½ The Stowaway
(12:13)This 2014 short film was presented by Dust in 2018; re-released in 2023.
This is based on "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin, which I haven't read. Brendan Fehr (whom I know from Roswell) plays a spaceship pilot named Barton, who is delivering much-needed medicine to a distant planet. Before he gets there, sensors detect a stowaway, who turns out to be a teenage girl named Marilyn, who wants to go see her brother Gerry, on the planet Barton is headed for. What she didn't realize is there is a strict protocol to jettison any stowaways into space, as their added weight would make a safe deceleration to the planet's surface impossible. So, either Marilyn dies in space, or she and Barton and all the people who need the medicine die, anyway. The whole situation is tragic, and there's no chance of a happy ending. But that just makes the story more moving, and the film is well-made.