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{{About||the game based on the film|Pandorum (video game)|the musician|Code:Pandorum}}

{{Infobox film
| name           = Pandorum
| image          = Pandorum-Poster.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Christian Alvart]]
| producer       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Robert Kulzer]]
* [[Jeremy Bolt]]
* [[Paul W. S. Anderson]]
}}
| screenplay     = Travis Milloy
| story          = {{Plainlist|
* Travis Milloy
* Christian Alvart
}}
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Dennis Quaid]]
* [[Ben Foster (actor)|Ben Foster]]
* [[Cam Gigandet]]
* [[Antje Traue]]
* [[Cung Le]]
* [[Eddie Rouse]]
}}
| music          = Michl Britsch
| cinematography = Wedigo von Schultzendorff
| editing        = {{Plainlist|
* Philipp Stahl
* Yvonne Valdez
}}
| studio         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Constantin Film]]
* [[Impact Pictures]]<ref name="filmportal">{{cite web|url=https://www.filmportal.de/film/pandorum_721efbdf0749462b83b9db015c9db75d|publisher=[[Filmportal.de]]|title=Pandorum|access-date=18 January 2019|language=de}}</ref>
}}
| distributor    = {{Plainlist|
* [[Icon Productions|Icon Film Distribution]] {{small|(United Kingdom)}}<ref name="boxofficemojo.com"/>
* Constantin Film Verleih {{small|(Germany)}}
}}
| released       = {{Film date|df=yes|2009|9|25|United States|2009|10|1|Germany|2009|10|2|United Kingdom}}
| runtime        = 108 minutes<ref>{{cite web|title=BBFC reference AFF259019: Pandorum |url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/ClassifiedWorks/8EC74EB0656FEC5C802576390033C2CA | date=22 September 2009 |access-date=27 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091031105704/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/ClassifiedWorks/8EC74EB0656FEC5C802576390033C2CA |archive-date=31 October 2009 }}</ref>
| country        = {{Plainlist|
* United Kingdom
* Germany<ref name="filmportal" />
}}
| language       = English
| budget         = $33 million
| gross          = $20.6 million<ref name="boxofficemojo.com">{{cite web|url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=pandorum.htm |title=Pandorum (2009) |publisher=Box Office Mojo |date=19 November 2009 |access-date=5 February 2016}}</ref>
}}

'''''Pandorum''''' is a 2009 [[science fiction horror film]] directed by [[Christian Alvart]], produced by Robert Kulzer, [[Jeremy Bolt]] and [[Paul W. S. Anderson]] (the latter two through their [[Impact Pictures]] banner), and starring [[Dennis Quaid]] and [[Ben Foster (actor)|Ben Foster]]. Travis Milloy wrote the screenplay from a story by Milloy and Alvart. The film's title is a fictional [[slang term]] for a form of [[psychosis]] caused by [[outer space|deep space]] and triggered by emotional stress, leading to severe [[paranoia]], [[delirium]], and nosebleeds. ''Pandorum'' was released on 25 September 2009 in the United States,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=41441 |title=Pandorum |work=ComingSoon.net |publisher=Coming Soon Media, L.P |access-date=25 June 2009}}</ref> and on 2 October 2009 in the UK. The film was poorly received and a [[box office flop]].

== Plot ==
<!-- Per [[WP:FILMPLOT]], film plots should be between 400 and 700 words. This is currently 699 words. -->
After [[human overpopulation]] depletes Earth's resources, humanity builds an [[interstellar ark]], the ''Elysium''. It carries 60,000 people on a 123-year trip to colonize Tanis, an [[Earth analog|Earth-like planet]]. The passengers are placed in [[sleeper ship|hypersleep]], and a rotating crew wake biennially to maintain the ship. Eight years into the mission, the ship receives a transmission from Earth: "You're all that's left of us. Good luck, God bless, and Godspeed."

An indeterminate time later, two members of the flight crew, Corporal Bower and Lieutenant Payton, awaken. Improper emergence from the hibernatory state leaves them both with partial [[amnesia]] and possibly suffering from pandorum, a space-related disorder that causes psychosis when under emotional duress. The ship experiences power surges caused by an unstable nuclear reactor, and they are unable to enter the [[Bridge (nautical)|bridge]]. While Payton stays behind to access the ship's computer, Bower uses the ventilation system to search for the reactor.

