Gravity | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Movie Commentary

[@rbrainsop1]

As far as him talking to her as he was floating away (14:27)- talking doesn't actually use any more oxygen than not talking. It's just letting the air you're already exhaling vibrate your vocal cords as it passes them. And by continuing to make small talk, he was trying to keep her from panicking, which _does_ actually make you consume more oxygen. So that actually was the most logical thing for him to do in the moment. Even as he was floating out into space, in the face of his own imminent death, he was trying to help her, and give her the best chance of survival.

[@GreatOutdoors1]

EMTs will also keep people talking to keep them from passing out, to keep them fighting.

[@danielvandusen5724]

​@GreatOutdoors1 Yeah, basically what you said. He's talking to her to try and keep her conscious and thinking instead of what her mind wants her to do, which is slip away into unconsciousness. Basically, he is trying to help her fight her overwhelming desire to fall asleep.

[@LoSTRaMaiR]

Simone, you can experience complete weightlessness on earth (in fact, the same thing that astronauts in orbit feels). The “Vomit Comet” (there are probably many companies) is a plane that goes really high and then dives at a really steep angle. When it does this, you fall except you have no wind or anything affecting you. You just fall inside the plane. It then gradually levels out so you safely get back. Astronauts in orbit are doing the same thing. They are just falling around the Earth. I

[@kurtwashere]

This was an unforgettable theater experience. Got to watch it with my dad, who designed portions of the ISS, so he got to see his life's work obliterated in IMAX 3D lol.

[@Tchika]

Haha, aww man, how did he feel about it? 😄

[@edmo922]

That's pretty rad.

[@EndlessNameless5]

That's an unique experience!

[@d4mdcykey]

That's both impressive and freakin' hilarious.

[@kurtwashere]

@@Tchika He was honored to see it recreated on the big screen lol.

[@ph8429]

The reason she didn’t use the soyuz to reenter the atmosphere is the parachute was already deployed and disconnected. She’d just slam into the earth.

[@andrewcharles459]

Considering what a major plot point that was, it's kind of hard to comprehend how they missed that.

[@uncoolmartin460]

She had also used the landing rockets as well (not that they would help without the parachute, but the recovery team wouldn't have to dig such a deep hole.) :)

[@PaulB-q3d]

@@andrewcharles459 Cause they talk and joke over these beautiful movies.

[@windsaw151]

@@uncoolmartin460 And the landing rockets, AFAIK, are not absolutely essential for survival if there is a parachute. But you could end up with some serious injuries without them.

[@bazzakrak]

Ohh they often miss alot of things@@andrewcharles459 specially George when it comes to computers and programming, cinsidering he says he works in AI his knowledge pretty often seems full of ajor holes

[@LawrenceMorey]

I think this movie is essentially about grief and recovery. The loss of her daughter meant that she had no ties to the earth - she mentioned that after her daughter died, she worked and drove - never put her feet on the ground. There are several visual references to rebirth, most explicitly when she enters the Soviet spacecraft. And she reconnects with humanity through the strange radio connection she gets. The end of the movie is all about her re-discovering her humanity, from scratch - it goes through all the stages of evolution - the frog in the water, her crawling out of the water on her belly, then all fours, and finally standing up, with her bare feet planted firmly in the mud. This movie was many years in development, so Alfonso Cuaron had a lot of time to make sure that nothing in it was merely accidental. He himself talks about the layers he managed to fit into the screenplay.

[@geromino2007]

The coming back to life theme fits perfectly the story telling. This film is a work of art and Sandra is very good cast for conveying the emotions she goes through.

[@Rorujin]

...and yet he still managed to screw it up with the ridiculous way George Clooney dies.

[@jblitzen]

Definitely. The entire movie is a beautiful visual metaphor.

[@jblitzen]

@@Rorujin It's perfectly fine. The visuals make it very clear that they're both moving away from the station on a cord held very loosely, and his letting go lets her rebound before it's too late. Only weird people have a problem with that scene.

[@benguensche]

yeah no bro this story is essentially about satellite debris

[@derred723]

I always assumed she landed in Asia or a Pacifica Island because it looked so tropical. Like Vietnam or the Philipines.

[@jkhoover]

"Gravity, It's the story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age." -Tina Fey

[@mrviggomartin]

😂😂😂

[@PChazman1]

Sounds logical to me. 😂😂😂😂

[@simonfrederiksen104]

and she lands on North Sentinel Island.

[@TheSofkujepanen]

@@simonfrederiksen104You know, i was thinking about what the worst place to land would be after George mentioned North Korea and i almost agreed with him, but your suggestion is definitely million times worse. Like with other countries, even North Korea, you at least have a chance of negotiating and getting your astronaut back, but for the sentinals there’s literally no way of getting her back unless you go there with the military ready to kill most of them, which isn’t a great thing lol. I wonder why there haven’t been any movies about someone ending up there accidentally and having to survive there and find a way out. It’d make for a good horror, thriller or survival movie. But weirdly, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen the place mentioned in any media and seems that most people don’t even know a place like that exists.

[@simonfrederiksen104]

@@TheSofkujepanen Well, that location was the first thing that popped into my head - I guess you could say I'm a bit of a pessimist, but I like to think I'm mentally prepared.

[@NetanelWorthy]

28:29 If you remember, it has no parachute. She had to detach it. So you would be entering the atmosphere with no parachute and basically kill yourself upon impact.

[@The_RedVIII]

This movie was the best experience I ever had in IMAX 3D. It felt like I was actually in space.

[@locutus9956]

Absolutely, tbh its kinda how this was meant to be seen, and watching it on a small monitor in a brightly lit room doesnt have remotely the same effect. This os one of those few films that is just not really worth watching except in the format it was made for. If have a very big TV turn all the lights off and sit as close as you are comfortable doing to the screen you might get a similar impact I guess (or VR googles or something) otherwise its a bit of a mediocre space movie without that impact!

[@dmanimousprime3858]

Absolutely! This in IMAX 3D was a ride! More of an experience than just a movie. That’s why it doesn’t need to be 2 hours long. You felt like you were there!

[@mrwomby5007]

I envy you, I would love to see this in 3D.

