Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler) is “the loneliest man in the world” — further in distance from any other human being than anyone has ever been. In the alternate history of “Spaceman,” the Czech Republic leads the space race, and Jakub has volunteered on behalf of his country to undertake a one-man mission to investigate a glowing purple cloud that’s appeared around Jupiter, known as the Chopra. In theory, he’s not completely isolated, as he’s able to make instantaneous video calls with anyone back on Earth. But when his pregnant wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan) decides she no longer wishes to speak to him, he’s left truly alone.
Amid this isolation, Jakub encounters (or possibly imagines) a most unusual companion: A giant, Nutella-loving alien spider he names Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano). Hanuš can read minds, and, in seeing into Jakub’s memories, the creature psychoanalyzes the cosmonaut’s issues with his father (a violent communist informant he wants to maintain was still a “good person”), his wife (who he wasn’t there for when she had miscarriages), and with other people in general (he really doesn’t care about anyone except when it suits his personal needs). Jakub is far less inquisitive about Hanuš, but he does end up learning that Hanuš is the sole survivor of an infestation that wiped out his species — and that he’s also become fatally infected.
