"SUPERNOVA"
(2000) (James Spader, Angela Bassett) (PG-13)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Minor	Moderate	Extreme	Moderate	Moderate
Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Minor	Minor	Extreme	None	Mild
Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Heavy	None	Minor	Minor	Extreme

---

QUICK TAKE:

Sci-fi: The crew of a deep-space hospital ship tries to avoid both the madman they've rescued as well as the pending turn of a nearby star into a supernova.

PLOT:

In the deep reaches of space, the medical emergency rescue ship Nightingale receives a distress call from an abandoned lunar mining colony across the galaxy. Due to the extreme distance they must travel, Captain A.J. Marley (ROBERT FORSTER) orders that the ship and her crew, including co-pilot Nick Vanzant (JAMES SPADER) and Chief Medical Officer Kaela Evers (ANGELA BASSETT), go through a dimension jump. While a proven method of quickly traveling across space, it's also quite dangerous.

That point is proven when the Nightingale materializes in the strong gravitation pull of a star preparing to go supernova, and Marley is killed due to a fault in his safety pod. Having to take control, and with a stoic demeanor, Vanzant manages to save the ship and the rest of the crew -- that includes Benjamin (WILSON CRUZ), Yerzy (LOU DIAMOND PHILLIPS) and Danika (ROBIN TUNNEY) - from crashing into the lunar surface.

Even so, he's told by the ship's computer, nicknamed Sweetie, that they'll only have a margin of eleven minutes in between the moment when they'll be able to jump through space again and before the star goes supernova. Things become even more complicated when the crew picks up the sole survivor from the moon, Troy Larson (PETER FACINELLI), the apparent son of a man Kaela once knew intimately.

Troy admits to directly contacting the Nightingale for help and the crew begins to wonder about him and a strange alien artifact he possesses. As the crew becomes intrigued by Troy's odd biological makeup and begins to more closely examine the radiant artifact, they soon realize they've picked up far more than they bargained for. With time running out and discovering that they have a maniac of sorts on their hands, Vanzant and his crew do what they can to survive and get the ship out of harm's way.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?

If they're into sci-fi films or are fans of someone in the cast they might, but so far this film has had little positive buzz to attract kids to it.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13

For sci-fi action violence and sensuality/nudity.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:

JAMES SPADER plays the stoic captain who has sex with Kaela when not otherwise trying to save the ship and defeat Troy.

ANGELA BASSETT plays the head doctor who has sex with Vanzant when not also doing the above.

LOU DIAMOND PHILLIPS plays a medical technician who has sex with Danika, becomes obsessed with the alien artifact, and briefly uses profanity.

PETER FACINELLI plays a rescued man who turns out to be a murderer who kills most of the crew (after earlier being a scavenger) and has sex with Danika.

ROBIN TUNNEY plays a paramedic who has sex with Yerzy and then cheats on him with Troy.

WILSON CRUZ plays another crewmember who tries to survive Troy's attacks.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

---

Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
Then read OUR TAKE of this film.

(Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).

---

OUR WORD TO PARENTS:

The following is a brief look at the content found in this PG-13 rated sci-fi film. Violence is rated as extreme due to the murderous behavior of one character who kills most of the crew while miraculously surviving and completely recovering from their attempts at killing him (that include some brief, gory/bloody wounds that quickly heal). That character obviously has a bad attitude and those and other related scenes (as accompanied by plenty of suspenseful music) might be unsettling/suspenseful to some viewers.

Several sexual encounters are partially seen, with some related movement, sounds and brief nudity. Other, nonsexual nudity (breasts, male butt) is also briefly seen. Profanity is surprisingly light with 1 "s" word leading a small pack of such cuss words. Beyond that and a brief reference to a character being addicted to some sort of futuristic drug, the film's remaining categories are relatively void of any other major objectionable content. Even so, should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness, we suggest that you take a closer look at our more detailed content listings.

Of special note for those concerned with the repetitive flashing of bright lights, a few instances of that occur in this film.

---

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE

There's some talk of Vanzant formerly being addicted to some futuristic drug, "haza," but we don't see any use of it.

Vanzant brings some pear brandy to share with Kaela as a peace offering of sorts (but we don't see them actually drinking any).

BLOOD/GORE

We see that Marley didn't make it that well through the dimension jump. As such, his body is somewhat deformed and part of his face is fused to the glass of his safety pod.

We briefly see some dead and partially decomposed/mummified bodies in a mining facility.

After being hit, Troy has a mildly bloody wound on the side of his head, but it heals back to normal in a matter of seconds.

After being hit again, Troy has a little bit of blood on his head.

We see a large wound in Troy's head that rapidly heals and the same holds true later for a briefly gory eye wound that quickly heals.

A dead crewmember has a tiny bit of blood from his mouth as well as some on his neck.

We see a severed hand (with a somewhat bloody end).

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE

Obviously Troy has extreme cases of both for killing most of the crew as well as scavenging an abandoned mining facility and seducing Danika.

Vanzant and Kaela act belligerent toward one another at first (but end up having sex).

Danika cheats on Yerzy by having sex with Troy.