[@tehmorbias]

Same here, if they ever showed this on the big screen again I would go and watch it over, several times

[@richardthrust1126]

I saw this film three times in the theatre, and I think it's one of those few films that are clearly much better on a big screen. IMAX would be amazing.

[@lan5053]

The topography at the end does not look like any place in the US. Just because you hear Houston on the radio does not mean it is in the US. I’m sure by now, NASA has figured out global communications. My uncle is a HAM radio operator, and he can communicate with people on the other side of the planet even without satellites.

[@parker469a]

It looks like an island in the Pacific. Any where from Hawaii to Japan.

[@dang3r611]

I always guessed, it was somewhere in the southwest USA.

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

​@@dang3r611 Why? It looks nothing like the US...

[@dfbovey]

@@dang3r611 Nothing on the west coast of the United states looks like that.

[@dfbovey]

@@jesusramirezromo2037 In looking it up, I was surprised that it was filmed at a lake in Arizona.

[@kosmiclawyer]

MY TIME HAS COME. Hello, I actually recently graduated law school with a concentration in Air and Space Law so I can answer George's question! Let's do this. Alright, so the legal implications under international space law would be significant. Russia, as the launching state of the satellite, would be held accountable under the Outer Space Treaty and the Liability Convention. According to these treaties, states are responsible for their national activities in outer space, whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities, and are liable for damage caused by their space objects. The immediate step would involve attributing the source of the debris to Russia and determining whether the destruction of their satellite was intentional (e.g., an anti-satellite weapon test) or accidental. In either case, Russia would face claims for damages from affected states. The Liability Convention specifies that states are liable for damage caused by their space objects, and in this scenario, it would cover damage to the fictional Space Shuttle Explorer and potentially to other satellites and space assets. This could lead to diplomatic claims or even formal arbitration if the parties involved cannot agree on compensation. Also, the Rescue Agreement would also come into play, as astronauts are considered "envoys of mankind." Russia, along with other capable states, would be obligated to assist in the rescue or recovery of surviving astronauts. This could involve international coordination to track debris, assess re-entry paths, and deploy resources to assist survivors. Incredible. It is not often I get to use my education for reaction channels hahahah. Hope you enjoyed the explanation.

[@Daveyboy100880]

Excellent info, and yay for education actually coming in useful! Now I’m wondering if there’s any international law that we can charge George Clooney under for constantly defying the laws of physics in this movie… 🤔

[@TheOli4D]

The movie is a great metaphor about loss, depression, losing all hope, then somehow still finding the will to hang on, and somehow fighting back into life and beeing reborn. This movie hits different for everyone who ever went through a real crisis in life.

[@SurvivorBri]

*Losing but I agree with your take. It is about all that.

[@MaoKatz]

Kessler Effect: An initial collision generates a debris cloud that begins to collide with other satellites and stations, triggering a chain reaction of orbital destruction. While fastest objects are in lower orbits and it's not common for something in a higher orbit to catch up to something in a lower orbit, the collision in Gravity is plausible if it involves debris that has changed orbits after a previous collision or if it comes from an inclined trajectory.

[@pigs18]

Space is big. It's highly unlikely that it would hit a target the size of Sandra Bullock.

[@bos1200]

​@@pigs18yup, but alot of our stuff is in mostly the same orbit, so it IS a plausible scenario. Maybe not Sandra Bullock size, but if she stayed there for a few hundred orbits...

[@mapolinski]

Kessler Effect is a real possibility especially as we get more and more satellites in orbit. Starlink is especially bad with hundreds of them in low orbit. The events in this movie are going to happen one day. It's inevitable.

[@benbennington8859]

The scale of the Earth and how orbits work render the chances of this happening at nearly zero. Could it happen? It's not impossible. Will it happen? It would be one of the biggest coincidences experienced by people. Could it happen like in the movie where the same debris field hits the same target again in that amount of time? No, it's not possible.

[@IgnisKhan]

@@mapolinski You're closer to being right than the other two replies here -- Kessler syndrome is a real possibility that we can't ignore. But it's not inevitable, unless people keep blowing up satellites on purpose -- a third of a space debris comes from anti-sat missile tests, and IRL Russia actually did blow up one of their own satellites in 2021. And FYI, Starlink is deliberately put in a low-enough orbit that it experiences a little atmospheric drag, which means any Starlink satellite (or any piece of a Starlink satellite) will re-enter in a couple years unless it uses its engines to keep raising its orbit. If Kessler syndrome DOES happen, the worst of the junk will fall out of the sky in 5-10 years. During that time, going to space won't be impossible ... but it'll be a game of Russian roulette, for sure.

[@fluentinsilence]

Love the fetus-reference when she gets into the ship and takes off her suit, the tubing representing umbilical cord.

[@sc1338]

I noticed that too

[@RDRussell2]

Yep. I saw this in the theater when it came out and thought the same thing back then.

[@TheGh0st81]

I think it symbolizes the rebirth of her character

[@cameroncimmerius1203]

And then she emerges from water to crawl and finally to stand.

[@Ottamus_Prime]

Baby imagery fetus is Latin for offspring stop dehumanizing the unborn

[@clayjohanson]

“Gravity” in IMAX 3D was *insane* - one of the best 3D presentations ever. The movie’s soundtrack is also really quite amazing. Glad you watched it!

[@macronencer]

Few films have you on the edge of your seat practically from start to finish - but this one does it for me. The first time I saw it I felt as though I'd held my breath for 90 minutes afterwards. Just amazing! 22:30 This radio conversation with the dogs howling comes from someone in a remote northern area, and on the DVD there's a short film showing the event from their point of view, which is really cool (literally, haha). The film is called "Aningaaq", and you can find it here on KZbin.

[@jasonligon5937]

She didn't necessarily land in the US because she could hear their signal. She radioed where she was so they can track her and use whatever frequency she's on in the Chinese capsule to reach her through it's hardware. You can bounce a ham signal from Minnesota to Africa in your backyard if you want to.

[@AlessaParker]

me as a kid: I'd love to become an astronaut! Going to space sounds so cool! me as an adult after watching this film: never f*ck*ng mind.

