[Thor Joachim Haga]

ALIEN is THE film that does this for me, a film I put on par with 2001. Especially all the vast distances suggested by the mysterious alien spaceship. Sometimes, the distances can only be imagined in our minds; there is only so much the film medium can do. But there’s a whole thread for ALIEN stuff here.

Other films with that ALIEN DNA that sometimes even use other dimensions as a further expansion of space, or are just gorgeous mood pieces, include Danny Boyle’s SUNSHINE, Ivan Engler’s CARGO and Paul W.S. Anderson’s unheralded masterpiece EVENT HORIZON. Or Scott’s own ALIEN prequels, for that matter (PROMETHEUS and ALIEN: COVENANT).

You didn’t put up a separation between arthouse and commercial cinema, and your three suggestions span the gamut. As do the suggestions so far. So all’s fair game, I suppose.

AD ASTRA is a good example, as previously suggested (and now seen by you). It has some of 2001’s DNA in it, and like INTERSTELLAR it’s really a film about a parent and its child (the distances in space become a metaphor for the distance between them), but spices it up with some B-movie like genre elements here and there. If you liked that, be sure also to check out Gray’s brilliant THE LOST CITY OF Z (2016). Nothing to do with space, but similarly existential musings in a jungle environment (at least for a considerable amount of the film).

I love ANIARA. It’s a “minimal” film in that the set design is more like a cruiseship than a spaceship, but it captures the original Harry Martinson poem well, about the dystopian hopelessness of it all. (Btw, the new-ish sitcom AVENUE 5 is sort of another take on this; the collapse of humanity in the face of eternal loss).

Some other commercial films that stress the vastness of space, and the human dilemmas caught in its wake, are Morten Tyldum’s PASSENGERS, Neil Burger’s VOYAGERS, Walter Hill’s SUPERNOVA (somewhat cheesy, though), Sebastián Cordero’s EUROPA REPORT, Anthony Hoffman’s RED PLANET, George Clooney’s THE MIDNIGHT SKY and Wyatt Rockefeller’s SETTLERS.

Sometimes, the focus lies on personal development despite or in face of the vastness, like the aforementioned THE MARTIAN, Brian de Palma’s MISSION TO MARS (although really only the second half), Robert Zemeckis’ CONTACT or – here’s an off-radar gem – William Eubank’s LOVE (2011). Which is more about being stranded than travelling vast distances. Another example is French auteur Claire Denis’ HIGH LIFE, which – like ANIARA – pays little attention to a “spacey” craft (it comes off as an apartment building!), but more about internal ruminations. Although I’m not a big fan of that one myself.

Other recommendations are APPROACHING THE UNKNOWN, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX (although both comedy and schlock in this), STOWAWAY, RUBIKON, SPACEMAN, PROJECT HAIL MARY (I’m torn on the film myself) and ASH.

You will hate some of these, but that’s the name of the game.