Gravity (2013 movie)

Plot

Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock), a biomedical engineer from Lake Zurich, Illinois , is the NASA Space Shuttle Explorer for the first space mission, STS- 157. Veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) is commanding his final mission. During a spacewalk to service the Space Telescope Hubble , Mission Control in Houston warns the team about a Russian missile strike on a satellite defunct , which has inadvertently caused a chain reaction forming a cloud of debris in space. Mission Control orders that the mission be aborted and the crew begin re-entry immediately because of the debris is speeding towards the Shuttle. Communication with Mission Control is lost forever thereafter.

High-speed debris from the Russian satellite and the Explorer and Hubble, detaching Stone from the shuttle and leaving her tumbling through space. Kowalski, using a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), Stone recovers, and they return to the Explorer . The pair soon discovers that the Shuttle has suffered catastrophic damage and the rest of the crew are dead. Stone and Kowalski decide to use the MMU to reach the International Space Station , which is 1,450 km (900 mi) away. Kowalski estimates that they have 90 minutes before the debris field completes an orbit and threatens them again.

On their way to the International Space Station (ISS), the two discuss Stone’s home life and her daughter, who died young in an accident. As they approach, they see that the ISS crew has evacuated one of its two Soyuz TMAcapsules. The parachute of the remaining Soyuz TMA-14M has deployed, rendering the capsule useless for returning to Earth. Kowalski suggests using it to travel to the local Chinese space station Tiangong, 100 km (60 mi) away, in order to board a Chinese module to return safely to Earth. Out of air and maneuvering power, the two try to grab onto the ISS as they fly by. Stone’s leg gets entangled in the Soyuz’s parachute cords and she grabs a strap on Kowalski’s suit, but it becomes clear that the cords will not support them both. Despite Stone’s protests, Kowalski detaches himself from the tether to save her from drifting away with him. Stone is pulled back towards the ISS, while Kowalski floats away to certain death. He continues to support him.

Stone enters the space station via Airlock of Pirs Docking Compartment . She can not re-establish communication with Kowalski and concludes that she is now the sole survivor. Inside the station, fire breaks out, forcing her to rush to the Soyuz. As she is moving away from the ISS, the tangled parachute tethers prevent it from separating from the station. Stone performs a spacewalk in order to release the cables, succeeding just as debris field completes its orbit and destroys the station. Stone aligns the Soyuz with Tiangong , but discovers that Soyuz’s has no fuel.

After a poignant attempt at radio communication with a man on Earth Who speaks only Eskimo-Aleut , Stone resigns herself to being white stranded and shuts down the cabin’s oxygen supply to commit suicide. As she begins to lose consciousness , Kowalski enters the capsule. Scolding her for giving up, he tells her to ride the Soyuz’s soft landing jets to propel the capsule towards Tiangong . Stone then realizes that Kowalski’s reappearance has been hallucinated, but has not been given the strength of will to continue. She is coming back to Tiangong on momentum.

Unable to maneuver the Soyuz to dock with the station, Stone ejects herself via explosive decompression and uses a fire extinguisher as a makeshift thriller to the final meters to Tiangong , which is rapidly deorbiting . Stone then enters the Shenzhou capsule just as Tiangong starts to break up on the upper edge of the atmosphere . Stone radios that are ready to go back to Earth. After re-entering the atmosphere, Stone hears Mission Control, which is tracking the capsule and sending a rescue. But a harsh reentry and the premature jettison of the heat shield , a fire starts inside the capsule.

After a trip to the atmosphere, the capsule lands in a lake , dense density smoke forces Stone to evacuate immediately after splashdown. She opens the capsule hatch, allowing water to enter and sink it, forcing her to shed her spacesuit and swim ashore. After watching the remains of the Tiangong re-enter the atmosphere, Stone shakily takes the first steps back on land.

