# Gravity! \[open spoilers\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950 "2013-05-10T01:41:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/181 "2013-10-09T13:37:19Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I thought Bullock’s acting was great. I forgive her for the abortion that is The Blind Side, because she shined so hard in this movie. . Even though _The Blind Side_ was a bit treacly for my tastes, I have to point out that she acted the hell out of it. And of course she was really good here as well, although I wish they had stripped away some of the manufactured drama of her daughter. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/182 "2013-10-10T17:49:26Z")
> [@jharvey963](#): > > First comment. I thought the movie was very accurate on most aspects in space. One thing that struck me as inaccurate, though, was Sandra’s tears drifting off. I remember seeing a youtube video by that Canadian astronaut about wringing out a wet washrag. Even though he wrung it hard, all of the water stayed with the rag. So her tears should have stayed in her eyes. Yes, I know this the nit of nit-pickiness. 😃 That scene stuck out for me as well. The idea that her tears would form little floating globs was cute and all, but come on, both cohesion _and_ adhesion work in space! Her non-moving hair also kind of spoiled the weightless effect at times. Those nits aside, I thought it was a very entertaining 90 minutes and worth every penny of the ticket price. This has to be the best use of 3D I have seen since _Avatar_ or _Cave of Forgotten Dreams_. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/183 "2013-10-10T18:10:48Z")
I think a few minutes before that scene, she floated past some equipment on fire in one of the space stations. There were a few globs of flame floating away from the main fire. I thought that was interesting, but I don’t know if it was realistic. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/184 "2013-10-10T18:36:03Z")
[Here’s what happens when you light a fire in space.](http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/276950/fire-in-space/) (video) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/185 "2013-10-10T19:04:43Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I suppose some people would have been happier if Bullock had a huband on the ground calling out to her, and scenes of the family huddled around a TV set watching the drama. Maybe for good measure Bullock could have been having an affair with Clooney? Or perhaps there could have been a political element and breathless scenes in the White House of a President trying to work the problem. > > God save us from that kind of plot. > > … > The best parts of Apollo 13 were the scenes where the engineers and astronauts were going to heroic efforts to come up with engineering solutions to a bad problem. The weakest parts of the movie were the traditional ‘plot’ elements involving rebellious daughters, scared wives, and obnoxious reporters. Likewise, “The Right Stuff” was made weaker when Ridley Scott decided he had to work some weird Aboriginal tribal mumbo-jumbo into the story to make it ‘deep’. > > Thank God this director didn’t subject us to more ‘plot’. I don’t know. I thought a couple of things could have made this movie better: -A rousing speech by the President of the United States, addressing the entire world. -Sex scene between Kowalski and Dr Stone (I assumed they banged anyway). -A crazed psychopath on board the Chinese space station. -They are on a mission to Mars to save humanity…from an asteroid…that’s about to knock out the sun -Dr Stone has to kick a stowaway out of the Shenzhou capsule to drop enough weight to land safely with the cure to cancer. -They have an adorable robot mascot…who goes crazy and murders everyone. -Interspersed scenes of Dr Stone’s older daughter on Earth and her drug problems. Best space movie ever.😃 Seriously though. I thought the film Sunshine was similar to Gravity when it focused on the “space as a lonely and unforgivingly dangerous place to travel” theme. That film sort of went off the rails when it tried to do more and turned into a “monster on a space ship” film. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/186 "2013-10-11T13:37:25Z")
Saw it in 3D last night. My first reaction was disappointment, but I think that’s unfair. More on that later. In regards to the film having “plot,” I think it’s got plenty. There’s a lot of activity to get from point A to point Z; it’s not like 2001 where nothing happens for 2 hours. It does lack any deep drama or character development. In [this interview in Wired](http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/10/center_of_gravity/), director Alfonso Cuaron says of Sandra Bullock’s character, [QUOTE=Alfonso Cuaron] Sandra Bullock is caught between Earth and the void of the universe, just floating there in between. We use the debris as a metaphor for adversity. She’s a character who lives in her own bubble, and in the film she’s trapped in her space suit. She’s a character who has trouble communicating, and here she literally starts having communication problems. She’s a character who needs to shed her skin to move on, and in the film she needs to get out of her astronaut suit because it’s suffocating her. In the end, the story is about rebirth as a possible outcome of adversity. [/QUOTE] Clearly that’s what he was going for with all those bits jammed in about her kid dying, her floating in the womb of the space station, her rebirth from the ocean, but it was all so very shallow. I found myself wanting for her to drift off into space like George Clooney at a lot of points, because I didn’t care about her as a character and I thought it would be a more interesting movie if they examined that angle of death. My other chief complaint is that the action is so very _preposterous_, and not from a science/realism