Gravity

After seeing the trailer for Gravity, I was a bit dubious seeing Sandra Bullock and George Clooney spinning around in space suits. Then, one of my favorite astronauts, none other than Dr. Mike Massimino said, "Somebody did their homework. Everything is exactly like what it was on our mission." And Buzz Aldrin liked it too. Ok, I didn't need too much convincing to go see it. Gravity was a pleasant surprise. It is probably the most realistic portrayal of life in space since 2001: A Space Odyssey. There's even an homage to 2001, when Bullock has to get into the airlock before she runs out of air, except no there's no HAL 9000 trying to keep her out. 

Gravity tells the story of two astronauts, played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, who are repairing Hubble Space Telescope when all hell breaks loose. Clooney is an old space hand who loves to tell stories like Robert Duvall in Deep Impact. Bullock is a space rookie and a bio-engineer. The Russians blow up a satellite which creates a huge expanding cloud of debris which places the astronauts and the Space Shuttle in imminent danger.

Not to give too much away, but soon Bullock and Clooney are alone in space with no spacecraft to get them home. They are tethered together and proceed to give the best ever demonstration of Newton's Laws of Motion. Both outside in their space suits and inside various spacecraft, there is an amazing attention to detail much like in Apollo 13, where they actually flip the right switches at the right times. Clooney even pulls the knife switch to detach the Hubble Space Telescope from the Space Shuttle.

Clooney has a new jetpack and they can move around a bit so he gets the bright idea to head towards the International Space Station to save themselves. This would be a bright idea except that the

Hubble Space Telescope is in an orbit at an altitude of about 350 miles and an inclination of 28.5 degrees, and the ISS is in an orbit at an altitude of about 250 miles and an inclination of 51.6 degrees. Why am I telling you this? Well, this means you can't get from the HST to the ISS with only a jetpack. This is the only big error in Gravity, and is done for plot reasons. There is one other violation of Newton's Laws, again done to advance the plot, but on the whole it's very realistic.

My main qualm about seeing Gravity was Sandra Bullock. Don't get me wrong, I have always liked her, but after seeing her in the trailer, I was a bit worried. But she won me over as the movie went on. She is an academic in space for the first time and thinks she is about to die. I think she portrays that pretty well, and despite being terrified, it turns out that her character is very competent. She has to deal with US, Russian, and Chinese spacecraft, and like a real astronaut she pulls out her manual and starts following the checklist. Another nice bit is that all the instructions on the Russian Soyuz are in Russian, and on the Chinese spaceship, they are all in Chinese. 

I wasn't worried about George Clooney. He is perfect for the role of the old astronaut near retirement, who has seen it all. Like him or hate him (I like him), he always makes good, interesting choices for his roles. The director of Gravity is Alfonso Cuarón, who has directed some movies I like a lot, Children of Men, Y Tu Mamá También, and the best of the Harry Potter films, The Prisoner of Azkaban. He does a great job of keeping this movie simple. Ok, there are lots of scenes of various spacecraft being destroyed (in absolute silence!), but Gravity only runs 90 minutes. There are only two actors and most of the action is between them and in their own heads. This is really an Indie movie in space with a few explosions. The numbers are coming in and Gravity is breaking box office records, as well as getting Oscar buzz already. It's a great movie to see on the big screen and in 3D.