Cast

• Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone, ^[5] a medical engineer and mission specialist who is on her first space mission. ^[6] According to Cuarón, Stone is “a character who lives in her own bubble,” and in the film “she’s trapped in her space suit.” ^[7] Bullock’s character was extremely demanding and daunting. For her role, she is spending a lot of time with a camera. She called the experience “lonely” and said there was “frustrating, painful isolation” on set, but in the best way ^[8] and described her working day on the shoot at “morose headspace”. ^[9] She was cast in 2010,Jesse James . ^[10] The Hollywood Reporter estimated that Bullock would earn at least $ 70 million based on theatrical returns alone for the film. ^[11]
• George Clooney as Lieutenant Matt Kowalski, ^[5] the commander of the team. Kowalski is a veteran astronaut schedule to withdraw partner after the Explorer Expedition. He enjoys telling stories about himself and his team, and is determined to protect the lives of his fellow astronauts. ^[12]
• Ed Harris (voice) as Mission Control in Houston, Texas. ^[5] [13]
• Orto Ignatiussen (voice) as Aningaaq, ^[5] has Greenlandic Inuit fisherman Who intercepts one of Stone’s transmissions. Aningaaq also appears in a self-titled short, written and directed by Gravity co-writer Jonas Cuarón , which depicts the conversation between him and Stone from his perspective. ^[14] [15]
• Phaldut Sharma (voice) as Shariff Dasari, ^[5] the flight engineer on board the Explorer . ^[16]
• Amy Warren (voice) as the captain of Explorer . ^[5]
• Basher Savage (voice) as the captain of the International Space Station . ^[5]

Themes

Although Gravity is often referred to in the media as a science fiction film, ^[17] Cuarón told BBC that he sees the film rather as “a drama of a woman in space”. ^[18] According to him, the main theme of the film was “adversity” ^[9] and he uses the debris as a metaphor for this. ^[7]

In the wild, the film is being used by the shipwrecks and wilderness survivors in the aftermath of disaster. ^{[19] [20] [21] [22]} Cuarón uses the character, Stone, to illustrate clarity of mind, persistence, training, and improvisation in the face of isolation and the consequences of a relentless Murphy’s law . ^[17] The film incorporates spiritual or existential themes, in the facts of Stone’s daughter’s accidental and meaningless death, and in the necessity of summoning the will to survive in the face of overwhelming odds, without future certainties, and with the impossibility of rescue from personal dissolution without finding this willpower. ^[20]Calamities occur but only the surviving astronauts see them. ^[23]

The impact of the scene is divided between subjective and subjective perspectives, the warm face of the earth and the depths of dark space, the chaos and unpredictability of debris field, and silence in the vacuum of space effect. ^[22] [24] The film uses very long, uninterrupted shots throughout the action, but contrasts these claustrophobic shots within space suits and capsules. ^[20] [25]

Human evolution and the resilience of life can also be seen as key themes of Gravity . ^{[26] [27] [28] [29]}The film opens with the exploration of space-the climax of human civilization-and ends with an allegory of the dawn of mankind when Dr. Ryan Stone fights her way out of the water after the crash-landing, passing a frog, grabs the soil , and slowly regains its capacity to stand upright and walk. Director Cuarón said, “She’s in those murky waters like a fluid amniotic or a primordial soup.” And she’s going on all fours. After going on all the fours she’s a bit of a curse until she is completely erect. ^[27]Other imagery depicting the formation of life includes a scene in which Stone rests in an embryonic position, surrounded by a strongly resembling an umbilical cord. Stone’s return from space, accompanied by meteorite-like debris, may be seen as an essential element of the development of life on Earth in the form of meteorites. ^[30] The film also suggests themes of humanity’s ubiquitous strategy of existential resilience; that, across cultures, individuals must postulate meaning, beyond material existence, wherever none can be perceived.

