GRAVITY -- directed by Alfonso Cuaron

GrahamH said:
Cuaron had this to say about the untethering scene in an interview with Huffington Post: "What happens is she's grabbing the tethers and he comes with momentum. His momentum pulls her. They're moving together. There's a wide shot that shows they keep moving and you can see the background keeps on moving. What happens is, if he lets go, his force stops and the force of the tether takes over. And, look, by saying that, this is not a documentary. We took certain liberties"
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4018865

Neil deGrasse Tyson was unconvinced though: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4057280?utm_hp_ref=entertainment
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In the Tyson tweet he indicates a 'single tug would bring them together'... he seems to ignore the fact that they would 'come together by both moving', and that tug would release Sandra from her tenuous tether to the space craft. So, yeah, they would be together... but just out of reach of the tether to the craft.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
In the Tyson tweet he indicates a 'single tug would bring them together'... he seems to ignore the fact that they would 'come together by both moving', and that tug would release Sandra from her tenuous tether to the space craft. So, yeah, they would be together... but just out of reach of the tether to the craft.
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How would they "both" come together? She is secured by the strap around her foot, he's just floating in zero G. She wouldn't move.

Anyway, I'm taking his word for it. He's no slouch. :)
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
How would they "both" come together? She is secured by the strap around her foot, he's just floating in zero G. She wouldn't move.

Anyway, I'm taking his word for it. He's no slouch. :)
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That's the point. Her attachment to the 'massive' space station is not 'secure', in fact, appears to be just enough to support her own efforts to 'climb back' towards the station.

As Clooney induces a 'force' of tension on his end of the tether, that force will be exerted on the insecure lines on Sandra's boot, causing them to loose their hold, and Sandra will move towards Clooney.

Try it in two boats, one attached to the dock by means of a flimsy line, and another boat further out. As the person on the far boat applies force on a line connecting to the near-dock boat, both boats will move, and tension will be applied to the line connecting to the dock. (There is of course drag of the water on the boat hull, which does not exist in 'space'... but that is negligible in this gedankenexperiment'...)

Even in space 'mass' exists, and 'Force = mass * acceleration'. (On earth Weight = mass * accerlation-of-gravity... 'weightlessness' of course hinges on 'g =~ 0'. But that does not make 'mass' disappear as well...

In the case of the space craft relative to the astronaut, the effect of the force of the astronaut pulling on a tether, that is the F = ma, will have little impact on the mass of the space craft. Which of course is why one can exit the craft, move around, etc. and return by means of the tether. But between two astronauts there will be an effect proportionate to their masses.
 
I never got the feeling it would happen the way you described. Nor did Tyson, the astrophysicist.
Had Clooney untethered before his force took place on the strap around her foot, I'm right there with you.

But the way it was done in the film, after the fact, meh. It doesn't work.
I'm obviously not the only person who feels this way. The scientific community is all over it.

There are many areas in GRAVITY that throw realism right out the window. But it's just a movie.
I just felt the self sacrifice was unwarranted given their current situation.

Pulled me right out. But only momentarily.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Try it in two boats, one attached to the dock by means of a flimsy line, and another boat further out. As the person on the far boat applies force on a line connecting to the near-dock boat, both boats will move, and tension will be applied to the line connecting to the dock. (There is of course drag of the water on the boat hull, which does not exist in 'space'... but that is negligible in this gedankenexperiment'...)
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BTW, this is where I clearly disagree with your hypothesis. The drag of the water when compared to zero gravity is not negligible. Not even close. Just my 2 cents.

There's no real right or wrong when it comes to what happened in the movie. If it worked for you, cool. It just didn't work for me.

Cheers.
 
Whew! I finally saw it w/o stumbling upon any spoilers in my day-to-day.

Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Either way, that scene just doesn't "work" in the movie. Everyone I saw it with had issues with it and it seems like some people here do as well.
It just doesn't work. Took me out of the movie.

And the fact that Cuarón is trying to explain it away isn't a good sign either.
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Your quibbling about the whole 'tether' thing seems pretty minor compared to Wesley Bryan's other logistics complaints.


Also, in real life, Hubble and ISS are in completely different orbits. Hubble is much higher up than ISS by hundreds of miles and moving at a different speed along a different path. There would be no way for two astronauts with nothing but a jet pack to make the necessary course corrections to rendezvous with the ISS from Hubble's position. Even under ideal conditions, getting two orbiting spacecraft together is tricky. It's a bit like trying to intercept a bullet with another bullet, and have them gently touch in mid-air. Of course, the only realistic conclusion to the scenario presented in the movie is Bullock and Clooney slowly dying of asphyxiation after the initial accident, which would admittidly make for an unsatisfying movie.

