The year 2163: Humanity wants to expand to other planets, so the
spaceship/space station Ikarie XB 1 with its crew of 40 men and women is
sent to Alpha Centauri, the nearest solar system to our own, to check out
if there is a way to settle there. At first though, the journey, which
will take 2 years (return trip) is nothing more than a drag, and boredom
takes over the crew.
Eventually though, the Ikarie XB 1 runs across another space station,
and two astronauts (Martin Tapak, Rudolf Deyl) are sent over ... and
discover it is actually a space casino from 20th century earth, only the
place is now littered with corpses - as it turns out somehow the oxygen
supply of the place was damaged, which caused everyone to die. What's
worse though is that the station was packed with nuclear weapons, and
somehow our two astronauts blow the place (and themselves with it) up by
mistake.
Another scout ship is sent up, but when the two astronauts of that
ship, Svenson (Jiri Vrstala) and Michal (Otto Lackovic) redurn, they are
definitely in bad shape. Soon enough, Svenson dies from radiation
poitoning, and Michal has a nervous breakdown and runs amock - but can be
stopped by the crew before he can do any real harm.
Eventually, the situation seems to get critical for the whole crew,
first they are all affected by a terrible fatigue, all fall in
simultaneous and spontaneous deep sleep for 24 hours, and finally they
realize they are being followed by something they think to be a dark star,
and they find the Ikarie XB 1 caught in a force field. But ultimately, a
baby is born aboard the spaceship, and things start to look brighter
again: It turns out that the dark star is actually a device to create a
forcefield to ward off radiation, and both the fatigue and the deep sleep
had to do with it - it seems as if there are indeed humans in the Alpha
Centauri solar system, and benevolent ones too, who, with their dark
star, have watched over the Ikarie XB 1.
While in the USA, the science fiction genre was mainly regarded as
drive-in fodder, where cheaply made flicks were supposed to give the
kids some cheap thrills (not that there's necessarily anything wrong
with that), this genre entry from the other side of the Iron Curtain
proves to be a more serious, level-headed approach to the genre ... and it
works quite well, too. The lack of a monster or at least a visible enemy
does not mean that the film is not full of suspense and gripping drama,
only in a different, more intelligent way. And both sets and special
effects work in favour of the film, helping the story to emerge rather
than overwhelm it by pure brilliance or drag it down due to pure
cheapness.
Quite a nice film, actually.
Of course, eventually the American rights to this film fell into the
hands of production company Alta
Vista/AIP, who horrendously recut it and retitled it Voyage to the
End of the Universe, to become just like any other American sci-fi
drive-in flick ...
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