Asteroid is a 180-degree short film launching alongside Samsung’s Android XR headset.
Co-directed by Doug Liman, Julina Tatlock, and Jed Weintrob and developed by 30 Ninjas (Dino Hab), Asteroid is an original high-stakes action thriller designed specifically for the upcoming Android XR headset. Starring Ron Perlman, Hailee Steinfeld, Leon Mandel, NFL player DK Metcalf, and more, this story sees a group of strangers risk everything by flying an old rocket to mine a near-Earth asteroid for untold wealth.
Joining my various demos at Venice Immersive 2025, this marked the first time going directly hands-on with the Android XR headset. I spent my time analyzing Asteroid rather than the hardware, so you’ll need to come back to UploadVR another time for updated impressions of Samsung’s hardware.
Asteroid splits into three different parts, and the opening involves speaking to a fictionalized version of Metcalf through generative AI. Even if we ignore the environmental and ethical issues surrounding generative AI, which you really shouldn’t, I’m a Brit who doesn’t follow the NFL. I didn’t know before learning about Asteroid who this Pittsburgh Steelers player is, so trying to start a conversation was personally very awkward. I really didn’t know what to say to him.
Credit: 30 Ninjas, 100 Zeros
The actual film following this interaction is a highlight in Asteroid, lasting for roughly 15 minutes while quickly falling back into that familiar story of greed and the corrupting power of wealth. This isn’t long enough for most of the cast to make a strong impression, though Steinfeld puts in a great performance as one of the spaceship’s crew hiding what actually happened on this journey.
There’s good cinematography throughout across 180-degree viewing, and you can tell Google’s put considerable financial backing into this. Despite its limited scope, the production quality across the film segments looks great and on par with what I’d expect from a feature-length production shown in cinemas.
Asteroid ends on an exploratory segment as you try to find DK Metcalf’s character, who’s still alive. This almost turns into a little detective game as you uncover what’s happened, asking him different questions while picking up items across the meteor landing site. That all uses hand tracking and pinching on locations that teleport you elsewhere. You’re limited in movement, but for an experience like this, that’s fine, and everything visually looks great.
This segment involves asking DK Metcalf questions for your investigation, which also uses generative AI. This ended up souring the experience overall for me because I was being asked to suspend disbelief with a story not deep enough to make me care. You want reactive NPCs that respond to your actions, sure, but not using scripted responses that can easily become tonally inconsistent and outright hinder worldbuilding.
That’s an especially tricky matter in a more serious, narrative-heavy experience to get right. Stellar Cafe is a more lighthearted experience, but my colleague Ian Hamilton noted feeling “agitated” after his interactions with generative AI there as well. Asteroid’s writing and premise clearly made sense if they were linearly scripted, but the responses from Metcalf’s character to my questions don’t always feel right. The vibe is off, despite 30 Ninjas’ best efforts to keep this on track.
Credit: 30 Ninjas, 100 Zeros
Speaking to Tatlock after this demo, I’m told there are safeguards at a system level with Android XR that stop you from more extreme conversations with Metcalf’s AI version. I didn’t test those, but Tatlock states he’ll jump in to tell you to stop if you make inappropriate remarks.
Whether we’re talking about games, films, or other mediums, consistent narrative is essential. Even if you remove the wider issues around generative AI, this doesn’t work well here, and the story isn’t long enough to get you invested. For now, I’m unconvinced of the benefit of interacting with characters in this way.
Asteroid arrives as a launch experience when Samsung’s Android XR headset releases later this year.