Helena is a 20 year old astronaut, who has
lived almost all her entire life in a spaceship
named Orbiter 9. Because of factors
like overpopulation, global warming,
and toxic environment, scientists on earth have
sent her on a mission to the supposed habitable
planet ‘Celeste’. It is believed that it will
take her 20 more years to reach the planet.
Initially, an infant Helena was brought to the
spaceship by her parents, and they raised her
there. However, 3 years back, a malfunction in
the system caused the Orbiter 9’s oxygen supply
to deplete at a rapid rate. Hence, her parents
took the tough decision to commit the unthinkable,
so that their daughter could have enough
oxygen to reach the nearest outpost.
In this way, Helena has spent the last
3 years alone on the spaceship.
Her
daily routine consists of watering her veggies,
exercising, checking her health status, and
reminiscing about her parents. By this time,
she has even started having difficulties in
breathing, as the oxygen supply is almost up.
One day, the alarm in the spaceship
starts blaring, and this worries Helena,
as it is the first time she has experienced
such an event. She immediately heads over to
the control room to inspect, and finds out
that a shuttle has adjoined her spaceship.
It turns out that her distress
call has finally been answered.
Helena rushes to the entrance, and when the
door opens, an engineer named Alex enters.
She is equally stunned and happy to see him, as
it has been 3 years since her last interaction
with someone. Alex introduces himself and
proceeds to examine the oxygen system, but
Helena can’t take her eyes off of him, possibly
because she has never seen a man her age before.
A few hours later, as Alex is busy with the
repairs, Helena invites him for dinner, to which
he agrees. Later during dinner, Helena keeps
asking a lot of questions, but for some reason,
Alex is cold. He simply mentions that he has
to finish his work and return to his outpost.
The next day, Alex successfully repairs the
oxygen system and prepares to leave. That night,
while he is sleeping, Helena silently
enters his room and gets on top of him.
As she is busy staring, Alex wakes up
and asks her to get down. But Helena,
who has been alone her entire life, mentions
that it might be another 20 years before
she sees someone again. She then slowly
kisses him, and soon, the two have coetus.
The following morning, Alex packs
all his belongings and departs,
without even bidding Helena a proper
goodbye.
After leaving the spaceship,
he enters a strange hallway and then makes his
way upstairs. Surprisingly, he comes out of what
appears to be a bunker, which is placed in the
middle of the woods. Here, we get to know that
the Orbiter 9 is not a spaceship after all,
and the entire thing is being staged on earth.
In the next scene, Alex gets in his
truck and drives through the woods,
which appears to be a top secret facility.
We
can clearly see that there are more bunkers
like Helena’s and the entire operation is
known as ‘Project Orbiter’. Shortly after,
Alex reaches the entrance, which is
heavily guarded by military personnel.
That evening, he heads to the base of operations,
and meets the project incharge; Hugo. Hugo takes
out his tablet and shows some statistics to
Alex, which reveals that there are in fact 10
orbiters.
He claims that the progress is good,
and if everything proceeds at the same pace,
the real launch to Celeste may happen in the next
20 years. Despite the good news, Alex is upset,
as he worries about the 10 test subjects that
have been isolated in the Orbiters. However,
Hugo tells him that sacrificing 10 people for
the good of humanity is the right thing to do.
At night, as Alex is heading home, a news report
states that it has been 5 years since the Celeste
spaceship disaster.
On that fateful night, the
spaceship, which was carrying 207 crew members,
experienced a sudden mechanical failure
just after exiting the earth’s surface.
This resulted in a fatal crash that killed
everyone on board. The head engineer of
the spaceship is revealed to be none other
than Alex himself. Ever since the incident,
he has been shrouded with guilt and
sorrow, as not only did several people die,
but humanity also suffered a major
setback in their quest to Celeste.
The next morning, Alex meets his therapist;
Sylvia, who uses a highly futuristic screen
to conduct her sessions. With the help of this
screen, people on both sides can’t see each other,
and even their original voice is distorted.
