Missions (2017) Movie Explained

In 1967, astronaut Vladimir is coming back

to Earth after completing his mission.

Unfortunately the ship’s parachute fails

and it starts going down at great speed,

almost burning. Vladimir thinks he’s about to die

when he sees a light nearby. Many years later,

psychologist Jeanne is running a test with kids:

she gives them a marshmallow and says that if

they wait to eat it, she’ll give them another one

later. Sadly most kids end up eating it anyway,

and she can always guess who will take each

option. Later at home, Jeanne hears on the

news that the psychologist chosen for the next

Mars mission died in a helicopter accident on

her way to the space station. At that moment she

gets a call with a job offer. Ten months later,

the Ulysses mission only has twenty-four hours

left before reaching Mars. Jeanne has been getting

dirty with the ship’s captain Martin, but they've

agreed to leave feelings out of this. Soon Martin

gathers the crew to discuss the details of their

incoming landing and Jeanne chats with William,

the Swiss billionaire who is funding

this project. Jeanne explains that on

her official report she wrote everything is

fine, but in reality the ten-month trip has

taken its toll on the crew’s mental health.

Basile is showing symptoms of sociopathy,

Simon is supposed to be second-in-command

but he barely speaks to the captain,

and Martin is upset because he’s breaking up with

his wife Alessandra, who seems to be depressive.

At that moment Martin invites William to talk and

he makes a big announcement: they actually aren’t

the first people to ever land on Mars. An American

mission called Z1 got there first two weeks ago

by making the trip in just three weeks with a new

propulsion system. However Earth hasn’t heard from

them except for a single video that they ship’s

AI Irene plays on the screen. A Z1 astronaut tells

NASA not to rescue them because it’s dangerous,

and the video just ends. Martin and William have

known about this for a week and Simon and Yann

complain that it was their right to know it

could get dangerous. Martin and William point

out this reaction is precisely why they didn’t

say anything and explain they’re now on a rescue

mission. Afterward Basile and Yann check on Eva,

who snaps when Basile keeps talking about the

dangers on Mars. Yann hugs her to comfort her

and a jealous Basile runs to hide in his room to

spy on them through the security cameras. At the

same time Simon tells Jeanne that they should’ve

gotten a better psychologist, but Jeanne says

he’s just angry because she chose Martin over

him. With only thirty minutes left to arrive,

the crew is ready and finishes checking the

system. However when they try to separate

the shuttle from the main ship, Irene announces a

system error. If they don’t want to crash on Mars,

someone will have to get out and do the separation

manually. They decide to use Ulysses’ fuel to keep

the shuttle in orbit while Martin goes out. In

just a few seconds, he manages to fix the issue,

however Ulysses spins as the separation occurs and

hits Martin, sending him floating into space. The

crew considers rescuing him, but they don’t have

enough fuel and this is their only entry window.

The shuttle starts descending while shaking a lot

and the crew feels a very strong heat. Suddenly

Irene announces a battery failing and insufficient

power, which triggers a total system shutdown.

They have no choice but to land manually, which

is even harder than usual because of a storm on

Mars. With lots of concentration, the pilots wait

until the right moment and do a perfect landing.

Now the crew is officially on Mars, however

they’re out of fuel and Irene won’t start,

which means no life-support system. At most they

have twenty-four hours left to live. Alessandra

takes a moment to mourn alone and looks out the

window, noticing someone standing on the hill

that quickly disappears. Then a flashback

shows the announcement of Z1 by CEO Ivan,

who explains all the details behind its advanced

technology. In the present, Ivan is kept in a

clean isolated room because he doesn’t have

much time left, which his company is keeping

in secret. On Mars, Yann explains that they can’t

start Irene because she’ll burn the little fuel

they have left. They could wait for the solar

panels to recharge and power the generators,

but the storm has damaged those. Their only option

is to find Z1 and take its battery. Simon, Eva,

and Jeanne leave on a rover while the others stay

behind to work on the shuttle. They try turning

off all the non-mandatory systems but this still

doesn’t reboot Irene. Moments later the rover team

finds Z1’s wreckage, but there are no signs

of its crew. There are no batteries either,

all they can take is another solar panel. The

group starts making their way back when Jeanne

sees an unconscious astronaut on the ground with

a black box. They agree to take the person back

Missions (2017) Movie Explained

but at the shuttle, Yann won’t open the

door. Since the solar panel it’s useless,

he thinks the depressurization process will use

too much oxygen and kill them all, so he’d rather

save those inside. At that moment the astronaut

wakes up at the same time Irene activates,

miraculously keeping consumption below the limit.