[@Jay-ate-a-bug]

George Clooney constantly saying "I got a Bad feeling about this" is the character's desperate desire to reference Star Wars where the phrase is used in every movie.

[@paulsuter5816]

I saw this in the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles when I was on holiday there. I don't think I've ever felt so alive while watching a movie. A truly brilliant experience.

[@tomwolfe6063]

This movie is as inspiring as it is terrifying. I'm reloading kerbal space program right now.

[@fromdarknesscomeslight6894]

28:19 Not a stupid question. Yes, the descent module of the Soyuz can survive re-entry, however you also need to be on a specific trajectory with the heat shield pointed in the correct direction. The Soyuz in the movie was out of fuel for the normal thrusters and the landing thrusters aren't able to do those precise maneuvers, so it isn't able to re-enter.

[@DynamicSystem]

also the parachute had already deployed

[@NetanelWorthy]

Soyuz also had no parachute because it was deployed and she cut it off. So she wouldn’t survive or entry, because she would hit the Earth like a bullet.

[@Konradius001]

@@NetanelWorthy Sandra Bullet... ;)

[@BoxOKittens]

I do love the symbolism in the end of her, crawling out of the ocean, through the clay, to walk on land.

[@chrisegnoto]

Me, too.

[@HelloTardis]

She walks with extreme effort and you really feel the gravity. Literally. You can tell this is a person who’s getting used to feeling weight again. Super cool touch.

[@jmartinqe]

A frog in the ocean?

[@Deathbird_Mitch]

​@jmartinqe It could be a wetland or brackish area. We don't know where she is.

[@johnfriday5169]

​@@jmartinqeI think she landed in a lake

[@dubiumguy]

This is one of those movies that made excellent use of the IMAX 3D format and is a phenomenal visual feast when seen in that format. On the small screen? It's still a decent movie but its not the same. If you ever get the chance to see it in IMAX 3D i wouldn't hesitate to go. No other 3D movie made use of the format as well as Alfonso Cuarón did with Gravity. Also note the fetal position with umbilical cord shot at 15:38 . Strong themes of rebirth in that shot which the movie script describes "Then, slowly, she pulls her knees to her chest and enfolds them in her arms, floating in a fetal position. For a moment, Ryan simply hangs in suspension, a fly in amber, surrendering to the poetry of the planets, rotating slowly in the cabin's womb." For your question at 28:23 those thrusters she use are solid fuel soft-landing motors the capsule uses about a metre of the ground and last less than a second. They're intended to slow the capsule down so that it doesn't hit the ground so hard which can be travelling as high as 10 metres a second under the spare chute. You can set a time to the millisecond for liquid fuel rockets to burn to get a great reentry, but once solid fuel rockets are ignited they burn until spent so they're totally unsuited for that purpose.

[@The_RedVIII]

I forever tried to replicate the feeling I had watching this movie in IMAX 3D. Nothing ever came close. Bought the 3D Bluray just a few weeks ago, and I preordered a 3D projector that hopefully arrives soon.

[@maxek46]

My absolute best 3D cinema experience - first time it gave me some faith in the technology, particularly for the POV moments.

[@bpowick]

I remember watching this in the theatre. It felt like I didn’t take a breath for the entire run time. It’s an incredibly tense movie.

[@andrewcharles459]

Now watch the short film "Aningaaq" to see the other side of Sandra Bullock's radio conversation with the stranger. Keep a box of tissues handy. There's a lot of heartbreak in ten minutes of story...

[@Osprey850]

I was going to recommend that, myself. IIRC, it was directed by Alfonso Cuaron's brother, so it's a legitimate companion piece and not a fan film. It's on KZbin, so there's no trouble finding it.

[@jlilley73]

It's also a DVD extra.

[@woeshaling6421]

My theater had a subscription system, so I watched this movie 18 times in the theater. Once I saw the first airlock scene, I knew it was a once in a decade theater experience. You could interpret being lost in space as the void of depression and every scene of shedding spacesuit/soyuz modules as breaking down ones defense mechanisms and/or walls. And the ending as being reborn anew from the water

[@tfpp1]

Yeah, as another comment mentions, the underlying theme of this movie is about loss. It's a meditation on grief, as she feels untethered after the death of her daughter, and how the desperation of trying to "hold onto something" literally and figuratively as she drifts through the chasm and emptiness of space reflects how someone might feel at the loss of their child.

[@MightyDrakeC]

