The calculator

Language : Russian

Year of release : 2014

Run time : 1h23m

Genre : Sci Fi / Action

Cast : Vinnie Jones

The movie is based on the Alexander Gromov novel of the same name.

The movie is set at least 1000 years into the future, after the first settlers left earth, and created the League of Free Worlds, after discovering many sunny and warm planets.

The action of the movie is not set on a warm and sunny planet, but on planet XT-59, a dangerous and scary one, with beings which spring out of the earth’s crust to eat humans. Although it’s always cold,dark and gloomy, the clouds always covering the skies, and nothing grows, being just dark rocks and water, the settlers considered the planet habitable, deciding to build a city away from the swamps (it looks more like quick sands) and dangerous creatures, with 100% control over the citizens ( with constant surveillance and very strict enforcement, to such a degree that it even tells people what job to get and who to marry, like it did to our lead), as it’s not important how they want to live, but how the system wants them to live.

The ones who do not fit into this system (as all the personal data is collected by a global computer which is telling the ruler and his enforcers who is fit and not for the society,and who should be arrested and why), abiding by its rules are sent do the swamps instead of prison, where they can fight the creatures for their lives.

The people arrested (we don’t know what they did) are told the next day they get to walk 300 km to the free happy islands. When released on the gloomy beach, they are left with a big box with so called survival tools, but they are not many, and not that useful.

One of the men tells them to stick with him, for he’s been there before, and can keep them alive.

Another one, chooses Anna Christie to stay with him, and calls her Christie. He wants the box the tools are in, and doesn’t care much for the tools.

Later, Christie and the others find out (or maybe we do, as they all seemed to have been told who he is off screen, and asked to k1ll him in return for their freedom) the man was the advisor to the president, a genius mathematician, who calculated how to survive the swamps.

The movie honestly bored me from the first scenes. It didn’t make any sense how such a place would exist, without sunlight nothing grows, but somehow, it has intelligent beings (they look like tree branches with electricity in them which spring from the ground in certain places) eating others. How do they exist, what did they eat until humans got there?!

The planet looks like one covered in volcanic ashes.

How could they build anything there, with such creatures always hoovering over / springing on them?

The acting was good.

The visual effects were good.

The soundtrack was good.

You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link (it has auto generated subtitles (I chose the English ones) which are pretty good) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oh1QI71DuY

Rating : Could have been a contender !