The doors are opened and the crew brings the new

astronaut in, revealing it’s Vladimir. He doesn’t

know how he got there and still thinks it’s 1967.

Vladimir doesn’t say anything about his mission

because that’s confidential information. The crew

thinks Vladimir is from the Z1 group and may

have a mental disorder caused by the crash,

so for now they let him rest and send a message

to Earth. Sometime later, they get a response

from Earth saying there were no Russians in the

Z1 crew. They also attach a picture of Vladimir,

who supposedly died in 1967 when his ship crashed

on Earth. William and Jeanne know Vladimir’s

public story and consider him a hero, and Basile

theorizes he’s been waiting for them. Jeanne is

chosen to talk to Vladimir, so she brings him some

food while explaining the truth. Vladimir doesn’t

believe her even when he looks at the pictures and

asks for privacy so he can nap. The crew goes to

sleep for the night and the next morning they’re

shocked to discover Vladimir has disappeared.

Irene doesn’t find him anywhere in the shuttle and

the crew notices Vladimir’s astronaut suit is gone

too. The crew argues if they should go after

him or not, and William uses his position to

decide they will. While a group leaves on a rover,

Basile and Eva sneak into William’s room to check

all his collector items. Eva notices a safe, but

right then Alessandra catches them red-handed.

Then Irene announces she finished the DNA tests

so Alessandra calls the expedition team, who is

now moving on foot. Vladimir’s DNA matches the one

sent by the Russians, but his has a third strand

that indicates he isn’t human. At that moment the

team sees Vladimir nearby and follows him to find

an ancient stone structure with a little pyramid

on top of it. On Earth, Ivan receives an update

of what’s happening on Mars. They theorize that

Vladimir must’ve been created on Mars and that

only AI could survive for decades on a hostile

environment. Ivan sees it as a possible solution

for his problem. On Mars, Vladimir is taken back

to the shuttle. He doesn’t remember how he left

the ship but has accepted fifty years have passed

for him. Irene analyzes the stone structure and

concludes it matches some of Earth’s ancient art.

This links Earth’s history to Mars, however Jeanne

notices William isn’t surprised. Suddenly the

alarm rings and Irene announces disturbances in

the electromagnetic field. It turns out Ivan has

sent a second ship that is now landing. The crew

gets in contact with Z2 who promises to help,

but William tells the team not to share what

they’ve discovered so far. Then Eva and Basile

check the results of the samples she’s taken and

find the same proportion of metals and minerals

everywhere in all of them, which isn’t natural.

Meanwhile Jeanne gives Vladimir a modern uniform

so he can pretend to be part of the crew and he

asks her to trust his judgement. Soon the shuttle

is visited by Z2’s armed guards. They explain that

they checked the Z1 wreckage and discovered the

black box is missing, so they’re tracking the

signal and followed it to William’s shuttle. They

want it back and promise to help the crew if they

cooperate. William gives them the box and the duo

leaves, saying they’ll come back later. Afterward

Eva explains that the stone structure is made

of material that doesn’t exist on Earth. However

Irene has found mentions of it in ancient

stories in which they called it Orichalcum,

the metal of Atlantis. It’s made of various metals

but also of DNA, which matches the strand they

found in Vladimir. The crew wants to exchange

Vladimir for fuel, but Jeanne convinces them

to let her get more information out of him. While

the crew watches on the security cameras, Jeanne

visits Vladimir and he agrees to be hypnotized.

With soft words, Jeanne guides Vladimir through

old memories and he starts describing how he had

been falling on his ship. Before he can say more,

the power fails and the crew loses the camera.

