The blackout

Original title : Avanpost (translation : Outpost)

Language : Russian

Year of release : 2020

Run time : 46m - 51m, 6 episodes

Genre : Sci Fi / Action / Mini Series

Cast : Pyotr Fyodorov, Yura Borisov

The series were released as a stand alone movie in March 2019, at the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival,being released in November 2019 in Russia. In 2020, the series were finally released, as the creators decided to show the original idea behind the project, although it was left unfinished (so they say, but it looks like a full stand alone season ) as they lacked inspiration.

 

Episode 1

The episode and series open with the military preparing for a strike at the outpost. It then goes to a month before, in Moscow, when Alyona is on a date with Oleg, and they hear on the news what's happening - power goes out in the whole world, people dying for no reason, only a few hundred millions surviving, 140 million being under the control of an unseen force.

Olya, a journalist, who is asked to report from the front lines, is fighting with her husband before leaving, as he tells her she is a journalist not a war correspondent. I side with her husband on this.

She joins the soldiers on the field, filming (with her colleague for a while). On these field missions they discover people dead in their cars while others disappeared from their houses while in the middle of having dinner.

Yura receives a recruitment order in the military, and asks a neighbor to take care of his mother who has Alzheimer's. He works as a taxi driver.

Alyona is meeting with someone at a club, and is acting out ('cause that's what you do when you meet someone to help with with something, as we find out later!). She goes dancing, leading a guy on, so much so, she needs to be rescued. Zhenya (the guy she was meeting), stabs the guy in the hand, and they run from him as he pulls the gun on them. They get into Yura's taxi, and she asks for Yura's help. Yura takes the gun from the guy and shoots him twice in the leg (why?!) because they are rubber bullets!!

At the end of the episode we find out Alyona is a doctor in the military.

Alyona annoys me in this episode, as she's acting like a spoiled child, thing one wouldn't expect from a doctor. She also has this look on her face like she knows she's hot (I don't like how she looks) and all men want her.

Episode 2

Oleg is trapped under a bear, after the bear attack, and his superiors draw the conclusion the bears were mind controlled by something to attack them.

Olya is asking the major to let her come with his team, as the government wants people to know the truth.

 

Alyona is sending Oleg to Moscow for 3 days to recuperate, and asks him to give a package to Zhenya.

Episode 3

Oleg is meeting Zhenya and his friend who is mind controlling him, making him see his father, who is dead.

Yura gets in trouble with his superior, as he doesn't listen to the orders, and goes after whoever shoots at them. They find a man who tells them he is one of them. Then why shoot at them?

We find out Zhenya's friend works in a lab, and Alyona sent him a hand from the dead, as he is trying to figure out the cause of death.

Alyona helped Zhenya so his friend could cure her sister who has leukemia, and only has a few months left to live.

Yura and his friend are left behind, at the base, due to his disobedience. His friend asks him to go pick apples, as he wants to make alcohol.

During this time, the man they rescued, and brought to the base, that said is a soldier, is trying to get out of the facility, k1lling people. Luckily, or unluckily, for the two, they catch him.

Episode 4

The military goes on reconnaissance missions to see if they find anyone alive and what else is going on.

Alyona is surprised to hear her sister was cured just by drinking a glass of water. She is sent after the team, after a few of the soldiers are wounded.

Olya tells Yura (who keeps on hitting on her) her relationship with her husband was over for years , but they stayed together, which is not what we see in the first episode, when they fight. The man loves her, he asks her to stay and have a child together, which enrages her.

Episode 5

The military meet the alien ID who tells them his race is on their way to earth to colonize it, hence the death of billions. He gives a speech that I'm sick of, that we hear in all the movies of sorts, humans are bad, they destroy everything they touch, aliens who created people (which I don't believe in) are good, destroying other races because they created them, I guess!

Yura's team rescue a kid, who proves to be a drone who kills the squadron commander.

All the squadron teams are under attack at the same time, many dying, except for our leads (how convenient!).

Yura does the unthinkable while wounded ( SPOILERS you'd think he's in pain, bleeding out, but he thinks of having s3x for the last time before dying, whether the woman wants it or not! disgusting! He said it was probably the last time for the both of them! Yeah, b1tch, but for her it was painful, not a good memory, because she didn't want you, you forced yourself on her! And he knew she was married!).

Episode 6

Finding a car, Olga is afraid to get in with Yura, thinking he'll k1ll her so she won't tell anyone he r@ped her. Yura is under the impression she wanted it too, although she was screaming, asking him to stop. Yura gives her his gun asking her to kill him for what he's done, but she doesn't, because he's one of the leads, and she's not a killer.

Asking one of the sensitives, Sasha, to find the alien controlling the drone people, the alien controlling them sees him, and bombs the outpost after 3 tanks left for Kirov, where he is.

On their way there, the major picks up Yura and Olga, Alyona and Oleg, and a few other soldiers who are still alive.

Inside the tanks, ID is telepathically speaking to Yura, telling him he saw what he's done, and needs his help in killing the alien who kills everyone.

The series, which were released prior, in 2019, as a movie, contains more information, more fighting scenes (great combat and fighting scenes, by the way), and one scene which didn't make any sense SPOILER I'm talking about a r@pe scene, in which the man, Yura, is wounded, stabbed in the stomach, but he still can muster the strength and desire (he must be an animal,the f@k!) to jump a woman when he's alone with her, and r@pe her (I can only imagine what kind of pervert wrote this, the kind who's into pain, like the characters in the movie Crash (1996) with James Spader and Holly Hunter, who were aroused by car crashes! ).

The irony is, her husband and the major told her it's dangerous for her, while the squadron commander told her to stay close to Yura for he's not afraid of dying, and he can protect her!! He protected her indeed! Wolf in sheep's clothing!

Speaking of wounds, I hate how, if it's a leading character, no matter how many times they are wounded and how bad, they are fine, but if it's another, they die. Yura is wounded a few times, the stab wound looks pretty serious, but he's absolutely fine!!! Yet, his superior, when stabbed once, dies right away! END OF SPOILERS

Speaking of the characters, Olga proves to be a liar, as she says she was in toxic relationships, but that's not what we see when she fights with her husband, who doesn't want her to go to war. She's the one snapping out at him, while he is calm.

Yura starts out good, although he has moments when we see his true nature (when he shoots the guy chasing Alyona and Zhenya) but he turns into a villain, as he pulls a 180, although in the beginning, he was a good soldier, and always took Olga's side and helped her.

Yura is also hitting on both women, Alyona and Olga, at first seemingly innocent, but then looking really desperate to get it on one last time before dying! Gross! SPOILERS And he doesn't die, by the way! In that scene he really is the perfect example of someone being led by what he has between his legs!

Actor Yura Borisov's (who was nominated for an Oscar in 2025, for Anora) character in the series was completely taken out of the movie, and he had a pretty big role in the series.

The action takes place in the future, as there is a lot of technology, even on the shower glass, and drones bring people their orders to their floor through the window.

It must have been very cold, under 0 degrees Celsius,as whenever the actors speak their breaths linger in the air in long patches.

The visual effects were great, and they were many.

The acting was good, I particularly liked Yura Borisov, who had to play a character who was scared of dying, although he was a soldier, Olga - the reporter, and the kid who is always in the company of the alien ID.

About the poster, that scene is not in the movie, not just that, it gives the audience the feeling he is her protector, which, I guess, he is, until they end up alone together, and turns into her predator.

The soundtrack was good.

Viewer discretion is advised, as the movie contains nudity.

Rating : Worth a watch !