People have always looked to the stars for adventure, inspired to create enduring and enthralling stories. The sci-fi genre has exemplified this instinct, culminating in myriad films that populate the far reaches of outer space with some of the memorable characters in fiction. Films like Star Wars and Dune follow the messianic journeys of chosen heroes, destined to save the galaxy from imperial reign, while others like Star Trek display a near-utopian outlook on the future of humanity, ascending to new heights under inspired leadership. However, the galaxy is an enormous place and not all people are inherently destined for greatness.

Space Sweepers, a 2021 South Korean film released on Netflix, dares to spotlight the discarded and dismissed, the unlikeliest of heroes, to tell one of the most exciting space adventures in recent years. Considered to be the first South Korean space blockbuster, Space Sweepers is not only a visually distinct and dynamic outer space romp, but a strikingly poignant criticism of capitalism, exploring how human greed has made a thorough mess of society. However, despite the bleak outlook on mankind’s vices, the film also affirms the boundless resilience of humanity’s spirit, reassuring audiences that there’s always hope for cleaning the mess up, and of becoming better tomorrow than you are today.

Space Sweepers

Set in the year 2092 and follows the crew of a space junk collector ship called The Victory. When they discover a humanoid robot named Dorothy that’s known to be a weapon of mass destruction, they get involved in a risky business deal.

Release Date

February 5, 2021

Director

Sung-hee Jo

Runtime

136 minutes

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

Studio

Netflix

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‘Space Sweepers’ Crew is Full of Colorful and Eccentric Characters

Set near the end of the 21st century, the Earth has become irreversibly polluted and inhospitable, leaving the UTS corporation to look to the stars for humanity’s new home. The lucky (and wealthy) few are chosen to live on artificial planetoids created by the powerful company, leaving much of the population to struggle, both on the planet and in orbit. The film follows a crew of space sweepers, outer space scavengers tasked with cleaning debris from Earth’s orbit. Led by Captain Jang (Kim Tae-ri), the crew of the Victory compete with other sweepers for profits in desperate attempts to chip away at their debts and live an unencumbered life.

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Each member of the crew is burdened by constantly rising debt and past lives that continue to haunt their present moments. Captain Jang, for instance, was a former military officer who defected in protest against an order to attack Earth refugees seeking life in outer space. Outraged and disillusioned, she began working with pirate crews before eventually taking charge of the Victory. Kim Tae-ho (Song Joong-ki) is another military defector and the current ace pilot of his crew. After his adopted daughter was flung into orbit in an accident, Tae-ho committed his life to earning the funds necessary to hire a rescue crew to search for her. Tiger Park (Jin Seon-kyu) was a former drug kingpin on Earth who fled to space to avoid his execution, becoming the trusted engineer of his new crew. And finally, Bubs (Yoo Hae-jin), a robot saving up funds in order to buy a skin graft in order to look like a human woman. While working, the crew discover Kot-nim (Park Ye-rin), a child robot capable of controlling nanobots rumored to have a weapon of mass destruction built inside her. After word gets out that a terrorist organization known as the Black Foxes is willing to pay an enormous sum in exchange for the girl, the crew are forced to seriously consider whether this is their means of escaping their poverty, or if the price is just too high.

‘Space Sweepers’ Paints a Grim but Realistic Picture of Space Travel

Space Sweepers is immediately distinct from other sci-fi films because of the lens through which it explores outer space. The movie is grittier and dirtier than other space films, and not just on the dust covered Earth. The space sweeper ships are essentially the garbage trucks of outer space, bulky and obtrusive compared to the sleek starships of other franchises. But it’s not just in aesthetics alone that Space Sweepers differentiates itself, as the cast of characters are framed in a unique and relatable way.

The Victory’s crew aren’t destined to be heroes, they’re poor, indebted misfits discarded from society— a society that’s ruthlessly cutthroat to its “lesser” citizens. There is a clear distinction between the “haves” and the “have-nots” that is prevalent throughout the film, spurred by UTS corporation CEO James Sullivan (Richard Armitage) who facilitated the class division with his selective choosing of who is welcome in his plans to terraform Mars for humanity’s new home. Being one of the select UTS citizens meant security and safety, but anyone else was effectively worthless. Even Tae-ho, a former high ranking military officer, had his benefits revoked after leaving the position, forcing him into increasingly desperate situations. Without his UTS citizenship, the cost of saving his daughter is increased exponentially — an impossibly inhumane situation considering the technology and resources for rescue are readily available from UTS, but restricted by insurmountable costs.

‘Space Sweepers’ Is a Striking Indictment of Capitalism

The film perfectly highlights how capitalism not only vilifies the poor, but weaponizes their poverty against them. At one point, Tae-ho literally sells the shoes off his feet and, throughout the rest of the movie, replaces them with an old pair of sneakers held together by superglue and willpower. The only reason he even considers exchanging Kot-nim, despite the danger she poses, is because of how much he needs the money to save his daughter. It’s a lose-lose situation wherein money is both the biggest problem and the only solution. It’s in this forced desperation of impossible debt and restrictive laws that the darker sides of humanity are shown, driven by bourgeois greed.

James Sullivan, despite being hailed as humanity’s savior, is a misanthropic magnate who detests most humankind and seeks to create a new society in his image. Though Armitage teeters between comical and threatening in his performance, Sullivan is still incredibly unnerving. In one of the more unsettling scenes in the entire film, he offers a journalist a chance to become a UTS citizen and escape Earth if he kills a captured member of the Black Foxes. After the desperate man kills the helpless victim, Sullivan gloats about how despicable the journalist is and kills him anyway. Parroting capitalist rhetoric, Sullivan blames the poor for the choices they make in desperation, despite being the one who forced them to take such drastic measures.

‘Space Sweepers’ Showcases Realistic and Diverse Representation

Though the future painted by Space Sweepers looks bleak and dire, the film itself is an exciting step forward in diversity and representation in media. Though the main crew are all Korean, the rest of the space sweepers and other residents of outer space come from a variety of backgrounds and countries, each freely speaking their own languages. It seems that on an apocalyptic Earth, country borders mean a lot less than they do in the present day. Notably, one of the standard characters from the film is Bubs, whose narrative arc and characterization garnered positive acclaim from the trans community. Voiced by a male actor, Bubs was coded to have a more masculine appearance, but expressed a desire to buy skin grafts in order to present as a human woman. As with the financial struggles of the other characters, Bubs’ difficulty securing the funds for her procedure reflects the obstructive challenges around medical transitions.

Untethered from any major franchises, Space Sweepers is able to tell an outer space story that is utterly distinct from other movies, yet powerfully grounded in the human experience. From its exceptional diversity and striking criticisms of capitalism, Space Sweepers is as relatable as it is otherwordly, and as hopeful as it is cautionary.

Space Sweepers is currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

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