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The Space Between Us | 2017 | PG-13 | - 3.4.3

In 2018 the first Martian colony leader (Janet Montgomery) dies in childbirth and her son (Asa Butterfield) becomes the first human to be raised on another planet. As a 16-year-old he starts communicating secretly with an Earth girl (Britt Robertson), he falls in love with her and travels to meet her and search for his father. However, he finds his organs quickly deteriorating in Earth's unfamiliar environment. Also with Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino and B.D. Wong. Directed by Peter Chelsom. [2:00]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A teen boy and a teen girl kiss for several seconds near a campfire; the camera cuts to the boy and girl in a sleeping bag and we see his bare shoulders and one of her bare shoulders as his hand slips down her arm and off-screen toward her chest (sex is implied). A teen boy and a teen girl kiss in three scenes.
 A man opens a parked car's hatchback and finds a young man and a young woman sleeping under a heavy blanket and the girl screams. A young man driving a car lays his right hand on the knee of a teen girl in the passenger seat.
 A woman discovers that she is pregnant in an isolated Mars colony (her abdomen shows a bulge and a big screen monitor briefly shows an ultrasound of the baby).
 A woman states that her marriage ended because she was unable to have children. A young man and a young woman both say, "I love you."
 Women wear long gowns that reveal cleavage.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - We see a woman covered in surgical drapes as she screams in labor while seated in a birthing chair gurney (we see no flesh); gloved hands bring a slightly slimy baby wrapped in a cloth up to the mother as she convulses and dies with her eyes open (we hear a flatline alarm); a doctor tries chest compressions unsuccessfully.
 A teen girl slaps a teen boy in the face and they argue.
 A van chases a boy running through a field and the boy jumps into a taxiing crop duster as a man falls out of the back of the van, raising a cloud of dust (he is unharmed). A teen girl and a teen boy fly a plane and it begins to stutter and lose altitude as they buzz traffic on a highway and cars rush away, honking before the plane drops onto a dirt field and the teens jump out unharmed as the plane rolls into a barn that explodes into smoke and flames. A teen boy drives a rover buggy on Mars, loses control, flips it twice, tears a hole in his oxygen line and we see oxygen mist spurt out; an astronaut saves him and he is unhurt. A teen boy from Mars limps on Earth because of heavier gravity and is almost hit by a semi-truck. A teen boy runs from a taxiing single-prop plane and is safe. A teen boy and a teen girl steal cars to drive from Colorado to California, fleeing police twice. A teen boy turns on a line of tall oxygen cylinders in a hospital room and causes an alarm to sound; he escapes the room and then the hospital. Three scenes show rocket launches with close-up of flames from the rockets, followed by close-ups of men and women under G-forces, their faces misshapen by increased gravity.
 A scalpel cuts into a boy's arm in an operating room (we see some blood flow); a tube is placed into the cut and a murky fluid is injected. We see an X-ray of a boy's body with the long bones completely covered in nanotubes and an enlarged heart. We see a video screen in a teen boy's forearm and a red light (a small heart monitor) on the front of his shirt. A woman opens a plastic bag, puts her face into it and we hear sounds of retching (we see no vomit).
 A teen boy attempts suicide by throwing himself into an ocean where his mother's ashes were scattered; we see him floating motionless from below with his eyes open, face down until a man pulls him out and the boy coughs and breathes.
 A woman and two men argue. Two men argue loudly. A teen boy argues with a man and a woman and shouts. A teen boy argues with a man, who shouts at him and threatens to phone the police. A man and a woman chase a boy, and a barking guard dog holds them off. A teen boy with a gray-tinged face and circles beneath his eyes says, "I get to choose where I die." A teen boy texts a teen girl that he has brittle bone disease. A doctor states that an older man had hydrocephalus earlier in life and could die if he travels into space. In a space travel simulator a screen in front of the pilot states, "All Perish." A man says that he may die as he pilots a space plane into the stratosphere (he survives). A man says that a teen boy's heart cannot pump enough blood through his body on Earth and that he will die. A teen boy says that he killed his mother because she died in childbirth. In a high school class, a teen boy says that Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant.
 A teen boy passes out and is taken to a space plane that takes him into the stratosphere to treat high blood pressure and an enlarged heart; he revives and says that he must go back to Mars' lower gravity. A teen boy with an enlarged heart develops frequent nosebleeds and blood down his lip and mouth; his eyes begin to look sunken and his face looks blue-gray. An ill and collapsing astronaut is helped into a geodesic dome by two other astronauts.

LANGUAGE 3 - 1 scatological term, 4 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, name calling (weird, crazy, insane, computer stalker, irresponsible), 3 religious exclamations (Oh My God, Oh God).

SUBSTANCE USE - Two scenes show close-ups of an injection of a clear substance into the patient's arm, and a doctor says that he gave a heart patient a drug called Belgardin. Several banquet tables contain partially filled glasses of wine (no one is shown drinking), an unkempt man sleeps in an armchair with an empty beer can in one hand and a teen girl takes the can and throws it away, and a young woman states that a male high school teacher is always drunk during class.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Space travel, death, loss, separation, reconciliation, illness, family, foster homes, loneliness, isolation, friendship, love, what it means to be human, role models, danger, urgency, determination, courage, sacrifice, suicide.

MESSAGE - It takes courage to be human and to make a good life for oneself.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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