Ash (2025)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
An astronaut awakens alone on a desolate planet and must navigate a web of paranoia and amnesia to determine who she can trust.
The story
Riya awakens on a scientific research station on a barren, distant planet with no memory of how she arrived. Surrounded by the corpses of her crew, she is joined by a man named Brion who claims to be a companion sent to rescue her. Plagued by amnesia and paranoia, Riya must navigate the decaying station while trying to determine if Brion is a savior or a threat. As she explores the facility, she begins to experience nightmarish flashbacks, struggling to piece together the events that led to the catastrophe and the fate of the mission to find Earth's last hope for success.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Riya wakes up on a research station on the planet 'Ash' with no memory of how she got there. She finds the bodies of her crew members—Adhi, Kevin, Clarke, and Davis—and meets Brion, who claims to be a companion. As they investigate, Riya suffers flashbacks of her potentially murdering the crew. They discover the station is on a mission to find habitable planets. During a meteor storm, Riya suspects Clarke is still alive and infected by something that caused the crew's deaths. As oxygen fails, they prepare to evacuate. Riya finds evidence of alien technology and a nanotechnological parasite. She eventually discovers that she is the one infected; she hallucinated Brion's presence and his death occurred before she met him. The parasite, which infected the crew after a breach, has merged with her. She attempts suicide but survives as the parasite neutralizes the poison. The parasite reveals it has claimed the planet and intends to evolve her. Riya eventually extracts the parasite, which revives a physical manifestation of Brion, whom she kills before escaping toward an orbital facility that has been overtaken by a large parasitic entity.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 95
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Flying Lotus
- Writers
- Jonni Remmler · writer
- Cast and characters
- Eiza González · Riya Ortiz; Aaron Paul · Brion Cargyle; Iko Uwais · Adhi; Beulah Koale · Kevin; Kate Elliott · Catherine Clarke; Flying Lotus · Shawn Davis
- Genres
- science fiction; horror
- Themes
- isolation; paranoia; alien infection; identity
- Tone and mood
- tense; nightmarish; atmospheric
- Setting
- A scientific research station on a barren planet named K.O.I-442 (Ash).
- Premise and plot tags
- space horror; survival; sci-fi
- Reception
- The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances, atmosphere, visuals, and the direction and score by Flying Lotus.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 63 · scale: 100 · review count: 16
- Production trivia
- Flying Lotus learned how to make computer-generated imagery effects from YouTube videos.; The ending fight scene was inspired by Resident Evil.; The soundtrack was inspired by the work of John Carpenter.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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