This movie is beautiful. I saw it in 3D when it came out. I enjoyed it a lot. I now understand that it's meant to be more metaphoric that realistic. But, I'm a space nerd, so I was shaking my head several times during the movie. Here's a list of things I saw that it got wrong. 1. Stilted dialogue. Especially the faux NASA-speak 2. Why is a medical doctor designing and installing hardware for the Hubble? 3. No experts on the ground competent enough to help her through her hardware issue 4. Parts not tethered 5. Testing Clooney's jet pack at the same time as work on the Hubble 6. Clooney zooming around way too fast 7. Russian satellite debris went from harmless to deadly in about 30 seconds 8. The debris arrived about three minutes after the supposed collision 9. "Traveling at 57,000 mph". First, there's nothing that would push all that junk that fast. Second, that's beyond escape velocity, so it would not come back. Even in an opposite orbit, the max closing speed would be 36,000 mph. I guess if I heard wrong and they said kilometers, then that would be close to 57,000 kph, in an opposite orbit. Albeit, I don't know of anything that travels that direction. Especially not in an orbit anywhere close to the station. They should have just left it at 18,000 mph, but in a polar orbit. That still would have produced closing speeds in the thousands of miles per hour. 10. When the arm separates from the shuttle, Clooney tells her to cut loose from the arm because he's losing sight of her. Well, the arm is big, so sticking with it would make her much easier to find. 11. Her suit would have a SAFER, a set of small built-in jets, precisely for situations like this, where the astronaut has somehow gotten loose. It might not have enough fuel to get her back to the shuttle, but it would prolly stop her tumbling. 12. The radio would have worked long before he grabbed onto her. Probably never would have stopped working. If she's close enough for him to find, then she's probably close enough for the radio to reach. 13. He would have known that she had lost a kid long before the flight. That information would have been plastered all over her public bio. And they would have worked together for months prior to the flight 14. When they went from one location to another they didn't take orbital mechanics into account. Even 100 yards away, you can't just point where you want to go. If you just point and shoot, your course curves and you won't end up anywhere close to where you wanted to go. You have to go forward in orbit to go up. Down to go forward. Backward to go down. And up to go back. 15. When they get back to the shuttle it's not spinning anymore. Once started, it would spin for months or years, until it's orbit decayed and took it deeper into the atmosphere 16. Not sure if the hole in the guy's head would have looked like that. It did look cool 17. The odds of them intersecting with the debris multiple times are a bazillion to one. The orbits would have to be matched up almost exactly. 18. Hubble, ISS and Tiangong are in very different orbits. You cannot get from one to another on the same mission. It takes an enormous amount of fuel to change the plane of an orbit by even one degree. The Hubble is at 28 degrees. The ISS is at 51 degrees. And the Chinese station is at 42 degrees. So, that's changing 23 degrees, and then back 9 degrees. 19. Why was the chute deployed? None of the rest of the station shows damage. If the Soyuz had been hit, it would have been ripped apart, not just popped the chute. 20. When the cord around her leg stops them, there's nothing pulling him away, anymore. The tiniest tug would have pulled him toward her. If somehow they did get stopped with no residual motion, when he unhooked he would just sit there. 21. Even if there was the teeniest drag of some kind pulling him away, all she had to do was look down and wrap the cord around her leg a few more times. Or, reach down and grab it. Hanging onto the tether wouldn't require a lot of strength 22. When she takes off her suit she's not wearing the liquid-filled body suit that regulates temperature and distributes warm/cool water around the body. (Albeit, being a guy, I appreciated seeing her scantily clad ;-) 23. When she gets into the ISS it still has air, but it's a mess, with stuff floating around. If the people left in a hurry, everything would still be stowed away. If the station got hit and knocked stuff loose, then there wouldn't be any air. 24. If one Soyuz was damaged then there would not be enough room for the station personnel to get down in the other one. There are six people on the station and only three seats on the Soyuz. I suppose in an emergency they would attempt to find a way to stash the other three people. But the Soyuz really is incredibly cramped. I'm pretty sure there is literally not enough cubic feet of space to fit three more people. And they need to reach the controls. 25. What caused the fire to start? Albeit, it was a fairly neat looking visual effect. And, I think accurate to what flames in space really look like. 26. Are the parachute cords really bolted on like that? And, are they accessible from the outside like that? 27. Do they have a tool and socket on hand in the Soyuz that would fit the parachute bolts? On the station? 28. Why did she have to stop and re-seat the tool a couple of times? 29. She tapped a gauge, which dropped to zero, showing no fuel. For the last few years, the Soyuz have had all-electronic cockpits 30. When she used the fire extinguisher, there's no way she could have gotten it centered well enough. She would have started herself spinning. Which would have made it nearly impossible to aim herself after the first attempt. 31. And, again, orbital mechanics. 32. While it wasn't really unrealistic, I was annoyed that both times she opened hatches to the space stations she was holding onto the hatch, instead of to the stationary rails right next to the hatch. Made for a nice visual, her flopping around. But it wasn't very bright of the character. 33. Why was there a spacecraft at the Chinese station that she could ride down on? The last crew there would have taken the last ship. They don't keep spares up there 34. Why was the orbit of the Chinese station already so low? Atmospheric drag will drop a station's altitude. But it takes years to go from it's normal altitude to one that would cause reentry. 35. While the Chinese Shenzous looks superficially similar to the Soyuz, they were designed and built by two different countries. What you learn about the controls on one has nothing to do with the controls on the other. 36. Surprisingly, the spacecraft probably could survive the tumbling at the beginning of reentry. That sort of thing has happened in real life to a couple of Soyuz, when the sections didn't detach like they were supposed to 37. Albeit, that tumbling burns off the antennae, so she wouldn't have heard the radio calls as she was landing 38. Even if the antennae were still there, why would she hear them when she was close to the ground in the middle of nowhere, but not while she was still in orbit, when she has hundreds of miles of line-of-sight? 39. While landing, she would not have felt heat, and it would not have started materials in the capsule smoking. If she felt any heat, then that would mean the hull is breached and she would have died long before reaching the ground. Either from hot gasses ripping the craft apart. Or, from asphyxiation, when the air escaped through the breach 40. Even though that spacecraft is designed to land on land, it still has water survival gear on board in case of a water landing. (Your seat may be used as a flotation device.)

[@ph8429]

George. You are right about tears. Surface tension holds them to your face. If you shook your face they would come off. But Simone is also right. The movie wanted to show them floating.

[@bos1200]

I think we collectively know that BECAUSE of this movie. Chris Hadfield showed it in one of his videos from space :)

[@AdeptCharon]

"I'm so curious to read the comments to see how accurate this is" ...yeah about that 😂 The main innacuracies basically: - no one wearing visors when the sun is in sight?? - you wouldn't visually see pieces coming towards you from far away- by the time they'd be close enough they'd be too fast to see - Stone wearing so little under the EVA suit is very silly - bumping into things in spacesuits without problems as if the suits are jelly or something - the very absurd casual messy re-entry that actually goes fine! - the entire set-up of where things are makes no sense - how are all the comm satellites getting destroyed when those are at quite higher orbits than something like the ISS? - all these space stations just being next to each other to the point where astronauts can hop between them is also wild There's plenty more if you go into details (Soyuz doesn't have a window), but the biggest offender is definitely: - Kowalksi sacrificing himself as if there was some magical force pulling him away

[@Cau_No]

The last thing: The force was not magical, it was centrifugal, they were rotating. But yeah, finding a way to sacrifice your main character isn't always easy. At least it wasn't as dumb as the scene in "Mission to Mars", where they ignored momentum completely.

[@falxonPSN]

​@@Cau_Nothe bigger point is that as soon as he disconnected he would still float in the same relative direction they were moving together. You wouldn't necessarily go flying off into space. Remember that they were rotating together - there was not a pivot point between them.