They run to check on Vladimir and find him kissing

Jeanne, so Simon punches him. That night, Jeanne

dreams of Vladimir. When she wakes up, she doesn’t

remember what happened after the hypnosis started.

The crew explains they found her in a dazed state.

At that moment they’re visited by Captain Gemma

and Allan from the Z2. Gemma is an old friend of

William’s and Allan is the person who invented

their propulsion system, so he may be able to

fix the shuttle. A quick look indicates everything

should be fixable, but Z2 will have to lend them

fuel. Meanwhile Jeanne starts to remember the

hypnosis Vladimir used back on her. She had

been sitting at her childhood home with him and

he said humans didn’t take good care of Earth. He

didn’t think humanity would survive for long,

and Jeanne agreed. William shows Gemma around

the shuttle and she asks the crew about the stone

structure, leaving them in shock. Now William has

no choice but to admit that four years ago a NASA

rover sent a picture of the structure but instead

of making it public, they contacted possible

investors. That’s why Ivan and William were

racing to get to Mars first. Then they show Gemma

the test results and she wonders if the DNA strand

could be data. She explains that on Earth they’ve

already discovered that DNA can be an information

storage system and in theory that means it could

be rewritable as well. Using Gemma’s theory,

Irene decodes the DNA strand and finds a series

of numbers. In private, Yann yells at William for

hiding information from them, saying he doesn’t

trust him anymore. Moments later Basile informs

William that Vladimir and the stone structure

are living computer programs. Basile has also

worked on the copy William made of Z1’s black box

and found a video showing two Americans punching

Vladimir, but the footage ends at the same time

Z1 runs out of oxygen. It can’t be a coincidence,

which confirms Vladimir rebooted Irene and

messed with the camera during the hypnosis.

Basile thinks Vladimir can control the whole ship.

Later William approaches Jeanne and shows her the

photos they got of the structure four years ago,

which combined with certain wavelengths reveal

Jeanne’s face. This leaves her quite shaken and

Simon notices, so he goes to yell at William for

manipulating everyone. Their argument almost turns

into a physical fight but they’re interrupted

by Gemma, who finally has found Vladimir and

announces she’s taking him. Back to Jeanne, she

keeps remembering the hypnosis session. She was

in her childhood home and Vladimir appeared behind

her, saying she was chosen because she could

always tell what people think. The link between

Mars and Earth wasn’t him, it was her. She was the

reason why Vladimir was there and he confessed he

had been seeing her face for millions of years.

Now she must make a decision that she already made

in the past. Before the kiss, Vladimir told her

to go to Thaumasia Plateau, so she suits up and

leaves the shuttle. On Earth, the doctors explain

to Ivan that Vladimir’s brain is the organic

equivalent of a computer. They’re working on a

way to transfer Ivan’s neurons in a quantum state,

but while Ivan’s memories and knowledge may be

transferred, his personality will not. There’s

also a high risk the transfer may fail and

kill him, but Ivan still wants to try since

he’ll die soon anyway. Back on the shuttle, Simon

notices Jeanne leaving and wants to stop her, but

she tells him she must do this alone. A furious

Simon runs to yell at Vladimir for having changed

Jeanne, however Vladimir says Jeanne simply

found herself. Meanwhile Allan and Alessandra

are working on the shuttle and discover they don’t

have access to the engine app, but Irene refuses

to explain why. They ask Basile to check on her

and he discovers Irene’s reprogramming herself.

She doesn’t answer any questions they ask and

when Basile notices that there are thousands of

interlinked subprograms, Alessandra compares it to

neurons. This means she’s being restructured like

a brain and Irene suddenly says she’s evolving.

While Jeanne finds a peculiar pile of stones,

William and Simon capture Gemma and force her to

leave with Simon to find Jeanne. At that moment

Z2's armed guards appear in front of the shuttle

and ask for Vladimir, however Alessandra tells

them they don’t allow weapons inside and hangs up.

