
A Review of Ad Astra: Apocalypse Now In Outer Space, SpaceRef
"Ad Astra" should really have used the entire phrase "Ad Astra Per Aspera" - "through hardships to the stars" - as its title. Brad Pitt certainly endures more than his fair share of hardships during his Homeric trek across the solar system to find and then confront his father.
Under secret orders, Brad Pitt (Major Roy McBride) begins his quest across the solar system in search of his famous astronaut father H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones). The elder McBride, once thought to have died many years ago, is still alive and is up to some dangerous stuff in the outer solar system that is wreaking havoc on Earth. And Earth wants him to knock it off.
As I watched this saga unfold Roy McBride's inner motivations and misgivings immediately reminded me of what Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) went through as he sought out the mysterious Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in his remote lair in the classic film "Apocalypse Now". Roy McBride's travels toward his singular destination were equally challenging internally as well as physically."