[@Cau_No]

@@falxonPSN Because the pivot point was the station, when they separated, he should move away tangentially, while she was still connected on her rotation. From her (and the camera's) view, the Coriolis effect would have him move away in an arc. The scene was too short to have that included. But nonetheless, he's probably still in orbit.

[@insiddious]

This is the only movie I ever saw on IMAX, and the experience was surreal. Clooney and Bullock looked like they were floating near me. Felt like a dream.

[@csurampower]

I want to give some love to Steven Price's Oscar winning score for this movie. The scoring from when Stone starts to re-enter the atmosphere to when the chute deploys is one of my favorite movie music moments over the last 25 years.

[@Johnny_Socko]

Yes, I had never heard of him before this, and I thought the music was so well-done and interesting. He had to compose more music than is typical due to Cuaron's commitment to not using sound in space, thus they used music cues in place of sound effects. I thought Price would become a huge name in film scoring after this, but that doesn't seem to have happened (or I'm missing it).

[@jimmyryan5880]

This movie was mindblowing on the big screen. Watching it at home is like watching a youtube video of a rollercoaster, its not the same.

[@jonwright6472]

Saw this in theaters in 3D. It's one of the best theater-going experiences of my life. It works because the editing lets the scenes breathe.

[@jpa5038]

The scene where Clooney comes back is her subconscious trying to tell her how to get out of this.

[@DocHikes]

Let me tell you, seeing this in IMAX 3D for the first time (Providence Place for the IMAX nerds out there), was one of the top 3 cinema experiences I've ever had. During THAT scene when the hatch opens, the whole theater gasped and held their breath. It was so immersive. Total magic.

[@3DJapan]

If I remember, there are 12 shots in the whole movie.

[@selkie76]

22:43 A short sister film titled "Aningaaq" can be found online - it shows you what was happening on the other side of this conversation.

[@zymir5494]

Watching this in 3D in the movie theater was one of the best movie experiences I’ll never forget!

[@basecode8]

George's face at 30:26 shows why this film works... just totally invested.

[@tylerbrown5526]

This was one of the best and most tense theater experiences I've ever had.

[@GuardianOwl]

Seeing this in the cinema was incredible, if it ever reruns in your area I highly recommend you go.

[@Brian-qn7fn]

This film was amazing in the theater in 3D. Watching it on home video is fine, but it just isn't the same.

[@GarrettJayChristian]

Yeah, George, when they need to dispose of satellites, they typically just de-orbit them and let them burn up. 😅 Launching anything into space has a non-trivial fuel cost.

[@Rocco1332]

But the US has used missiles to dispose of old satellites before...mostly as proof that we could reach Soviet satellites as well. It's not improbable that something like that was attempted again.

[@somestuff7876]

If premise was based on disposal of satellites it would have being completely ridiculous. But it based on practice of testing ASAT through destruction of ones satellites. And at least 4 countries (technically 5) done exactly the same thing: USSR, US, China, Russia and India. As many things in the film, how exactly it happens is quite unlikely and the most heavily criticized test of ASAT was performed by China in 2007... but Chinese Box office is no joke;)

[@adriansue8955]

De-orbit, or push into a very high altitude 'graveyard orbit' away from useful satellites.

[@NetanelWorthy]

14:27 He was doing exactly what they would’ve done. If you had someone that was not a mission specialist and they are on their own. He’s talking to her to distract her. Keep her calm. Yes you’re talking, but if she starts getting stressed, she’s going to start hyperventilating and she’s going to burn through that oxygen twice as fast. It’s actually extremely admirable. One of his last things, knowing he’s going to die, was making sure that she’s keeping calm.

[@Ur_Quan]

> to distract her. Keep her calm Also breathing air with low oxigen and high CO2 levels causes beside the other effects dizziness and drowsiness. Essentially, by constantly engaging her in conversation, he keeps Ryan's mind from drifting off to sleep.

[@legodemonrockstar]

I believe the in joke of the astronaut crew in the reflection is because the director Alfonso Cuaron was asked by a journalist how hard was shooting a movie in space, he laughed but played it up saying that they lost a few cameras and crewmen

[@notjustforhackers4252]

Masterpieces don’t come along very often but this is definitely one. It was an amazing cinema experience, the only time I’ve enjoyed 3D. Sandra Bullock’s performance is top tier, when she looks directly at the camera and says “...it’ll be one hell of a ride…” ( meaning life is one hell of a ride ) always makes me tear up. I’ve never understood how or why people ‘criticise’ and debate the “realism”, its not really the point of the film. Cuaron takes a swipe at the internet age of ‘safe’ digital isolation and tells us we need to re-evolve back into a society where we interact with real people again, rather than looking at screens….oh the irony. A film set in space, not a space movie. Shout out to Steven Price ( and Lisa Hannigan ) for that brilliant score. Awesome film.

[@Blandina11]

We saw Gravity in IMAX 3D and it was awesome 👍😊

[@gnollio]

This is one of the few movies where being in a theatre has a huge effect. I remember seeing this at an IMAX theatre and it felt almost like a roller coaster ride / experience.

[@IH8YH]

i HIGHLY recommend the making of documentary, because Alfonso Cuaron and Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezcki basically invented a new way of film making for this.

[@adelbert8981]

Instantly, John Mayer singing hits a core memory when reading the title of this vid. Lol.

[@HiddenWindshield]