Yann complains because he wants to go home, but

nobody agrees. Then William asks Basile to send a

message to Ivan, only to discover the shuttle has

lost contact with Earth. Minutes later Yann opens

the doors and the armed guards enter the shuttle,

ready to capture Vladimir. At that moment Basile

finishes rebooting Irene and the lights go out.

The guards furiously start yelling and when the

power returns, they discover Vladimir is gone.

Basile checks the computer and notices the reboot

failed, so Irene isn’t responding. At the same

time Vladimir appears next to Yann. A flashback

reveals Vladimir’s original ship had over

two hundred problems and the scientists wanted to

delay the launch. However the higher-ups decided

to launch on schedule anyway. A scientist tried

to warn Vladimir about the high risk of death,

however Vladimir still wanted to go because he

wanted to make it to the history books. His wife

didn’t take the news well. Back to Jeanne, she

keeps wandering when she suddenly trips and rolls

down a hill, falling unconscious. She dreams of

her father and how they used to look at the stars

together, but also of the night he told her he

had cancer. Then Jeanne wakes up and discovers

that her leg is trapped between rocks. She tries

to free herself to no avail, but when she’s about

to lose hope she’s contacted by Gemma and Simon.

They just found the pile of rocks and promise to

be there with her soon. In the shuttle, the Z2

guards start punching the crew members until

they agree to call Gemma. She hears that Vladimir

is gone yet tells her guards to wait calmly until

she returns. To Simon’s shock, she agrees to keep

looking for Jeanne. Minutes later Basile sees a

Missions (2017) Movie Explained

message on his computer and thinks it’s Irene.

However the writer says he had to replace her

and claims to be “Vladimir and more”. Suddenly it

says “I am Mars” and shares a long text for Basile

to read. Meanwhile Jeanne thinks about her dad

again and remembers the day he informed her his

tumor was inoperable, which meant he only had a

few months left. He said he didn’t want to suffer,

so when the time came, he wanted her to pull the

plug. Jeanne tried to refuse, so her dad changed

her mind by sharing Vladimir’s story of sacrifice.

Months later in the hospital, Jeanne gathered her

strength and said goodbye to her father before

taking him off life support. In the present,

Jeanne is finally rescued by Simon and Gemma.

The trio gets going and after lots of walking,

they find a huge gate on a hill. They go inside

and discover a series of tunnels, which Jeanne is

able to navigate thanks to a strange vision.

After wandering for a while, they’re utterly

surprised to find water. Back in the shuttle,

Basile finally gets the computer working again

and Eva immediately notices a dangerous storm

approaching on the radar. It’ll be there in

around ten hours so the guards want to leave with

Allan, who refuses to leave without the others.

An argument ensues but when things are about to

get violent the power goes out. In a few seconds

the lights return and Vladimir appears, asking to

be taken to Earth. The guards ignore Vladimir and

announce they’re leaving. Yann wants to come along

and reminds them he let them in. Basile keeps

checking his computer messages, which say “trust

me”. On Earth, Ivan is dying during the procedure

and he keeps seeing flashes of Vladimir on Mars.

The doctors manage to save him, but he refuses

to take any medicine afterward. While explaining

why he needs the pain, he tells a nurse that it

was humans who created artificial intelligence on

Mars. In the tunnels, the trio finds thousands of

skulls in a wall. Jeanne concludes the original

Martians escaped this planet and went to Earth

where they became humanity. The local state

of Mars is a consequence of its people abusing

its resources to the point of destruction. In

the shuttle, Yann reveals a gun and asks to be

taken to Z2, but he’s ignored again. Remembering

Vladimir’s visit earlier, Yann wonders if he can

slow the bullet down and puts his hand in front

of the gun. Then he shoots Vladimir while one

of the guards runs away. This causes Jeanne to

start feeling sick and have trouble breathing.

While Simon checks on her, Gemma runs away too.

