Sputnik Movie Storyline. In 1983, during the last hot period of the Cold War, two Russian cosmonauts engaged in an orbital research mission experience something inexplicable while returning to earth: they see something moving outside their ship. The spacecraft malfunctions on re-entry, and only one of the cosmonauts, Konstantin, survives, but it is clear that something is wrong with him.
He is taken to an isolated military facility, where Dr. Tatyana Klimova, a young psychiatrist under review for her controversial approaches, is brought in, recruited by the officer in charge, Colonel Semiradov. She is not told the real reason for Konstantin’s quarantine, but she soon finds out that the cosmonaut brought back an extraterrestrial life-form inside his own body without knowing it himself.
The creature comes out during the night, while its host is asleep. Colonel Semiradov reveals to her that she is here to determine how to separate Konstantin and the creature, since they seem to have developed a completely symbiotic relationship, with the creature living in the esophagus of the cosmonaut and benefiting from his nutrients, while Konstantin has made an impossible recovery from his injuries received when crash-landing.
Tatyana confronts Konstantin by telling him she knows he has a child whom he has abandoned at an orphanage, implying he is not a national hero but a coward who does not care about his own son, with the purpose of stressing him. Thanks to this, she discovers that the creature is affected by hormone levels and that one of the videos she has been shown has been altered, which leads to her discovering a horrifying truth: the creature does not feed from whatever Konstantin eats, but rather eats live humans, and that military has been feeding it prisoners.
The creature shows itself to its victims in order to augment their fear, which makes the human brain release cortisol, from which the alien obtains its nutrition. Disgusted and horrified by this, she confronts Semiradov, only to be told that the real reason they are here is to find a way to turn the alien into a weapon that they can control. He asks her if she will cooperate, to which she seems to agree.
Later on, and because she has developed a caring relationship with Konstantin, she takes him on a run around the facility, and under the guise of exercising she informs him that he has a parasitic creature inside him and the plans of the military for him. They agree to evade surveillance and meet later on, when she shows him the bodies of the people the creature killed, and the still living astronaut who was in the spacecraft with Konstantin.
He was not infected because he had cancer, which had gone undetected by the tests done before the mission, but which the creature must have been able to sense. It is revealed that Konstantin was well aware of his unwanted guest and of what the creature does when it is not attached to him. Tatyana is shocked at this revelation, and Konstantin tells her that he has a son that he must take care of and he will do anything in order to get out of this place.
Sputnik (Russian: Спутник) is a 2020 Russian science-fiction horror film directed by Egor Abramenko in his feature directorial debut. It stars Oksana Akinshina as a young doctor who is recruited by the military to assess a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious space accident and returned to Earth with a dangerous organism living inside him. Alongside Akinshina, the film’s cast includes Pyotr Fyodorov and Fyodor Bondarchuk.
Sputnik was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020 before the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sony Pictures had slated a theatrical release for the film in Russia on April 16, 2020, but the film was instead released on video-on-demand in Russia on the platforms More.tv, Wink and Ivi.ru on April 23. IFC Midnight acquired the film’s North American distribution rights earlier that same month. The film is set to be released in select theaters and on video-on-demand in North America on August 14, 2020.
Upon release in Russia, over one million people streamed Sputnik on More.tv, Wink and Ivi.ru, making the film the most-streamed title across those services in two years, surpassing American titles and other Russian titles.
Sputnik (2020)
Directed by: Egor Abramenko
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Anton Vasiliev, Vitaliya Korniyenko, Aleksey Demidov, Anna Nazarova, Aleksandr Marushev, Albrecht Zander, Pavel Ustinov, Vasiliy Zotov, Natalya Shvets
Screenplay by: Oleg Malovichko, Andrei Zolotarev
Production Design by: Mariya Slavina
Cinematography by: Maxim Zhukov
Makeup Department: Oxana Koluzova
Music by: Oleg Karpachev
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures
Release Date: April 23, 2020 (Russia), August 14, 2020 (United States)
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