Five people are recruited by the Viking Society to collaborate on the first manned mission to Mars. They were chosen because of the psychological similarities they share with the five astronauts who will travel to the red planet. These volunteers therefore form a B-team of alter egos who will experience the adventure in parallel, behind closed doors on Earth.
Acting
Ensemble commits to absurdity with devastating straight faces.
Direction
Lafleur finds cosmic melancholy in fluorescent-lit hallways.
Writing
Dialogue that stings with unrecognized loneliness.
Director
Stéphane Lafleur
Steve Laplante
David
Larissa Corriveau
Steven
Fabiola N. Aladin
Janet
Hamza Haq
Gary
Denis Houle
Liz
Marie Brassard
Christiane Comte
Martin David Peters
Jean-Marc
Marie-Laurence Moreau
Isabelle
Rémi-Pierre Paquin
Éric
Eric Davis
Le vrai John Shepard
Mélanie Elliott
La vraie Liz
Christopher Heyerdahl
Roy Walker
Frank Marrs
Le vrai Steven
Adrianne Richards
La vraie Janet
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film's Mars 'surface' was constructed in an abandoned Montreal warehouse during peak pandemic, which the cast said made the isolation scenes uncomfortably authentic.
Lafleur cited the 2018 NASA HI-SEAS habitat study—where real researchers simulated Mars missions in Hawaiian volcanoes—as inspiration, then asked: what if nobody was watching and nothing mattered?
CA
