- Two dissimilar men flee from a desolate planet and search in space for a new home.
- Two outlaws on the run encounter an old abandoned spaceship in the desert. In the last minute they escape their pursuers into space and set off in search of a new home. More and more, however, they are drawn into fundamentally different directions. While Adem discovers the ship's enigmatic past, Novak is increasingly drawn into the spell of a hypnotic power.
- The first 5 minutes of this film is shot in total complete darkness so there's no use in trying to determine what is going on during that time. But 6 minutes into the film we start being able to actually see the movie. This visibility goes in and out throughout the entire film.
Adem is a prisoner desperate to escape an isolated and desolate prison planet. He escapes and finds an abandoned spaceship in the arid and dust-storm ridden desert of the harsh planet. While exploring the ship's interior, he comes across Novak, another prisoner on this planet but who is a prison trustee who has volunteered to hunt and find Adem, the escaped prisoner.
Novak communicates with the prison guards via walkie-talkie and lets them know he has found the prisoner Adem trying to hide aboard a wrecked ship found in the desert. Adem informs Novak that the ship is not a wreck and shows him that it is in fact a functional working ship. Novak questions Adem and assesses his flight experience. Adem says he's worked in shipyards and around ships but hasn't flown/piloted one. With his gun aimed at Adem, Novak makes him test the ship's water by having him drink it and then drinks some himself after he sees that Adem was fine after drinking it even though it tastes old and musty.
Novak begins checking the ship's systems while Adem tests the ship's food tubes that still have edible food products which he eats. Novak says he's never seen a crappier ship but it still flies. He confesses that though he may have a uniform, he too is disgusted with the planet. Both men have the same goal, to escape the planet. Novak then radios the prison and informs them that the fugitive has resisted capture and fled North. He lies and pretends he is still in pursuit of Adem, the escaped prisoner but he has made plans to fix the ship and escape the planet with Adem. They both go about fixing, prepping, and cleaning the ship's mechanics in order to take off.
The prison is commanding Novak abandon and get off the ship and wait for them as they send a troop of guards to hunt the escaped prisoner. They do not want Novak aboard a ship as he is still a prisoner himself and they don't want him trying to escape either but that is exactly what Novak is planning on doing. Novak ignores their radio communications and continues to fix and repair the ship, getting it ready for takeoff. Adem is tasked with cleaning out the dust and soot from the ship's engine.
The prison radios back that there has been no one in the sector that Novak reported Adem fled to for the past 32 hours and this makes Novak hasten his prep activities to eagerly leave the planet before the guards catch up to him. Novak radios back and boasts that he has been one step ahead of the prison and that he has no intention of returning to base. He ignores their communications and threats as they warn him of blowing himself to pieces trying to start the ship. He and the escaped prisoner Adem soon take off in the abandoned ship fleeing their pursuers.
They achieve orbit and are now flying/floating through the darkness and vastness of space. We are now 30 minutes into the film. Novak pilots the ship while Adem does any needed repairs and fixes. Novak caresses a faded Polaroid of a woman in silhouette staring at what looks like a distant city. This seems to be his goal destination; getting to wherever this woman is. They continue assessing the ship's interior and functionality and Adem comes across some abandoned clothes and possessions of the ship's previous crew. He also finds a dried leaf of some sort of plant. Novak assigns him the duty to logging their flight experiences into the computer's flight log.
As Novak dictates the ship's condition and new crew for Adem to type, he makes it known that his plan is to go to Onasis which appears to be some other planet. Novak believes they will be safe from the prison trackers and they will have their freedom. Adem is skeptical about Novak's plans and questions him about it often. He asks Novak to work on fixing the ship's radio and communication system because Adem wants to try to reach other people. Novak wants to reach no one else. Adem types into the ship's logs and documents his feelings and concerns about the abandoned ship, Novak's wild plan, and his doubts about what lies ahead. He then begins searching the computer's database for the flight logs of the previous crew.
He finds the logs and learns the previous crew encountered some type of alien plant spore that ended up making them all sick and killing most of them. It seemed to have driven some of the crew insane as the person who documented the previous flight states that he is slowly losing his sanity as well. Adem does not share this information with Novak for whatever reason and just continues going about repairing and fixing the ship as best he can as Novak focuses on fixing the ship's heat that keeps going in and out. Adem continues reading the previous crew's ship logs but Novak tells him not to because they don't need to know what happened to the previous crew as it will just drive him crazy trying to find out. Adem ignores Novak's command and continues reading the old ship logs trying to find out more about the ship's past.
