Spiderhead

👽
1 hour 47 minutes

Watch it for...

A science fiction style exploration into human nature and society’s relationship to drugs…and your Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller fix!

Synopsis

In the near future, prisoners are offered the chance to volunteer as medical subjects to shorten their sentences. They live and work in a dystopian-style lab removed from regular society. Chris Hemsworth plays a quirky scientist running trials on new experimental drugs while simultaneously dealing with his own issues. One inmate participating in these experiments, played by Miles Teller, becomes a bit of a teacher’s-pet-meets-lab-rat and is used as a main research subject in testing a new drug capable of generating feelings of love involuntarily. However, these trials are not what they seem. The inmates begin to realize their sentences as medical subjects may not be a better alternative to their criminal convictions, contrary to what they once thought.

Jen's thoughts

Spiderhead, based on a short story from George Saunders, is an entertaining watch with all the futuristic concepts you would hope for in a near future dystopian, sci-fi film. The premise is interesting and the way it’s conceptualized on screen is very cool and innovative. At first, I felt like it lacked a bit of context and I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but I stuck it out and all those loose ends were eventually tied up beautifully by the final scene.

Chris Hemsworth’s character is clearly the star of the show, and was the perfect combination of buttoned-up and unhinged. He kept me on the edge of my seat! Plus, anything with Miles Teller in it is worth a watch right now. This story explores an alternative punishment to crime while also exploring the extreme lengths that can be taken when testing new drugs. While this movie is obviously fiction, in a world where big pharma is thriving, this story and the motives behind these drug trials really hit close to home.