Space Sweepers

Year: 2021

Actors: Richard Armitage, Joong-Ki Song, Tae-ri Kim, Anupam Tripathi

Duration: 136 min

In the year 2092, Earth has become nearly uninhabitable. The UTS Corporation builds a new orbiting home for humanity that mimics the natural processes on Earth; however, only a chosen few are permitted to ascend and become UTS citizens, while those remaining on Earth breathe in polluted air and fight to feed their families. Under guidance from UTS founder and CEO James Sullivan, the company is working towards making Mars a new Earth, growing genetically modified plants on the planet and turning it into a hospitable environment for humans.To regulate the population in orbit and keep an eye on the non-citizens, UTS governs them via a strict set of rules and taxes. Many non-citizens from all across the globe work as space sweepers, collecting space debris floating in Earth's orbit and selling it to the company for survival. The plot follows such a crew of space sweepers and their ship, the Victory.Victory's crew has Kim Tae-ho, Tiger Park and Bubs (an android), all led by Captain Jang. Tiger Park handles the ship's machinery and was a drug baron on Earth. Bubs used to be a robot soldier but now helps repair the ship and cast the net for space junk while saving up to get a complete skin graft. Captain Jang was one of the child geniuses sponsored by UTS and created several hi-tech inventions for the company but, after discovering the company's true workings, became a pirate and tried to assassinate James Sullivan. Her crew was killed and Sullivan survived, so she changed identities and had an eye transplant. Tae-ho, once a child soldier, is on a search for his daughter (Su-ni) who was lost, ejected into space. His sole life aim is to pay for the authorities' recovery team to locate her body tracker before she drifts out of orbit and gets lost in space forever.After picking up a car floating in orbit, they discover a child in it. News reports say that she is a robot named Dorothy, and has a weapon of mass destruction inside her created by the terrorist group Black Fox. The crew also finds a smartphone in Dorothy's bag with several missed calls from someone named Kang Hyeon-u. They call back and, assuming the other party to be part of the Black Fox group, negotiate two million dollars for returning Dorothy. Tiger finds Dorothy drawing in his cabin and starts a conversation with her, as he finds himself drawn to her.Tae-ho and Tiger carry Dorothy to a night club to collect the ransom, but she wanders off in the crowd. UTS soldiers are lain in wait and a massacre ensues. Tiger and Tae-ho locate Dorothy when Soldier 01 zeroes in on them and shoots her blaster. Dorothy's eyes change color, and the trio are protected from the blast by a sort of force field around them. Captain Jang is watching everything through a feed on the ship. She also notices the man who came to collect Dorothy shouting after her and calling her Kot-Nim. As she watches Dorothy protect Tae-ho and Tiger, something clicks in Jang's mind. The trio make it back to the ship and Dorothy busies herself drawing and playing. When asked by Jang what her name really is, Dorothy says Kot-Nim is her Korean name. Tae-ho ignores her, thinking she is a robot, while Tiger becomes friendly with her and suggests keeping her. Tae-ho dismisses the idea and goes to set up another call with Kang Hyeon-u to rearrange the exchange.Dorothy and Tae-ho find tomatoes on the plant that Dorothy had helped revive from a dead tree, and sell them. Captain Jang finds papers in Dorothy's backpack and goes through them. Bubs puts makeup on Dorothy and tells her the story of Tae-ho. As a child soldier, Tae-ho was Soldier 01 at the age of 17. On one of his voyages, Tae-ho shoots and boards a ship that carries several fleeing non-citizens and kills them all. He notices a baby still alive in the arms of a dead woman and adopts the girl. She rekindles his humanity and Tae-ho finds himself unable to hurt others - as a result, he is dismissed from the force, made homeless and reduced to a non-citizen. After one year of homelessness, Tae-ho becomes desperate and gambles, neglecting Su-ni. She wanders away to find a snack, and while outside there is a debris impact that causes her to be blown into space.A masked man follows Kot-Nim to the toilet in the factory. Her screams alert Tae-ho and Tiger who rush to save her, but they are ambushed by a group of masked people. Tiger beats them all and Captain Jang intervenes, discovering they are other space junk collectors. Their leader explains that Black Fox is not a terrorist organization, but rather an environmental group, and that Kot-Nim is not an android but a human child. Born with a congenital disease, her father Kang Hyeon-u injected her with nanobots found in space debris to save her life. The nanobots helped treat Kot-Nim, but they also gave her a unique power: Kot-Nim could now communicate with other nanobots and heal and protect things. Sullivan found this out and used Kot-Nim to turn Mars into a healthy, green planet. He plans to kill Dorothy in a hydrogen bomb explosion (since nanobots can only be destroyed by breaking them into atoms through extreme high temperatures). Since it was close to Earth, the explosion would cause the factory to fall onto the planet, destroying the Earth and making Mars the only viable option for all humans.The crew decide to unite Kot-Nim with her father and disable the bomb, with the help of the Black Foxes who will locate and take Dr. Kang to the meeting point. Soldiers attack them, but Tae-ho and Kot-nim manage to flee on the Victory. They enter a space debris field while trying to flee, and nanobots surround their ship and begin to consume it. Kot-nim communicates with them, and the nanobots disperse. They enter the factory where the meet-up is scheduled, only to be ambushed. The UTS soldiers kill all the Black Foxes and Dr. Kang before taking Kot-Nim away. Sullivan leaves Tae-ho four million dollars in return for abandoning Kot-Nim. Tae-ho takes the money, but the rest decide to save Kot-Nim - even if it kills them. Tae-ho goes to give the money to the UTS officers and they hand over Su-ni's last found remains to him - her clothes, crayons and Korean writing book. In it, Su-ni had written that she wanted to be a good person like her father. This reminds Tae-ho of the promise he made to Su-ni, to be the best man she'd ever know. He takes back the money, and returns to the ship with a new zeal before they all go to save Kot-Nim.Sullivan goes live, announcing the Mars program. The bomb has been armed in the factory, and Kot-Nim is strapped to it on a chair. The team free Kot-Nim, but Captain Jang discovers that the bomb can not be defused. It will not only destroy anything in its blast range, but also destroy any nanobots in the vicinity of 5,000 kilometers. The only way Kot-Nim's nanobots (and so her life) can be saved is if she is out of range. The team sets off to fly 5,000 km away, but are interrupted by Soldier 01. Tiger fights with her and ejects her from the factory. The team send out a message to the rest of the Space Sweepers who come to their aid, fighting the attacking troops. The population of Earth learns of Sullivan's true goals when they hear him recount his plan through the Space Sweepers' emergency comms channel. The Victory is intercepted by Sullivan himself who, in a ship of his own, tries to fight the crew to get back Kot-Nim. When it seems they have lost the battle, Tiger and Tae-ho manage a final boost that puts the ship just out of the blast range. The crew reveal their real plan - Kot-Nim was safe with other Space Sweepers. The Victory had removed the bomb from the core and carried it away, ready to sacrifice their lives to save Earth and Kot-Nim. The bomb explodes; however, Kot-Nim has summoned the nanobots to protect the Victory, keeping the crew safe.In the aftermath of the battle, UTS apologizes for the cover-up of the true goals and promise to help make Earth more habitable. Kot-Nim is adopted by the crew and, using her powers, enables Tae-Ho to say goodbye to Su-ni. Bubs gets her skin graft. Tiger and Tae-Ho take Kot-Nim down to Earth to help grow trees and they all continue space sweeping.

Genre: Action   Adventure   Drama   Fantasy   Sci-Fi