There is very little dialogue and communications between the two men as each goes about doing his own tasks. Adem learns a little more about the illness that befell the previous crew as he comes across ship logs that show various strange plants and leaves they found. Novak calls Adem to the ship's front and shows him a large alien looking space station ahead of them in the dark space. Adem wants to try to reach them via radio while Novak wants to hide from its inhabitants and fly away and they argue over this. Novak shoves an old spacesuit and helmet at Adem and tells him if he wants to go to the space station, he can propel himself out of the shaft and float over to the strange station. Novak flies the ship underneath the large, strange, black space station and gets away from it. While wearing the helmet, Adem begins speaking as if he is repeating a broadcast of someone else's recording. He is in somewhat of a trance. He is incoherent and not making sense and Novak runs to get him water to drink. Adem shows Novak the dried plant leaf he found and informs him that the ship is from where that plant came from and from where the previous crew came from. He says it's a place neither he nor Novak are aware of. They talk about what might have been aboard the strange space station; supplies, good food unlike what their ship has, water, beds, women, and possible maniacs. Novak asks Adem when was the last time he saw a woman and Adem admits not since he was seventeen. Novak says if women were aboard that station, they would probably have betrayed them. Adem says that wherever the plant/leaf is from definitely has women. Novak rebukes his claims and says once Adem provides a concrete planet with coordinates, they can and will look for that place but not until then. Novak admits that when he heard that someone had escaped, he volunteered not to bring the person back but to be part of the escape. He asks Adem what did he hear when he put on the old spacesuit helmet. Adem says he heard some type of signal and some notes.
They continue flying through space and Adem continues to read the previous crew's flight logs. He learns that they were trying to get back to their home. Novak is preoccupied with a signal that is being broadcast to the ship's system. Adem warns him that the signal drove the previous crew mad and insane. He warns Novak that the signal is wrong, they shouldn't follow it, and that it's not good for him. Adem asks Novak if he heard the signal and Novak says yes, he did. Adem storms away and continues exploring the ship and its contents. He comes across a locker filled with clothes, boots, personal items, and an assault style weapon wrapped in a cloth bag. He puts the gun back. He goes to get a flashlight from Novak who states that he now knows where the signal is coming from. Adem walks off and uses the flashlight to explore the ship's contents. He finds a crawl space with a grate covering it and crawls inside to explore it. The walls have markings and numbers scribbled into them with metal. Novak finds him and Adem tells him it's a shaft of some sort but doesn't tell him about the numbers. Novak tells him to come back up front.
Novak shows him the signal and tells him it's some sort of music. Adem says he hasn't heard much music in his lifetime. Novak re-plots the ship's course based on what he received from the signal. Adem is in disagreement that they should go there. He reads from the ship's old flight log where its crew mentioned that they are almost certain that the signal should be carefully interpreted from a safe distance and not be approached. Novak disregards the warning and tells Adem he needs to take a nap. Adem tells Novak he's the one who should take a nap.
Novak accuses Adem of being Sylbert, the person who entered all of the previous ship's flight logs. Adem accuses Novak of being Sylbert. They argue and are clearly distrustful of one another. Adem says Sylbert is dead by now and demands that Novak stop calling him that. Adem says he is himself, an escaped prisoner searching for a home and warns Novak that they cannot continue following that signal. Adem says they can go anywhere they want and don't have to follow that one signal. Novak tries to get him to put on the helmet again and listen to the signal but Adem refuses. They continue to disagree about following the signal. Adem says they should go where the ship is from, Earth. Novak scoffs at his beliefs and tells him Earth is not a place you can go, it's just a fairy tale you tell small children before bedtime. While they continue to argue, they hear a crashing sound and run to the front of the ship. The ship is flying into strange alien-like debris that is crashing into them. They rush to try to steer the ship away from the debris.
Once cleared from the space debris' path, Novak shows Adem on the console a distant gold dot. He says that's where they're headed and asks Adem if he knows what gold is. Novak clearly wants to go to what he believes is a gold planet. He has become irrational and obsessed over this gold planet; his eyes wide with the look of insanity. They see floating wreckage from old spaceships floating by and Novak laughs and smiles crazily and says, "it's old adventures drifting away". Adem gives him a look of concern and fear.
