Caoilinn Springall

Two storylines compete for attention in director George Clooney’s sci-fi film The Midnight Sky. The central plotline begins with onscreen titles: Arctic Circle, 2049, three weeks after what is called the Event. That means Earth is now uninhabitable from an unspecified cause. However, the astronomer scientist Augustine Lofthouse and eight-year-old stowaway Iris survive in an Arctic research station.

Part outer-space epic/part bleak Arctic survival story, George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky follows a lonely astrophysicist as he races to stop American astronauts from returning to Earth after a global catastrophe. When the maintenance crew of a remote outpost departs to face doomsday with their loved ones, terminally-ill Dr. Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney) remains at his post, eating a microwaved meal in the deserted cafeteria.