The exquisite and enthralling Gravity is a glorious reminder of why I love going to the movies.
More precisely, the experience of viewing Gravity was a reminder of why I prefer seeing new movies in a big, crowded theater, with a looming large screen, bright projection and a thunderous sound system.
The film is a perfect marriage of old-school character-based storytelling balanced with—rather than drowned out by—state-of-the-art sensory spectacle. Even the 3D, which I typically loathe and which was a post-production after-thought, was immersive rather than distracting.
The technical expertise on display in every shot is confirmation of director Alfonso Cuarón’s immense talent. Plot-wise, some elements tilt more towards science-fiction than science-fact, but the physics of life in space are grounded in reality and lend the film its considerable verisimilitude. This doesn’t happen very often in space movies.
In the afterglow of Gravity, I am reminded of some other favorite space-cowboy adventures that strive for meticulous scientific accuracy and also delve into the physicality and, oftentimes, the mindset of life in space and peril.
Danny Boyle’s mesmerizing sci-fi tale of a last-resort mission to reignite our dying sun is a mélange of space movie clichés, and it gets a bit nutty in its third act when it stoops to slasher-movie tropes, but the overall science of the screenplay is more accurate than you may have given it credit for. Don’t believe me? Pop in the DVD or Blu-ray and listen to physics professor Brian Cox as he offers a wealth of scholarly information and weighs in on key plot points during an audio commentary track no science geek will want to miss.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
No other movie before or since has so chillingly captured the solitude and tedium of space travel along with its infinite grandeur. Perfectionist Stanley Kubrick’s strict adherence to the laws of physics—specifically, the one that states sound cannot travel in a vacuum—makes for visually intoxicating but silent special effects sequences.
Classical music underscores much of the space footage—the waltz of a tiny shuttle aligning with a giant spinning-wheel space station remains an indelible classic—but there are no rumbling or blasting sound effects. The film depicts, sometimes playfully, how space travelers might commute, sleep, eat, get exercise and even use a toilet in a zero-gravity environment. Among its myriad layers, the film is also a cautionary tale of humanity’s reliance on machinery and the specter of sentience in artificial intelligence.
Plus, it climaxes with the coolest cinematic light show in the history of ever as the main character—and the viewer—get whisked away into an infinity so incomprehensible the only way to express it in human terms is to represent it as a tall, black monolith.
Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)
The first two Alien movies depict such fantastic but science-based technologies as cybernetics, cryogenics, space stations, interstellar travel, planetary exploration, terraforming, advanced artillery and biological weaponry. Even with lethal xenomorphs on the loose, life for the interplanetary truckers of the Nostromo in “Alien” and the futuristic Marines of the Sulaco in Aliens is depicted with all the fine detail and accuracy you’d expect from technically savvy filmmakers like Ridley Scott and James Cameron.
Solaris (2002) and Moon (2009)
Both of these small sci-fi thinkers tell tales of losing your mind in space. The glossy and expensive looking Solaris from director Steven Soderbergh is essentially a cosmic ghost story, gorgeous and haunting but maybe a tad too pretentious for mainstream audiences, despite the presence of George Clooney and some dreamy visual effects.
Moon is somewhat sparser and lighter fare, with Sam Rockwell delivering a tricky performance as the lone occupant of a harvesting outpost on the far side of the moon who, at the end of his three-year tour of duty, begins to go ’round the bend. Rookie director Duncan Jones skillfully achieves a big scale on a miniscule budget.
The Right Stuff (1983) and Apollo 13 (1995)
Both of these modern-day astronaut classics depict with fastidious accuracy the real-life science and technology involved in preparing a man for space, launching him into orbit and having him return to earth safely. That crucial last part of the equation is what fuels the tension-fraught drama of Apollo 13, which focuses on the true story of one particular aborted mission to the moon that met with near disaster, and how the stranded crew and the men at ground control worked to improvise a return home.
The events of Apollo 13 are a mere footnote compared to the sweeping scope of The Right Stuff, which chronicles the birth of NASA from before the start of the space race through the end of the Mercury program (the Apollo program is mention during the coda). Both films show the resilience of the human spirit in life-or-death situations and shed light on what, precisely, folks mean when they say someone has “the right stuff.”
