. When this news is announced to everyone, morale soars. But when the probe finally arrives and brings it onboard, they are unable to find anything of use.
    • There's one scene six years in where MR and her team successfully get the beam projector working to replace the Mima with pictures of nature in the ship windows, only for her to come back and find Isagel and her baby dead from a Murder-Suicide.
  • The Immodest Orgasm: MR loudly gasps as she's riding Daisi to her climax.
  • Lady Drunk: The Astronomer, an older woman, is The Eeyore about the Aniara surviving, and becomes a full-time drunk to cope.
  • Longing Look: MR looks at Isagel with interest more than once, particularly when she checks our her behind while swimming. Isagel is aware of her desire as a result, and eventually reciprocates, as they get into a relationship.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: The Mima is an artificial intelligence that allows people to enjoy any experience based on their memories. It's very popular on the Aniara after it goes off course to cope with the stress. However, this results in people starting to experience increasingly unpleasant things, which eventually leads to the Mima actually self-destructing, overwhelmed by them.
  • Machine Worship: Many of the colonists take to viewing memories of Earth from the Mima to dispel their angst and ennui, and some even take to worshipping the Mima as a deity. Needless to say, they don't take the Mima's death well. Some start up a fertility cult in the Mima's name after its death.
  • Male Frontal Nudity: A man starts off the orgy by having sex with the priestess, with his penis shown prominently as he comes to her.
  • Maternally Challenged: Isagel vocally hates the idea of having children, which is understandable given their situation, saying she's giving birth to a prisoner since they're stuck on the Aniara. After her son is born, Isagel seemingly briefly considers drowning him while swimming. She later kills him, then herself.
  • The Modest Orgasm: MR is shown soundlessly coming (at least with the sounds of the shower and background music drowning anything out) as Isagel fingers her.
  • Ms. Fanservice: MR and Isagel are both fairly attractive young women who get shown wearing revealing swimsuits, later naked entirely while having sex with each other or people from the orgy too. They are the protagonist and her lover.
  • Murder-Suicide: Isagel drowns her son, then hangs herself in despair over the Aniara never getting to a planet.
  • Named by the Adaptation: The welcome video gives the chief engineer (unnamed in the original) the name Roberta Twelander.
  • Natural Disaster Cascade: In the future, Earth has been ravaged by this, the implication being that manmade climate change was responsible. Cloud cover including hurricanes seem to obscure most of the planet's landscape from space, and people horribly scarred by wildfire are an uninteresting sight on the titular spaceship.
  • Next Thing They Knew:
    • MR is shown making out with Daisi in a hallway before drawing back. He urges her to loosen herself up, and then the scene cuts to her riding him as she climaxes loudly in her bunk.
    • Later, her kiss with Isagel cuts to them showering and having sex together.
  • No Name Given: Isagel's son is never named by her, MR or any other characters.
  • Not So Stoic: Isagel finally shows (muted) emotion when the captain is going to make MR The Scapegoat over the Mima self-destructing. He mocks and pokes her over this, resulting in a Groin Attack from Isagel. She's beaten up and thrown in the brig with MR. After this she shows normal emotion, having started a relationship with MR when imprisoned.
  • Offing the Offspring: Isagel murders her own son in a Murder-Suicide.
  • Opposites Attract: MR, a pale-skinned woman with red hair, is pretty friendly and upbeat at first. Isagel is olive-skinned, with black hair, and very much The Stoic at first. They fall for each other and become a couple.
  • Prematurely Gray Haired: Captain Chefone is shown as black-haired initially. In the next five years, after all the stress which has beset him, he grows lots of gray hairs.
  • Queer Establishing Moment: MR checks out Isagel repeatedly, particularly when swimming, which shows she's into women. When they get out of the brig, it's shown Isagel feels the same and they're now a couple.
  • Questionable Consent: Isagel looks less than enthused about having sex with Daisi during the orgy, but goes along with it reluctantly.
  • Riddle for the Ages: What was the probe that the Aniara places all of their hopes onto? None of their scientific instruments can even tell what the thing is, much less what's inside or how to use it.
  • The Scapegoat: After the Mima commits suicide, the blame is put onto MR even though she warned Captain Chefone the A.I. needed a rest and tried to stop people from entering the Mima hall, but no one would listen.
  • Screaming Birth: Isagel is shown loudly screaming when she delivers her son.
  • Shower of Love: MR and Isagel have passionate sex together while in the shower after being released from the brig.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The movie starts off with a semi-hopeful undertone akin to Interstellar then concludes as probably one of the most hopeless and nihilistic sci-fi movies you will ever see.
  • Space Isolation Horror: The story is about a spaceship being blown off-course, now drifting into the unknown vastness of space, with its increasingly paranoid and desperate passengers now having to rely on dwindling resources and false promises of hope fed by a visibly distraught crew to stay alive.
  • Starship Luxurious: The Aniara is a massive, swanky passenger starship, with shops, restaurants and entertainment facilities. It has huge open walkways and observation galleries, along with a swimming pool.
  • The Stoic: Isagel and the other space pilots, who the Astronomer explains have to repress their emotions for such a high-pressure job. After she's no longer doing this, Isagel lightens up greatly.
  • Time Skip: The film's segments skip forward in increasing measures, up to the where everyone has long since died.
  • Token Minority: Captain Chefone is the only man of color on the Aniara, as the crew and passengers are almost wholly white. He was played by Arvin Kananian, who's Iranian-Swedish.
  • Twofer Token Minority: Isagel appears to be the only woman of color on the Aniara, since the cast are nearly all white. Bianca Cruzeiro is Brazilian-Swedish.
  • Wagon Train to the Stars: Unbuilt Trope. Aniara is possibly the single most depressing example in existence. It has none of the hope of the rest of the genre; it is implied that the Mars-colonies were a desperate last-ditch attempt to save anything of humanity, and the colonists on Aniara grow well aware from the get-go that there is no way for them to do anything other than live out their lives and then travel through nothingness forever. Many can't handle it, and in the end none survive.
  • Wham Line: The final Time Skip: Year 5,981,407.
  • When She Smiles: Isagel is The Stoic over the first half of the film and never smiles. After she's become lovers with MR, Isagel smiles at her often when showing affection, with it making her look more beautiful.