We Recommend: A Movie Podcast
We Recommend is a movie podcast where every week Jesse and Jason discuss a movie that they love and recommend you to watch and then come back and listen to their podcast!
We Recommend: A Movie Podcast
Gravity
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Space is gorgeous until it’s trying to kill you. We recommended Gravity, then came back to unpack why Alfonso Cuarón’s space survival thriller still feels like the tightest 90 minutes in modern blockbuster filmmaking and why it can make you realize you haven’t breathed in a while.
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Music produced by Joey Prosser. X @mrjoeyprosser
Welcome And Why Space Terrifies Us
SPEAKER_03Hello and welcome to the We Recommend Podcast, a movie podcast where every week we recommend a movie for you to watch and then come back here and listen to us discuss. I'm Jesse. I'm Jason. I hate space. Cuz this week we recommend Gravity. Let's go! So, um, how many times have you seen this before? I have. Well, how'd you watch it? Like theaters or did you just at home? Like it? I loved it. Yeah. This movie, oh my god.
SPEAKER_00It's incredible.
SPEAKER_03It's a spectacle to behold. Just like the camera floating in space. Like just at the beginning, just slowly zooming in, going around them. I'm like, I was just like, this is so pretty. It's a beautiful. I wish I would have seen this in IMAX or something.
SPEAKER_00Like IMAX for VDE.
SPEAKER_03It was amazing.
SPEAKER_00Like when she's spinning and flipping, it was like you give her a go and you like to throw up a little bit into your popcorn bucket.
SPEAKER_03It wasn't too bad. One of the movies that gave me that feeling was um Joseph Gordon Levitt and The Walk. It's like where he walked between two buildings. That one guy, the French guy. Anything? Anybody testing one, two, three? I can't remember his name, but it was a mediocre movie. But there was just like one shot where, like, you know, I saw an IMAX and it just kind of pans down where he's like on the uh, I think it was the Twin Towers that they walked over. Um, and it was just like immediately like sink. I was like, whoa. And then the rest of the movie was a disappointment. No, but this uh I don't know, it's just the camera floating through space is so fantastic. And this movie's like 80% CGI, I read. Um looks great. No, it looks incredible. I mean, looks all everything always looks better in the theater, but even on my TV, I'm like, man, the CGI is amazing, other than some of the floating objects where it's like eh, you know, it's rough around the edges, but that's how all especially watching on the TV, it always looks a little worse.
SPEAKER_00For sure. Yeah, I don't know. I thought it had a lot uh it reminded me a lot of like Space Odyssey and
Visuals That Demand A Theater
SPEAKER_00like Apollo 13 and a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_03Um so when do you think like so you really just in a movie like this you need someone that you really like like acting in it? Do you think George Clooney and Sandy Bullocks was like the perfect combination in terms of like just being like alright, you got two people in the movie that you're really gonna hear from, other than Ed Harris, and you know, you gotta be comforted when Ed Harris is in Houston, you know. Uh but it's like you kind of want to be comforted throughout the movie. You also want people that can make it feel really bad about. And I feel like if they pick the two perfect people, especially when George Clooney pops up and she's having the hallucination, he pops up and he's got that his charming, suave smile. And I'm like, yeah, this would make me get back to Earth too. George Clooney just popped in here, and then you know I don't know. And no woman would ever let George Clooney go. And then yeah, and Sandra Bullock, she's you know, I don't know, she's one of my favorite actresses. She's incredible. She's always like just brings joy to me because she's funny and great, and seeing her in so much distress made me really feel bad.
SPEAKER_00I know. So it was I think the other name for this movie was probably Clenched Anus. Yeah. Or like forget to breathe for a little while. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I don't know. It's like I could see like other people just do going a little too overboard, especially with like the hyperventilating. I thought she did a great job with that. Um, only reason I asked that is because two people that almost were in the movie, I guess, were Robert Downey Jr. and um oh my god, how am I forgetting her name? Laura Croft, Angelina Jolie. Um, those were two options for it. And I was just like I think they've probably been good. I mean, but I'm just like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00The script is so minimal.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like, I feel like with that kind of script, Robert Downer Jr. would probably be been okay, but like Angelina Jolie, you know, it's just Angelina Jolie would be like, shut up.
