Gravity: Spoiler Alert

Gravity. Wow. This Alfonso Cuaron film was truly one I’ll never forget.  Experiencing this film in 3D in the movie theatre was an unanticipated thrill. Although I had heard good things about the film ahead of time, I never expected that I would actually experience a sense of fear, after all, it’s just a space movie right? What can go wrong when there’s nobody there to harm you? Well, apparently everything.

As Dr. Stone (Sandra Bullock) and her crew encounter high speed debris from old satellites flying right at them, all hell breaks loose. One by one we see her crew members leave her side, making her the only human in space. Sitting in the movie theater, surrounded by several people, I still felt the eerie sense of isolation. It’s difficult to imagine what you would do stranded in space because it’s such a foreign concept to over 99 percent of the population, but the film truly depicted the fear one must encounter in that situation.

As Dr. Stone fights with everything in her power to survive and return to her daughter, I was reminded of the plot of Sunshine. The films are very similar as they revolve around characters stranded in space with limited amounts of oxygen, among other obstacles. Both films even depict a crew member who freezes to death causing their limbs to literally chip off like ice cubes. Both films really allow the audience to appreciate the role of astronauts in society as they risk their lives to provide us with research on the unknown.

The most interesting aspect of Gravity is the fact that nearly the whole movie is a one woman show. Dr. Stone is isolated with nobody to engage in dialogue with which must have been a difficult task for the director to tackle. She is left with her actions and her own thoughts to tell the story. The fact that she is all alone really contributes to the theme of fear and isolation in the movie. I think the film would have been perceived quite differently by the audience if she was left with a companion to share her struggle with. Allowing there to only be one character for the majority of the film highlights the inner struggle she has with herself. We see the various emotions take over Dr. Stone as she fluctuates between refusing to give up and eventual feelings of defeat. This struggle is one that could only be fully understood if a character is portrayed without the company of another person.

This film truly made me appreciate gravity and all that it does for us because I would absolutely never want to embark on an adventure to space after seeing this movie. As Sandra Bullock finally makes it back on to earth and lands in the middle of nowhere, we see that she doesn’t even care that she’s lost and nowhere to be found because at lease she made it back to the familiarity earth. As she grasps the sand between her fingers and literally has a moment of pure love with the soil, we further understand the struggle she encountered. She doesn’t care that she left the isolation of space only to find isolation of earth.  She’s home. 

WE are the aliens.

    The film Alien was…interesting, to say the least (still trying to get rid of the mental image of the baby robot coming out of Kane’s stomach). The film presents a multitude of components that are more often than not found in sci-fi movies such as robots, outer space, space ships, and aliens. This Ridley Scott film represents the curiosity about extra- terrestrial life forms that existed in the late 1970s. Taking into consideration that we went to the moon merely one decade before this film was made, it makes perfect sense that Alien explores the potential dangers that lay beyond Earth.

    This film successfully projects the popular idea that alien life forms seek to harm human beings in some type of way. Many science fiction films portray a plot in which aliens seek to steal our resources, settle on our planet, or just downright destroy us. In Alien, at face value we see nothing more than a giant alien creature, single-handedly murdering the crew one by one. However, with a further interpretation we can come to understand that the alien isn’t so bad after all. How do I come to this conclusion, you ask? Well, in reality the alien was just minding its own business until a bunch of greedy humans came along and took one of its eggs. Just like a mother bear here on Earth, the alien was only seeking to protect her offspring from an unknown danger. As an audience, there’s really no way for us to fully know if the alien is truly evil or not. For example, here on Earth if one was to mess with a wild Tiger then they would surely get ripped to pieces because it’s in the Tiger’s nature to respond that way; we know better than to provoke Tigers. Likewise, in the film, we should not blame the alien for clearly doing what is in its nature when provoked.

    Additionally, in many films where extra-terrestrials pose as a threat to humans, the setting is almost always on Earth. The interesting thing that this film does is to switch the situation to make us the threatening creature on a foreign planet. If the alien came to Earth and acted destructively, that would be a whole different story, but the fact of the matter is that in Alien, humans are the invasive creatures. The movie seems to depict the humans as the victims when in reality they got what they asked for by disturbing a foreign species. Since the humans were on the alien’s territory, and assuming my definition of “alien” is correct, ultimately it would seem as though WE are the aliens in this film after all. 

Where the Sun Don't Shine....

Sunshine…all I can say is wow. This movie threw so many curve balls at me and quite honestly I was thrilled about that. It’s not often that I can watch an entire film and not find at least a few of its components to be more than predictable, but that certainly wasn't the case in Sunshine. This science fiction film which takes place in 2057 presents a very uncertain fate for the Earth as it slowly freezes as the Sun burns out. A crew of skilled Astronauts set out on a mission to reignite the Sun by dropping a “payload” into it with a spaceship that has the ability to penetrate the Sun’s core.

I found the fact that the film takes place in 2057 to be a bit worrisome considering that we’re used to being told that the Sun is in its midlife and it will last another 5 billion years. According to Sunshine, we were WAY off.  Perhaps the film would have made more sense if it took place a few billion years from now. However, that obviously would come with several challenges of its own because the film would have to portray how society might be in billions of years from now, on top of figuring out how to save the Sun. That is, I’m assuming we’re even on this planet in billions of years. With that being said, Sunshine presents an interesting paradigm which our previous class films haven’t. Many of the films we've viewed in the past have presented the problem of the Earth being nearly destroyed by human irresponsibility where the characters are forced to figure out how to save the earth or continue to live without it. In contrast, Sunshine presents the dilemma of the Sun dying instead of the Earth. The reason for the Earth being in danger is because the Sun is dying out and not due to human cruelty toward the Earth. For me, this was a refreshing twist in the film’s plot.

This film also presents a very crucial concept of how our humanity can shift a great deal when facing life or death situations. During their journey, various characters have their lives compromised by several unique situations. As four of the crew members aboard the old ship from 7 years ago, they realize that one of them must stay behind to work the computer while the rest of them return to their real ship. This situation gives a human 2 options: be a hero or be selfish. Luckily one brave astronaut sacrificed himself and saved the other three men (until one of them froze and broke into pieces in space). On the main ship another dilemma arises when they realize they don’t have enough oxygen for all of the crew to make it to the payload. This results in a vote to end Trey’s life which seems rather barbaric. However, when your own life is in danger, how willing would you be to end someone else’s life too? Everyone except Cassie seems to understand that voting for Trey to die will ultimately save the fate of the Earth. She makes decisions with her emotions which is why she sees one life to be so important while the rest of the crew understands that one life is nothing compared to the billions of lives on Earth. The irony in the situation is that deep down they all know there isn't enough oxygen for them to return to earth after the payload is released. Yet, they all still try to hang on as long as possible, as if every last hour in terror is worth living.

I couldn't imagine being in a situation where every human instinct in your body tells you to save yourself at all costs, but you ultimately have to sacrifice yourself for the greater good.