All they can see is a computerized wolf,
which resembles their facial movements. Unable to
hide his depression anymore, Alex reveals about
the specifics of his job to Sylvia, and explains
how he feels bad for the 10 test subjects.
As days pass by, Alex starts getting more and
more paranoid. He regularly watches videos and
live feeds of Helena, implying that he is
unable to shake her off of his mind. Then,
one day, he finally decides to risk it all.
He gets in his car and heads to the facility.
Meanwhile inside the Orbiter-9, as Helena
is undergoing her regular health checkup,
the alarm starts blaring once
again. This surprises Helena,
as her spaceship is far away from any outpost.
Soon, the entrance door opens, and a casually
dressed Alex emerges from it. He immediately
informs her that they are not in a spaceship,
and that they have to escape, but Helena, who is
frozen in fear, doesn’t speak a word. To prove his
point, Alex takes out a hidden camera, and also
a microchip planted inside Helena to track her
vital organs. He also tells her that he is doing
this for her safety. Helena is still in disbelief,
but since she has a crush on Alex, she agrees
to go with him.
Before leaving, Alex hacks the
camera feed and uploads an older recording of
Helena, so that no one suspects their escape.
Following this, the two exit the Orbiter-9.
When Helena steps out of the bunker,
she is momentarily dazed and
has difficulties walking,
as she is experiencing sunlight
and natural air for the first time.
Alex then hides her inside his truck, and
somehow clears her through the entrance checkup.
Later, he stops by a hill and reveals
everything about the Orbiter program,
and how it came into existence. The program
was designed to accustom a human to space,
so that the upcoming launch to Celeste can
go smoothly. He also informs Helena that
her parents are still alive, but when the
latter expresses her desire to meet them,
he refuses.
Turns out that her parents
are also a part of the project.
Shortly after, the two reach Alex’s home, and
Helena is surprised to see normal household
equipment. She also experiences rain for
the first time and becomes delighted.
The following day, Alex visits Sylvia and informs
her of what he’s done. Worried about her clients’
safety, Sylvia shows her real self to Alex, and
promises to help him if things go awry.
That
night, Alex takes Helena out and shows her around
the city. He buys a variety of meals for her,
something which she has never experienced in
her isolation. When Helena talks about the sea,
he simply takes her to an aquarium and
introduces her to different fishes.
The next morning, Alex leads Helena to his private
office, where he has a bunch of computers set up.
He explains that it is the place from
where he keeps an eye on the orbiters,
and tracks their progress.
Clearly
stressed by the breach in privacy,
Helena asks Alex how he could be involved in such
an inhumane act, but the latter replies that it’s
for the betterment of humanity. With all the data
and statistics gained from the Orbiter project,
they could flawlessly send a real
spaceship to Celeste in the coming years.
In the next scene, Alex takes Helena to a
nightclub and introduces her to his friends.
One of them is Dr. Xiao, a well known physician.
He asks Helena about her hometown but before she
can reply, Alex makes up an excuse and diverts the
topic. He wants to keep Helena’s identity a secret
at any costs. After a while, the group talks about
the implications of the Orbiter program and how it
can help humanity in the long run. Alex believes
that the progress is good, but Dr. Xiao asserts
that instead of finding a new planet, people
should focus on making earth a better place.
One day, Alex notices some rashes on
Helena’s back and takes her to his friend;
Dr. Xiao. After examining Helena surfacely,
Xiao reveals that her skin is very sensitive,
as if she has never been out in the sun.
He then sends her for a thorough checkup,
and interrogates Alex about her
true identity. Xiao suspects that
she has something to do with the Orbiter
program, and Alex finally reveals anything.
That evening, while Alex is away, Helena enters
his room and starts going through his files.
In one of such files, she finds out something
shocking. It turns out that she is not an
offspring after all, but just a clone. She then
flips over some pages and finds the address
of her surrogate parents. Devastated by the
revelation, and the fact that Alex lied to her,
she gathers her belongings and
heads outside to find her parents.
