Viewers who are old enough to have seen 1997’s Event Horizon may recognize some of the themes in the sci-fi psychological thriller Slingshot.
Laurence Fishburne stars in both films, and Paramount+ is currently the streaming home for them as well.
Slingshot hit theaters in 2024 and barely made an impression, but it briefly topped Top Gun: Maverick on Paramount+ in the same year.
To help you understand why this film caught on in the streaming-verse, Watch With Us is sharing three reasons to watch Slingshot on Paramount+.
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Casey Affleck Gives a Fully Committed Performance
Slingshot follows a trio of astronauts played by Fishburne, Tomer Capone and Casey Affleck on a very lonely mission to Titan. All three of the men are psychologically taxed by their years-long journey, but it’s Affleck’s John who stands out the most. Do you know the secret to successfully portraying someone losing their mind? It’s making the audience believe that the character wasn’t always unraveling.
John’s not the only one who’s losing his grip, but the symptoms of space travel and the drugs used to put the crew in stasis have a profoundly disturbing effect on him. Throughout the film, John is subjected to hallucinations that may or may not exist outside of his mind. One of the few memories that John holds on to is his connection to a woman named Zoe (Cruella‘s Emily Beecham), and even that’s not necessarily what he thinks it is. Affleck perfectly conveys John’s ongoing confusion and agitation, and he really seems like a man who has lost himself in space.
The Cast Adds Ambiguity to the Story
Because so much of this story unfolds from John’s perspective, we don’t get as much time with Captain Franks (Fishburne) or Nash (Capone). Both men are clearly having mental health problems of their own. However, the way they react around John makes it an open question about whether he can trust his own senses when it comes to his crew and friends.
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Fishburne plays Franks in an unsettling way that adds an air of danger to his later scenes with his costars. As for Capone, Nash’s ongoing paranoia is easier to understand when it appears that the mission really is heading for failure. Nash’s fears ultimately feed into John’s, and that leads an already dangerous voyage to the brink of disaster.
The Twists Keep the Audience Guessing
If there were a direct competition between Event Horizon and Slingshot, we’d favor the former for having a bigger budget and a more imaginative premise. We’re not going to spoil the ending or the final surprises of Slingshot here, but it falls short of Event Horizon‘s B-movie thrills. At its best, Slingshot is a C+ movie with a B+ list cast.
Having said that, the conclusion of the film really goes out of its way to keep the audience guessing. There’s one twist after another until the movie ends on one last surprise. It made me chuckle, even if it wasn’t meant to be funny. Slingshot is enjoyable for what it is, but it may not reach cult status anytime soon.
Slingshot is streaming on Paramount+.