SPEAKER_03I'm trying to do a mission here.
SPEAKER_00Um no.
SPEAKER_03Um, do you do you find the plot um too unbelievable?
SPEAKER_00Uh no, because like destroying satellites in space is a real thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah,
Casting Choices And Performance Power
SPEAKER_03it's just like the I don't think any human would be able to do this, but some people just there is just some comments on the internet. I was like, it looks great and it was fun, but it's just like I couldn't get out of my head on just like how ridiculous this plot is. I'm like, what? It's a fucking well, you know, like float all the floating through space and then you know, like barely having to grab things. I mean, they bump into things so hard in this movie, it's like y'all are your helmets would die, right? I mean, like I mean, I think they're designed for that. I don't think it's too unbelievable. Also, because it's a movie. It was just I saw some comments and I was like, chill out, guys. Yeah, it's an hour and three-minute fun day.
SPEAKER_00I watched um I was I was looking at videos about this movie, and Neil deGrasse Tyson was saying that he really applauded the realism of the movie, and like he the only things he had a problem with were like, why would you send a medical doctor to space to fix a satellite? And then also the surface, like when she was crying, like the tears bubbled out and like floated. Like, really, your tears have so much surface tension on your face that they wouldn't double. They wouldn't do that. But that was like that was it, yeah. And and he's a he's an astrophysicist.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's like I wonder if maybe after like her daughter died, she's like, I want to get into astronaut business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I feel like, yeah, and I feel like that's kind of her whole thing. It's like her daughter died, so she was willing to leave the planet. Yeah, to get away from it. Yeah, the galaxy. Or she just wanted to do anything to to leave and and not think about get as far away from the memory of her daughter as possible, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And it's like, what's the most stressful situation that would make me not think about anything possible? Oh, in space.
SPEAKER_02Working on a panel.
SPEAKER_00And not grabbing my wrench or tethering it to myself. Yeah. Do you have a favorite space movie? Uh yeah, for sure. I mean Well, what what's one of them? Or like I think one of them is uh the fifth element. Oh yeah. But I mean, it that's kind of a I don't know if that kind of fits this, but like as far as this realm, I was a huge fan of Apollo 13. Yeah. Um of course Star Wars. I always like Star Wars. Star Wars.
SPEAKER_03But honestly, this is one of my and then Alien. Yeah, Alien's. But Gravity is definitely one of my favorite space movies. It's probably in the top five. It's just it rips. It fucking rips.
SPEAKER_00It does rip. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful movie to watch. Yeah. But it's I caught myself just holding my breath for a while.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00And you know, my wife was in the room watching like while I was watching the movie, and she's like, Are you okay?
SPEAKER_01Action scene. It was like, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this is in terms of movies that have made me like realize, like, oh, I sh I didn't breathe for a while. It's like between this and Mad Max Fury Road, like the chase scene, and then when it finally goes quiet for a minute, it's like, oh god, I was so stressed. But yeah, this movie gives probably two to three times where I'm just like my shoulders are pushed punched forward. I'm like, uh, we'll get there when we get to the plot. But yeah, have you ever wanted to be an astronaut?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I think every kid dreams of that, but like I I yeah, I never thought of it as being a reality for myself.
SPEAKER_03As a kid, I don't even think I wanted it. I always think I think I think space is a little creepy. Well creepy. It's one of those things where it's like most space movies when you're a kid, they're all like, oh, they're taking their helmets off. They can toss everything. Nothing's a big deal. Magic. But then once you get to like, you know, you start watching more mature movies, and it's like, I don't know, space kind of sucks.
