George Clooney is no stranger to a grand, sci-fi odyssey. In 2002 he starred in Steven Soderbergh’s elegiac Solaris, and he famously appeared opposite Sandra Bullock in the Oscar-winning race against time, Gravity.
Now he’s made one of his own: The Midnight Sky. Directed by and starring Clooney, the post-apocalyptic drama centers on Augustine, described as a a lonely scientist in the Arctic who finds himself racing to contact Sully (Rogue One’s Felicity Jones). Sully is leading a team of astronauts on a voyage back from Jupiter to Earth — but suddenly Mission Control goes dead. The problem: the planet has undergone a major global catastrophe, and the return home won’t be so easy. Augustine hopes to let them know before it’s too late.
Co-starring David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, Demián Bichir, Kyle Chandler, and newcomer Caoilinn Springall, who plays Iris, a girl Augustine meets during his arctic mission, The Midnight Sky is adapted from Lily Brooks-Dalton’s Good Morning, Midnight. Clooney’s film premieres just in time to enter the awards conversation, debuting on Netflix on Dec. 23.
