'I.S.S.' movie review: Ariana DeBose meets killer screwdrivers in space for sci-fi thrills

It’s a testament to Ariana DeBose's burgeoning Hollywood career that she’s so quickly moved from a movie with dance battles to one with power tool fights.

Deadly screwdrivers, a doomsday scenario and a little Cold War-era tension are all in the orbit of “I.S.S.” (★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday), the scrappy sci-fi thriller directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (“Our Friend”). It’s also a space-y star vehicle for DeBose, a Broadway veteran and Oscar winner for “West Side Story,” to prove she can do more than just sing. Actually, everyone in the cast belts the Scorpions power ballad “Wind of Change” but her.

Scientist Kira Foster (DeBose) survives a hairy trip aboard the Soyuz spacecraft and docks as the newest crew member on the International Space Station, a collaborative research vessel for American and Russian astronauts. From their sleep closets to cramped workspaces – Kira almost immediately gets side eye parked next to Russian biologist Alexey (Pilou Asbæk) – it’s a potentially flammable environment with complicated relationships and cultural dynamics.

But for the most part, usually because there’s alcohol around, everything’s copacetic. American engineer Christian (John Gallagher Jr.) gives off insecure dad vibes, Nicholai (Costa Ronin) is the steely Russian leader, while Gordon (Chris Messina) and Weronika (Masha Mashkova) are doing their part romantically to bring the countries together.

Kira notices a weird light coming from Earth one day, which then becomes a string of what look like nuclear explosions seen from space. Their computers begin to act up, and each of the two groups get a classified message: Conflict has broken out between the U.S. and Russia, and the I.S.S. has become a frontline for this war. Immediately, paranoia, sabotage, subterfuge and betrayal ensue as the six astronauts try to figure out who’s trustworthy and who’s not, even among their own.

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Writer Nick Shafir’s entertainingly calamitous premise mines real-world global anxiety, though the plot becomes convoluted heading into the final act as various machinations take hold of the crew members. Cowperthwaite doesn’t do enough with the inherent claustrophobia of the space station, though the visuals are on point, from a harrowing space walk to fix an antenna to conditions on Earth that become increasingly hellish.

The fact that the space station is also falling ratchets ups the dire straits, though it’s best not to think too hard about the science of it all, and there’s a primal quality to the action scenes that belies the high-tech environment. In space, with one’s life and perhaps mankind’s existence on the line, survival might just come down to who can best wield a kitchen knife or random tool rather than some highfalutin laser.

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The casting to stereotype is also a nice touch. Gallagher, Messina and DeBose are all pretty likable on the surface, while the others exude old-school Soviet villainy, and Cowperthwaite does her part to upend expectations on both sides. DeBose overall is a left-field choice that flies: Her expressive face immediately draws the audience into their predicament, though bits and pieces doled out of the character’s backstory make one wonder what she’s really capable of.

The same could be said of DeBose herself. With “I.S.S.,” the talented songstress takes a giant leap forward as a solid action hero amid a decently gripping mix of human nature and atomic annihilation.