The Astronaut’s Wife
About the Film
Space-shuttle commander Spencer Armacost and a fellow astronaut lose radio contact with mission control for two terrifying minutes during a spacewalk. They return home as heroes, seemingly unharmed, and Spencer and his devoted wife Jillian look forward to a bright new chapter as he takes a corporate job in New York. But Jillian slowly senses that the man who came back from orbit is subtly, disturbingly not the husband she knew.
As the other astronaut dies and his widow follows, Jillian — now pregnant with twins — begins to suspect that something inhuman crossed back with Spencer during those lost minutes, and that it has designs on her unborn children. The psychological thriller tightens into a paranoid nightmare as she races to uncover the truth about what really inhabits her husband.
Plot synopsis by johnny-depp.org.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp plays Commander Spencer Armacost against type — a clean-cut, all-American astronaut hero whose easy charm curdles into something cold and unknowable after his mission. Depp uses that surface charisma to unsettling effect, letting a subtle menace seep through Spencer’s smile so the audience, like Jillian, is never quite sure how much of the man remains.
Cast & Crew
Cast
Cmdr. Spencer ArmacostJohnny Depp
Jillian ArmacostCharlize Theron
Sherman ReeseJoe Morton
NanClea DuVall
Capt. Alex StreckNick Cassavetes
Natalie StreckDonna Murphy
Crew
Director / WriterRand Ravich
MusicGeorge S. Clinton
CinematographyAllen Daviau
ProducerAndrew Lazar
StudioNew Line Cinema
Filming Locations
- New York City
- Los Angeles, California
- Kennedy Space Center, Florida (establishing shots)
More about this film
Trivia
- The film was the feature directorial debut of writer-director Rand Ravich.
- The Armacosts’ twin sons are played by child actors Dylan and Cole Sprouse.
- Critics frequently compared the film’s paranoid pregnancy premise to Rosemary’s Baby.
- Cinematographer Allen Daviau, an Oscar-nominated Spielberg collaborator, shot the film’s cold, glossy look.
DVD Easter Eggs
- Hidden trailers: in Cast & Crew, open Johnny Depp’s filmography to play concealed trailers for Don Juan DeMarco and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
- A hidden trailer for Charlize Theron’s Trial and Error (1997) is tucked into her filmography under Cast & Crew.
