‘Gravity’ Countdown – #3: Explorers Of Space

This week sees the UK release of GRAVITY. Written and directed by Alfonzo Cuarón, the mind behind CHILDREN OF MEN, GRAVITY stars A-listers Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. The film has been both a box-office and critically acclaimed success.

The film joins Dr Ryan Stone (Bullock) on her first space expedition aboard the Space Shuttle Explorer. Ryan is joined on her mission by veteran astronaut Max Kowalski (Clooney). The two person crew encounter problems whilst completing a routine spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

All the commotion about the film has got us at THN thinking about all things space-related. Yesterday James Story contemplated the idea of space itself and how it is portrayed within the world of film. Today I take us through some of the more iconic space explorers all of which started their journey on Earth.

Captain Steve Hiller

As Seen In: INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Played By: Will Smith.

Background: Hiller is a fighter pilot who dreams of going into space; NASA however don’t think he’s up to the job. Luckily for Hiller, aliens invade our planet and he’s the only person who can pilot one of their spacecrafts.

Mission Statement: To infiltrate the alien mothership which is orbiting Earth and upload a computer virus into it.

Space Craft: A refurbished crashed alien ship from the 1950s.

Close Encounters: Megalomaniac aliens with a penchant for exploding tourist landmarks arrive to take over Earth. Hiller is one of the first pilots tasked with engaging them.

Mission Success: Thankfully the aliens have the same computer technology as 1990s America and so the virus uploads successfully. How long the peace lasts is now in question though, with INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 working its way to the big screen.

Best Bit: ‘Welcoming’ an alien to our planet with a swift punch to the face.

Sam Bell

As Seen In: MOON.

Played By:  Sam Rockwell.

Background: In the future Earth gets it’s power from factories on the moon. Sam Bell is coming to the end of his three year contract and is two weeks from home.

Mission Statement: To oversee the harvesting of Helium 3 for company Lunar Enterprises Ltd.

Space Craft: Sam works at mining base Sarang on the far-side of the moon.

Close Encounters: During a maintenance round Sam discovers a body. What follows sees his world unravel.

Mission Success: Due to the films twisty nature Bell’s fate is a little ambiguous though production of Helium 3 continues.

Best Bit: The discovery of the body that sets off the chain reaction of events that follow.

David

As Seen In: PROMETHEUS.

Played By: Michael Fassbender.

Background:  Probably the most controversial entry, with PROMETHEUS being somewhat of a Marmite movie, but no one can argue that Fassbender’s David isn’t the best thing in it. Android David is billionaire inventor Peter Weyland’s prized creation.

Mission Statement: His official role is that of ship butler/maintenance man though it is reveled that he has a much more sinister mission involving Mr Weyland.

Space Craft: The titular Prometheus.

Close Encounters: David has the closet of encounters coming face to face with space race ‘The Engineers’, the beings who apparently created us.

Mission Success: As with most films in the genre, the mission is a complete disaster with David lucky to escape with his head. He and fellow explorer Elizabeth Shaw were last sighted piloting an alien ship in search of Paradise.

Best Bit: An exceptionally sly David spikes Holloway’s drink with an alien biological weapon.

Wall-E

As Seen In: WALL-E

Played By: Ben Burtt

Background: Potentially the most unlikely space adventurer on the list is Wall-E. The lovable fellow is a robot who has been left behind to tidy Earth after humanity has fled to the stars.

Mission Statement: Wall-E likes things to be neat, which is good considering it’s his job to keep the Earth tidy. However, after meeting and falling head over heels for search probe EVE, Wall-E takes the giant leap and ventures into space in an attempt to win her over.

Space Craft: Axiom.

Close Encounters: The foe of WALL-E isn’t an alien race or natural disaster, instead it is the ship’s computer (voiced by Sigourney Weaver) that Wall-E must contend with.

Mission Success: A resounding success; not only does the pint-sized robot manage to get the girl, he also manages to bring humanity home.

Best Bit: This adorable guy steals every scene he’s in, but his space dance with EVE and a fire extinguisher is pretty special.

Harry Stamper

As Seen In: ARMAGEDDON.

Played By: Bruce Willis.

Background: Harry Stamper is the head of an deep-sea oil drilling company. He and his close-knit group of workers are called upon by NASA after a ‘population ending’ asteroid is discovered.

