A ★★★½ review of I.S.S. (2023)
Borders in Zero Gravity Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s 2024 space thriller "I.S.S." dramatizes a near-future nuclear conflict that transforms the International Space Station from a symbol of cooperation into a battleground of competing national commands. While Cold-War thrillers traditionally reinforce national loyalties, "I.S.S." reverses the pattern: it renders nationalism itself the principal threat. The six-person crew—three Americans, three Russians—receive simultaneous orders to seize the station “by any means necessary,” triggering a Hobbesian scramble for sovereignty where no borders formally exist. The ensuing violence invites a reading of the nation-state as an ideological construct sustained by myth rather than material necessity. George Orwell

