Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
image © Dune Drifter Film
Article updated: 2022.08.31
The Dune Drifter (2020) is a futuristic action / survival thriller film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
Original title: Dune Drifter
Series: -
Setting: future fantasy Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: futuristic action / survival thriller, Style: sci-fi, futuristic, thriller, survival thriller, aliens, action
Release: Premiere: 2020.10.24 (FrightFest), Release: 2020.12.01
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2022.02), first time
Rating: Bad (1 out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Weak (2- out of 3 points)
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This is my review of Dune Drifter, a futuristic action / survival thriller movie from 2020. It's about a space fighter crash landing on an alien planet, without hope for outside help. The Dune Drifter film is boring, I only recommend it to the most dedicated fans of the genre.
If you'd like to be surprised by the Dune Drifter film, I don't recommend you to watch the trailer beyond 1:08, because it gives away some twists of the plot. It basically provides a summary of the film, up to the ending scene, it's only the very end we are not shown.
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Review (spoiler-free) - Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
After I've seen the latest Dune adaptation, Dune: Part One (2021), I thought I'd try to hunt down the other movies this film inspired. After watching Dune World (2021), I found this one next. I didn't watch the trailer.
The Dune Drifter movie is about a space fighter crash landing on an alien planet, without hope for outside help.
The concept of the story might be good, but the actual execution of it is boring. The pacing is not consistent, there are action scenes, then long stretches of nothing happening. There's something you might consider a character arc. There were some minor logical problems.
The cinematography is watchable, even though the whole movie looks a little bit dull.
The space fighter cockpits, the flights suits look good. The special effects are okay, although instead of fight scenes, we mostly see computer displays, indicating that fighting is happening. Due to the many close-up shots, I assume this was made for a small screen.
We don't get to know any of the characters, even the main protagonist. The actors are good.
The music (by Adam Langston) is surprisingly good.
I feel that Dune Drifter is a wasted opportunity. The space action looks okay, the sets look good, I liked the retro-futuristic approach of the technology, the actors are fine, but the movie lacked a good plot to make all of these work.
Dune Drifter is a boring futuristic action / survival thriller, that I think even the most dedicated fans wouldn't enjoy.
My experience
I was satisfied with Dune Drifter (2020). I prefer more intense action movies, or a plot with twists, and Dune Drifter couldn't deliver that.
Rating: Bad (1 out of 3 points). Dune Drifter is a weak film, with a weak plot.
Enjoyment: Weak (2- out of 3 points). Dune Drifter has some interesting parts, but overall, I didn't like it.
Rewatchability: Low. I don't think anyone would like to watch this more than once.
Chance of watching it again: No.
Chance of watching a sequel: I'd probably watch it, hoping that it will be better.
Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
image © Dune Drifter Film
Will you enjoy this?
If you like retro-futuristic movies (Buck Rogers, Star Wars), you might like Dune Drifter.
If you like futuristic military action movies (Starship Troopers, Star Wars), you might like the film, although there are not many action scenes in the Dune Drifter movie.
If you can get through the first half hour of the movie still interested, from then on it gets even slower, so you have to get ready for that.
If you don't mind illogical elements in your movies, you can enjoy this.
If you prefer visuals over story, Dune Drifter is not for you.
Watching for plot points
If you are interested in space military stories, it might be worth watching the Dune Drifter movie for the plot points, but reading the plot summary is probably enough.
Should you watch this on your own screen at home, or is it worth going to the cinema?
The visuals probably look the same, wherever you watch it. Due to the many close-up shots, I think it will look better on a smaller screen.
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Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
image © Dune Drifter Film
Review with spoilers - Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
I didn't like the Dune Drifter movie. It starts really slowly, but at 1 hour, I was getting bored. Later, it starts to pick up the pace, but by that time I lost my interest.
The choice of actor (Phoebe Sparrow) for the protagonist was not perfect. She is okay as an actor, but she was not convincing as a soldier. She looks good enough, and that's an important aspect to consider, as we watch her face in a close-up during 80% of the movie.
Cover
The cover of the movie is okay, it doesn't say much, but it doesn't spoil the movie.
The trailer
The trailer is okay, although it spoils some minor parts of the movie.
If you prefer spoilers, it's a great trailer for the Dune Drifter film. If you prefer to avoid spoilers, it will make the movie less fun for you.
Promise of the first scene
We get dropped into the middle of a space battle with no explanations. We see one damaged spaceship hurtling towards a planet, when suddenly the title drops. I assume that the movie will be just as badly edited as the beginning. Also, the story will be probably about the crew of the spaceship that falls on the planet. Knowing the title, it's probably going to be a desolate, dry planet, with vast deserts.
Execution: Well, we got the spaceship on the desert planet... But I'm still not satisfied.
Plot summary / Synopsis
We see a space battle between some space fighters and some larger ships.
23 minutes ago: The space fighters (Gemini group) are sent to a planet (Arabus) to guard the airspace, as they expect to win the battle by the time the fighters arrive. They have 80 hours of life support.
