What Adam Sandler's Spaceman Teaches us About Life on Earth

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic and the world shut down into social isolation indefinitely. We did not know it at the time but many of us would be trapped alone for months on end with nothing but our thoughts, the internet and maybe some pets to keep us pre-occupied.

In March 2024, a very similar plot will unfold as the movie Spaceman starring Adam Sandler is released on Netflix. Spaceman is a sci-fi drama directed by Johan Renck and based on the 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Czech author Jaroslav Kalfař. The story takes place in the future when space travel is common and follows the life of Jakub (Adam Sandler). He is an astronaut six months into a solitary reasearch mission to collect starcloud-dust from the edge of the universe. On the way to the edge, he realizes that the marriage he left behind has been falling apart and might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. He feels lonely and he turns to the only voice that can help him. That voice belongs to a giant space spider that has been lurking in the shadows of his ship since the beginning of time. The spider is Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano.) Hanuš helps Jakub make sense of what went wrong in his marriage back home before it is too late to fix things.

On the one hand, it is super cool to imagine the concept of discovering a new alien friend on a spaceship playing as therapist to help fix life's problems. But on a much deeper note, this Spaceman movie is sending a message about what isolation does to humans after extended periods of time. It could be argued that Jakub is hallucinating Hanuš the spider to help cope with the lack of human contact or emotional support up in his isolated spaceship. Hanuš could be viewed as symbolizing the mental coping mechanisms that humans use when faced with excessive isolation. After many of us went through months and years of social idolation during quarantine, characters like Hanuš make us wonder about the signs and symptoms of isolation.

Isolation can have a significant impact on mental health, contributing to conditions such as depression, anxiety, and dementia according to Healthline.com. Some signs and symptoms that suggest that isolation is affecting a person’s mental health may include:

• Feelings of depression and anxiety
• Aggressive behavior
• Poor sleep quality
• Cognitive decline
• Altered memory
• Poor self-care or self-neglect

It’s important to note that these symptoms may not be exclusive to isolation and may be indicative of other underlying conditions. If you or someone you know is experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s advisable to seek professional help.

Isolation can have profound effects on the human body and mind. According to a BBC article, chronically lonely people have higher blood pressure, are more vulnerable to infection, and are also more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Loneliness also interferes with a whole range of everyday functioning, such as sleep patterns, attention and logical and verbal reasoning. A ScienceAlert article explains how extreme isolation can have negative effects on our minds and bodies. For example, solitary confinement can have negative psychological effects on prisoners – including significant increases in anxiety and panic attacks, increased levels of paranoia, and being less able to think clearly. Many prisoners also report long-term mental health problems after being held in isolation. Being homebound for so long can also weaken the heart and lungs and even impair brain function, according to a CNN article. The effects of life in isolation may stay with us beyond the pandemic’s end (whenever that may be).

But humans are strong and if we believe in ourselves we can overcome challenges just like Jakub is able to overcome adverse conditions in outer space. Even after being faced with severe alien attacks, fatal astro-cloud weather conditions and political critics back on Earth, Jakub is able to persevere because of his mental resilience. He uses the idea of the life he loves back home to motivate him to continue on the journey and we humans can accomplish great things if we too practice this perseverance in our every day lives.