Some commentators have noted possible religious themes in the film. ^{[31] [32] [33] [34]} For instance, Bro. Robert Barron in The Catholic Register summarizes the tension between Gravity’s technology and religious symbolism. He said, “The technology which this film legitimately celebrates …” The Ganges in the sun, the St. Christopher icon, The statue of Budai , and above all, a visit to a denizen of heaven, a signal that there is a dimension of reality that lies beyond what technology can master or access … the reality of God “.^[34]

Production

Development

As a child, Alfonso Cuarón had a predilection for space and dreamed of becoming an astronaut and would watch live moon landings in television. ^[9] He was 8 years old when Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 and was profoundly influenced by Neil Armstrong . At that time his grandmother was bought in a new color TV in order to be able to see the moon. ^[35] He watched space movies like A Trip to the Moon (1902) and further Top Was drawn to movies featuring the technology of space exploration, and try trying to honor the laws of physics Such As Marooned (1969) andWoman in the Moon (1929). ^[7] After Cuarón and his son, Jonás finished the screenplay, Cuarón attempted to develop his project at Universal Pictures , where he stayed in development for several years. After the rights to the project were sold, it began at Warner Bros. ^[6]

Writing

Cuarón co-wrote the screenplay with his son Jonás Cuarón. ^[7] However, Cuarón never intended to make a space film. Before conceiving the story, he started out with a theme; the theme of adversity. He would discuss survival scenarios with Jonas in hostile, isolated locations, such as the desert (Jonas wrote a desert movie, Desierto , which was released in 2015). ^[9] Finally, he has decided to take an extreme place where there is nothing, “I had this image of an astronaut spinning into the space of human communication. ^[9]

Casting

For the female lead, No. Were Fewer than ten actresses to play the role regarded before finally the choice of Sandra Bullock in October 2010. ^[36] In 2010, Angelina Jolie , Who HAD rejected a sequel to Wanted (2008), Was in touch with Warner Bros. to star in the movie. ^[6] [37] Scheduling Conflicts Involving Jolie’s Bosnian War Movie In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011) and a possible Salt (2009) sequel to Jolie’s exit to Gravity , leaving Warner Bros. with doubts that the movie would get made. ^[6]The studio approached for a second time to reconsider her decision to which Jolie again declined. ^[38] In mid-2010, Marion Cotillard screen tested the part but rather went on to accept a role in another sci-fi movie, Inception alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and comedy drama Little White Lies . ^[39] Scheduling conflicts with the TV series Gossip Girl in Manhattan and the movie acclaimed The Town in Boston prevented Blake Lively actress from getting the part. ^[39] For the female role, Cuarón was in search of a lead who was akin toTom Hanks ‘ character in Cast Away, and a wide range of thespians for the role. ^[40] Other Stars Who Were regarded for the role includes Naomi Watts , Carey Mulligan , Scarlett Johansson , Sienna Miller , Abbie Cornish , Rebecca Hall , and Olivia Wilde . ^[38]

In March, Robert Downey, Jr., entered the lead role. ^[41] In September, Cuarón received approval from Warner Bros. to offer the role without a screen test to Natalie Portman , Who Was Praised for her performance in Black Swan(2010) at That Time. ^[42] Portman rejected the project because of scheduling conflicts, and Warner Bros. then approached Sandra Bullock for the role. ^[6] In November 2010, Downey left the project to star in How to Talk to Girls -a project in development with Shawn Levy attached to live. ^[43]The following December, with Bullock signed for the co-lead role, George Clooney replaced Downey. ^[12]

Filming

Made on a budget of $ 100 million , Gravity was digitally filmed on multiple Arri Alexa cameras. Principal photography began in late May 2011. ^[44] CG elements were shot at Pinewood and Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom. ^[45] The landing scene was filmed at Lake Powell , Arizona-where the astronauts’ landing scene in Planet of the Apes (1968) was also filmed. ^[46]

Filming began in London in May 2011. ^[47] The film contains 156 shots with an average length of 45 seconds-less and more than most films of its length. ^[48] Although the first trailer had audible explosions and other sounds, these scenes are silent in the finished film. Cuarón said, “They were in explosions [in the trailer], we’re not in the movie. ^[49] The soundtrack in the film’s space scenes consists of the musical score and sounds astronauts would hear in their suits or in the space vehicles. ^[50]