SPEAKER_00I know. I think Apollo, but it sucks. I think Apollo 13 really shaped a lot of that for me. Because I saw them like being like super stressed out. I'm like, I don't know. I don't think I could do that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't I don't think I want to do that. There's also just too many buttons in a spaceshop.
SPEAKER_00There's so many buttons. Why is there so many? And they don't have names on them. They're not marked. Like like, I mean, they may be to the side. They might have a number or something like that. They're just like lights, light, lit lit up buttons.
SPEAKER_03It's like, I'm sorry, could you put a paragraph on there? So many goddamn buttons.
Realism Checks And Space Movie Favorites
SPEAKER_03Like, how do you know what you're gonna press? I do love when like people get in spaceships and just start pressing buttons.
SPEAKER_00I'm always like, they know exactly which one. Which I like that because Sandra Bullock, like she got into the Shin Zu. Yeah, the Chinese one when she's just like, I don't know. She's like, maybe this one. Yeah, try the next.
SPEAKER_03So last little question. If you were left floating in space, what would you do? Would you just would you open your helmet and just die, or would you just wait till your oxygen ran out?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I'd I'd do what George did. I'd turn on Hank Williams or whatever I had loaded into my wrist, my my pit boy. And just float just float.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And just enjoy the I think the best, the easiest and best thing death was probably uh I can't remember his name, but the guy that was just kind of right in the face. I'm like, it seemed like a pretty quick death. It seemed like, oh, through face you're dead, now frozen. Dude, half of his face was fucking gone. That was weird. And then whenever I saw, I was like, ooh, I forgot you can see through it.
SPEAKER_00That was incredible. Yeah. It's just fucking Two Face.
SPEAKER_03So this movie is directed by Alfonso Curon, who um man, the guy has some bangers. Uh Children of Men in this. I mean perfect films here. Children of Men is really good. Yeah. I mean, and then he's got he's also did Roma, which is up for best pick. Um then I'm not gonna say it because I always say it wrong. Uh yeah. Uh it's his first movie, it's really good. Um trying to think, like, how many what Oscars did this get? So it won seven Academy Awards. Uh Alfonso Carran has best director, best cinematography, best film editing, best original score, best sound editing, best sound mixing, best visual effects. Um, and it's like, uh duh. Of course they got all those. But um this time watching it, because I was kind of thinking, I was like, oh, I think it's mostly a quiet movie because they're in space, um, and all the of course sound design, like when they're doing their drills and it's like sound doesn't drive all the time. Yeah, and apparently they use like guitars underwater to get like a lot of the uh you know when you're in their helmets hearing their microphones and hearing the outside of space.
SPEAKER_00The only way they would hear it is it vibrating through their arm or something, and so I guess that's how they got the guitar, yeah, no, which was really cool.
SPEAKER_03So uh um, but yeah, when for this like the score of it, I was like, shit, when the first attack started happening with the debris, I'm I guess I'll call it an attack. Um and it's just like the sound starts like getting really loud and intense. I was like, fuck, I forgot this score kind of rules too.
SPEAKER_00The music is awesome.
SPEAKER_03It's like I remember the visuals and stuff, and it's so impressive that way that whenever it gets to the music, I'm like, oh shit, I forgot this is perfect as well. Yeah, what a roller coaster of a movie. So, uh, for some little uh trivia, the film's cascade of debris is a very real possibility. The scenario is known as the Kessler syndrome, named after NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler, who first proposed a theory in 1978. A cascading Kessler syndrome syndrome involving an object the size of an international space station would trigger a catastrophic chain reaction of debris, the orbiting debris field would make it impossible to launch space exploration missions or satellites for many decades. Damn. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00You see a leaf blower out there onto space. Kind of makes the the whole makes sense of like why was every space station abandoned? Because they saw this coming?
SPEAKER_03Um, yeah, that's that was something I was curious about because there's never anybody in any of the space stations that they went
Cuarón, Awards, And Kessler Syndrome
SPEAKER_03to. I'm assuming maybe they didn't have anybody up there at the time.