Bower is startled by a figure rushing past. He calls out to the figure after seeing its human shape, which he then learns to be a disemboweled body. A woman (the figure) leaps at him with a curved knife and drops him to the ground and then pulls the knife along the curve of his neck without hurting him. She says things in another language before taking his boots. The mechanic, named Shepard, wakes up, startling Bower, who then frees him. Shepard mistakes Bower for a rescue team, before dousing his body in oil to cover his scent. Shepard then tells him to escape "them". Bower tries to order Shepard to tell him what is going on, but Shepard refuses, citing there is no longer a chain of command. The noise summons a group of cannibalistic humanoids who appear to respond mostly to sound. They both flee and hide but are soon found by the creatures. Shepard is killed by the group, while Bower tries to attack them with a non-lethal weapon he found earlier, which proves ineffective. He flees and continues on and encounters an environmental scientist, Nadia, and a farmer, Manh, who does not speak English; both are hostile. He encourages them to band together, and the trio flees into a barricaded chamber, where they find a cook named Leland. Leland has been awake for years, living off the water oozing through parts of the ship, the algae it creates, and resorting to cannibalism. Payton encounters Corporal Gallo, who claims the ship is lost in space and that he killed his team in self-defense.

Leland feeds Bower's group and shows them mural drawings depicting what has happened: after Earth vanished following an unknown catastrophe, Gallo went insane, killed his crew, and induced pandorum in other passengers. After goading them into a violent and tribal culture, Gallo went back into hypersleep. Aided by accelerated evolution from an enzyme meant to help colonists adjust to life on Tanis, the descendants have turned into cannibalistic mutants. Leland gasses the group, intending to eat them, but Bower convinces him the reactor must be stabilized.

As they search the ship for the reactor, Bower hopes to find his wife in an area for family in hypersleep but remembers that she died with everyone else on Earth when she refused to join him. This revelation almost makes him give up and pushes him closer to insanity. After surviving an encounter with the cannibals, Bower's group finds the reactor. A crowd of mutants sleep under the reactor, and Bower crosses a walkway to reset it. The walkway collapses, and Bower climbs down into the mutant pit to reach a ladder. While Manh distracts the mutants, Bower restarts the reactor, killing many mutants. Leland flees, and Manh is cornered by the mutant leader. Manh kills the leader but is killed by a mutant child he hesitates to slay.

Gallo becomes increasingly agitated, and Payton prepares a sedative. As they wrestle over the sedative, Gallo is revealed to be a hallucination as Payton ''is'' Gallo. Gallo killed the real Payton long ago when he developed pandorum upon hearing Earth was gone. Because he went into Payton's pod, Gallo mistakenly believed himself to be Payton when he woke up with amnesia. Leland reaches the bridge, and Gallo kills him with the sedative. When Bower and Nadia confront him, Gallo opens the shutters on the bridge's windows, revealing that the ship is adrift in deep space with no stars visible. The shock pushes Bower further toward insanity. Taking advantage of Bower's mental state, Gallo argues they must maintain the violent society rather than revive civilization.

Nadia observes [[Bioluminescence|bioluminescent]] ocean life through the windows, and the computer displays that 923 years have elapsed since the mission launched. The ship reached Tanis 800 years ago and landed itself in the ocean. Bower hallucinates a mutant attack and breaks a window. As water pours into the ship, Nadia and Bower climb into a hypersleep pod and eject it. The flood triggers an emergency protocol which ejects the remaining 1,211 untainted pods to the surface, while Gallo and the remaining mutants drown. Bower and Nadia surface near a lush [[coastline]], and they witness the other pods ascend.

==Cast==
* [[Dennis Quaid]] as Lieutenant Payton / Older Corporal Gallo, the ship's lieutenant and captain, later revealed to be Corporal Gallo
** [[Cam Gigandet]] as Younger Corporal Gallo, a corporal who went insane and killed his team, and believed himself to be Payton throughout most of the movie
* [[Ben Foster (actor)|Ben Foster]] as Corporal Bower, the ship's corporal and presumed head mechanical engineer
* [[Antje Traue]] as Nadia, the ship's environmentalist, who teams with Bower 
* [[Cung Le]] as Manh, an agricultural farmer, who teams with Bower and Nadia
* [[Eddie Rouse]] as Leland, the mentally unstable cook who has resorted to cannibalism
* [[André Hennicke]] as Hunter Leader
* [[Norman Reedus]] as Shepard, a mechanic whom Bower encounters
* [[Wotan Wilke Möhring]] as Young Bower's Father
* {{ill|Niels Bruno Schmidt|de}} as Insane Officer Eden

== Production ==
The film began life as a [[Spec script|preliminary script]] written by Travis Milloy in the late 1990s. The story was originally set on a prison ship named ''Pandorum'', transporting thousands of Earth's deadliest prisoners to another planet; the cannibal hunters were the result of the prisoners' degeneration. The characters played by [[Antje Traue]] and [[Cung Le]] were inmates. [[Ben Foster (actor)|Ben Foster]]'s character was a non-prisoner who did not trust anyone.