For most of Bullock’s shots, it was placed inside a giant, mechanical rig. ^[51] Getting to the rig takes a significant amount of time, so bullock thing to stay in it for up to 10 hours a day, communicating with others through a headset. ^[51] Costume Designer Jany Temime said the spacesuits were fictitious – “no space suit opens up to the front – but we had to do so in order to get to the top. follows for front opening. ” ^[52]

Cuarón said his biggest challenge was to make the set feel as inviting and non-claustrophobic as possible. Bullock arrived. They nicknamed the rig “Sandy’s cage” and gave it a lighted sign. ^[51] Most of the movie was shot digitally using Arri’s Alexa Classics cameras equipped with wide Arri Master Prime lenses. The final scene, which takes place on Earth, was shot on an Arri 765 camera using 65mm film to provide the sequence with a visual contrast to the rest of the film. ^[53]

Shooting long scenes in a zero-g environment was a challenge. Eventually, the team decides to use computer-generated imagery for spacewalk scenes and automotive robots to move. ^[51] That meant that shots and blocking had been planned for the future. ^[51] It also made the production period much longer than expected. When the script was finalized, it would take a year to complete the film, but it would take four and a half years. ^[54]

Cinematography

Wanted to do tracking shots , in part because the producers wanted to film it like an IMAX -style discovery channel documentary. ^[7] Like his previous films, Emmanuel Lubezki did not use a priori as the starting point of his work on Gravity . Instead, he made a search of images from NASA and Roscosmos . He and his team put together a large collection of photographs and picked up what was best for the movie. ^[55]Lubezki said that they are based on the descriptions of astronauts, with some artistic license in depicting how the stars looked during the daytime in space. He wanted to Incorporate the stars as much as possible, to feel as deep as possible, and Avoid plain darkness and two dimensional feeling. ^[55]

Cuarón asked Lubezki to start the film with a brightly reads Earth. ^[56] This scene was challenging for the team due to the fact that it was able to move faster and more quickly. It took many months to design it and years to shoot it. ^[55] When the team designed the sequence, Lubezki had in mind one of his favorite cinematographers, Vittorio Storaro , and how did he use lighting changes in his movies. ^[56]

Visual effects

Visual effects were supervised by Tim Webber at the London-based VFX company Framestore , which was responsible for creating most of the film’s visual effects-except for 17 shots. Framestore was also heavily involved in the art direction, along with The Third Floor, the previsualization . Tim Webber stated that 80 percent of the movie consisted of CG-compared to James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), which was 60 percent CG. ^[57] Controlling the authenticity and reflection of a controlled light system by 1.8 million individually controlled LED lights was built. ^[58]The 3D imagery was designed and supervised by Chris Parks. The majority of the 3D was created by stereo rendering the CG at Framestore. The remaining footage was converted into 3D in post-production-principally at Prime Focus, London, with additional conversion work by Framestore. Prime Focus’s supervisor was Richard Baker.

Music

Steven Price composed the incidental music for Gravity . In early September 2013, a 23-minute preview of the soundtrack was released online. ^[59] A soundtrack album was released digitally on September 17, 2013, and in physical formats on October 1, 2013, by WaterTower Music . ^[60] Songs featured in the film include: ^[61]

• “Angels Are Hard to Find” by Hank Williams, Jr.
• ” Mera Joota Hai Japani ” by Shailendra and Shankar Jaikishan
• “Sinigit Meerannguaq” by Juaaka Lyberth
• Destination Anywhere by Chris Benstead and Robin Baynton
• “922 Anthem” by Djay Adx and Gaurav Dayal ^[62]
• “Ready” by Charles Scott (featuring Chelsea Williams)

In MOST of the movie’s official trailers, Spiegel im Spiegel , written by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt in 1978 Was used. ^[63]

