7 plot holes in Netflix’s Space Sweepers: starring Song Joong-ki and Richard Armitage, the Korean sci-fi film wowed viewers after Covid-19 delays – but had its hiccups too
- Space Sweepers is Song’s first film since his divorce from Song Hye-kyo and reunites him with A Werewolf Boy director Jo Sung-hee
- The blockbuster Netflix release also features Kim Tae-rin, Park Ye-rin, Jin Seon-Kyu and Yoo Hae-jin – and streamed in a whopping 190 countries
So when the film finally aired this weekend, we were all naturally excited to see if it was worth the hype. The cast and crew of Space Sweepers have yet to announce whether a sequel will be made, but we’ve got our fingers crossed that we’ll see more of the spaceship Victory traipsing across the galaxy soon.
But although the banter among the ship’s unruly crew charmed us, and the amazing special effects and immense world building have won praise from viewers, there were quite a few plot holes that left us wondering. Spoilers ahead: read on at your own risk.
The relationship between James Sullivan and Tae-ho
“Big bad” UTS Corporation boss James Sullivan (played by Richard Armitage, aka Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit) and one of his assistants briefly mention that Song’s character, protagonist Tae-ho, was the first and only orphan that Sullivan took in – and subsequently turned into a child soldier. Sullivan alludes to it during the confrontation with Tae-ho aboard his ship, Victory, but no further elaboration is given on why he chose to rescue Tae-ho specifically.
Sullivan’s modified body
Throughout the film, we see red roots start to appear beneath Sullivan’s skin when he’s angry, but no explanation is given as to what they are. In a short scene where Sullivan’s body is being scanned, one of the screens shows that his body is 98 per cent artificial organs – could they be nanobots?