Later, Alex arrives home and gets to
know that Helena has discovered the
truth about her genetics. He is visibly
upset, but can do nothing to find her.
Elsewhere, Helena finds her parents and
confronts them for abandoning her. The mother,
who seems to be caring, tells Helena that
although she is a clone, she has the genetics
of people from different centuries, making
her extremely healthy.
Just then, the father
approaches Helena from behind and cuffs her to
the railing. He then proceeds to contact Hugo,
but surprisingly, the mother knocks
him out and helps Helena escape.
A few hours later, she meets up with Alex and
berates him for hiding the truth from her.
With no words to defend himself, Alex
simply apologizes and hugs her. However,
the trouble has just begun.
Realizing that Hugo
and his people have got wind of the escape,
Alex and Helena pack their
belongings and take off.
The next day, Hugo meets up with the chief
benefactor of the Orbiter Project; Katherine, and
briefs her about the situation. As expected, the
boss is far from impressed as one of her valuable
assets has escaped. When Hugo asks for a solution,
Katherine orders him to find Helena and kill her.
Elsewhere, Alex takes Helena to her long time
confidant; Sylvia, and asks for a place to stay.
Being the kind woman that she is, Sylvia gladly
accepts, but before she can escort them out, she
hears a knock on her door. Outside, she finds Hugo
and two armed soldiers on the lookout for Helena.
It turns out that he rummaged through Alex’s
apartment, and found Sylvia’s business card there.
The men then barge inside the place and start
looking around.
Soon, they reach one of the
therapy booths, not realizing that the couple
is on the other side. Hugo then orders Sylvia
to start the screen, and as soon as she does so,
Alex and Helena freeze in their place. They do
not even blink, because if they do so, the wolf
simulation will also move and blow their cover.
This goes on for a while, and when
Sylvia refuses to hand over the couple,
one of the soldiers shoots her dead.
This
terrorizes the couple on the other side,
and they immediately run away from there.
Then, an intense chase ensues on the rooftops,
with the couple managing to stay one step
ahead of the bad guys. However, they are
eventually cornered when they come across
a dead end. With no alternatives left, Alex
proposes to jump to another terrace.
He goes
first, but when it’s Helena’s turn,
she freezes in fear, and is eventually
apprehended. Alex can just watch
as Hugo and his men take her away.
That night, a distraught Alex heads to the
same nightclub and approaches his friend;
Xiao, who was also apparently beaten up by
Hugo and his men. Xiao expresses his concern
for Alex, and also mentions that the test
results of Helena are out.
Unfortunately,
she is unfit to stay in this environment,
and will have to go back inside the Orbiter-9
immediately. The revelation devastates
Alex, but an idea strikes his mind.
In the meantime, Hugo approaches Katherine and
asks her if he can reinstate Helena back in the
Orbiter program. However, she refuses, claiming
that it will cost them a lot of money.
She then
orders him to finish Helena off immediately,
so that the news doesn’t spread elsewhere.
Following the orders, Hugo starts preparing the
euthanization process. But before he can end it
all, Alex arrives outside the building, and
proposes a deal to Hugo. Although the latter
has already set his mind on killing Helena,
he still calls Alex inside for the sake of
their friendship.
Wasting no time, Alex mentions
that Helena is pregnant with his child, a child
which could be of significant importance in their
project. He then proposes that Helena be allowed
back in the orbiter, along with him, so that they
both can raise their child in the environment.
This would create the perfect astronaut so that
after 20 years, he/she can lead the real spaceship
to Celeste. Surprisingly, Hugo likes the idea,
and he lets the couple head back to the Orbiter.
In the final scene, 20 years have passed by.
Outside Orbiter-9, a now old Hugo waits for a
girl to come out of her bunker, presumably
Alex and Helena’s daughter. The girl smiles
at someone behind her, and then looks into
the sky. The movie ends as the spaceship
ready to take off for Celeste is heard,
indicating that the experiment was a success.