This film does a very good job of creating the _feel_ of actually being in space for real would be like. But, the actual level of realism in the fine details is surprisingly low. The basis of the danger, the idea of debris hitting other debris and fragmenting into even more debris, is called the Kessler Syndrome. It was first proposed by some NASA scientists in the 1970's. But it's commonly misunderstood; the syndrome refers to the _gradual accumulation_ of debris faster than it can removed by atmospheric drag. A sudden explosion of debris, such as depicted in this movie, simply isn't possible until space gets much, _much,_ *much* more crowded than it is now. 2:05 The MMU used by Clooney's character is _ridiculously_ overpowered. Like, "I invented a Mach 40 racecar in my garage (with a box of scraps)" level ridiculous. 2:56 That's actually realistic: as many as one third of astronauts experience motion sickness due to the lack of gravity their first time in space. 6:19 The Hubble Telescope isn't ever in visual range of _any_ space stations. In fact, even as crowded as space is today, the odds of one satellite _ever_ being in visual range of another (except in a pre-arranged rendezvous) is _incredibly_ low. 9:13 On November 15, 2021, Russia destroyed one of their retired COSMOS satellites as a test of an anti-satellite missile. According to US Space Command, this test generated a large debris field of more than 1,500 trackable pieces of debris, plus a lot more that's too small to be tracked. Since nobody else's satellites were hit (luckily), all that happened was a lot of finger-wagging and threats of sanctions that never materialized. 11:41 Clooney waits until the last second to correct his course in order to "save fuel", but the fact is that the _earlier_ you do a course correction, the less fuel it takes. 12:32 Once Clooney's momentum was stopped, it wouldn't have kept pulling like that. 20:34 The debris wouldn't have still been that densely packed after an orbit. She'd have been lucky to see even one piece as it sailed by, with the rest spread over hundreds of kilometers in all 3 dimensions. And _that's_ only if she happened to be supremely unlucky to be still in the path of the debris cloud. 26:27 Yes, surface tension would keep the tears pooling around your eye, but the larger the bubble gets, the easier it would be to dislodge just by moving your head. 28:24 Yes, but it didn't have a parachute. That's where the parachute that was wrapped around the ISS came from. Surviving reentry doesn't do you much good if you die on impact with the ground. Also, the landing thrusters wouldn't have had enough juice to deorbit, but then again, they wouldn't have been able to reach another space station, either.

[@babalonkie]

Instantly realised this film will put Simone on edge... 🥺

[@namechamps]

The parachute on the soyuz "pod" was already deployed and destroyed. That is what the pod was tangled in. Initially they were going to use it to go to Earth but once they saw that the plan became using it to get to Chinese station.

[@cafeabasedecinema]

Sandra Bullock deserved an Oscar for Gravity and not for The Blind Side

[@pioneerpassenger]

I saw this movie in 3D when it was first released, and it was one of the most incredible theater experiences of my life. (Yes, it does make you slightly motion sick, but it doesn't ruin the experience given that Sandra Bullock's character is meant to be feeling similarly.) I remember both the scene where she talks to the person with the dogs and baby, and the final sequence on Earth being so moving that they left me fully sobbing. I also loved the juxtaposition between her daughter's death highlighting the fragility of life against her own miraculous survival.

[@willmendoza8498]

This movie was one of the most gripping and stressful films I’ve ever seen in the theater. It was absolutely wild on the big screen

[@Pharisaeus]

1. Anti-sat rockets and Kessler syndrome are a thing and a real risk. 2. The movie is pretty accurate except for a handful of things: - There was nothing pulling Clooney so there was no reason for him to let go - You can't really go between Hubble, ISS and Tiangong because they all have different orbital inclination - There are no "spare" spacecraft at either of the space stations, because they usually fly manned and with full crew complement. So if there are no people on the station, there should be no spacecraft either. 3. She couldn't use the Soyuz to land. For starters it lost the parachute - the huge red/white canvas visible in the ISS shots. And since it didn't have fuel, she wouldn't be able to de-orbit it. 4. Shenzhou spacecrafts are actually based-on/"heavily inspired" by Soyuz, so it's not a completely crazy idea that she could press the right buttons. The joke about "landing in Siberia" reminds me of Soyuz 5 flight. Long story short: separation didn't work, so spacecraft was flying "head first", which damaged the parachutes; it crash-landed in mountains in winter (with -40*C), hundreds of kilometers away from the expected landing site, and the cosmonaut with some broken bones and teeth had to walk few kilometers to a nearby remote village.

[@kris5465]

"There are no "spare" spacecraft..." You are right, though there have been plans to add emergency return crafts to the ISS. It would have helped those Boeing astronauts, had there been any.

[@rogerlie4176]

Also the debris would not be that concentrated; the space is HUGE.

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

The biggest inaccuracy: Tiangong and The shuttle are decades apart

[@Ur_Quan]

> There was nothing pulling Clooney so there was no reason for him to let go Well, if you pay attention (1, 2), you will notice they were not completely static but *rotating* around the ISS. So it was the centrifugal force which was pulling them away from the ISS. 1) The moment when the ropes on the Bullock's character get tight, her movement suddenly changes its direction, meaning from that moment she's orbiting the ISS; 2) There's a wide-angle shot of the ISS and Bullock and Clooney, connected to the ISS by the ropes; they are clearly moving related to the ISS; and since the ropes are tight, they are orbiting the ISS. > There are no "spare" spacecraft at either of the space stations, because they usually fly manned and with full crew complement. So if there are no people on the station, there should be no spacecraft either. Just recently there was an incident when the Soyuz module was deemed unsafe for manned return because of the coolant problems, and thus was replaced with another one. So *probably*, the movie's spare Soyuz wasn't actually a spare module, but simply a defective one :)

[@andrewcharles459]

And the surest way to NOT get to a location is to point right at it and press the gas.

[@ChoppersModelworks]

This is one movie that after you watch the making of and all the technology that was used you will never see the movie the same. Some amazing creativity used to film this.

[@williamblakehall5566]

If you see Cuaron's Roma -- it's great -- there's a scene in it where an audience is watching the movie Marooned, about three astronauts stuck in space. It's sort of like an early fictional anticipation of Apollo 13, except much, much duller. Cuaron saw Marooned and that was an inspiration to him to make Gravity. The James Franciscus character in Marooned is named Stone, just like Sandra Bullock here.

[@Johnny_Socko]

That was a good movie for its time, and featured a great supporting performance (of course) by Gene Hackman in one of his earliest roles.

[@xcmvp2007]

There is an exhibit at the Warner Brother Studio Tour that shows how the award winning sound design. They play just the music and just the sound and voices, and then put it all together. Pretty darn cool.

[@JohnG4me]

This movie is metaphor for conception and birth. No matter the odds. Clooney represents the sperm. She struggles to stay alive. Makes it to the Earth and is born coming out of water taking her first deep breath of earth's air.

[@Well3eyond]

Am I the only one who wants to see "I'm Stuck In A Baby Swing At The Park"?