Release

Gravity had its world premiere at the 70th Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2013, and had its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival . ^[64] It was released in the US in 3D and IMAX 3D on October 4, 2013 and in the UK on November 8, 2013. ^[65] [66] The movie’s US release coincided with The Beginning of World Space Week , qui Was The film was originally scheduled to be released in the US on November 21, 2012, before being rescheduled for a 2013 release to allow the completion of extensive post-production work. ^[67]

Box office

Gravity emerged as one of the most successful sci-fi movies of all time and the biggest box office. Sandra Bullock’s and George Clooney’s careers. ^[68] It became the highest-grossing feature film in October, topping the animated Puss In Boots , which took in $ 555 million globally in 2011. ^[69] Bullock’s previous highest-grossing movie was Speed ($ 350.2 million) while Clooney’s benchmark was Ocean’s Eleven ($ 450.6 million). ^[68]

Preliminary reports predicted the film would open with takings of over $ 40 million in the USA and Canada. ^[70] [71] The film earned $ 1.4 million from its Thursday night shows, ^[72] and reached $ 17.5 million on Friday. ^[73] Gravity topped the box and broke the record held by Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) as the highest-earning October and autumn openings, grossing $ 55.8 million from 3,575 theaters. ^[74] 80 percent of the film’s opening weekend gross from its 3D showings, which grossed $ 44.2 million from 3,150 theaters. $ 11.2 million-20 percent of the receipts-cam from IMAX 3D shows, the highest percentage for a film opening of more than $ 50 million. ^[75]The film stayed at the box office during its second and third weekends. ^[76] [77] IMAX alone generated $ 34.7 million from 323 theaters, a record for IMAX opening in October. ^[78]

Gravity earned $ 27.4 million in its opening weekend over $ 27 million with $ 2.8 million from roughly 4,763 screens. Warner Bros. said the 3D showing “exceeded all expectations” and generated 70% of the opening gross. ^[78] In China, its second largest market, the film opened on November 19, 2013 and faced competition with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire which opened on November 21, 2013. At the end of the weekend Gravity emerged victorious, generating $ 35.76 million in six days. ^[79] It ouvert at number one in the United Kingdom, Taking GB £ 6.23 million over the first weekend of release, ^[80] and Remained there for the second week. ^[81]The films were highly significant in Russia and CIS ($ 8.1 million), Germany ($ 3.8 million), Australia ($ 3.2 million), Italy ($ 2.6 million) and Spain ($ 2.3 million). ^[78] The film’s largest markets outside North America were China ($ 71.2 million), ^[82] the United Kingdom ($ 47 million) and France ($ 38.2 million). ^[83] By February 17, 2014, the film had grossed $ 700 million worldwide. ^[84] Gravity grossed $ 274,092,705 in North America and $ 449,100,000 in other countries, making a worldwide gross of $ 723,192,705-making it the eighth-highest-grossing movie of 2013 . ^[3] Calculating in all expenses, Deadline.comestimated that the film made a profit of $ 209.2 million. ^[85]

According to the Excipio website, Gravity was one of the most copyright-infringed movies of 2014 with over 29.3 million downloads via torrent sites . ^[86]

Critical reception

Gravity received critical acclaim. ^[88] Critics praised the acting, direction, cinematography, visual effects, and use of 3D. ^[89] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records 96% positive reviews based on 314 reviews, and an average score of 9/10. The site’s consensus states: “Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity is an eerie, tense sci-fi thriller that’s masterfully directed and visually stunning.” ^[90] On a Metacritic , which assigns a normalized rating of the film based on a score of 96 based on 49 reviews, indicating “universal acclaim”, making it the second-highest scoring widely released film of its year. ^[91] InCinemaScorepolls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Gravity an average grade of A- on year A + to F scale. ^[75] CinemaScore later issued an apology for the grade, saying they should have limited the poll to 3D showings instead of 2D and 3D screenings ( The Hollywood Reporter said the movie was “playing like” in A + movie). ^[92]

