An “interesting” movie about subarctic temperate planets, and weird evolved organisms. 

The film starts off at the end—because it’s one of those kinds of movies—immediately throwing you into a “What the hell is going on?” moment. As the film progresses, the beginning starts making sense, but for the first few minutes, you’ll be utterly confused.

And not because of the plot—no, no—but because the audio is so ridiculously low that all you’ll hear is hushed, tiny whispers.

But don’t worry. It never improves.

Aside from that minor (but endlessly irritating) issue, let’s talk about the backgrounds. Some scenes look like actual sets, but in others, it’s painfully obvious that they’re using photoshopped renderings. And if the lighting weren’t so off, it might have actually worked.

But let’s break down the film for anyone who might not fully understand it.

The Organism

(Currently unnamed… for now)

To put it simply: It’s a needle looking for a haystack.

To put it complicatedly: It’s an evolved alien microorganism that requires a host to become aware—or technically, existent. The entire planet is made of this organism, but it only activates when it defrosts.

Which brings us to a major question you might have:

Q: How were the frozen people still alive when Whit thawed the entire station?

A: Because the organism exists in a frozen state. When the planet warms up, it awakens, allowing it to take control of the bodies. Whit defrosted the entire station, thinking the people he was “saving” were actually people—when in reality, they were infected bodies that the organism reanimated.

Oh, and it can also recreate life.

But here’s the catch: It doesn’t bring people back as themselves. Instead, it revives them based on one single dominant emotion, which overrides all other nervous system functions.

This is probably getting confusing again, so let’s break it down with bullets!

• Organism Name: Aggregate Opus
• Habitat: Infini
• Characteristics:
  • Mind Control
  • Internal Nervous System Dominance
  • Emotional Instability (Affects the host directly)
  • Reincarnation/Re-Creation

That’s pretty much all you need to know. But here’s the thing—it isn’t evil. It doesn’t want world destruction or chaos. It just wants to evolve. And it thought the best way to do that was to latch onto humans and mimic what it assumed was their defining trait.

At first, it only saw hatred and violence.

But by the end of the film, it realizes humans also have things like compassion, love, and understanding (shocking, I know). That’s why it chooses to bring the entire squad back. It’s almost like the whole mission was a test—to determine whether humans were the right hosts to help it continue evolving.

Which brings us to the squad itself.

Each of them had defining characteristics:

• One had a daughter he deeply cared about.
• One was on the mission with his pregnant partner.
• One had another family waiting for them.
• The rest… I’m not too sure about, but hey, let’s overlook the flaws in logical movies.

Because of these emotional connections, the organism finally realized humans aren’t as useless as it originally thought.

Of course, this realization only happened after Whit gave his fantastic speech, calling out the organism for its stupid decision to focus solely on evil.

And if you still don’t understand:

The organism literally hijacks your nervous system, picks one emotional state, and runs with it—because that’s what it assumed was the “perfect ideology.” But since the crew mostly exhibited violence and hatred, that’s all it had to work with.

So it created a single cell of pure, concentrated hatred.

(Yes. One cell.)

Don’t question the movie.

The Ending

Like all alien-resolution films, it wraps up neatly:

• Everyone makes it back.
• They’re quarantined.
• Turns out nothing’s wrong.
• Whit reunites with his family.
• Happily ever after.

Whit Carmichael (Daniel MacPherson)

Whit is a family man. He just wants to do this job, get back to his pregnant wife, and live a simple life. But in the 23rd century, life isn’t that simple. First, you almost die. Then, you actually die. Then, you get reincarnated. Then—and only then—you can go home.

Daniel MacPherson plays Whit well enough, and his role gives him plenty of space to show off those eyes. But honestly, he doesn’t feel like the main character. Technically, he is, but the film does a good job of making the focus scatter across the whole crew rather than centering it on just him.

Final Thoughts

If you enjoy:
✔️ Mind-controlling alien organisms
✔️ Philosophical debates about hatred vs. compassion
✔️ Whit looking at you intensely

Then give this movie a watch!