'Ad Astra' Venice Film Festival Special Look: In Space, No One Can Hear Brad Pitt's Existential Crisis

James Gray's mysterious sci-fi drama Ad Astra is set to make its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week, and in anticipation of that premiere, 20th Century Fox is unveiling a special look at the film. The Ad Astra special look focuses on Brad Pitt's astronaut Roy McBride, who is sent on a mission to find his missing father (Tommy Lee Jones). But there seems to be more to this mission than a simple recovery, as tantalizing imagery and unanswered questions are peppered throughout the teaser. Watch the Ad Astra special look below.

Ad Astra Special Look

This Ad Astra video reveals more than any of the past frustratingly cryptic trailers, while still telling us nothing much at all. The film follows Roy on a mission to stop an uncontrolled anti-matter reaction which threatens not just the world but the entire solar system. But nothing about his mission is straightforward, as his long-missing father (Jones) is somehow involved, as is Ruth Negga's mystery character, who can be seen walking down lots of corridors and looking very enigmatic (a true talent of her's that she's shown since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

In a scene reminiscent of Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, Roy answers a series of questions about his mission, only to grow more frustrated as the prompter refuses to let him leave. The rest of the teaser is filled with intriguing imagery of wild animals aboard spaceships, a decadent high-society party full of booze and drugs, an at one point, an apparent shootout on the moon. "I feel nothing. We're here and then we're gone," Roy at one point responds to the robotic prompter, which suggests a much more existential drama than Ad Astra's premise.

Ad Astra also stars Liv Tyler as Roy's wife, and Donald Sutherland as a colleague of Roy's father who also ends up going to space. James Gray also co-wrote the script with Ethan Gross (Fringe).

Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.

Ad Astra arrives in theaters this fall on September 20, 2019.