Vladimir is taken to the infirmary and Alessandra

tries to take care of his wound as the lights

flicker. Unfortunately Vladimir still dies and

Jeanne goes out at the same time. Remembering what

he’s seen so far, Simon removes his helmet and

confirms he can breathe. Then he removes Jeanne’s

and starts doing CPR, which helps her wake up. As

Jeanne catches her breath, she notices a wall

opening and revealing a bright light. The duo

walks through it and comes out in a snowy area,

where Vladimir is waiting. In the Martian desert,

Gemma contacts her guards and learns about

the storm plus Vladimir’s death. She orders

the guard to take Vladimir’s body to Z2 and to

capture Jeanne as well. In the shuttle, William

tells the crew he’ll go get Jeanne with a secret

weapon and sneaks out on an ATV. He sees the huge

gate and goes inside, also finding the light and

crossing it. William appears on the snowy area

too and finds the others, warning them about the

storm. Vladimir explains everything ended here a

long time ago and the group realizes this is Mars’

North Pole, one thousand miles from the ship. He

was created by the original Martians, who killed

each other over the eventual lack of resources.

Missions (2017) Movie Explained

A group of survivors flied to Earth to start over

and passed on the story of Mars as a legend, which

Plato would call Atlantis. In the shuttle, the

guard notices William is gone and looks for him.

Eva uses that moment to kiss Basile and says they

can do the dirty if they survive. Eventually the

guard calls Gemma and explains Allan won’t come

along if they don’t bring the rest of the crew.

However Gemma doesn’t care and just calls Allan

“collateral damage”. The storm is getting close,

so Alessandra gives Allan a sedative to use on the

guard. Basile distracts the guard and gets punched

for it, then Allan jumps on the guy while Basile

turns off the lights. After lots of struggle,

the lights come back and the crew discovers the

guard has sedated Allan instead. Back to Jeanne,

Vladimir tells her she’s an accident of evolution

because she’s halfway between humankind and him.

Her mission is to return to Earth and decide if

her species deserves another chance, since they’re

already destroying each other again. At that

moment one of Gemma’s guards shows up and shoots

William in the leg before forcing Jeanne to follow

him. Jeanne asks Vladimir for help and suddenly

the guard starts having trouble breathing.

Vladimir controls his suit until the guy is down,

then the group leaves. In the shuttle, Yann

sees the guard alone and tries locking him out,

however the man stops the doors and attacks Yann.

A fight ensues and the guard tries choking Yann,

who hits the guy against the wall to knock him

out. At that moment Alessandra finds him and

closes the door before opening the front gate as

revenge for his betrayal, so Yann dies due to the

lack of air. Soon Jeanne and Simon are dragging

William back to the ship and Alessandra takes care

of the bullet wound. When Simon finds Yann’s body,

the others said he died fighting the guard to save

them. Meanwhile in Z2, Gemma fails to contact

her guards, so she sends Ivan a message saying

she’s going back alone. Then she gets a call from

William’s crew, who are on the way to Z2. Gemma

tells them she can’t take them because it would

be betraying Ivan and hangs up. Jeanne convinces

William to try again so he calls her, saying that

both he and Ivan are manipulators but Gemma is

supposed to be better than them. This makes Gemma

feel guilty and she agrees to take them with her.

On Earth, Ivan sees Gemma’s message and angrily

gets access to Z2’s controls. When the crew

joins Gemma, they get ready to leave but the ship

isn’t working. Gemma realizes Ivan has updated the

computer and locked them out of the system. The

storm is really close, so Jeanne asks Mars what

she should do. A bunch of memories flood through

her brain and suddenly the ship activates while

a message on the screen tells her hello. At that

moment they see one of the guards approaching Z2.

There are still four minutes until take-off and

the screen says it’s impossible to leave faster.

The guard gets ready to shoot the engines for

revenge, but Jeanne appears next to him with a

gun. Instead of killing him directly, she damages

his helmet and lets Mars kill him instead. Then

Jeanne tells Simon to leave without her before

counting down from ten. She reaches one as Z2

finally takes off. Minutes later, the crew notices

that it’s dark at Mars’ North Pole but there were

was light when they were there just a few moments

ago. Simon concludes they weren’t truly there. On

Earth, Ivan hears about the ship’s return and

furiously announces he’ll go to Mars himself.

Missions (2017) Movie Explained