Perfect Sci-Fi Film For Conspiracy Theorists

SEVERANCE: Ground Control to Major Tom Rating: 4.9 ⭐

While Severance: Ground Control to Major Tom (from X2 Studios and directed by Elon Rudd), falls into the Sci-Fi genre, it can certainly be considered cinema veritas as the film is shot as a documentary following Jimmy Casey, a young, intelligent conspiracy-obsessed journalist on his quest to discover the mystery surrounding the catastrophic space mission and disappearance and ultimate demise of Major Tom from the failed return of Aries 369 Mission to Mars. 

Casey’s journey began after receiving at his desk, a mysterious and anonymously sent a package of a hard drive that contain recordings and concealed and classified communication between Major Tom and Ground Control that revealed a sinister secret of his disappearance on his mission to Mars where he was left stranded due to a malfunction in his spaceship. Based on the documented communications and the revelations of two reluctant whistleblowers John Nickolson and Paul Cassidy both elderly and from the abandoned Secret Space Program base in Montauk, NJ, and later, a mentally struggling Super Solider Max Steel, of the same base. Nickolson and Cassidy were the scientists that developed the mind control technology used to overtake the consciousness of those sent on a mission to Mars and Steel was a space mercenary whose wiped memory was returning to haunt and redefine his existence. Casey learned enough to quell his passion to pursue the truth further. Along the way, the foursome is visited by the men in black at every juncture. 

The cinematography is brilliant in this film as it switches between present-day reality-driven single-camera scenes to the expansive and sparse dream-like story visualization of Major Tom’s life on Mars. Some aspects of Major Tom’s Earthling base scenes could easily be considered an influence of Steven Kubrick’s A Space Odyssey where each scene only included the essentials and nothing more. Some of the cinematography outside the base were more aligned with Dune in the vision of Director Denis Villeneuve. After all, the scenes could only be imagined and therefore contained the highest common denominators of our imagination.

Casey discovered that while stranded on Mars, searching for help, Major Tom explored his surroundings only to discover a secret Earthling base carved into a giant monument of the head of an alien soldier, creeping his way inside to find a fully climatized and operational bubble populated by various alien species. Discovered by the small greys, he was taken across the base to meet the other Earthlings, only to discover a grim and macabre reality concealed by the world order.

As he tried to fix his ship to escape to Earth, he comes to suspect his entire journey. Was his new Earthing companion a friend or part of a grand agenda? Was the ship was deliberately demobilized by Ground Control? If so, why? How did Max Steel know so much more credible detail than the classified documents? 

We are transported between the ordeal of Major Tom and the real world, which the director beautifully executes through the contrast in cinematography, lighting, tone, and music score. Those who love and follow the Secret Space Program (SSP) and Majestic 12 (MJ12) missions and projects would certainly enjoy this film as not only is it rich with all the “conspiracy theories” but also connects them and details some of their inner mechanisms and entanglements to our world today. With its neo-realism approach, the acting is spot on and realistic triggering compassion and deeper discernment in a robotic and self-serving world devoid of both. This is a film to watch repeatedly and every time you do, you discover yet another subtle hint that confirms what we think we “know” of the secrets of MJ12 the SSP. 

Disclaimer: All images are original using original photos or text-to-image Ai-generated original unduplicatable artwork.