SPEAKER_00Well, or they got out before they before the rocket was launched from Russia.
SPEAKER_03They weren't uh yeah, because they weren't potentially out doing stuff, so maybe they were able to just kind of leave.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, well, it's because one of the the qu the things that George Clooney's George the singular George Clooney said was that the Facebook just went out. Like were they fixing Facebook's satellite? No, I I think it's just gonna but like that that made so much sense. So like capitalism, like they were up there to fix this satellite, but every other nation that had a s that had a space station, they knew that was that there was gonna be a rocket destroyed, so they were like, get the fuck out of there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This might cause problems and everything will be destroyed.
SPEAKER_03I know it seemed like they should have gotten out of the way a little bit faster. Once because the first time he says, hey, there is a satellite that just exploded. I mean, I guess they didn't know the debris was coming straight for them yet, but I guess when it I guess maybe they were a little bit closer to the debris than the other satellites. Maybe it had to go a full rotation, which was like 90 minutes to get to the other ones. So maybe that was what it was, but it still hit the one, so yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Um so there's a I guess a long time rumor claims that NASA provides suicide pills to astronauts for worst-case scenarios. NASA's denied this, though. Um, some people have said that it would be easier and more comfortable to reduce oxygen in the chamber as depicted in the film, just because you'll slowly die. Like you'll just fall asleep.
SPEAKER_00She just did it because she wanted to conserve oxygen while she slept, and she knows that she because she's smart, like she's super duper smart.
SPEAKER_03Well, this is like after she talks to the guy and starts barking and stuff like that one? Because that one she was definitely trying to die.
SPEAKER_00Well, like when she is right before she has the the dream of George Clooney coming into her.
SPEAKER_03No, that's her, that's her like, I'm I'm I'm out. Yeah, because she's thinking about her daughter, she's ready to be with her daughter.
SPEAKER_00I've well because she hears the baby. Yeah. I thought it was just because she was wanting to conserve oxygen and because you consume less oxygen when you're sleeping, I suppose. And like and then when she wakes up, but yeah, you're probably right. She probably wanted to die.
SPEAKER_03That that's how I took it. I mean, especially after the hearing the baby and just being like, I love you, I love my daughter, I'm sad. I don't know why I said it in such a rude way like that, but that's how I took it at least. So um Alfonso and Jonas Koran wrote the script before it was possible to shoot it. So after writing the script for Gravity with his son's Jonas Curan. Kuron. Kron.
unknownAh!
SPEAKER_03Alfonso thought it would take a year to make. However, it ended up taking four and a half years as technology had yet to catch up with their vision for the film. A turning point for the project came when James James Cameron developed revolutionary shooting techniques to bring the sci-fi environments of Avatar to life. So thank you, Avatar. Yeah, like none of that makes sense. But I have no idea. Well, they just didn't have like the technology to make it look as good as it was. Like so in Avatar, you know, it's like the whole movie's like CGI essentially in Avatar. Um so essentially it was that. James Cameron just really revolutionized like CGI and uh and for some reason people aren't like we should make it every movie should look as good as Avatar. They're like, nah, we're good. But yeah, so they had to wait four and a half years for like the technology to catch up, essentially to make it doable and possible and not look like uh hot trash. Um so apparently it was uh Sandra Bullock's idea for a character's daughter to have died. So um this was actually Bullock's own idea in the script. Her daughter was alive, which gives her a reason to desperately want to return to Earth. Bullock thought it would be more interesting if her daughter was dead. She didn't really have a reason not to just give up and let herself die in space. That's right. I mean, that's true. So just be like, oh, she was more than just like, uh, I'm just like my daughter's dead. I suck. It's like, no, there's still life worth living. Fight for your life through space.