Adem continues to explore the ship as it gets closer to the gold planet. Novak has now put on the old spacesuit and helmet. He is planning on landing and exploring the planet. Adem goes off to further explore the crawl space/shaft he found earlier. Novak comes and asks him what he's doing (no longer wearing the spacesuit) and Adem says he's writing down the numbers that are scrawled into the walls. Novak accuses him of getting them because he thinks they're the coordinates to Earth. He accuses Adem of trying to hold him back and tells him there is no Earth and they cannot go back to where they supposedly came from. Novak says all they can do is go further and deeper into space. He tells Adem to bring the light because it's the only one they have. As they approach the gold planet, Adem tells Novak they have to leave. He says there is nowhere to land because the gold planet is a gas planet and its core is probably liquid so they won't be able to land.
Adem found some disks in the shaft and tells Novak they have to view them. Novak is now wide-eyed and insane with his obsession. He tells Adem to go back and strap himself in the flight chair to prepare to land on the gold planet. Adem rushes to get the gun he found and points it at Novak. He tells him he cannot land on that unknown planet. Novak rushes Adem and takes the gun from him. Novak tells him there is no Earth, no blue skies, no fields, no seas, no trees, and none of that exists. He shoots the escape hatch and destroys the disks Adem found. He locks Adem in the back sector of the ship. Adem bangs on the door in frustration as Novak begins his descent into landing on the gold planet. He is now wide-eyed and completely out of his mind. He puts on the old spacesuit and helmet (yes, a continuity issue).
Adem tries to unlock the door and escape. He gets the door open just as Novak (no longer wearing spacesuit) descends into the planet's gravity. Adem asks him what he plans to do if the planet's core is fluid and asks him why he's doing this. Novak points the gun at him and tells him because he has to. Novak sits back down in the pilot seat and flies through the planet's atmosphere which is golden, dusty, cloudy. Adem says they have no business being there as Novak wildly continues flying through the planet's atmosphere. Adem says this is the end as the ship has now landed. Novak is heard putting on the spacesuit again. Adem asks him what he's doing and Novak says this is not the end. Adem asks him what is he supposed to do without a pilot. He asks Novak to wait. He tells Novak he isn't thinking clearly and that he will not find anything outside. Novak ignores him and tells him to go, to go, to go. He wants Adem to take the ship and leave him. Novak exits the ship to go to the gold planet's surface.
Novak walks through the cloudy and dusty golden atmosphere of the planet. He looks to be inside a large golden cavern. He reaches out his hand to feel its golden walls. Adem attempts to radio Novak trying to get him to come back aboard the ship but Novak ignores him and continues exploring the cavern. The golden walls seem to be alive as it looks as if parts of it are breathing. He falls and a thick gaseous cloud approaches him. He hears weird warbling sounds vibrating around him and finds a hole that he crawls through. The sounds are louder now and Adem can see them on the signal on the ship and can hear them too. Novak gets stuck in the crawl space he was exploring and the sound intensifies. The gaseous cloud surrounds him and he panics as if he suddenly cannot breathe. He takes off his helmet, starts yelling, screaming, and covering his ears as if the sound was attacking him, his eyes widened with fear.
Meanwhile, Adem finds the Polaroid picture Novak had of the woman looking off into a distant city. It has numbers written at the bottom of it.He compares those numbers with those he took off the crawl space/shaft's wall. The numbers on the Polaroid are a different set of numbers. He enters the coordinates from the Polaroid as the ship's new course. We see a distant view of the gold planet as Adem sits back in the pilot chair and flies away.
He then enters another flight log entry stating: "He never returned. I left the golden planet and have charted a new course. It is not the same as the coordinates on the wall, but the destination is just as uncertain. My gut tells me it's the right one. It may sound awful, but food and water rations have since doubled."
He erases the last part and writes:
"It may sound awful, but he just may have very well been the last person I ever got to see."
The camera zooms in on a closeup of Adem's face as he contemplates the meaning of what he has just typed. He looks at Novak's Polaroid picture with the mysterious woman again.
It fades out and credits roll.
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