[@Cau_No]

I think I've seen it on some of the KZbin Fail collections channels ...

[@RobertMorgan]

As a Ham I've tried countless times to contact the International Space Station by radio. It's possible, people do it all the time, but you just have to get extremely lucky. Not only does an astronaut have to be actually manning that specific radio to hear and respond to you, the ISS only passes overhead at any given location during certain times of the day and so may times per week, AND the biggest issue of all, it's traveling almost 18,000 miles per hour in low earth orbit, from radio horizon to overhead to out of range from the surface gives you about 5-6 minutes MAX to make and receive contact with them directly. That's why it's such a desired contact to collect, the number of factors that have to coincide is such that it makes it really special.

[@TheHumanTheory]

I love that they only start getting to know each other in space, and she’s got this whole backstory of trauma, and barely wants to be there in the first place. I would be sent to space before Sandra Bullocks character.

[@Johnny_Socko]

I love her performance, but if there's one thing movies often get wrong, it's the temperament and professionalism of astronauts (of any nation). Movies tend to make astronauts look like a cross-section of human psychology, when in reality psychological fitness is one thing that is always selected for.

[@ArmouredPhalanx]

Several countries have shot down satellites with missiles at this point (US, Russia, China and India), with the last couple coming somewhat as a surprise and causing a bit of a panic for the ISS. It's definitely not a good practice. From the opposite side of things, years back there was a manga called 'Planetes' which was a hard sci-fi, near future look at what were essentially space garbage collectors. There was a pretty good anime adaptation, too, but it can be difficult to find through official channels these days. Either or both are highly recommended.

[@ph8429]

Yeah, they did it to prove to themselves or others that they could do it.

[@asmrhead1560]

The good news is that in reality the Space Station and most manned orbital flights are in a "self cleaning" zone where there's still enough traces of atmosphere to slowly but surely de-orbit debris over the course of months. At higher altitudes like where GPS satellites are or even higher where the geostationary satellites are it's another story. But there's a lot more volume of space up there too.

[@Cau_No]

I also recommend the PLANETES Anime, it predates this movie and I was reminded of it when I went to the cinema. Have to pull out my DVD set of it again.

[@arkemiffo]

This and The Martian is probably my favourite space-movies (although Alien grabs the top 1 spot in all categories) because they don't have antagonistic astronauts. They work together, they're calm, and they work the problem. Even Apollo 13 turned up the interpersonal drama to an unrealistic level. That being said, the one thing that annoys me is when Clooney lets go. When the strings had gone taut, he would've been fine. He has no momentum to go further after that. One tug by Bullock and he would've drifted towards her. Also, satellites orbits on a much lower level than astronauts would be working (or it was the opposite, can't really remember now) so even if there was a cascade like this, it wouldn't affect them (much).

[@markusaltendorff]

I understood this as they're basically slowly rotating around the station so there's a constant centrifugal force pushing outwards that will not let up. It would've been highly unlikely to crash against the station and catch the strings 100% head on. That being said, I enjoy it mostly for a) the spectacular 3D, b) the soundtrack and c) the final sequence of the reentry and the soaring orchestra :-)

[@bazzakrak]

What no love for Battlefield Earth?? ;)

[@markharris1125]

She couldn't land in the Soyuz because it had no parachute. But that's easy to forget, in the moment!

[@Jiff321]

I saw this movie in theaters during college and left the ticket in my parents car. That’s how they found out I quit the part time job they got me. Good times lol

[@silentjay01]

She lands in Siberia and ends up having to fight wolves like Liam Neeson.

[@write2pras84]

Despite some inaccuracies and artistic liberties, this was a visual stunner and an edge-of-the-seat thriller, for me at least. Watched at the cinemas with no prior knowledge of what the movie is about or any expectations and was just blown away! Sandra Bullock is such an amazing actress! And the background score is phenomenal. Up there with Moon imo. Great reaction guys.

[@mattp6089]

This movie was great in 3D as I recall.

[@willfieldsend]

31:09 its a pretty standard re-entry for Kerbal Space Program.

[@ChilledTexan]

One of my favorite space movies. I saw this in theaters in 3d and it was fantastic.

[@mj_SR22]

Regarding him talking to her so much as she tries to get to the airlock -- he's keeping her calm by helping her having something other than her panic to focus on. Yes, she uses up air by talking. But by talking calmly he prevents her from hyperventilating and thus using her air supply even faster. If she panics and dies before even reaching the air lock his sacrifice is for nothing. This is a common technique in crisis situations. No matter what resources you're running low on, your ability to think clearly and calmly is always your most critical resource as it maximizes your capacity to make use of all others.

[@TerryYelmene]

when a great reaction provides real anxiety of claustrophobia and the prospect of suffocation... well... all Cinebinge reacts are great -... but imho, this one was extra special

[@shadowdramon01]

0:34: He directed Prisoner of Azkaban, which is considered the best of all the Harry Potter films

[@chriscma1]

The landing site was the same location where Taylor landed in the classic Planet of the Apes (1968).😊

[@kylelee3576]

If I remember right, Cuaron said that Bullock’s tears would not float out into the cabin like that, they’d have too much friction on her face to detach or something, but he just loved the imagery so much when he thought of the idea.

[@bloodymarvelous4790]

I swear to God, when Ryan finally stepped onto land, I was sure she was going to get attacked by an alligator.

[@stephenmonk8787]

@@bloodymarvelous4790 I had the exact same thoughts when watching the first time.

[@3DJapan]

Water is really sticky so it makes sense that tears would pool around your eyes, unless you shook it off.

[@mistercard3599]

Neil Degrasse Tyson, and some other scientist have said it’s not entirely accurate, in many ways, but they’ve also said it’s a very good representation of space travel and an emergency like that

[@hobiwan9597]

Proof that Sandra Bullock is a VERY good actor

[@Uatu-the-Watcher]

George’s QI facts getting in the way of enjoying a film. lol Yes. Tears pool around the eyes. :-)

[@MetastaticMaladies]

One of my favorite things about this channel is Simone’s random intros, they’re great and so unique lol also just really enjoy both of their personalities and commentary. I actually wouldn’t mind if they decided to start another channel for just watching bad, awful movies, some so bad they are good or just straight up bad movies. I think it would be fun to hear their comments. Or maybe even do one every once in a while on this channel. I used to go out of my way to find the worst possible movie to rent when I would stay with my great/grand-uncle for the weekend and we’d watch it at night by the fire, laughing at how terrible it is. It’s a lot of fun, imo anyway.

