Dead Space: Aftermath - Dead Inside

Dead Space: Aftermath is a 2011 American animated prequel film to the video game of the same name, Dead Space 2. The movie was produced under the supervision of Electronic Arts (game publisher) and used 3D CGI with 2D flashbacks created by multiple South Korean animation studios, including staff members that had previously worked on Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic. The studios include: Dong Woo Animation, Digiart Productions, FX Gear, and JM Animation.

Opening Song: N/A
Credits Song: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (by Jason Graves)

Spoiler Warning: I am going to give a synopsis of the plot and my opinions at the very end.

 

Summary:

Set in the year 2509, one year after the events of Downfall, four survivors from the ship CDC USG O'Bannon are taken in by EarthGov officials for questioning. O'Bannon was sent to investigate the planet Aegis VII when contact with its inhabitants was lost. Security officer Nicholas Kuttner is first to give his account of events. The crew thought they were just being sent out to stabilize Aegis VII's failing gravity after a mining accident, but Kuttner and three other crew members - Dr. Isabel Cho, senior scientist Nolan Stross, and surveyor Rin, are informed of the true nature of the mission. A monolith-like artifact known as a "Red Marker" had been found and destroyed on the planet. They were to retrieve whatever fragments they could find. Kuttner was the first to discover a fragment and suffered a psychotic episode upon touching it. He followed visions of his deceased daughter that compelled him to destroy the gravity stabilizer and attack engineers Alejandro Borges, Noah Pawling, and Omar Nayim, whom he mistook for alien monsters.

The film uses 3D for the present and 2D for flashback sequences.

Back in the interrogation room, Kuttner escapes by following a hallucination out of the airlock, taking several personnel with him. Next to testify is Alejandro Borges. He didn't know about the Marker, but suspected Kuttner's team was doing more than "measuring gravity fluctuations". While conversing with his team, Borges learned that Omar was a Unitologist, a religion that believes the human race was created by aliens and returns to them in Heaven upon death. Their conversation was interrupted by Kuttner attacking the team, damaging the stabilizers and killing Noah. With the planet falling apart they had no choice but to evacuate, loosing Rin, Omar, and Commander Sergenko along the way. The team then had to crash land aboard the O'Bannon to avoid being left behind.

Borges is executed by the interrogation team for knowing too much. Stross is then brought in, revealing that after returning to the O'Bannon, Captain Caleb Campbell started hearing voices from the Marker fragment. Studies of the fragment determined it had been made by an advanced race - aliens or Gods, and transmits visions, although some people are more resilient to the effects than others. Bodies in the morgue were used to test a theory about the Marker's ability to transform flesh, leading to the creation of Necromorphs (zombies) that escaped containment and slaughtered the crew. In his paranoia, Stross murdered his wife Alexis and their son.

EarthGov keeps Stross alive to study the Marker's impact on his mind. Isabel Cho, with whom Stross was having an affair, is brought in next. She didn't study the marker but was present for the Necromorph outbreak. She met up with Stross, Borges, Kuttner, and Captain Caleb to destroy the Marker fragment by tossing it into the ship's reactor core. The Captain was killed while holding back the Necromorph hoards, giving the others enough time to destroy the fragment.

While recounting her story, Cho comes to the realization that the EarthGov officials knew what the Marker was capable of and intentionally exposed the crew to it. She is offered a job recreating the Marker but refuses and is lobotomized. Cho is then framed as a terrorist responsible for the events on the Ishimura, the O'Bannon, and the Aegis VII mining colony. Stross is held in an EarthGov facility alongside Isaac Clarke (video game protagonist).

Final Thoughts

Every part of Aftermath feels cheap, from the animation to the writing. Having the different characters give their own recollection of the same events was an interesting concept that the writers failed to use to do anything creative narratively. Its all very straightforward without any big surprises or revelations. The changing art style alongside lingo and locations the viewer is assumed to already have some familiarity, also make this a hard watch for anyone not yet invested in the Dead Space franchise.

Have you seen Aftermath? What were your thoughts?

Related Articles:

• Dead Space: Downfall - Mental Anguish