Infini 2015 Australian science fiction film

Infini is a 2015 Australian science fiction film directed by Shane Abbess, and starring Daniel MacPherson, Grace Huang, and Luke Hemsworth.

In the early 23rd century, the Earth's highest paying jobs are on deep space mining colonies. On mining station O.I. Infini, an emergency is declared, and a search and rescue (SAR) team is sent in using a form of teleportation that allows instantaneous travel but causes severe time dilation. A team sent returns 30 seconds later in a berserk rage. Whit Carmichael, a new member of West Coast SAR, on his first day, teleports to Infini using a hacked teleporter after West Coast HQ activates a lethal lockdown to contain the crisis.

Less than a relative hour later, East Coast SAR is informed about the outbreak, and West Coast's destruction. They are given a primary task of disabling a weaponized payload and a secondary mission of recovering the one surviving member of the West Coast SAR, Whit Carmichael. Arriving, they find a slaughterhouse, eventually reuniting with Whit after he questions the team captain through an ASCII terminal. Whit explains that the mining staff slaughtered each other, tearing off their skin and killing one another. After a survivor attacks and exposes the rescue team, Whit searches the station for anything relating to the disease. Finding a lab, he discovers a log of the original research station, that documented the planet is actually entirely organic, and when thawed forms a primordial ooze, infecting and eventually mimicking and dominating any biological tissue. He further discovers that the ooze is aggressive and predatory in nature, driven by self-preservation.

Whit attempts to solicit help from the team, but they are suffering through stages of the infection and either attack Whit and each other or kill themselves. This leaves Whit the last surviving human on the station. He records a looped message to the ooze, believing it is alive and self-aware, criticizing it for focusing exclusively on humanity's violent base instincts, instead of working together, and telling it that it failed. He then commits suicide with a scalpel. The ooze hears his message and begins healing the wounds of the team. They awaken, with some question as to exactly how much each member remembers of the events. The captain states that they will extract in five minutes, and as they begin the teleportation process, Whit sees several humanoid forms that appear to be made of the ooze silently watching them go, one of them holding the picture of Whit's wife he carried with him, suggesting they may have evolved a sense of empathy.

Returned to Earth, the team is screened for biological contaminants before being released.

CastDaniel MacPherson as Whit Carmichael
Grace Huang as Claire Grenich
Luke Hemsworth as Charlie Kent
Bren Foster as Morgan Jacklar
Luke Ford as Chester Huntington
Dwaine Stevenson as Rex Mannings
Louisa Mignone as Philipa Boxen
Tess Haubrich as Lisa Carmichael
Harry Pavlidis as Harris Menzies
Kevin Copeland as Seet Johanson
Andy Rodoreda as Sefton Norick
Richard Huggett as Montoli
Paul Winchester as David Ponter
Brendan Clearkin as Depot Sergeant Hackford
Matt Minto as The Chief
Belinda Gosbee as Science Officer Hepburn

ProductionShooting began in Sydney in October 2013.

ReleaseInfini had its international premiere on 11 April 2015 at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. It was released simultaneously in the US and Australia. The film was not released theatrically in Australia, due to fears of piracy.

ReceptionRotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 36% of fourteen surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.9/10. Dov Kornits of Filmink wrote, "Infini is leading the charge in genre filmmaking in this country, proving that we have the chops to compete on the world stage." Commenting on the film's similarity to Aliens, David Stratton of The Australian wrote, "Resourcefulness is all very well, but a fresh approach to the familiar cliches would also be appreciated." Harry Windsor of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a genre retread in search of a plot". Andrew Marshall of Starburst rated it 6/10 stars and wrote that the film "lacks the follow through to capitalise on its ideas or required sense of humanity to make you actually care". Simon Abrams of The Village Voice wrote, "Infini doesn't go anywhere that superior science fiction films haven't already, but for a while, it's exciting enough to feel brand-new." Christopher Webster of Quiet Earth wrote that it "feels like an R-rated Twilight Zone episode more than a feature film".