SPEAKER_00But that's that's what kind of whenever she's talking to the um the guy that has no idea, like the Chinese guy, I guess it was a Chinese guy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Oh wait, like on the intercom? Yeah, yeah. When she's part of the it was like a a somebody from Greenland. It was like an uh Inuit from Greenland. Okay. The only reason I know that is because Alfonso Cron actually got the idea because he was doing scouting locations in Greenland for another movie. And then he like ran up, he's like he just like came upon like this guy ice fishing who's just like out there alone all the time. And like they invited him over and they're like and it kind of was like the spark of the idea of the movie, actually. Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's crazy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So that that's the only reason I knew it was from Greenland.
SPEAKER_00But uh that that was a good call for Sandra Bullock, because it kind of made me feel like this movie has uh such little script, it kind of like it leaves you a lot of time to think about what's going on. Yeah, especially the times where
Grief, Depression, And Listener Mail
SPEAKER_00she's just like slowly floating. Yeah. But it also makes you think about like overcoming depression and uh whenever you think your life is over, and like maybe you talk to someone and like their life is still going on, but like you you can't quite grasp the fact that life is like continuing on, and when you see it, it kind of gives you a little bit of hope. Yeah. And this and that scene was like very touching. And she it kind of I don't know, it was very t it just made me think a lot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's especially I I can only imagine like having kids and watching stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like and then you hear a baby crying and you're like, Yeah. Couldn't imagine it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I know, especially it just like literally the kid died just by hitting his head on the like while playing on a playground. It's like Is that what Yeah, that's how she explains it. Just like she was playing at school and then hit her head and she died. Yep. Yeah, that's fucked up. Yep. Bit of a bummer, I'd say. Well, if you ever sat out there, just listen to Greenland, uh not Greenland.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's it's it goes back to what George Clooney's character was saying. Like, you just have to keep talking because someone out there might hear you and save your life. And that's what he did. Yes. Like it's just some random dude was listening to this frequency. Yeah, and it's even though they didn't understand each other, he he seemed to be like, And he seemed very playful.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like being playful, like wither really helped. I feel like it's like make your dog bark.
SPEAKER_01Woof, woof, woof.
SPEAKER_03Should have been like a cringy part of the scene, but I'm just like, you fucking bark, Sandra. You bark. All right. But then hearing the baby cooing was very like, mm. Oh it hurts. She loves her daughter. So speaking of Sandra, she underwent six months of physical training before shooting. So before shooting Gravity, Sandra underwent the six months. Uh, this time she also went through the script with director Alfonso Carran to discuss the themes of the story and how our character would feel, reborn after escaping the terrifying lost in space conflict. Um, and so there was another thing. Yeah, so during filming, Sandra Bullock spent 10 hours a day in a huge mechanical rig. So, because in most of the shots of the movie, she's inside, she's, you know, essentially either in a little tube, yeah, essentially, or like it's probably just screen screen around her. So, um, and they just kind of digitally erase the you know, like rig around it. But it took a long period of time to get in and out of this rig. So Bullock decided to spend 10-hour days in there. She wore a headset to be able to communicate with a crew whose nicknamed the rig Sandy's Cage. They even put a sign like a neon sign above it.
SPEAKER_00Work will set you free. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03According to Alfonso Carran, the toughest challenge was ensuring Bullock didn't get a sense of claustrophobia from being stuck. The crew tried to make it more welcoming by celebrating every time Bullock arrived on set and giving the rig a lit sign to invite her in.
SPEAKER_01Sam Drosser, get in the cage.
SPEAKER_03But they also so yeah, like every time she got in and out. Had like a little party for.
SPEAKER_00That's great. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I'm just like, oh I mean, she's a single earth. It's not that crazy. Um there was a I think that's all the little notes I got. So we are gonna hop into the plot of gravity.