Believing no studio would want to make the film, Milloy thought about making it as a low-budget film shot on video in an abandoned paper mill with unknown actors. However, it attracted the attention of filmmaker [[Paul W. S. Anderson]] and [[Jeremy Bolt]], and they gave it to Impact Pictures, who green-lit it. The producers gave the script to director [[Christian Alvart]] who was struck by the similarities to his own screenplay titled ''No Where''. His dramatic story was about four astronauts aboard a settlers' ship who suffer from amnesia. Alvart decided that they should meld the two screenplays together, and the producers and Milloy agreed. With the ship now changed to a settler's ship, the use of the word "Pandorum" was changed from the name of the ship to a type of mental illness caused by sustained deep space travel.<ref name="fieldingonfilm1">{{cite web|url=http://fieldingonfilm.com/wp/travis-milloy-writer-pandorum/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427111641/http://fieldingonfilm.com/wp/travis-milloy-writer-pandorum/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=27 April 2015 |title=Travis Milloy |publisher=Fielding on Film |date=9 December 2011 |access-date=5 February 2016}}</ref>

''Pandorum'' was announced in May 2008 with Quaid and Foster in lead roles. Christian Alvart was attached to direct the film from a script by Travis Milloy.

Filming took place at [[Babelsberg Studios]] in [[Potsdam]], Germany in August 2008.<ref name="quaid" /><ref name="impact" />

The movie was financed by [[Constantin Film]] through a joint venture deal with subsidiary Impact Pictures.<ref name="quaid">{{cite web|author=Dave McNary |url=https://variety.com/2008/film/markets-festivals/quaid-foster-set-for-pandorum-1117985339/ |title=Quaid, Foster set for 'Pandorum' |publisher=Variety |date=8 May 2008 |access-date=5 February 2016}}</ref> The partnership helped fund the $40 million production. Constantin drew subsidies from Germany's Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB) regional film fund, the {{Interlanguage link|Filmförderungsanstalt|de|3=Filmförderungsanstalt|lt=German Federal Film Board}} (FFA) and the {{Interlanguage link|Deutscher Filmförderfonds|de|3=Deutscher Filmförderfonds|lt=German Federal Film Fund}} (DFFF). The German Federal Film Fund provided $6 million to the production, the fund's second-largest 2008 payout after $7.5 million for ''[[Ninja Assassin]]''.<ref name="impact">{{cite web|title=Impact finds $40 mil to make 'Pandorum' |website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i431ca797a370fbb2a3ea2b9931986666 | date=7 November 2008 |access-date=1 December 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206125925/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i431ca797a370fbb2a3ea2b9931986666 |archive-date=6 December 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Christian Koehl |url=https://variety.com/2008/film/news/pandorum-secures-german-funds-1117990076/ |title='Pandorum' secures German funds |publisher=Variety |date=5 August 2008 |access-date=5 February 2016}}</ref>

== Release ==
[[File:Pandorum panel at WonderCon 2009.JPG|thumb|right|[[Ben Foster (actor)|Ben Foster]], [[Cung Le]] and [[Antje Traue]] talk about ''Pandorum'' at a panel discussion at [[WonderCon]] 2009.]]

Summit Entertainment handled foreign sales and presented ''Pandorum'' to buyers at the [[2009 Cannes Film Festival]].<ref name="quaid" /> [[Overture Films]] distributed ''Pandorum'' in North America, [[Icon Film Distribution]] in the United Kingdom and Australia, [[SF Studios|Svensk Filmindustri]] in Scandinavia, and Movie Eye in Japan. The film was set up as a possible franchise. According to Travis Milloy, it was to have a sequel and a prequel.<ref name="fieldingonfilm1"/> If it performed well, Impact Pictures could [[green-light]] one or more sequels.<ref name="impact" />

The [[DVD]] and [[Blu-ray]] release occurred on 19 January 2010 in the United States<ref>{{cite web |author=Overture Films |url=http://www.pandorummovie.com/ |title=PANDORUM - Now Available on DVD & Blu-ray |publisher=Pandorummovie.com |access-date=5 February 2016 |archive-date=10 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310013324/http://www.pandorummovie.com/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> over [[Anchor Bay Entertainment]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Barton |first=Steve |url=https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/34552/exclusive-shock-festival-wallpapers-and-radio-spots |title=Exclusive: Shock Festival Wallpapers and Radio Spots |publisher=Dread Central |date=16 November 2009 |access-date=5 February 2016}}</ref>

The director and producer commentaries on the DVD indicate that an unrated version of the movie exists but has not been released.

