[4] Alongside Portman, the cast includes Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, Colman Domingo, and Ellen Burstyn in supporting roles.

The plot follows Lucy Cola as she returns to Earth after a transcendent experience in space, only to find herself losing touch with reality as her life unravels.

Struggling to readjust to life on Earth, Lucy embarks on a dangerous emotional and psychological journey that tests her grip on sanity.

Lucy in the Sky premiered at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2019, before its theatrical release in the United States on October 4, 2019, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Astronaut Lucy Cola is profoundly affected by her first mission in space, an experience that leaves her feeling disconnected from life on Earth.

When her grandmother dies of a stroke, Lucy's emotional stability deteriorates further, and her increasingly erratic behavior begins to worry those around her, including her husband.

Despite her efforts, Lucy is informed by the NASA administration that she has been passed over for the upcoming space mission due to her erratic behavior, including a near-drowning incident during training and her failure to attend required therapy sessions.

Lucy's psychological state deteriorates as she embarks on a cross-country road trip with her teenage niece, planning to confront Mark and Erin.

In a quiet, reflective moment, Lucy opens the hood of her protective suit and gazes at the bees and a butterfly, hinting at a fragile sense of acceptance and closure.

Hawley explained, "In retrospect, the film was bought and set up as a Reese Witherspoon black comedy, and there must have been some extent to which Searchlight was expecting it to be that, and I delivered my magic realism astronaut movie [with Portman].