Gravity will leave you breathless

GRAVITY

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star in Alfonso Cuarón’s breath-taking, groundbreaking ‘Gravity.’

 

Humans have always looked up at the stars and wondered what was out there. When space travel was finally a reality, a select few brave souls took that giant leap into the cosmos and gave us some indelible images that only stoked the public consciousness. Through space shuttles and space stations to Hubble telescopes and Explorers and Voyagers, we’ve continued to romanticize what a trip to outer space would be like. (NBC has even just greenlit a TV competition show that will send the winner to space aboard a Virgin Galactic ship.)

Countless movies have shown us the thrills and perils of outer space — it really is an inhospitable place — and now director Alfonso Cuarón and stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney show us how truly dangerous being in outer space can be in Gravity. The story of Gravity is fairly simple: a team of astronauts are on a routine shuttle mission (it’s never clarified if this is taking place during the now defunct shuttle program or if this is some new shuttle program), and astronauts Matt Kowalski (Clooney) and Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) are attempting to fix a non-working piece of equipment that she created. They are notified by ground control that a Russian satellite has been hit with a missile (turns out the Russians blew up their own failed bird) but the debris should pose them no threat. Until it sets off a chain reaction that begins taking out other satellites and sends a huge debris cloud orbiting the earth and knocking out all communication with the people below. The shuttle is ordered to get out of the area, but Stone takes too long to get unharnessed and the shuttle is destroyed, leaving her and Kowalski the lone survivors floating hundreds of miles above earth. Their one hope is getting to the ISS before the debris field comes around again in about 90 minutes, and failure leaves one of two options: try to get to the Chinese space station or be lost in space forever.

Gravity is a truly breath-taking cinematic experience.

Gravity is a truly breath-taking cinematic experience. The film is certainly anchored by Bullock’s bravura performance as a woman totally out of her element trying to survive in a real alien environment. Clooney is the seasoned professional who does what he can to keep her calm in a bad situation, but once he’s gone (not really a spoiler), she’s on her own and her only experience flying a ship was in a simulator … and she always crashed. As good as his stars are, the true star, the auteur of Gravity is director Cuarón who somehow manages to keep his stars weightless for the duration of the film while keeping the camera always in motion, sometimes for his signature long, uninterrupted takes. The special effects are spectacular as well, as these massive space vehicles are destroyed without a sound.

The explosions that occur in this film happen silently, despite what the trailers have promised.

Yes, the explosions that occur in this film happen silently, despite what the trailers have promised. Cuarón wisely begins the film with some brief text explaining the how and why of there being no sound in space to spare those expecting Star Wars types of fiery, noisy explosions some disappointment. For space purists, this removal of sound is a welcome addition (subtraction?) to the space movie genre. In place of explosions, Cuarón uses an explosive score from composer Steven Price to accentuate the visuals. And what visuals they are, especially in 3D. Weightlessness and 3D were made for each other as Cuarón lets his actors and objects float right off the screen (a Marvin the Martian figure literally comes into the audience at one point), and you will find yourself blinking and ducking as pieces of the space station come flying at your face.

Weightlessness and 3D were made for each other.

But for all that is good with the movie, you really have to suspend disbelief with the story. Bullock’s character just cannot catch a break as she has to navigate her way through what ends up being a kind of Rube Goldberg device that takes her from situation to situation. And any long-time sci-fi fan will spot many references to films of the past, from Barbarella to Alien to Contact (all not-so coincidentally featuring strong female leads). But even with all of the implausibilities (would any country intentionally shoot a missile at their own satellite with the knowledge that the debris could pose a threat to other satellites, not to mention the ISS?) and nods to the past, the film is a real knuckle-biter and should have been named “Breathe,” because that’s what you almost forget to do for the film’s lean 90 minute running time. Gravity is intense, and may alter that perception we have of space being a quiet and serene place.

  

Photo Credit: Warner Brothers

7 Comments on “Gravity will leave you breathless

  1. I’m not sure there were any implausibilities, at least from my perspective (Well, there was one that ended up being explained away by [spoiler]). But the destruction of satellites with missiles is something that happens.

    I was too excited to see the touchstone references that you were talking about. I could “feel” some of that stuff passing me by (There were several times that shouted “2001!!” to me, but that’s as much “close-up of guy in space helmut” as anything else).

    I was, however, completely blown away by the third name on the cast list. That’s definitely a result for being in such awe for the first 20 minutes of the flick :)

    • Well, the second she starts taking off her pressure suit, all of my friends thought Alien, and that she was also weightless made me think of the opening titles from Barbarella. For example.

      Maybe instead of “implausibilities,” I should have said “plot contrivances”? Of course, having never been to space — and after this, never wanting to go to space — maybe there would be this huge chain reaction of one thing after another that one, lone astronaut could navigate. That’s not to take anything away from the film, which like I said, kept me breathlessly on the edge of my seat. But when you think about it afterwards …

      Anyway, I still want to see it again.

      • I was a bit of a space nerd growing up, and the only thing that really jumped out at me was the sequence in the Soyuz capsule involving her helmut being off (that may or may not have been negated by our understanding at the time) and how the re-entry module self-oriented (that really bothered me, FWIW).

        There were some “lesser” things that bothered me: The amount of time she re-suited and exited to get untangled relative to her timer, how lucky she was not to get hit during the following debris cloud and how she managed to hang on to the hatch every time she depressurized the airlocks.

        I’ve been looking for a fact-check post …. and boom:

        https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Gravity-Gets-Fact-Checked-By-Astrophysicist-Neil-deGrasse-Tyson-39705.html

        Edit: Not that it addresses any of my questions…

        • I was a space nerd too. Still am, but I no longer have a desire to go into space! But those tweets do address some of what I called “implausibilites,” including the almost perfect alignment of the Hubble, ISS and Chinese space stations. The hair, though, didn’t bother me. It was short enough to not really notice if it was floating. But, (1) it’s a movie and (2) trained astronauts signed off on it (allegedly), so the layman really isn’t going to question a lot of those issues. My only real issue was the “she has to get from point A to point B to point C” and endure various hazards that are piled on at each stop. It was like a leg of The Amazing Race! Still entertaining though.

          • Yeah, that was a little convenient that they were all in visual distance from each other, but hey, that’s why they call it fiction :)

  2. Overall? Enjoyed it.

    The “explained away by [spoiler]” I caught immediately … if we’re talking about the same thing.

    Most of the implausibilities didn’t bother me, i.e. Chuck Wash’s note about Stone’s hair.

    The biggest implausibility that bothered me was the ending. I expected several other things. But … it did give me a slight upturned smile … “titularly” speaking …

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