Space Sweepers : Imagination, Creativity, Design, and Technical Capabilities of Korea!

Completing a New World: Space in Year 2092!

A territory that none of us have travelled, but one that we have seen in countless Hollywood films: It’s “space,” the backdrop of Victory’s story. Director Jo Sung-hee and the production team began working on Space Sweepers with the specific goal of creating a new world where Korean characters can organically blend in with the context of space—a faraway place that exists only in our imagination or on screens but seems all too familiar.

With no maps or compass but only imagination to create a new world, the director and production team relied solely on Korea’s technology and creativity to build a new world that has not been portrayed in Hollywood films and is unique to Space Sweepers based on the general guide formed by the story and its characters. The film is set in a future where technology allows 5% of mankind to inhabit a paradise between Earth and the Moon.

The rest of humanity who are considered non-citizens either make a living in space as “space workers” in the same way as Victory’s crew or are left behind on Earth, where they can’t do without oxygen masks and goggles. The two extreme worlds inhabited by the upper and lower class and the place in-between occupied by space workers were built according to the purpose and function of each world. Based on the concept art designed by director Jo Sung-hee, the production design and VFX teams joined their strength to produce an outcome full of amazing visual treats, which were created in consideration of their functionality and plausibility.

Despite availability of a technology that can produce artificial gravity to prevent people from floating around in space, Victory’s crew can’t afford it and have to shoulder most of the physical labor themselves, including pumping up the engine and throwing the harpoon. The inside of the spaceship is filled with junk rolling around everywhere that the crew keeps in case they need to recycle it, which demonstrates well-thought-out production design consistent with the premise of the story and each character’s personality.

Unlike the sleek and glamorous space vessels in Hollywood films, Victory was designed and built to be unrefined to fit its purpose of scavenging for scrap for livelihood. On top of the design for Victory, other space debris collection ships that are tinkered and modified with featuresunique to different nationalities add to the visual richness of the film. Likewise, different parts of space in the film were also designed to portray both the high technology and hard labor to reflect what life is like in 2092, the era of space development. Viewers are anticipating to see a new world depicted in S pace Sweepers , where Korean characters take over the vast universe that has been traditionally dominated by Hollywood superheroes.