Mission to Mars: Hilary Swank leads an elite team in trailer for Away

An elite international team of astronauts must leave family and friends behind for a three-year mission to Mars Away, a new science fiction drama from Netflix, starring Hilary Swank. Made by Andrew Hinderaker (Penny Dreadful), the 10-episode series was inspired by a 2014 Esquire article by Chris Jones about astronaut Scott Kelly’s annual stay aboard the International Space Station with a Russian cosmonaut – the longest space mission in American history.

Per the official synopsis:

Away is an exciting, emotional drama on an epic scale that celebrates the incredible progress people can make and the personal sacrifice they have to make along the way. As American astronaut Emma Green (Hilary Swank, I’m a mom, boys do not cry) prepares to lead an international crew on the first mission to Mars, she must kill her decision to leave her husband behind (Josh Charles, The good woman) and teenage daughter (Talitha Bateman, Countdown) when they need them most. As the crew’s journey to space intensifies, their personal dynamics and the effects of moving away from their loved ones back to Earth become increasingly complex. DeenAway shows that sometimes we have to leave the house behind to reach behind the stars.

The trailer opens with Emma’s NASA engineer husband Matt playing the opening bars of Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” on a piano as she presents her daughter Alexis with a gift: a necklace with three stones, representing Earth, the Moon, and Mars. “And the string is that I’m making my return trip to you. So just think, the further I get, the closer I get to being back with you.”

She also assures Matt that it is only a three-year mission.

“OK, I think I will not miss you,” he says.

The elevator seems to be going smoothly, with people watching the live feed from all over the world, and Emma’s team is putting them to work. Misha Popov (Mark Ivanir, For all mankind) is a Russian cosmonaut and engineer; Ram Arya (Ray Panthaki, 28 days later) is a fighter pilot from India; Lu Wang (Vivian Wu, The pillow book) is a chemist from China; and Dr. Kwesi Weisberg-Abban (Ato Essandoh, Altered Carbon, Tales From the Loop) is a renowned botanist from Great Britain.

But all is not well at home, as we see Matt suddenly fall into the kitchen and end up in the hospital. Emma tells herself that she is not home with her family, and asks a robbery of Ram: “Do you think you are the only ones who have been persecuted by the sacrifices you have made to ride here?” And soon problems arise on board their spaceship, even with an unexpected fire. Apparently, Emma freezes, damaging the relationship with her crew members. So Emma will have to regain her trust, because the only way this mission will be a success is if they all work together.

Away debuts on Netflix on September 4, 2020.

Image display by YouTube / Netflix