FRIGHTENING SCENES

After their dimension jump, Kaela tries to free Marley's face from some glass to which it's become fused, while Vanzant and the others attempt to prevent their ship from crashing onto the lunar surface (a several minute, action/suspense scene).

Vanzant finds himself in an elevator that descends far quicker than he imagined (but nothing ultimately happens).

Remotely controlling various pieces of mining equipment, Troy tries to kill Vanzant with them.

Much of the last third of the film, when Troy tries and succeeds at killing crew members - partially detailed in "Violence" -- who try to avoid the star becoming a supernova - may be unsettling or suspenseful to some viewers. That includes scenes where crewmembers slowly make their way through the ship looking for the villain.

GUNS/WEAPONS

Handgun: Briefly seen in a "Tom and Jerry" Carton.

Troy uses various pieces of mining equipment as weapons against Vanzant while trying to kill him.

Handgun/Spear gun/Electronic device of sorts: Used by crewmembers to shoot Troy in various scenes.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR

Phrase: "Pissed him off."

Danika spits in Troy's face after learning of his real intentions.

Kaela makes a robot give "the finger" to Troy.

JUMP SCENES

A crewmember turns around to suddenly find Troy standing there.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)

An extreme amount of suspenseful and ominous music plays during the film.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)

None.

PROFANITY

At least 1 "s" word, 5 hells, 1 damn, 2 uses of "God" and 1 use each of "Christ" and "Oh my God" as exclamations.

SEX/NUDITY

We hear some sexually related sounds and then briefly see a head and shoulders shot of Danika on Yerzy's lap having sex with some movement (as both sit upright).

As the crew has to strip off all their clothes to go through a dimension jump, we briefly see Danika's bare breasts as she removes her top. Marley jokes about the jump through space, telling Yerzy that it's great for sexual stamina. In turn, he tells Danika "You know you're going to get it." As they get into their protective pods, we briefly see a silhouette of Danika's bare breasts.

We see a shot (from a good distance away) of Vanzant and Kaela having sex while floating in a gravity free area. As such, we briefly see his bare butt as he's on top of her (but don't see any movement).

We see Yerzy and Danika presumably after sex as both sit up on a bed and talk about getting government approval for her to get pregnant.

We see a side view of Troy lying nude on a medical examination table, but don't see his genitals (the latter occurs with Yerzy).

We see Troy's bare butt as he stands nude in front of Danika.

As everyone discusses what the alien artifact might be, Danika chimes in that "maybe it's an alien sex object. It looks like..." but she's interrupted before she can finish that thought.

Talking with Danika and somewhat reading her mind, Troy says that despite their problems, all she can think about is sex. He then suggests that she have sex with him and then goes on to say that what she would feel afterwards would indicate whether doing so was right or wrong. He then prods her by stating that it could be her last, wild and impulsive moment of passion. She finally agrees and we see them head off (as he says that the only real sin is regret). The two then passionately kiss while floating in weightlessness and are apparently nude (but we don't see anything else due to the head and shoulders only shot, although it's implied that they do eventually have sex).

With only one safety pod available in which to ride through a dimension jump, two crewmembers get into it with both of them being nude (although we don't see anything). The man then states that he could think of worse ways to die and then jokingly comments that considering the circumstances his "performance" may be a little lacking.

SMOKING

None.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES

Troy mentions that his father died three years earlier, but we later learn that he was lying.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT

Why filmmakers often borrow elements from other films but neglect to add any originality to them.

VIOLENCE

The ship is struck by space debris and partially damaged.

Remotely controlling various pieces of mining equipment, Troy tries to kill Vanzant with them.

Vanzant breaks a surveillance camera.

Troy rips out part of the ship's console. Danika then uses that to hit Troy on the head, but he punches her and then throws her into another part of the ship.

Troy kills a crewmember by having them sucked out into space.

Troy zaps and destroys a security keypad.

Troy throws Yerzy across a room. Yerzy then repeatedly strikes Troy in the face with a metal rod, but to no avail. Troy then knocks Yerzy across the room.

Troy kills another crewmember by having them sucked into space.

Benjamin shoots Troy with a spear gun that knocks him back against a wall (but he pulls out the spear and is fine). Later, he shoots him point blank in the head with a handgun of sorts, but despite injuring Troy, it doesn't stop him.

Troy repeatedly fires at a Plexiglas-like wall, trying to get to a crewmember. He eventually breaks through the glass, gets to the crewmember and throws him across the room, killing him.

Troy roughly grabs Kaela, but she uses some sort of electronic device that zaps him on the head (causing a gory wound to the eye).

Troy knocks Kaela aside and shoots a spear into what turns out to be an empty space suit. Troy and another crewmember then fight (with the crewmember being thrown about until eventually cutting off Troy's hand).

Troy breaks the glass in the ship's safety pods.

An explosion blows up part of the ship and presumably kills a man.

Reviewed January 14, 2000 / Posted January 14, 2000

Other new and recent reviews include:

Privacy Statement and Terms of Use and Disclaimer
By entering this site you acknowledge to having read and agreed to the above conditions.

All Rights Reserved,
©1996-2022 Screen It, Inc.