Matt Zoller Seitz , writing on RogerEbert.com , Gave the movie to the stars, calling it “a huge and technically dazzling film and that movie’s panoramas of astronauts tumbling against starfields and floating through space station” “. ^[93] Justin Chang, writing for Variety , said that the film “restores a sense of wonder, terror and possibility to the big screen that should inspire awe among critics and audiences worldwide”. ^[94] Richard Corliss of Timepraised Cuarón for playing “daringly and dexterously with point-of-view: at one moment you’re inside Ryan’s helmet as she surveys the bleak silence, then in a subtle shift you’re outside to gauge her reaction.” The 3-D effects , added in post-production, provide their own extraterrestrial startle: a hailstorm of debris hurtles at you, a space traveler’s thoughts at the realization of being truly alone in the universe. ” ^[87]

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian gives the film a brilliant and imaginative creation that engulfs you utterly. ^[95] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph also awarded the film five out of five stars. ^[96]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gives the film four stars, stating that the movie was “more than a movie.” It’s some kind of miracle. ^[97] AO Scott , writing for The New York Times , highlighted the use of 3-D which he said, “surpasses even what James Cameron accomplishes in the flight sequences of Avatar “. Scott also said that the film “in a little more than 90 minutes rewrites the rules of cinema as we know them”. ^[98] Quentin Tarantino said it was one of his top ten movies of 2013. ^[99] Empire , Time , and Total Film ranked the film as the best of 2013.^{[100] [101] [102]}

Some critics have compared Gravity with other notable films set in space. Lindsey Weber of Vulture.com said the choice of Ed Harris for the voice of Mission Control is a reference to Apollo 13 . ^[103] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter suggests the way “a weightless” Alien (1979). ^[24] Other critics made connections with 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). ^[104] James Cameron”I think it is the best space ever done, I think it’s the best space movie ever done, and it’s the movie I’ve been hungry to see for an awful long time.” ^[105] Empire Online, Ask Men and The Huffington Post aussi regarded Gravity to be one of the best space movie ever made, ^{[106] [107] [108]} though Huffington Post later included Gravity on Their list of “8 Movies From The Last 15 Years That Are Super Overrated “. ^[109] Gravity was ranked second on Metacritic’s Film Critic Top Ten List scorecard for 2013. ^[110]

Accolades

Gravity received ten nominations at the 86th Academy Awards ; Together with American Hustle , Best Picture , Best Actress for Bullock, and Best Production Design . ^[111] The film won the best of the night with seven Academy Awards : for Best Director , Best Cinematography , Best Visual Effects , Best Film Editing , Best Original Score , Best Sound Editing , and Best Sound Mixing . ^{[112][113] [114]} The film is second only to Cabaret (1972) to receive the most Academy Awards in its best year for Best Picture.

Cuarón won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director , and the film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama , Best Actress – Drama for Bullock and Best Original Score . ^[115] [116]

Gravity received eleven nominations at the 67th British Academy Awards Film , more than any other film of 2013. Its nominations included Best Film , Outstanding British Film , Best Director , Best Original Screenplay , and Best Actress in a Leading Role . Cuarón was the most-nominated person at the awards; he was nominated for five awards, including his nominations as producer for Best Film awards and editor. ^[117] [118] Despite not winning Best Film, Gravity won six awards, the greatest number of awards in 2013. It won the awards for Outstanding British Film, Best Direction, Best Original Music, Best Cinematography , Best Sound , and Best Visual Effects . ^[119] [120]

Gravity also won the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. ^[121]

Home media

Gravity was released on digital download on February 11, 2014, and was released on DVD , Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray on February 25, 2014, in the United States and on March 3, 2014, in the United Kingdom. ^[122] As of March 16, 2014, Gravity has sold 908,756 DVDs along with 957,355 Blu-ray Discs for $ 16,465,600 and $ 22,183,843, respectively, for a total of $ 38,649,443. ^[123] Gravity was also offered for free on Google Play and Nexus devices from late October 2014 to early November 2014.

