Director – Eric Zaragoza, Screenplay – Jorge Saralegui, Story – Rick Benattar, Jorge Saralegui & Nigel Thomas, Producers – Elias Axume, Rick Benattar, Milos Djukelic & Nigel Thomas, Photography – Vladimir Ilic, Music – Alexander Bornstein, Visual Effects – Dreamdust VFX, Special Effects Supervisor – Muhamed M’Barek Toske, Makeup Effects – Miroslav Lakobrija, Production Design – Nikola Bercek. Production Company – Benattar-Thomas Productions/Sharp House.
Cast
Scott Adkins (Reiser), Michelle Lehane (Dr Stone), Aaron McCusker (Bridges), Lukas Loughran (Kingsley), Vahidin Prelic (Argun), Aala Safi (Idris), James McCallum (Alex), Dominic Power (Hemmings), Milan Kovacevic (Kunta), Arkie Reece (Doku), Vladimir Aleksic (Eibek), Milan Jovanovic Strogman (Bolat), Vladan Dujovic (Rodochenko), Baya Bangue Namkosse (Krauss)
Plot
Big Ben has been blown up in a bombing by the terrorist group Wolf Pack. Several of Wolf Pack’s members have been arrested and placed in a special prison aboard The Hammer, the reconditioned International Space Station. International observers now arrive aboard the station in a shuttle. Dr Stone is immediately alarmed upon seeing the station’s designer and the sole warder Kingsley torturing the prisoners. Stone goes to see Argun in his cell but he takes her hostage and breaks out his fellow prisoners. Upon discovering that they are in orbit, the prisoners take command of the station and then set it on a direct course to crash it into the Earth and impact with Moscow.
Incoming has been construed as a vehicle for British born actor Scott Adkins, a martial artist who has had a moderate career in action films since the mid-2000s. The film was a directorial debut for Mexican-American Eric Zaragoza, a former Marine who had previously worked as a first assistant director on assorted films. The film itself was shot in Bulgaria.
There is a potentially interesting idea at the heart of Incoming, but the way it is presented it is like an extreeeeemely hard to believe scenario. The prison-in-orbit premise has been used before in films like Fortress 2: Re-Entry (2000) and Lockout (2012), but here it is located aboard the International Space Station. In reality, the I.S.S. is only 357 feet in length, about the length of a football field at the full extent of its array. The living habitat is only 147-164 feet in length (comparable to the size of a Boeing 737 fuselage). For some reason in the film, this has been turned into a prison. You can sort of go with the idea of the I.S.S. having been expanded or rebuilt on a larger scale. It also ends up being a space station that comes with magic artificial gravity.
However, what starts to stretch credibility in a big way is the idea of the station being used as an orbital prison where there is only a single warder – this is the sole person who both maintains the station and is in charge of the prisoners. There is no tech support and no other warders. Not to mention, the entire system is entrusted to someone who demonstrates clear evidence of being an unstable sadist in his treatment of the inmates – and one who is allowed to operate without any oversight. The nearest equivalent Guantanamo Bay at the very least has trained personnel and psychologists on staff who maintain the health of their prisoners and keep tortures within limits.
Scott Adkins aboard the I.S.S.
Once the terrorist get loose, Incoming works passably well and builds up okay tension. Surprisingly, for a film that headlines Scott Adkins, it is fairly sparing when it comes to the action element – a couple of showcase fight scenes and that is about it. The effects are generally quite competent.
However, as the show goes on, Scott Adkins becomes a far less likeable character. The film sets up what would seem to be Islamic terrorists as the bad guys and Adkins as a red-blooded American special ops agent. He slits one terrorist’s throat and roars “This is for America” and earlier kills another while proclaiming “Do I even need a reason?” Later he punches out the doctor Michelle Lehane while saying “No whistleblowers, bitch.” The end of the film has her getting back up and killing him, managing to make an escape from the station before a missile blows it up. While this may well endear the film to the flag waving far American right, for everyone else it is the oddity of the top-billed hero of the film actually not being the hero after all.