When they get out of hyperspace, the battle is still going on. They fly by a body of their dead enemy. It's huge, but it still looks like a human. The command tells them that the enemy has a new kind of shield that's more effective against their plasma weapons. They recommend to use ballistic weapons, but the space fighters are not equipped with those.
They attack the enemy cruisers, and they even destroy one of them, but all of the fighters are shot down. (And we reach the point we have seen at the beginning.)
One of the fighters crash lands in a desert on the nearby planet. The female gunner (Phoebe Sparrow as Adler, "Gray Six") survives, but the female pilot (Daisy Aitkens as Hazel Yaren) is injured. The gunner opens a tent with breathable atmosphere, and brings the injured pilot inside.
An enemy fighter also crash lands, 28 kms from their position. The gunner fixes their ship, but there are still parts missing, so she decides to take those from the enemy fighter. The pilot dies. An animal breaches their tent, so the gunner gets into their fighter and shoots it dead. She gets a message from the command about withdrawing from the planet, as the battle is lost.
As gunner tries to find the crashed alien ship, she runs into alien soldiers. She kills one of them, the other gets away. She finds the parts she needs to repair the ship. The surviving alien tries to stop her, and they start to fight. She escapes, but the alien takes the stolen parts. After that, she makes a trap, and kills the alien.
The gunner fixes the ship and leaves the planet.
The setting
The story is set in the future of Earth, in a futuristic fantasy setting, with aliens and faster than light travel.
The enemies, the Drekks, have destroyed several large cities of the Earth. I suppose they are aliens, although this is not clarified in the movie. It's suspicious though that they use the same technology as the people of Earth, so they might just be another faction of humans.
The humans used plasma weapons against them up to this point, but now the Drekks have developed a new kind of shield, making the plasma weapons less effective against them.
The atmosphere of the planet Arabus is corrosive to human skin.
Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
image © Dune Drifter Film
The message of the story
I'm not sure there's one.
The structure of the story
The scenes of the Dune Drifter film are mostly played in sequence, following the same storyline. The movie starts with action, then it switches back in time, and from then on, it's played sequentially.
There is no single viewpoint character, however during 90% of the movie, we are in the viewpoint of Adler, the female gunner.
It has a truncated arc of the dramatic structure - no introductions, starts with action, and it ends with a very quick resolution.
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Things I liked
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
From the works of the writer / director (Marc Price), I've only seen Colin (2008), and that was terrible, barely a movie. This was much better, a huge step towards making a proper movie.
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Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
image © Dune Drifter Film
Analysis of the story - Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
I didn't like the story, it was so slow, it prevented me from enjoying Dune Drifter. There were also some minor faults of logic, but they didn't cause much problem for me.
Problematic elements
The title: There are no dunes in the movie. There's an arid rock desert, without any kinds of dunes. There are also no drifters in the movie.
Not establishing the setting: The movie starts in the middle of a fight, and we don't even get to know who are the fighting forces, why are they fighting, are they both humans?
Not introducing the characters: As we jump right into the action, we don't even know who these characters are. It's very hard to care for their fates this way.
The crews checking in: That could be okay, if it would happen in the background, while something interesting is happening. As it stands now, it just pads the running time.
The first casualty: They take a really long time to show the screaming of the injured woman.
Sudden peace: After the first space fighter gets shot down, suddenly there's no more shooting in the next minute, so we can concentrate on the damaged fighter.
Lazy gunner: When the ship crashes, and Hazel's suit gets damaged, the gunner just opens the cockpit, despite the warnings of the computer that the atmosphere is not sufficient. After that, she doesn't start to repair the suit, she just runs away, and lets Hazel try to seal the damage. Even if she wanted to establish the life raft, she could have closed the cockpit, to protect the other.
Startup code: The 1234 might looked funny to the creators, but I don't think it actually is.
Holographic tent: If the tent was basically a force field, simulating a tent, how did the creature breach it?
Same technology: It's a lucky thing that both sides use interchangeable parts in their spaceships.
Unobservant alien: There's a scene when the alien should be able to clearly see the human on the hill. Yet, it doesn't, allowing the girl to kill it.
Inconsistency in the alien weapon's power: When the alien shoots at the girl, and it shots the weapon in her hand, it just dents the weapon. When the girl shoots at the alien cruiser, a single shot blows the whole thing up.
The size of the aliens: In the beginning of the movie, when the pilots see the aliens for the first time, they marvel at how huge the aliens are. It's hard to compare the size of the body floating in space, so I just took their words for it. However, later in the movie, we see that they are exactly as large as a regular human.
The replacement part: At the end, why did the alien bring the replacement part to the human ship? It would have been more logical to leave that at its own base. I was relieved though, because I was afraid that we'll have to watch the girl march through the desert again to find the part, and get back to her own ship, so I was thankful for that.
No guards left: Why does the enemy just let a human ship fly away? After they've conquered the area, they should be guarding it.
Unanswered questions
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Possibilities of improvement
- V1: Cut the parts between the title drop and the crash landing. It looks good, but it's not part of the plot, and doesn't add to the story.