SPEAKER_03But before so, we would like you at home to think about what is the point of this movie? What what is it trying to say about space and life? Um, and to leave us some fan and so tell us what you think the point is. You can go over to the description where there's a link at the top and you can click it and text us right from your phone or the very bottom. Uh we have our email, we recommend mailbag at gmail.com, where you can type that way a message for us. And then there's also YouTube, but you know that place. All right, Jason, you ready to hop into the plot? Yeah, let's
Plot Begins: Debris Turns Deadly
SPEAKER_03go. So at 60 kilometers above planet Earth, the temperature fluctuated between 258 degrees and negative 148 degrees Fahrenheit. There's nothing to carry sound, no oxygen, no air pressure. Life in space is impossible. So essentially the movie starts with like a silence, and then it builds to a lot of noise, and the title was displayed before sudden silence and a shot of Earth from space. The Explorer space shuttle floated 370 miles above the Earth's surface. Veteran astronaut Matt Kow Whoa, did not know I could not say that name. You say it. How do you spell it? K-O-W-A-L-S-K-K-I. Oh my gosh, that's hard for me to say, apparently. Everybody at home's like, yell like every fucking word in the English language. Uh Matt is propelled above it, strapped into an experimental propulsion pack. He radioed his compliments down to Houston before regaling the control room with the story of his trip to Tijuana from when his wife left him while he was on his first spacewalk. Um Houston reminded him that most of the workers down on Earth heard about the story and before congratulating him on his upcoming retirement. This would be his last spacewalk as he zipped around in a potion pack.
SPEAKER_04Matt took it all in.
SPEAKER_03That is insane to me.
SPEAKER_00Like when he's just like, just like, dude, what are we doing? And his wife back home was like, Yeah, my husband's a fucking astronaut, but I'm gonna go with you instead. Like, get the fuck out of here. It's also George Clooney. Yeah, I know. It's like he made an espresso.
SPEAKER_03You could, you'd be a and he's got wine. You could be a millionaire. Uh below him are two other astronaut astronauts working on the shuttle. Sharif, that's his name, a flight engineer, gleefully jumped around on his uh tether, thoroughly enjoyed with the weightlessness. It's like, hey, dude. You went to Harvard. It's like, how have you is this the first time being weightless? I mean, I know it's in space, but I'm like, he should be used to this by now. Though I do remember like seeing space videos of like astronauts first in space, and they're always just having a great ass time. It's always, I'm like, oh, lucky. Um, nearby on the Doc Hubble Space Telescope, medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone uh Dilling worked on repairing the faulty transmission card. Houston informed her that they are not receiving a signal before asking her to provide a new estimate. She says, 60 minutes, baby. Um, yeah, so I guess she's a medical engineer. So maybe she has no reason to be out there. Well, maybe like maybe the stuff she works on is similar to something up there.
unknownI don't know.
SPEAKER_03I'm just trying here. I'm trying. You know, some people can have, you know, can do two things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that's what I feel like she's obviously a doctor, so she's gotta be smart.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're like, it'd probably be good to have a doctor who's also an astronaut to help with like herpes or something in space. That's true. Space herpes. Space herpes is it's a huge problem.