perspective. It’s like how every bomb countdown timer has to get to 1 because it creates “tension.” But eventually audiences get tension fatigue, and I started rolling my eyes about how every step of the plot had to happen just in the nick of time, whether it was oxygen running out, CO2 building up, grabbing the last rope or handle every time they floated off, using the last bit of propellant, or disembarking just as the parent vehicle was blowing up. Every. Single. Scene. Apollo 13 managed to create a lot more tension without resorting to such gimmicky cliches every 10 minutes, and that was a story with a publicly known ending. All that said, after sleeping on it I don’t think it’s important to focus on those negatives. The attention to detail was absolutely phenomenal. The sounds, the movement, the scenery, it was all 100% top notch. The fact that I was able to nitpick it as a movie means, I think, that I wholeheartedly accepted the environment, and that’s a good thing. Overall, I’d give the movie a solid A. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/187 "2013-10-11T16:01:29Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > My other chief complaint is that the action is so very _preposterous_, and not from a science/realism perspective. It’s like how every bomb countdown timer has to get to 1 because it creates “tension.” But eventually audiences get tension fatigue, and I started rolling my eyes about how every step of the plot had to happen just in the nick of time, whether it was oxygen running out, CO2 building up, grabbing the last rope or handle every time they floated off, using the last bit of propellant, or disembarking just as the parent vehicle was blowing up. Every. Single. Scene. Apollo 13 managed to create a lot more tension without resorting to such gimmicky cliches every 10 minutes, and that was a story with a publicly known ending. That’s a valid point. The fact that George Clooney had to be on his “last mission” (we call that “retirony”). That Dr Stone just HAD to have one more narrow escape with the water landing. Shit, I thought she would get tangled up in the seaweed just for good measure. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/188 "2013-10-11T16:13:35Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Shit, I thought she would get tangled up in the seaweed just for good measure. I asked my wife if Bullock’s character was going to get attacked by sharks next. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/189 "2013-10-11T16:24:44Z")
it’s like doing Parkour in a metal scrap yard. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/190 "2013-10-11T16:40:06Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I don’t know. I thought a couple of things could have made this movie better: > -A rousing speech by the President of the United States, addressing the entire world. > -Sex scene between Kowalski and Dr Stone (I assumed they banged anyway). > -A crazed psychopath on board the Chinese space station. > -They are on a mission to Mars to save humanity…from an asteroid…that’s about to knock out the sun > -Dr Stone has to kick a stowaway out of the Shenzhou capsule to drop enough weight to land safely with the cure to cancer. > -They have an adorable robot mascot…who goes crazy and murders everyone. > -Interspersed scenes of Dr Stone’s older daughter on Earth and her drug problems. > Best space movie ever.😃 Ha, that’s basically what Warner Brothers wanted: [http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=29651](http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=29651) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/191 "2013-10-11T16:45:22Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > She goes from not being able to let go and being unable to pray, to being reborn from the capsule-womb minutes after “letting go” of her daughter and praying for Kowalski to say hi to her. > [@msmith537](#): > > That Dr Stone just HAD to have one more narrow escape with the water landing. I assumed that was Cuaron’s clumsy notification of the ‘rebirth’ theme for those who’d missed the floating fetus shot earlier. But it also annoyed me as well, though I was mildly rooting for her to drown because it would have just been so unexpected. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/192 "2013-10-11T16:58:46Z")
Relative to what she’s gone through, she’s not really in much danger in the water. Getting out of the suit is ‘necessary’ so she can emerge as close to naked as American mass audiences can handle. It’s not so much a notification of the theme as the realization of it. A lot of people seem to be taking this all too literally. It works better if you just accept that it’s paintings and shamanism. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/193 "2013-10-11T18:24:08Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > And a redemption myth at that. She goes from not being able to let go and being unable to pray, to being reborn from the capsule-womb minutes after “letting go” of her daughter and praying for Kowalski to say hi to her. Nice. When the camera pans up her body, it is attractive, but as a heroic statue of a goddess - carved in perfect marble. That and the Fetus in the Airlock sell this rebirth/transformation clearly. And, wow: female empowerment has never been so mythologized. She _IS_ Woman. (I mean this in a very complimentary way - she presents her heroic nature in a great way). Saw it. Agreed with those who call it a game-changer. No one is discussing the 3D - i.e., dissecting it’s “integration” with the rest of the movie. That was _seamless_ with this movie. It was a game-changer in the immersiveness of the experience. **Stranger On A Train** , thank you for your conrtext, and your balance between tech detail and an understanding of the movie experience. This will hold up to multiple viewings - I wonder which population groups will flock to it repeatedly? Women/girls for its pro-woman subtext? