You probably stumbled across it while scrolling through a streaming service late at night. The poster looks a bit like a knock-off. The title, Beyond the Trek, sounds like it’s trying way too hard to capitalize on a certain massive space franchise. But if you actually sit down and watch it, you realize pretty quickly that this isn't a high-octane space opera with phasers and lens flares. It is something much weirder. And honestly? Much more interesting than the title suggests.
Low-budget sci-fi is a gamble. Sometimes you get a masterpiece like Primer, and sometimes you get something that looks like it was filmed in a basement with leftover PVC pipes. This movie, originally released under the title Teleios before the marketing team got creative with the rebranding, sits in a strange middle ground. It’s a 2017 film directed by Ian Truitner, and it tackles some surprisingly heavy themes about genetic engineering, human emotion, and the slow, quiet rot of isolation in deep space.
The Reality of Beyond the Trek and the Teleios Mission
Let's get the plot straight because the marketing does a terrible job of explaining it. A deep-space mining vessel goes dark. A crew of genetically modified "perfect" humans is sent to investigate what happened. These aren't your average astronauts. They are "Teleios" humans—designed to be smarter, faster, and completely devoid of the messy emotional baggage that usually makes space travel a nightmare.
Except, of course, things go sideways.
The movie focuses on the crew of the S.S. Teleios as they board the Atromitos. What they find isn't a monster or an alien invasion. It's much more unsettling. There is one survivor and a robot. The mystery isn't just "who died?" but rather "why are these perfect humans starting to fall apart?"
The film relies heavily on its aesthetic. Since they didn't have a Marvel-sized budget, Truitner leans into a sterile, Kubrick-esque visual style. Everything is white, grey, and clinical. It feels claustrophobic. It feels cold. That’s intentional. It mirrors the internal state of the characters who are realizing that their "perfection" is actually a cage.
Why the Genetic Engineering Angle Actually Works
Most sci-fi treats genetic modification as a superpower. You get Captain America or a literal superhuman. Beyond the Trek takes a different path. It looks at the biological cost of being "perfect." In the film, these humans require a specific "fix" to keep their systems stable. Without it, they don't just get sick—they begin to revert to a more primal, chaotic state.
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It’s a clever metaphor for the loss of control.
We see the character Iris, played by Sunny Mabrey, struggling to maintain the mission's integrity as her crew begins to exhibit "human" flaws like jealousy, anger, and curiosity. Mabrey’s performance is actually quite nuanced. She has to play someone who is trained not to feel, but who is clearly feeling everything for the first time. It's a tough act to pull off without looking like a wooden board, but she manages to convey a lot with just her eyes.
The supporting cast, including Lance Broadway and T.J. Hoban, fill out the crew of the Teleios. They look like fitness models—which makes sense, given they were literally engineered to be the peak of the species—but as the film progresses, that physical perfection starts to feel grotesque against the backdrop of the decaying mining ship.
Budget Constraints vs. Creative Ambition
Let’s be real for a second. The CGI in Beyond the Trek isn't going to win any Oscars. The exterior shots of the ships look like they belong in a mid-2000s video game. If you go into this expecting Interstellar, you are going to be disappointed.
However, the film succeeds where many big-budget movies fail: it has an actual idea.
It asks a fundamental question: If we strip away the flaws that make us human, do we actually remain human? Or do we just become highly efficient biological machines? The "Trek" in the title is a total misnomer. This isn't an adventure. It’s a psychological autopsy of a failed experiment.
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The production design handles the limited sets well. By keeping the action confined to a few corridors and rooms, the director creates a sense of dread. You feel the walls closing in. The use of color—or the lack thereof—really emphasizes the "uncanny valley" feel of the characters. They don't belong in the grime of the old ship, and the old ship is slowly poisoning their pristine systems.
The Controversy of the Title Change
If you're confused about why you can't find much "official" merchandise for a movie called Beyond the Trek, it’s because, as mentioned, the movie is Teleios.
The title change was a pure marketing play for the VOD (Video on Demand) market. It happens all the time in the industry. Independent films get bought up by distributors who think they can squeeze a few more bucks out of the "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" crowd by slapping a similar-sounding name on the cover.
Does it hurt the movie? Honestly, yeah. It sets an expectation for a certain type of story that the film isn't trying to tell. Many viewers felt cheated because they wanted an action-packed space romp and got a slow-burn philosophical drama. But if you judge the movie by its original intent, it’s a solid piece of hard sci-fi that punches way above its weight class.
Understanding the Ending (Without Spoiling Everything)
Without giving away the final twist, the movie concludes on a note that is both bleak and weirdly poetic. It forces the audience to reconcile the "purity" of the Teleios humans with the "impurity" of the survivor they find.
It’s about the blood. Literally.
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The film suggests that our "flaws"—our diseases, our emotional instability, our genetic messiness—are actually the things that provide us with resilience. The perfect humans are fragile. They are like a glass vase: beautiful and symmetrical, but the moment they hit a hard truth, they shatter. The "normal" humans are like old leather—scarred and ugly, but they can take a beating and keep going.
Actionable Insights for Sci-Fi Fans
If you're planning on watching Beyond the Trek, or if you've already seen it and want to dive deeper into this specific sub-genre of "cerebral" sci-fi, here is how to get the most out of it:
- Watch it for the themes, not the effects. Treat it like a filmed stage play. Focus on the dialogue and the shifting power dynamics between Iris and the survivor.
- Look for the color cues. Notice how the lighting shifts from the sterile white of the Teleios to the warmer, dirtier tones of the Atromitos. It signals the breakdown of the crew's "perfect" conditioning.
- Check out the director’s other work. Ian Truitner has a specific interest in the intersection of technology and the human soul. If you liked the "vibe" of this, you might appreciate his approach to world-building in smaller projects.
- Don't compare it to Trek. Forget the title. It has zero connection to the Gene Roddenberry universe. It’s its own beast.
- Research the "Teleios" concept. The word itself is Greek for "perfect" or "complete." Knowing that adds a layer of irony to the characters' inevitable descent into chaos.
Beyond the Trek is a reminder that you don't need $200 million to tell a story that sticks in your brain. You just need a solid hook and a cast that is willing to lean into the weirdness. It's a flawed film, certainly. The pacing drags in the middle, and some of the dialogue is a bit too "on the nose." But in a sea of generic action movies, its commitment to being a "thinking person's" sci-fi is refreshing.
Stop looking at the dated CGI. Start looking at what the characters are losing. That's where the real story lives. If you want to explore more films that deal with the ethics of human enhancement, look toward titles like Gattaca or Moon. They share a similar DNA with this movie, focusing on the quiet, lonely moments of space rather than the explosions. The real trek isn't across the galaxy; it's through the messy, unoptimized landscape of the human mind.
To get the full experience, find the original version if possible—sometimes the edit under the name Teleios feels slightly more cohesive than the re-branded VOD versions. Pay attention to the sound design as well; the hum of the ship is a character in its own right, constant and unforgiving.