Infini

Infini
Film poster
Directed by	Shane Abbess
Produced by	Sidonie Abbene Shane Abbess Matthew Graham Brett Thornquest
Screenplay by	Shane Abbess
Starring	Daniel MacPherson Grace Huang Luke Hemsworth
Music by	Brian Cachia
Cinematography	Carl Robertson
Edited by	Adrian Rostirolla
Distributed by	Vertical Entertainment
Release dates	11 April 2015 (2015-04-11)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	$5 million est.[1]

Infini is a 2015 Australian science fiction film directed by Shane Abbess, and starring Daniel MacPherson, Grace Huang, and Luke Hemsworth.^[2]

Plot

In the early 23rd century, the Earth's highest paying jobs are on deep space mining colonies. On mining station O.I. Infini, an emergency is declared, and a search and rescue (SAR) team is sent in using a form of teleportation that allows instantaneous travel but potentially causes data corruption and hence mental illness. The location of O.I. Infini is proximal to a number of black holes meaning the mission operatives will experience severe time dilation. A team sent returns 30 seconds later in a berserk rage. Whit Carmichael, a new member of West Coast SAR, on his first day, teleports to Infini using a hacked teleporter after West Coast HQ activates a lethal lockdown to contain the crisis.

Less than a relative hour later, East Coast SAR is informed about the outbreak, and West Coast's destruction. They are given a primary task of disabling a weaponized payload and a secondary mission of recovering the one surviving member of the West Coast SAR, Whit Carmichael. Arriving, they find a slaughterhouse, eventually reuniting with Whit after he questions the team captain through an ASCII terminal. Whit explains that the mining staff slaughtered each other, tearing off their skin and killing one another. A survivor then suddenly attacks exposing the rescue team, and Whit. Fearing for his survival Whit searches the station for remaining SAR personnel and anything relating to the disease. Finding a lab, he discovers a medical log. Discovering the planet is entirely composed of alien organic material, and when thawed forms a so called "primordial ooze". This is responsible for the outbreak. It is capable of infecting, eventually mimicking and finally dominating, any biological tissue. He further discovers the ooze is aggressive, predatory in nature and driven by self-preservation.

Whit attempts to solicit help from the remaining members of the team, but they are suffering through stages of the infection. They either attack each other, kill themselves or attack Whit. This leaves Whit the last surviving human on the station. He records a looped message to the ooze, believing it is alive and self-aware, criticizing it for focusing exclusively on humanity's violent base instincts, instead of working together, and telling it that it failed. He then commits suicide with a scalpel. The ooze hears his message and begins healing the wounds of the team. They awaken, with some question as to exactly how much each member remembers of the events. The captain states they will extract in five minutes, and as they begin the teleportation process, Whit sees several humanoid forms that appear to be made of ooze, silently watching them go, one of them holding the picture of Whit's wife he carried with him, suggesting they may have evolved a sense of empathy.

Returned to Earth, the team is screened for biological contaminants before being released.

Cast

• Daniel MacPherson as Whit Carmichael
• Grace Huang as Claire Grenich
• Luke Hemsworth as Charlie Kent
• Bren Foster as Morgan Jacklar
• Luke Ford as Chester Huntington
• Dwaine Stevenson as Rex Mannings
• Louisa Mignone as Philipa Boxen
• Tess Haubrich as Lisa Carmichael
• Harry Pavlidis as Harris Menzies
• Kevin Copeland as Seet Johanson
• Andy Rodoreda as Sefton Norick
• Richard Huggett as Montoli
• Paul Winchester as David Ponter
• Brendan Clearkin as Depot Sergeant Hackford
• Matt Minto as The Chief
• Belinda Gosbee as Science Officer Hepburn

Production

Shooting began in Sydney in October 2013.^[3][4]

Release

Infini had its international premiere on 11 April 2015 at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. It was released simultaneously in the US and Australia.^[5] The film was not released theatrically in Australia, due to fears of piracy.^[6]

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 36% of fourteen surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.9/10.^[7] Dov Kornits of Filmink wrote, "Infini is leading the charge in genre filmmaking in this country, proving that we have the chops to compete on the world stage."^[8] Commenting on the film's similarity to Aliens, David Stratton of The Australian wrote, "Resourcefulness is all very well, but a fresh approach to the familiar cliches would also be appreciated."^[9] Harry Windsor of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a genre retread in search of a plot".^[10] Andrew Marshall of Starburst rated it 6/10 stars and wrote that the film "lacks the follow through to capitalise on its ideas or required sense of humanity to make you actually care".^[11] Simon Abrams of The Village Voice wrote, "Infini doesn't go anywhere that superior science fiction films haven't already, but for a while, it's exciting enough to feel brand-new."^[12] Oliver Pfeiffer of SciFiNowrated it 4/5 stars and called it "bold, gut-wrenching" with the "real masterstroke at play...the menacingly immersive production design and deeply atmospheric soundtrack". ^[13]

Christopher Webster of Quiet Earth wrote that it "feels like an R-rated Twilight Zone episode more than a feature film".^[14]

References

External links

• Infini at the Internet Movie Database