Mission Statement: The plan to destroy the asteroid involves planting a nuclear bomb into a hole and exploding the rock. Harry and his rag-tag team are the only men in the world that can drill that hole.

Space Craft: The mission consists of two space shuttles, the Independence and Freedom.

Close Encounters: The asteroid causes more than a few problems with the crew along the way, though it’s William Fitchner’s Colonel Sharp who almost ruins the mission when he tries to detonate the bomb early.

Mission Success: The asteroid is destroyed and Earth is saved *hurray*, but not everyone makes it home, Harry included *sob*, cue Aerosmith.

Best Bit: It has to be when the big man presses the trigger. Sacrificing himself to save mankind. Bruce Willis we salute you.

Robert Capa

As Seen In: SUNSHINE.

Played By: Cillian Murphy.

Background: Capa is a physicist who has built a bomb that will reignite our dying Sun.

Mission Statement: Our sun is dying and the only way to save us is to deliver Capa’s bomb, or ‘payload’, directly into the Sun.

Space Craft: Icarus II.

Close Encounters: The group stumble across the first Icarus and gain an extra crew-member in the shape of Captain Pinbacker who has gone more than a little mad.

Mission Success: After several malfunctions and a meddling Pinbacker have been addressed, Icarus II and Capa deliver the payload to its destination. Back on Earth the now arctic Sydney has a sunny day.

Best Bit: Capa’s descent into the sun is both visually and audibly stunning.

Buzz Lightyear

As Seen In: TOY STORY 1, 2, and 3.

Played By: Tim Allen.

Background: Buzz Lightyear is an action toy based on a children’s show character. Our Buzz does not realise this though and believes himself to be the real deal.

Mission Statement: ‘To infinity and beyond!’

Space Craft: Technically it’s a box but to Buzz it’s his vessel provided by Star Command Mission Control.

Close Encounters: Buzz ends up in an arcade grabbing machine and encounters some three-eyed creatures that worship ‘The claw’.

Mission Success: After realising he is in actual fact a toy, Buzz decides to forgo his mission in favour of helping best friend Woody keep Andy’s toys safe from harm.

Best Bit: Demonstrating to an unbelieving Woody that he can fly.

Jim Lovell

As Seen In: APOLLO 13.

Played By: Tom Hanks.

Background: Our only entry based a real-life astronaut, Lovell is/was the commander of the Apollo 13 mission.

Mission Statement: To land on the moon.

Space Craft: Odyssey and Aquarius (Apollo 13).

Close Encounters: Everything goes wrong for the mission when a short circuit causes one of the Oxygen tanks in the Service Module to explode.

Mission Success: The real life mission is termed the successful failure. All crew arrived safely back on Earth, but they failed to land on the moon.

Best Bit: Reporting to Houston about the crafts malfunctioning oxygen tanks.

Lieutenant Ellen Ripley

As Seen In: ALIEN, ALIENS, ALIEN 3, and ALIEN RESURRECTION.

Played By: Sigourney Weaver.

Background: Ripley began as a simple flight officer aboard a mining vessel returning home to Earth, that was until her crew decided to investigate a distress signal on an uncharted planet. What followed has turned into one of the most iconic stories in science fiction.

Mission Statement: Originally it was to fly the ship alongside Kane and Dallas; it morphed into a war to eradicate an alien race.

Space Craft: Nostromo.

Close Encounters: Ripley and her team encounter a deadly species of ‘xenomorph’ which has a very uncomfortable way of being born.

Mission Success: If we want to get into the finer details the real Ellen Ripley died at the end of ALIEN 3, though her clone managed to get back to Earth, albeit about 300 years after the original’s launch.

Best Bit: It  has to be the iconic battle of the space mamas in ALIENS.

Captain James T. Kirk

As Seen In: All the STAR TREK movies.

Played By: William Shatner and Chris Pine.

Background: After growing up in Iowa, Kirk decides to en-roll in Starfleet. He then went on to become one of the most infamous space explorers in history.

Mission Statement: To boldly go…

Space Craft: The U.S.S Enterprise.

Close Encounters: By the bucket load. Kirk and his crew have encountered more than anyone’s fair share of disasters and evil beings in their journey.

Mission Success: Thanks to J.J. Abrams, the Enterprise and Kirk are still searching the final frontier.

Best Bit: The engine room scene in WRATH OF KHAN or STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS is a highlight for Kirk whichever side of the coin you’re watching.

GRAVITY will arrive in UK cinemas from Friday 8th November.