The new sci-fi thriller “The Astronaut” is a somewhat ungainly marriage of “Alien” and “E.T.” It begins with mystery and danger and the best of intentions. But the longer the marriage goes on, the worse things get.

Kate Mara has the title role, a space traveler whose splash down from a trip to the International Space Station didn’t go as planned. We see recovery teams racing to her half-sunken capsule, see the water inside when they pop the hatch and note the busted glass visor on her helmet.

Uh. Oh.

Sam has nosebleeds, bouts of tinnitus and “zero gravity hallucinations,” which can be explained away. But those bruises that seem to spread? Her doctor (Ivana Milicevic) seems concerned. That’s why Sam is parked in a rural safe house after quarantine. But the film’s logic has us wondering why she’s left there alone, and why she wouldn’t smell a rat by that fact herself.

“Sounds like a horror movie,” she jokes.

Her academic husband (Gabriel Luna of “The Last of Us” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D”) is halfway out the door of this marriage and the risks Sam seems hellbent on renewing. Only her astronaut pal (Macy Gray) understands the need for spaceflight speed.

“Even if you feel horrible, keep it to your damned self,” she advises if Sam wants to stay in the mission rotation.

But the nosebleeds, the nightmares, the blackouts, the visions and the things that go bump in the night outside this hi-tech “safe” house are a lot to keep from everybody. Her Air Force general father (Laurence Fishburne) is protective but strangely unconcerned.

Actress turned first-time feature director Jess Varley (her “Camping Safe” comedy does not appear to have been released) doesn’t hide her cards well. Every lapse in logic is rendered so obviously as to either make no sense or reveal “secrets” that the movie isn’t very good at keeping.

The jolts are mild by the horror/sci-fi standards of today.

Mara invests in the part and reaches for pathos amid the peril, and Fishburne, Luna and Gray are adequate in support.

But when the surprises aren’t very surprising except in ways that betray the picture’s tone and every illogical thing we can’t help but notice gives away those surprises, the only conclusion is that this “Astronaut” doesn’t have the right stuff even if Mara does.

Rating: unrated, violence

Cast: Kate Mara, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Luna, Ivana Milicevic, Scarlett Holmes and Macy Gray.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Jess Varley. A Vertical release.

Running time: 1:30