Internet Gravity, space movie directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Trailer up!

[4throck]

.. flight manuals that look like those child papers to paint them...

Take a look at some of the ISS manuals here http://spaceref.com/iss/operations.html such as http://www.spaceref.com/iss/ops/sm.comp.system.man.controls.pdf.

Not that different.

You do understand the the manuals shown in the movie need to be simple enough so that the audience could understand them, right? Otherwise how would someone unfamiliar with the Soyuz know that it has 3 parts? Those child drawings show that to the unfamiliar public with no need for extra exposition.

 

[Andy44]

So I confess to ignoring this thread when I first saw trailers for this movie, as it looked like another stupid Hollywood space film a la Armageddon.

The other day a friend of mine saw it and told me it was well done and recommended I see it in 3D IMAX before it leaves the theaters.

Earlier tonight I did that, and I am happy to say I was wrong. This movie is fantastic.

Sure there are lots of things to complain about; orbits of certain things being wrong (or fantastically convenient for the plot), and a few other things, but this film is worth it for the amazing visual experience it delivers. The sense of being weightless and in a noiseless vaccuum is visceral, and where there is silence the music delivers the emotional punch to compliment the visuals.

There have been too few films that really depict space as the scary, hostile environment it truly is. 2001: A Space Odyssey is one, Apollo 13 is another (although the exterior sound almost ruined that part of the experience for me). And I'll go ahead and say it: Star Trek The Motion Picture also scared me with the sense of vastness and awe and danger.

This film is at the level of 2001 in the way it conveys that sense of danger that accompanies spaceflight, and spacewalking in particular. Nevermind the technical inaccuracies; this film rocks, and I'm guessing it will be studied for many years as the ideal way to do space scenes the way 2001 was.

 

[ADSWNJ]

Fantasy mode on!

If the movie producers had asked us to review the film for accuracy of the mechanics, maneuvers, etc, to make say 5 recommendations, what would we come up with?

Caveat - it has to fit the overall storyline and the sense of constant action of the film (e.g. no multi-orbit RV's).

The suggestions can be to the story (e.g. adding or changing things to connect events differently or change the back-story), technical (e.g. orbital mechanics, door opening), visual (e.g. head up displays, debris encounters), or dialog (of the primary actors).

One idea per reply, scored by the number of thanks!

 

[Andy44]

SPOILER ALERT

Fantasy mode on!

If the movie producers had asked us to review the film for accuracy of the mechanics, maneuvers, etc, to make say 5 recommendations, what would we come up with?

Caveat - it has to fit the overall storyline and the sense of constant action of the film (e.g. no multi-orbit RV's).

The suggestions can be to the story (e.g. adding or changing things to connect events differently or change the back-story), technical (e.g. orbital mechanics, door opening), visual (e.g. head up displays, debris encounters), or dialog (of the primary actors).

One idea per reply, scored by the number of thanks!

Easy: instead of HST, ISS, and Tiangong, invent three other objects that have an excuse to be in such close formation with each other. ISS or Tiangong can be only one; the rest you make up with plausible reasons for being where they are. The shuttle orbiter was made up, so why not.

Also, the scene where Tiangong is about to re-enter bothered me. If all these objects are in similar 600 km orbits than there is no reason for one of them to be decaying in 3 hours. And if you're at the point where solar panels are flapping in the wind while you're still outside swimming around, I have to imagine you are already cashing in your chips. Wouldn't there be a lot of surface heating on your suit? Shockwaves? How could you maneuver your body in that drag field?

So instead of that, I would have her in a hurry to begin the Shenzou deorbit maneuver before that cloud gets back. There are other ways to dramatize that escape.

 

[Loru]

Seen it yesterday and I have to say I'm really impressed. Everything has been said in posts above so I'll limit myself to few things.

Visuals are stunning. Level of detail on spacecrafts and Earth are pretty amazing. Scene pacing ise also really great. This movie makes 3D justified.

Since it's fictional story I can accept hubble, ISS and Tiangong in the same orbital plane near eachother. The only thing I'd nitpick it's MMU being too agile and in scenes before first impact Clooney flies it like it was Star Wars speederbike.

Clooney and Bullock pulled it off. Acting was good - maybe not best but they didn't ruin the film.

Overall: 9/10

Must see for every space enthusiast

* Maybe I'm too emotional but I almost cried when Shuttle got destroyed.

 

[Ghostrider]

So instead of that, I would have her in a hurry to begin the Shenzou deorbit maneuver before that cloud gets back. There are other ways to dramatize that escape.

Hull punctured or imminent system failure could work. Also, (haven't seen the movie yet) they could have made the re-entry itself harrowing, by having the service module not detaching and the entry module going in nose-first. Soyuz 5 comes to mind. Also, having her take manual control during gliding re-entry in order not to end up into some hostile (mountains or open sea) area.

Rabid guinea pig in the capsule would have been fine too...

 

[statisticsnerd]

*SPOILERS BELOW*

I'd say one thing that bugged me slightly was the scene where George Clooney lets go of Sandra Bullock and drifts off. What is pulling him away from her? If she just lightly pulled him, he would start moving in her direction and he would be saved.

Then I told myself that his spacesuit had a thruster that was stuck "on" and was pulling him away from her, and we just didn't see it. Then I got over it. :lol:

 

[4throck]

None of the modules detaches on re-entry, they are ripped off by drag. At least that's what I understood from the images. Her semi-random button pushing only undocks Shenzhou.
She is unable to give any more commands or to pilot it. Once the reentry module is free, it reenters ballistically in a reasonably realistic way.
We have to believe that Shenzhou knows that it's on a reentry trajectory and activates the landing sequence. Since the vessel is shown to have voice commands / artificial intelligence, it's plausible on the movie's universe that it could to that.