Same problem presents itself with Bullock getting to the Chinese station. It's not quite as much of a stretch there. At least she has a damaged Soyuz, but even a fully functioning Soyuz probably wouldn't be able to make it.

The only way that the premise of this movie could possibly work is if at some point before the movie takes place, for some reason, NASA decided to spend billions of dollars moving the Hubble into an orbit where it rendezvous with the ISS, an orbit in which it not intended to go. On top of that, the Chinese decide to go to similar great effort to position their station within spitting distance of the ISS.
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The movie is f-ing rad. See it!
 
Saw it last night in IMAX 3D, like others above, I hate 3D, but this movie worked so well that it did not feel like a 3D movie even though it was if that makes sense. And wow the visuals, amazing, just seeing earth and space like that. I am so curious how they shot this but part of me want it to remain a mystery, if I find out how they shot it, it would somehow ruin the magic for me.

But it was a great movie visually and a good movie dramatically. 3/4 stars.
 
My father-in-law is an old-school engineer with an amazing work history. He worked for Grumman on the LEM lunar module, also the Hubble telescope and some declassified spy satellites (He worked in *some* capacity on these projects.....obviously they were the result of HUGE collaborative efforts).

Off topic but very cool, they would eject giant film canisters from the spy satellites that had to be retrieved by a plane with a catcher. A few times I think he said they missed and had to scramble to retrieve them from the ocean before the Russians got them. The linked article said one sank to the ocean floor.

I cannot wait till he sees Gravity so I can get his opinion on all the film's logistics, especially on the subject of the altitude difference/orbit path between the ISS and Hubble.
 
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Un-fing believable! This film was incredible. Not only visually a masterpiece, but working in such real human drama, and plot through only dialog. Amazing. Bullock's performance was the best of her career. I really hope this film gets the praise it deserves come awards season. Finally an original movie, not based on another movie or a comic book! So refreshing!
 
This is an experience to be had. I don't think I've ever been so fixated on a theater screen in my life. I've always hated (and argued) against anything in 3D, but I gave this one a shot (and in IMAX), and I honestly think that this combination is not only recommended but (imho) necessary. Watching in plain 2D surely diminishes just how amazing this experience is.

While the excitement of a freshly seen movie tends to fade after a while, I don't expect this will happen for me with this movie. I now consider this my holy grail film.
 
Just saw it at a Super Cinema here in 3D with mega watts of surround sound.

Loved the opening graphic, 'There's no sound in space' then they demonstrate the silence. So you're in the movie, in space, in the capsules, in trouble.
Breath on the face plates etc, clever stuff.

Had some trouble with Ms Bullocks character, she had repeatedly crashed their NASA simulator but seemed right at home in the Russian and Chinese modules, and instantly found the right pages in their operating manuals. But she pole dances around in brief shorts, made up for it.

And at 91mins I wondered what's been deleted. There's someone credited for Greenland Casting, there's a clue .. maybe she came ashore there
and some kids found her.

Gravity is an ideal platform for 3D fx, they're coming of age. And Gravity might just get an Oscar for Best Sound. Copy?

Cheers.
 
And Gravity might just get an Oscar for Best Sound. Copy?
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It should. "the sound of gravity" was linked a few pages back, but can we also talk about how amazing the musical score is, aside from SFX? During the crash scenes & such?
 
Scott F said:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/10/17/what-does-a-real-astronaut-think-of-gravity/#!

Another cool article from an actual astronaut that addresses MAH's biggest qualm about Gravity.

(someone find me an emoticon where the smiley face is wearing a spacesuit.) : )
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From the article...
Another huge error was – there was absolutely no reason for Clooney to sacrifice himself!!! Once Sandra caught him, he would be just floating there. A small tug on his tether would send him back to the space station.
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Couldn't agree more.

But I've seen the movie three times now and I still love it. :)
 
Scott F said:
It should. "the sound of gravity" was linked a few pages back, but can we also talk about how amazing the musical score is, aside from SFX? During the crash scenes & such?
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The music during the first crash scene was one of the main things that made that scene for me, extremely tense and goosebump raising.
 
Personally I had many problems with the movie breaking my ability to suspend my disbelief. For instance, that anyone can fly a space craft by pushing 2 buttons, that you can fly a space craft by "enny, meany, miney, moe", that you can fly a Russian or Chinese space craft by quick look at a book when you don't speak either language.

Then the whole bit about George Clunny having to unhook himself and let go. In space, one quick tug would have him moving towards the craft. He was a real throw away character.

How about that accidental re-entry angle? It's actually a very small angle to reenter earth's atmosphere. Too steep and you burn up, to shallow and you bounce off.

And on the way down the radio said they were calling off the search. So she starves to death in a foreign country's wilderness?

I could go on. You want real suspense you can believe in, go watch Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks.
 
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