dir. John Carpenter, US, 1974, Blu-ray, 84 mins, color

John Carpenter’s student film, made with writer Dan O’Bannon (who would later find fame with Alien, Lifeforce and Total Recall), follows a shabby crew whose mission is to destroy “unstable planets” which might disturb the future colonization of outer space. Twenty years into their mission, the crew has become listless and lazy, ultimately creating room for a simple mistake that could threaten their survival. Can the astronauts be saved by the most unlikely of weapons: phenomenology?