Laurence Fishburne's latest film, “Slingshot,” has an ending he calls “a beautiful surprise.”

The film, now in theaters, casts him as the lead of a three-man crew sent to one of Saturn’s moons. Fishburne plays Captain Franks. Along with fellow astronauts John (Casey Affleck) and Nash (Tomer Capone), the trio hopes to find a new renewable energy source in an effort to save a dying Earth. Along the way, they take up pods and hibernate for three months, but because of the use of drugs to induce hibernation, John begins to suffer side effects and Nash becomes unstable. Franks is the only one who seems to be okay and is pursuing his one goal: completing the mission.

The film’s third act takes an unpredictable turn in the story, and that’s what intrigued Fishburne to accept the role. Speaking to Variety over Zoom, he admits, “I didn’t know where it was going.”

He wasn’t worried about shooting another sci-fi film and adding that to his credits, which include “The Matrix,” “Event Horizon” and “The Signal.” He has more in the works. He has “Transformers: One” and “Megalopolis” coming up. He loves the genre and proclaims, “I’m a product of my time.” Between “Star Trek” and “Star Wars,” he says seeing people who looked like him in space, in the future, touched him deeply.