 

[SolarLiner]

This is one more reason why I'll watch it in IMAX 3D just right after release:

Not only this one, but the whole soundtrack is purely amazing and gives me like one says "eargasms".

 

[Kyle]

SPOILER ALERT



Easy: instead of HST, ISS, and Tiangong, invent three other objects that have an excuse to be in such close formation with each other. ISS or Tiangong can be only one; the rest you make up with plausible reasons for being where they are. The shuttle orbiter was made up, so why not.

Also, the scene where Tiangong is about to re-enter bothered me. If all these objects are in similar 600 km orbits than there is no reason for one of them to be decaying in 3 hours. And if you're at the point where solar panels are flapping in the wind while you're still outside swimming around, I have to imagine you are already cashing in your chips. Wouldn't there be a lot of surface heating on your suit? Shockwaves? How could you maneuver your body in that drag field?

So instead of that, I would have her in a hurry to begin the Shenzou deorbit maneuver before that cloud gets back. There are other ways to dramatize that escape.

Unless the altitude was ~95kilometers up, so that it's not quite into atmospheric interface, but it's feeling the effects of the upper atmosphere. We can see this right after ET separation on the shuttle. Vehicles are still able to operate normally, but clear atmospheric effects are seen.
http://youtu.be/nf4UPQts-vA?t=8m42s

 

[Unstung]

Welp, that movie was tense for its entire duration. Considering it's fiction, having Tiangong, the ISS, and Hubble in similar orbits didn't bother me.

SPOILERS
I was going to bring up the 600 km thing, but I see it's already been noticed. During the reentry at the end, is it possible for a Shenzhou to survive facing the wrong way for that long? The heating effects were very dramatic even before the heat shield was facing the right way.



Can we get a spoiler tag on this forum?

 

[4throck]

I'd say no, the real world Shenzhou would at least have a damaged heat shield and/or severe damage to the systems. And the Gs would probably injure the passengers.

BUT the was a Soyuz that reentered with the service module attached:

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz5.htm
"The spacecraft was re-entering air-lock forward and with every minute the G forces increased. Volynov did his duty with all of his strength but this became increasingly difficult since he was hanging in the straps of his seat with the G forces assailing him in the opposite direction from what planned. Soon a strong smell penetrated the cabin - the rubber gaskets of the hermetic seal of the hatch were burning. The hatch had a light covering of heat protective resins, but at the last moment these could not hold out and the vaporised into fumes that immediately spread throughout the cabin. Volynov could remain conscious for only a few seconds after this.

He remained alive when a miracle occurred - a miracle for which he could thank the designers who had included a strong titanium frame which helped the airlock hold out against the onslaught of the superheated plasma. The PAO service module finally separated from the SA re-entry vehicle. The capsule turned around to an aerodynamically stable position at hypersonic speed and the heat shield finally took the brunt of the heating as designed. The spacecraft continued on a 9 G ballistic trajectory. The damage to the capsule resulted in a failure of the soft-landing rockets. The landing was harder than usual and Volynov broke his teeth."

 

[Andy44]

I'd say no, the real world Shenzhou would at least have a damaged heat shield and/or severe damage to the systems. And the Gs would probably injure the passengers.

BUT the was a Soyuz that reentered with the service module attached:

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz5.htm
"The spacecraft was re-entering air-lock forward and with every minute the G forces increased. Volynov did his duty with all of his strength but this became increasingly difficult since he was hanging in the straps of his seat with the G forces assailing him in the opposite direction from what planned. Soon a strong smell penetrated the cabin - the rubber gaskets of the hermetic seal of the hatch were burning. The hatch had a light covering of heat protective resins, but at the last moment these could not hold out and the vaporised into fumes that immediately spread throughout the cabin. Volynov could remain conscious for only a few seconds after this.

He remained alive when a miracle occurred - a miracle for which he could thank the designers who had included a strong titanium frame which helped the airlock hold out against the onslaught of the superheated plasma. The PAO service module finally separated from the SA re-entry vehicle. The capsule turned around to an aerodynamically stable position at hypersonic speed and the heat shield finally took the brunt of the heating as designed. The spacecraft continued on a 9 G ballistic trajectory. The damage to the capsule resulted in a failure of the soft-landing rockets. The landing was harder than usual and Volynov broke his teeth."

Good grief I've never heard that story! That poor guy is lucky he didn't die of fright.

Amazing, and very similar to the scene in the movie. I'm glad they chose not to break Sandra's teeth!

 

[Pipcard]

Just watched it and it was awesome. Not the most realistic, but I expected that.

Were those green onions on the expanded Tiangong?

Who the heck approaches the ISS at like, 10 meters per second?

 

[Kyle]

Someone who ran out of fuel I'd imagine.

 

[Pipcard]

Also, as I was walking out of the mall (the theater was connected to the mall), I saw a person with a Miku backpack. That, along with this movie, made my day.

spoiler

 

[MikeB]

[spoiler alert] At least there were no aliens.

Overall I enjoyed it. Execution was fantastic (3D wasn't overdone), excusing the technicalities that only people like us care about.

 

[Pipcard]

It's too bad that I couldn't watch it in 3D because my dad doesn't have stereo vision.

---------- Post added 10-15-13 at 12:56 PM ---------- Previous post was 10-14-13 at 06:51 PM ----------

Is this the first non-documentary film to depict a modern-day crewed spacecraft that wasn't American?

 

[Shifty]

Is this the first non-documentary film to depict a modern-day crewed spacecraft that wasn't American?

Mir was in Contact, and in this gem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_(1999_film)

 

[Hielor]

Wasn't Mir also in Armageddon?