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/194 "2013-10-11T18:36:45Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Getting out of the suit is ‘necessary’ so she can emerge as close to naked as American mass audiences can handle. No, getting out of the spacesuit was necessary because she would drown if she stayed in it, as Gus Grissom almost did. Without the helmet they fill with water and then you drown. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I read a review which claimed that Bullock’s climb out of the water was like the first fish that learned to walk on land - a symbolic triumph over the struggle against a harsh environment or something. Personally, I thought the director was just being true to the fact that after spending a long time in orbit it takes some time to get your ‘Earth Legs’ back. Yes, it was another struggle she had to go through, but it was a realistic one. You can always find symbolism if you look for it. If she had gotten up quickly and strutted powerfully out of the water, I’m sure some reviewers would have said that was an intentional display of her ‘triumph’, or perhaps symbolic of how man was meant to be on Earth and not in space, or some other nonsense. As for her fetal position in the ISS, I don’t think that was meant to be symbolic in any way other than to show that she was utterly spent physically and emotionally and at that point just wanted to curl up and rest. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/195 "2013-10-11T18:41:18Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > As for her fetal position in the ISS, I don’t think that was meant to be symbolic in any way other than to show that she was utterly spent physically and emotionally and at that point just wanted to curl up and rest. You say Potato, I say Reborn Survivor-Goddess Fetus. 😉 I liked the “overlap” between getting her Earth Legs back, and the evolutionary symbolism. Layers, I tell you! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/196 "2013-10-11T18:41:35Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > As for her fetal position in the ISS, I don’t think that was meant to be symbolic in any way other than to show that she was utterly spent physically and emotionally and at that point just wanted to curl up and rest. Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m usually the first to scoff when people start reading into things way too much, but that scene was pretty blatant. If that scene wasn’t meant to evoke a fetus, then nothing in the movie meant anything other than it’s most literal, surface level interpretation. And for a movie that relies so heavily on myths and archetypes, that seems entirely implausible. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/197 "2013-10-11T18:43:50Z")
And please: with the various floating tubes - could they _be_ more umbilical?! You don’t haveta be Fellini to see this (paraphrased from George Carlin…) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/198 "2013-10-11T18:45:39Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > No, getting out of the spacesuit was necessary because she would drown if she stayed in it, as Gus Grissom almost did. Without the helmet they fill with water and then you drown. You’re confusing device with content. This isn’t based on a true story. _Everything_ in it happens because it serves the vision of the filmmakers. There’s no ‘reason’ for the capsule to land in water at all, nor the hatch to be opened before the rescue chopper arrives, except to create the necessity of shedding the suit and the scene of emerging onto the shore. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/199 "2013-10-11T18:53:30Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > No, getting out of the spacesuit was necessary because she would drown if she stayed in it, as Gus Grissom almost did. Without the helmet they fill with water and then you drown. > > Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. > > I read a review which claimed that Bullock’s climb out of the water was like the first fish that learned to walk on land - a symbolic triumph over the struggle against a harsh environment or something. > > Personally, I thought the director was just being true to the fact that after spending a long time in orbit it takes some time to get your ‘Earth Legs’ back. Yes, it was another struggle she had to go through, but it was a realistic one. > > You can always find symbolism if you look for it. If she had gotten up quickly and strutted powerfully out of the water, I’m sure some reviewers would have said that was an intentional display of her ‘triumph’, or perhaps symbolic of how man was meant to be on Earth and not in space, or some other nonsense. > > As for her fetal position in the ISS, I don’t think that was meant to be symbolic in any way other than to show that she was utterly spent physically and emotionally and at that point just wanted to curl up and rest. It can, in fact, be all of these things at the same time. In fact, I’d argue that Cuaron’s ability to meld technical accuracy with thematic symbols is the strongest argument for his strength as a filmmaker. It’s what elevates “Gravity” from visceral thrill-ride to art. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950/200 "2013-10-11T18:55:31Z")
> [@Tanbarkie](#): > > It can, in fact, be all of these things at the same time. In fact, I’d argue that Cuaron’s ability to meld technical accuracy with thematic symbols is the strongest argument for his strength as a filmmaker. It’s what elevates “Gravity” from visceral thrill-ride to art. Agreed. Layers! There’s a fine line between a simple story and a _legend_. He really swung for the fences with this one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gravity-open-spoilers/657950.md?page=11)