A special edition Blu-ray was released on March 31, 2015. The release includes a “Silent Space Version” of the film which omits the score composed by Steven Price. ^[124]

Scientific accuracy

Cuarón has stated that Gravity is not always scientifically accurate and that some liberties were needed to sustain the story. ^[125] “This is not a documentary,” Cuarón said. “It’s a piece of fiction.” ^[126] The film has been praised for the realism of its premises and its overall adherence to physical principles, despite several inaccuracies and exaggerations. ^{[127] [128] [129]}According to NASA Astronaut Michael J. Massimino , who took part in Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Missions STS-109 and STS-125, “nothing was out of place, nothing was missing.” There was one of a kind wirecutter we used on one of my spacewalks and sure enough they had that wirecutter in the movie. ^[130]

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin called the visual effects “remarkable”, and said, “I was so extravagantly impressed by the portrayal of the reality of zero gravity. The spinning is going to happen-maybe not quite so vigorous-but certainly we’ve been fortunate that we’re in the business, especially in outside the spacecraft. ” ^[131] NASA astronaut trainer Garrett Reisman said, “The pace and story was definitely engaging and I think it was the best use of the 3-D IMAX medium to date.Rather than using the medium as a gimmick, GravityIt’s a very good place to be. But the question that most people want to answer is, how realistic was it? The very fact that the question is being asked so much is a testament to the verisimilitude of the movie. When a bad science fiction movie comes out, let me remind you of the real thing. ” ^[132]

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson , astronomer and skeptic Phil Plait , and NASA veteran astronaut and spacewalker Scott E. Parazynski have commented on some of the most “glaring” inaccuracies. ^{[129] [133] [134]} The Dissolve characterized these complaints as “absurd”, problems “only an astrophysicist would find”. ^[135]

Examples of differences from reality include:

• Several observers (including Plait and Tyson) said that in the scene in which Kowalski unclips his tether and floats away to his death stone. . According to the movie’s science adviser Kevin Grazier and NASA engineer Robert Frost, however, are still decelerating with Stone’s legends in parachute cords from the Soyuz. The stretch cords as they absorb her kinetic energy. Kowalski thinks that the cords are not strong enough to absorb his kinetic energy, and that he must release the tether to give him a chance of stopping before the cords fail and doom both of them. ^[136]
• By the time the first module of Tiangong-1, the Chinese space station, was launched in 2011, the US Space Shuttles had been retired from service. ^[137]
• Stone is shown not wearing liquid-cooled ventilation garments or even socks, which are always worn under the EVA to protect against extreme temperatures in space. Neither was she shown wearing space diapers . ^[129]
• Stone’s tears first roll down her face in micro-gravity, and are later seen floating off her face. The surface tension is not sufficient for the tears to continue adhering to her jawline. ^[138] However, the film correctly portrays the spherical nature of drops of liquidity in a micro-gravity environment. ^[128]
• The Hubble Space Telescope, which is being repaired at the beginning of the movie, previously had an altitude of about 559 kilometers (347 mi) and an orbital inclination of 28.5 degrees. As of the release of the movie, the ISS had an altitude of around 420 kilometers (260 mi) and an orbital inclination of 51.65 degrees. The significant differences between orbital parameters would have made it impossible to travel between two spacecraft without precise preparation, planning, calculation, the appropriate technology, and a large quantity of fuel at the time. ^{[128] [129] [134]}
• Clooney’s use of the MMU as His personal jet packs zipping around the spacewalking szene Was Criticized by Time ‘ s Jeffery Kluger as being white unrealistic. NASA’s spacewalks are strictly choreographed in advance. ^[139]

Despite the inaccuracies in Gravity , Tyson, Plait and Parazynski said they enjoyed watching the movie. ^{[129] [133] [134]} Aldrin said he hoped that the film would be stimulated by the viewer’s view of the future. ^[131]