The Astronaut's Wife Information

The Astronaut's Wife is a 1999 American science fiction/thriller film directed and written by Rand Ravich. It stars Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron.

Plot

While on a space-walking mission Spencer Armacost (Johnny Depp), a NASA astronaut, and fellow astronaut Alex Streck, experience an explosion from a satellite which results in a communication loss for two minutes between the astronauts and Earth.

After returning to their respective spouses, the two astronauts never speak about their ordeal and Streck grows increasingly hostile and bleeds to death during a party. His death is ruled as "a severe insult to the brain", or a stroke, by NASA. While still in mourning for her lost husband, Streck's wife experiences euphoric delusions telling Spencer's wife Jillian (Charlize Theron) that her husband had been listening to "them" on the radio, but was now "inside" her. She then commits suicide by holding a radio while sitting in a running shower.

Spencer retires from NASA and takes an executive position in New York City for a company called McClaren. Jillian questions him about what happened during the time they lost contact. He answers with a vivid description, but displays a suspicious change in personality as he tells the story and becomes very agressive during sex. Jiilian soon becomes pregnant with twins.

During dinner, Spencer and a coworker describe a new aircraft their company is developing that can turn off all other machines, rendering modern warefare obsolete.

A former NASA employee, Sherman Reese (Joe Morton), tells Jillian that Spencer's medical data (including his signature) is not the same as before the accident, that Streck's wife had been pregnant, and that Spencer is not her husband. Jillian doesn't believe Reese (noting that he had been fired for what appeared to be psychotic behavior), but finds she cannot get herself to let go of Reese's statements.

Jillian calls Reece and learns that Streck's wife had also been pregnant with twins. Jillian makes arrangements to meet Reese to learn more, but Reece runs into and is lead away by Spencer. Jillian is unable to get in touch with Reece again but is left a note from Reece leading her to a VHS video tape of Reece showing evidence of an alien audio signal that he postulates was used by aliens to beam themselves into the bodies of the unsuspecting Spencer and Streck and that the twin babies she's carrying are likely intended to be "Twin-Computers" meant to fly McClaren's new aircraft.

Jillian dreams that Spencer had been possessed by an extraterrestrial and acquires medication that will cause her twins to be aborted. The twins, however, will not let her take the pills and summom Spencer who assaults her in order to protect the twins, causing her to fall down the stairs. Jillian awakens in the hospital and is greeted by Spencer who tells her nothing is going to happen to the twins.

In a dream, Jillian sees her sister killed by Spencer because she caught Spencer with Reece's briefcase. Jillian leaves the hospital and attempts to evade Spencer to no avail. Back at home, Jillian finds her dead sister and floods the floor with water while holding a radio as Streck's wife had done. Spencer arrives and admits that "he" (the alien) killed Spencer. Using telepathy, Spencer begins to move Jillian (who is sitting on a stool) out of the water, but is electrocuted by Jillian as she raises her feet out of the water. Spencer's true alien form, a tentacled energy being, leaves Spencer's body and transmits itself into Jillian, then stops the electrocution.

Years later, Jillian has re-married and sends her twin sons off on their first day of school. Before they get on the bus, they offer a stern look at their mother while she embraces their new step-father, a "non alien." They then smile as Jillian assures the new step-father that he is their father now.

Cast

• Johnny Depp as Commander Spencer Armacost
• Charlize Theron as Jillian Armacost
• Joe Morton as Sherman Reese, NASA Representative
• Clea DuVall as Nan
• Donna Murphy as Natalie Streck
• Nick Cassavetes as Capt. Alex Streck
• Samantha Eggar as Dr. Patraba
• Gary Grubbs as NASA Director
• Blair Brown as Shelly McLaren
• Tom Noonan as Jackson McLaren
• Tom O'Brien as Allen Dodge
• Lucy Lin as Shelly Carter
• Michael Crider as Pat Elliott
• Cole and Dylan Sprouse as Jillian's twin sons
• Edward Kerr as Pilot

Box office

The movie performed poorly at the box office. In its opening weekend the movie grossed $4,027,003 and domestically the movie grossed $10,672,566. The film made $8,926,022 in foreign markets bringing its total box office gross to $19,598,588.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregator, gives the film a score of 16% based on 58 reviews, with an average rating of 4.3

Awards

The Astronaut's Wife was nominated for Best Film at the Catalonian International Film Festival in Sitges in 1999.