== Reception ==
Review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reports an approval rating of 26% based on 87 reviews and an average rating of 4.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While it might prove somewhat satisfying for devout sci-fi fans, ''Pandorum's'' bloated, derivative plot ultimately leaves it drifting in space."<ref name="rottentomatoes">{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pandorum/ |title=Pandorum (2009) |publisher=[[Fandango Media]] |work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date=April 11, 2025}}</ref> At [[Metacritic]], which judges on a 0–100 scale, the film holds a "generally unfavorable" score of 28 based on 13 reviews.<ref name="Metacritic">{{cite web |title=Pandorum Reviews|publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |work=[[Metacritic]] |access-date=15 March 2018 |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/pandorum}}</ref>

Science fiction magazine ''[[SFX (magazine)|SFX]]'' stated that "''Pandorum'' is the finest interstellar horror in years" and awarded the film 4 stars out of 5.<ref>{{cite web|author=Kevin Harley on |url=http://www.sfx.co.uk/2009/09/30/film_review_pandorum/ |title=Pandorum review &#124; GamesRadar |publisher=Sfx.co.uk |date=2 October 2009 |access-date=5 February 2016}}</ref> ''[[Film Ireland]]'' also gave ''Pandorum'' a positive review, appreciating the film's synergy of cinematic techniques, set design, and developed characters.<ref>{{cite news|title=''Pandorum'' Review|url=http://www.filmireland.net/2009/10/29/pandorum/|first=Jack|last=McGlynn|date=29 October 2009|publisher=[[Film Ireland]]|access-date=1 November 2009|archive-date=4 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091104010040/http://www.filmireland.net/2009/10/29/pandorum/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The film was a flop, grossing $20.6 million worldwide on a $33 million budget.<ref name=boxofficemojo.com/> It opened at No. 6 at the US box office with weekend receipts totaling $4.4 million. Overture Films declared bankruptcy the following year.<ref>{{cite news | title=Overture Films ends three-year run, hands off marketing and distribution to Relativity Media | first=Claudia | last=Eller | url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/07/overture-films-is-over.html | date=23 July 2010 | work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | access-date=28 November 2017 }}</ref>

== Soundtrack ==
{{Infobox album
| name       = Pandorum
| type       = soundtrack
| artist     = Michl Britsch
| cover      =
| caption    =
| alt        =
| released   = 25 September 2009
| recorded   = 2009
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      = [[Electronic music|Electronic]]
| length     = 71:06
| label      = Königskinder Schallplatten GmbH
| producer   = Michl Britsch
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title =
| next_year  =
}}

'''Track listing'''
# "All That Is Left of Us" (2:43)
# "Pandorum" (3:58)
# "Anti Riot" (4:17)
# "Shape" (2:03)
# "Hunting Party" (2:48)
# "Kulzer Complex" (4:40)
# "Tanis Probe Broadcast" (2:01)
# "Scars" (2:20)
# "Fucking Solidarity" (3:28)
# "Gallo's Birth" (2:22)
# "Biolab Attack" (2:25)
# "Kanyrna" (3:22)
# "The Stars All Look Alike" (4:32)
# "Boom" (3:55)
# "Reactor" (4:08)
# "Skin on Skin" (3:21)
# "Fight Fight Fight" (2:56)
# "Bower's Trip" (7:51)
# "Discovery / End Credits" (7:55)

== See also ==
*[[Malthusianism]]
*[[Psychological and sociological effects of spaceflight]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{IMDb title|1188729}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|pandorum}}

{{Christian Alvart}}

[[Category:2009 science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:2009 English-language films]]
[[Category:2009 British films]]
[[Category:2009 German films]]
[[Category:2009 psychological thriller films]]
[[Category:2009 films]]
[[Category:2009 horror films]]
[[Category:2009 independent films]]
[[Category:British psychological thriller films]]
[[Category:British independent films]]
[[Category:British science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:German psychological thriller films]]
[[Category:German independent films]]
[[Category:German science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:English-language German films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Christian Alvart]]
[[Category:Films produced by Jeremy Bolt]]
[[Category:Films produced by Paul W. S. Anderson]]
[[Category:Films produced by Robert Kulzer]]
[[Category:British action horror films]]
[[Category:Films set on fictional planets]]
[[Category:Space adventure films]]
[[Category:Films set in the 31st century]]
[[Category:D-Box motion-enhanced films]]
[[Category:Underwater action films]]
[[Category:Overture Films films]]
[[Category:Summit Entertainment films]]
[[Category:Constantin Film films]]
[[Category:Films shot in Germany]]
[[Category:Babelsberg Studio films]]
[[Category:Fiction about generation ships]]
[[Category:Films about cannibalism]]
[[Category:Overpopulation fiction]]
[[Category:Films about dissociative identity disorder]]
[[Category:Films set in outer space]]
[[Category:Films set on spacecraft]]
[[Category:English-language science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:English-language independent films]]
[[Category:English-language thriller films]]
[[Category:Delirium]]
[[Category:Psychosis]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Pandorum|access_date=2026-03-05}}