- V2: Cut the part after the crash landing, focus on the attack itself, and make it a short movie. Add some narration after that part, about they've destroyed an important cruiser, belonging to an enemy leader, and while they all perished, this helped the humans win the fight.
- V3: Show the coming of the fighters, until they destroy the cruiser, and all of them get shot down. Follow the crashed fighter, but only show a few scenes with it, until she finds the alien ship, and steals the parts. Then spend a few minutes with the fighting, and she is able to take off. When she gets up in space, it turns out they have won the fight due to their sacrifice, as the cruiser they've shot down was an important one. So while they all perished, this helped the humans win the fight.
How it could have been better?
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Behind the scenes
Thoughts about the reviews of others
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Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
image © Dune Drifter Film
Uses for the film - Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
Plot
- Two forces are fighting over a territory.
- When a force attacks an enemy force, it turns out that the enemy has protection against their weapons, making the battle one-sided.
- A soldier is trapped in a place, and to get supplies, the soldier has to steal it from the enemy.
Scenes
- The space battle can be used to depict a retro-futuristic space battle.
Designs
- The space suits look good.
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
Stealing supplies: One side needs supplies from the other side, so they decide to steal it. The defender sets up the playing area, including a base in the middle. There's an objective (a shed, a vehicle, a tent, a bunker) that holds the required supplies. The defender sets up the defending units. They can start the game hidden. Then the attacker deploys the attacking models on the edge of the playing area. The attacker models can take the supplies if they reach the objective. Then the model has to carry it, and reach the edge of the playing area to escape with it. The attacker wins if one of their models leaves the playing area with the supplies, while more than half of their units is still alive. The defender wins if they kill more than half of the attackers.
Uncertain target (harder for the attackers): The defender sets up multiple objectives, but only one is real. When the attacking model touches the objective, it is revealed. If they find the real one, they can take the supplies.
Uncertain supply (harder for the players): The defender sets up multiple objectives. Every time an attacker model touches the objective, it is removed from the game, and the attacker rolls a dice. On a roll of 1, it's the supply they need. If it's the last objective on the playing area, you don't need to roll, it's the required supply.
Experimental defences: After a regular game is set up, the side with the experimental defences chooses a weapon type, and all of their units receive +1 defence against that kind of damage. They got special training, or better armour, or force fields that protect them. The effect is only revealed to the other side, once they try to damage these protected units with that kind of weapon. The less effective side is allowed to withdraw from the playing area. The withdrawn survivors can rearm themselves - they put all of their weapons in a pool, count the point cost for them, and choose weapons that cost the same point. They can then enter the playing area again.
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
Pilots: Human-sized futuristic humans in protective suits.
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Similar stories - Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
Novels
Barry B. Longyear: Enemy Mine (1979 / 1998): After a battle, two enemy fighters crash land on an alien planet. They have to defeat each other, or learn to work together to survive.
Movies
Dune World (2021): A spaceship crash lands on a desert planet. They need supplies to repair the ship. They have to defeat the enemy, dressed in black, wearing a mask, to get that.
Enemy Mine (1985): After a battle, two enemy fighters crash land on an alien planet. They have to defeat each other, or learn to work together to survive. Based on the Enemy Mine novel. Enemy Mine is a much better movie than Dune Drifter.
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Frequently asked questions - Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
Is the Dune Drifter film based on a book or comics?
No, Dune Drifter is not based on either books or comics.
Is the Dune Drifter film a remake or reboot?
No, the Dune Drifter film is neither a remake nor a reboot.
Is there a post credit scene in Dune Drifter? Does Dune Drifter have end credit scenes?
No, there's no post credit scene in Dune Drifter.
Is Dune Drifter related to Dune?
No, Dune Drifter is not related to Dune.
Where can I see Dune Drifter? What is Dune Drifter playing on? What streaming service is Dune Drifter on? Where can I watch Dune Drifter online? Is Dune Drifter available on Netflix? Is Dune Drifter on Amazon?
As of 2022.02.02, Dune Drifter is available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Hoopla, Microsoft Movies, Vudu, YouTube.
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Resources - Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
Information
IMDB: Dune Drifter (2020): Database article.
Letterboxd: Dune Drifter 2020: Database article.
Rotten Tomatoes: Dune Drifter 2020: Database article.
Creation
: Concept art article.¤
https://vimeo.com/449999960
Reviews with no spoilers - Dune Drifter film (2020)
: Review video about the Dune Drifter film with no spoilers.¤
https://readysteadycut.com/2020/10/24/dune-drifter-review/
minor spoilers:
https://johnnyalucard.com/2020/10/24/frightfest-review-dune-drifter/
Reviews with spoilers - Dune Drifter film (2020)
: Review article of the Dune Drifter movie, with spoilers. Includes a very detailed plot summary.¤
Analysis - Dune Drifter movie (2020)
: Analysis video, explaining the finale of Dune Drifter.¤
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Buying the product - Dune Drifter, movie (2020)
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Have you seen the Dune Drifter film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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