Counterweight

A Korean conglomerate is building a space elevator on Patusan, a fictional island. The cable is held in orbit by the counterweight, a mass of space junk. Somewhere inside it sits a data fragment left by the company's former CEO, information that could decide the firm's future and that of humanity.

When word of the fragment spreads, several people start up the elevator to reach it first. They include the company's chief of external affairs, an engineer pulled into events he did not choose, the late CEO's niece and son, and a security officer who stops at nothing.

The climb is crowded with false identities and neural implants. Old political grudges tied to a local liberation movement on the island also shape who trusts whom and who gets in the way.

This is Korean science fiction that works as a mystery and an action thriller, with a close look at how corporate power operates. It began as an idea for a low-budget film, and it moves at a fast, unbroken pace. The open question is who gets to the data first, and what they do with it.