Lionsgate dropped the first official trailer for Above the Below on October 20, six weeks ahead of its December 4 theatrical release. The film is co-directed by Idris Elba and Martin Owen, marking Elba's second feature as a director after his 2018 debut Yardie, adapted from Victor Headley's novel.
The setup is elemental: three astronauts returning to Earth are knocked off course during atmospheric reentry. Their capsule crash-lands in the ocean and sinks. Contact with mission control is severed. Oxygen is running out. The trailer frames the situation as an impossible arithmetic: someone may try for the surface, and someone may have to stay behind.
Elba plays Jackson, the mission commander. Caitlin FitzGerald plays Brookes and Hero Fiennes Tiffin plays Rhodes. The screenplay was written by Elizabeth Morris, Matt Mitchell, and Vicki Sargent, from a story by Owen. The film is produced by Matt Williams and Gina Carter through Future Artists Entertainment.
The trailer opens on a direct question: "Can you face the improbability of your own survival? How hard would you fight to stay alive?"
Elba has not directed since Yardie in 2018. Above the Below puts him in both chairs: directing a contained survival picture while also leading it as its star.
The film is rated R and runs approximately 87 minutes. It opens exclusively in theaters December 4.