[@blakewalker84120]

28:20 "Why not just take that capsule down to Earth". Because she had already lost the parachutes. Without those, she would hit the earth about 25,000 miles per hour. Give or take a bit.

[@michaelraine6031]

One of those films in my opinion that demanded to be experienced in IMAX format. I remember being truly overwhelmed opening weekend seeing it in that setting. It's still a technical marvel, regardless, but I think the film's shortfalls are revealed when it's taken in outside of a large auditorium.

[@AndieFlowers3]

I saw Gravity in the movie theater…insane experience!! Since everything was so dark and the screen so big, you felt like you were there, freaky, nauseating, yet awesome too!

[@sourabhkarmakar8040]

When Stone was drifting and slowly going towards emptiness the shot behind her was the centre of our galaxy is a terrifying thought that realistically no one is up there.......

[@DeathDefiant]

On whether or not a country would destroy their own satellite. Definately. It's happened multiple times and is usually met with universal condemnation.

[@TheoMurpse]

I saw this movie in IMAX and I didn't feel sick at all. Just in awe the entire time.

[@buddystewart2020]

I saw in 3D IMAX and it was a serious trip. The Kessler syndrome, also known as the Kessler effect, collisional cascading, or ablation cascade, is a scenario proposed by NASA scientists Donald J. Kessler and Burton G. Cour-Palais in 1978. It describes a situation in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) becomes so high due to space pollution that collisions between these objects cascade, exponentially increasing the amount of space debris over time. This proliferation of debris poses significant risks to satellites, space missions, and the International Space Station, potentially rendering certain orbital regions unusable and threatening the sustainability of space activities for many generations.

[@johnfriday5169]

When she was cold I kept hearing in my head River Tam telling Shepard Book that they won't die gasping for air, they'll freeze to death first.

[@inlpwetrust]

It’s not often that a character the film is named after shows up only in the last five minutes.

[@Norp-i7m]

“Gravity”?

[@Sharpester]

I have watched this in 3D twice in theaters. Best 3D experience of my life by far. You could feel the nothingness of the void, with the debris field popping out of the screen coming at you!

[@theascendunt9960]

At the end, when she lands on Earth and grab soil, it makes you appreciate how beautiful our planet is. Man, we don't realize how good we got it.

[@ph8429]

First, things in orbit like the Hubble, the ISS and Chinese space station are nowhere near that close to each other. They would never have enough fuel to travel between them. Second, it’s doesn’t work like “oh, I see the ISS way over there. I’ll just point myself at it and go to it. Assuming you are even in a similar orbit to it but it is ahead of you a ways, you’d have to thrust in the opposite direction to drop into a faster/lower orbit and sort of shortcut your way to it over the better part of an orbital period. Some of real physics isn’t worth explaining in a movie though.

[@kris5465]

"First Man" is the only movie I know of that gets this right.

[@bujin1977]

This is what annoyed me about the film too. It's not the fact that it's this badly inaccurate, it's that it was constantly referred to in reviews as "the most accurate space movie ever" (or something like that), and yet it gets orbital mechanics *completely* wrong. They're servicing the HST. It blows up, so they just manually float towards the ISS. The ISS is around 60 miles higher in altitude than the HST and on a completely different orbital plane (about 20 degrees off). As you say, you don't just point at your destination and fly in that direction. They'd have had to first align the orbital planes, which takes a huge amount of energy and must be done at the right time (when the planes are crossing). Then they'd have had to decelerate to drop the altitude *on the other side of the planet* so that it's level with the altitude of the ISS, which also takes a lot of energy. This also has to be done at the right time so that they meet the ISS. Then they'd have to put in just the same amount of energy again to circularise the orbit once they get there. It takes a lot of calculations, a lot of time and lot of fuel - certainly much more fuel than you'd get in one of those MMUs! They'd have run out of oxygen long before they got anywhere near.

[@MightyDrakeC]

@@bujin1977 One little nit about what you said. The Hubble isn't 60 miles higher. It's not a constant thing. The orbits of everything in low Earth orbit decay constantly. If they need to stay up, they need to be reboosted. That's true of both the ISS and the Hubble Space Telescope. If you search, you can find a graph that shows the altitude of the ISS over time. It's a sawtooth pattern. It jumps up about once a month, and then slides back down. I do think you are correct, that the Hubble was placed higher than the ISS, so that it doesn't have to boost as often. Higher altitude means less atmospheric drag. So, yes, it's generally higher, but not by a specific amount. Though, I haven't verified that.

[@bujin1977]

@@MightyDrakeC Yeah, of course. I meant it's *on average* about 60 miles higher than the ISS, so that's the sort of vertical distance they'd have been looking to traverse.

[@MightyDrakeC]

@@bujin1977 Interesting. I would have expected a greater average distance. Guess I need to give in to my curiosity and go look 🙂

[@Hide_Me]

I'm surprised the trivia didn't mention that the other side of her radio conversation was filmed and uploaded to youtube with subtitles.

[@markviola4234]

This is legitimately one of my favorite movies and the film I saw the most time in theaters. My local IMAX theater showed it for cheap for several months after the initial release and I kept going back every weekend. I think I ended up seeing it 11 times in total. As for some of the questions you guys asked, I think Kowalski was taking to Ryan to keep her awake as her CO2 levels increased, and she couldn't use the first capsule to land because it was out of fuel, and you need steering and speed control to not burn up on the way down. They invented a good bit of new technology to create the effects in this movie. Glad you guys enjoyed it!

[@user-Chris.Alger11]

So much to say about this movie! To watch it in the cinema was simply mind-blowing. Most of the time, it was silent, almost disbelief. The cinematography, the realism, was a quantum leap of filmmaking. The debris: Such an interesting topic. There is a total 'rabbit hole' of info to be found if it interests you. But beware, it gets more & more scary, the deeper you go. ; )