Netflix's Spaceman with Adam Sandler Has a Controversial Secret Message

Summary:

• Adam Sandler 's Spaceman is available on Netflix starting March 1
• Sandler portrays a Czech astronaut on a challenging mission who encounters and alien spider in his spacecraft
• According to director Johan Renck, a particular message of the movie can be considered a jab at capitalism

Is there possibly a better way to start your spring than watching a space movie with Adam Sandler who, being isolated in his space mission, encounters a giant talking alien spider?

In Johan Renck's new space flick (which is already available on Netflix), Sandler takes us all on a mission to not only explore the edge of the Solar System but to battle arachnophobia as well.

Seriously, what starts off as a murder attempt by Sandler's character evolves into a friendship (mind you, the spider might as well be a hallucination). The movie is still pretty challenging to watch if you love spiders as much as Ron Weasley in Harry Potter did, but hey, it's not exclusively about discussing your marriage with alien creatures and watching Sandler floating in space.

Turns out, it also has a hidden message; or maybe not so hidden, since the movie's director kind of confirmed it already.

See, Sandler's Jakub Procházka doesn't immediately bond with the alien spider on his spacecraft — at first, he tries to poison it with gas. You know, it's like when you first saw your bestie-to-be, you hated them?

The funny thing is that Jakub has to say the tagline for the anti-germ spray before mission control can actually release it. It goes like this:

“Bomba is 99.999 percent effective in killing any and all microbial elements,” Jakub states without a hint of reservation. “Even in space, don’t let germs ruin your day. Bomba, away!”

Oh to be forced to advertise a product that can save your life before it can, you know, start saving your life finally! For a lot of viewers and critics, this and other episodes in the movie looked pretty much like anti-capitalism satire.

True that: Sandler's character only managed to achieve his dream thanks to basically selling out to various companies, so uttering taglines is the least of his problems.

"We're supposed to grow profits when it's something that we have invented. It's a capitalist construct, and whether I'm critical of it or not, I'm living it. I'm part of it," Renck told Inverse. "But I still like the idea of shining a light on it because the price of being part of the spectacle and chasing success is always going to be at the cost of your relationship with people who are actually meaningful to you."

But what some may see as capitalism critique, Adam Sandler perceives to be a commentary on having to be a celebrity — even if you don't necessarily want to.

"I think it's just about celebrity and the fact that this guy becomes a celebrity and it's important to the mission to make money off the mission to help fund this stuff," the actor said, adding that being famous is "a big part" of what his character has become.

If you want to form your own opinion about the layers of Spaceman and its messages, feel free to watch Sandler's new space flick on Netflix starting March 1.

Source: Inverse