The Calculator

A thousand years after mankind began to colonize the stars, this movie takes a look at the planet XT 59. There is only one big city on this planet, surrounded by a wasteland which is full of hostile creatures (most of them rather plants than animals). Ten prisoners are sent into the wasteland and that equals almost a death penalty. They can either make it to an island beyond the wasteland, or they will perish. Ervin (Evgeniy Mironov) and Kristi (Anna Chipovskaya) attempt to cross the wasteland on their own, while the others stay together under the leadership of the brutal criminal Yust (Vinnie Jones), believing he is the only one who can take them across the 'swamp' (actually a stony desert in Iceland) alive...

The Russian original title 'Vychislitel' ('calculator') refers to the special skills of Ervin. He is a rather emotionless guy who calculates his chances to survive very carefully. Thus we get a duel between the thinking man and the violent one, quite the opposite of 'Riddick' where simply only the strong survive. In a good tradition of Russian SF this movie is character driven, and the dialogs between Ervin and Kristi during their voyage are well written. I was less convinced with the off monologues, too wordy, explaining more than necessary, while more important questions remain open, for example the motivation of the government and the reasons for the system. All in all, 'Titanium' aka 'Vychislitel' is an interesting movie, worth watching, but not top of the crop in independent SF.