SPEAKER_03By God, I got a case of space herpes. So um, Matt zipped over to Ryan and asked her if he could be some of assistance. He playfully flirts with her, asking her about her training and complimenting her blue eyes. She is brown. Um Kulowski lamented that he would not be breaking the record for the longest spacewalk before he retired, which was a personal career ambition. He's only off by 75 minutes. Uh, Houston confirmed that Matt would fall shy of the current record. While Matt assists Ryan with unscrewing the panel, a bolt floats away from the structure, and Matt hopped off after it with a safety tether, catching him as the line went uh tight, closing his hand around the floating bolt. That scene, that little shot is just so fucking good. Yeah. I'm just like, none of that's there, and it looks so good. It's like, ah, I'm like, it's not and you know, obviously that was probably gonna be in 3D, but even still not in 3D. It's such a great effect, it's insane. Um, Ryan apologized, claiming that she was used to a basement lab where things fell to the floor. Matt decided to take his mind off telling a story of his time in New Orleans with like some hairy guy or something. Before Matt could complete the story, Houston's like, yo, astronauts from Russia like shot a missile at a damn satellite. Y'all gotta get out of there. Um, but yeah, so the satellite debris is hurtling right for them at over five fifty thousand miles per hour. Fuck. I hear that's fast.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, seems like that debris's gonna get a ticket. Space police. They could have solved everything. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So Matt uh makes his way back towards Sheriff and the explorer while Houston explained a Russian satellite blew up from a missile, and the resulting cloud of debris was hurtling towards the shuttle, which uh lied directly in its orbit. The debris hurtles forward through space towards the shuttle as Matt turns to see it. He goes to help Ryan, who is attached to a platform. Just as he reached her, the first bits of the debris began to pepper the explorer, striking Sharif in the head, killing him instantly. R.I.P. The storm of the debris ripped through the shuttle and destroyed the structure, sending Ryan off into the void. Matt, shielded by a large chunk of structure, continued issuing commands to Ryan, insisting that she could detach herself from the structure or else be carried too far from the shuttle. Already could not see her anymore. Stunk uh complied and released the strap and flung it even further out into space.
SPEAKER_00When she's attached to that fucking arm, just like please get off that I know this like whole God, I couldn't, I couldn't could barely breathe. And like I was so tense.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And how crazy is it? Because we did Armageddon, not once did I feel anything that in the first like 15 minutes of this film, I'm like, uh, this was done very well. It's just it's the angles that they get in this film of because they never kind of they never go away from a character in the shot of destruction. And my favorite part is later is when Sandra is getting um like on the ISS. But it's just like the way they chose to put the camera in certain situations where you see someone frantically doing something, but then like behind, there's just like but and like the most fantastic part about it is it makes no sound, yeah, and it's so eerie.
SPEAKER_00It's like so destructive and horrifying.
SPEAKER_03It like almost makes you kind of feel deaf. And it's just like, and because you know it was people that can hear, kind of is terrifying if you lost all your hearing suddenly and just things are happening around you.
SPEAKER_00Like what when you're in that situation, you're probably in shock and you're not hearing everything.
SPEAKER_03And then all you really hear is standard going, oh it's just terrifying.
SPEAKER_00It's very human and terrifying.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and it and because like if something touches something in space, it just starts spinning, and there's nothing to stop it ever. You're just that's just your life if you start spinning in space. Like, here I am forever. And it's just it's scary. I don't know. It is super scary, yeah. It's I don't know. I'm I got chills just kind of thinking about it. But then like her being flung out into space, it's gotta be just a nightmare. It's just it's the same as like being out in ocean, like open water in the middle of the ocean at night. It'd just be like except it might be a little scarier in the ocean, actually, because you know, you might get eaten.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but at least you're like grounded, like you're not just careening endless.
SPEAKER_03Not being able to move or anything. Ugh. Crazy. So uh Ryan quickly tumbles away through vast expanse of space with no control over her movements, which was the slightest one with the potential to leave her spinning out into space forever. Fucking terrifying. Matt continued to radio instructions while she begged for assistance, ordering her to give him any information that she could that would help him locate her position, but she was spinning too fast to observe her environment. As she started to slow down, Matt's voice cut out. She was left floating forward. Although she manages to see the International Space Station in the distance, her oxygen was dropping dangerously low. Ryan panics, breathing heavily and calling out despite not receiving a transmission. After a few tense moments of Stone desperately trying to signal with her flight, her radio crackled to life. Matt,
Matt Finds Ryan In Darkness
SPEAKER_03using his propulsion pack, found her. He blasts forward, colliding with her and tethering her to him so he could tow her back to the shuttle. After recovering Ryan, he transmitted his radio message to Houston's but received no response. Ryan asked him, What's the point of radioing in the dark? And Matt simply said, Anybody could be listening. You never know. Um could save their lives. He also explains that they have 90 minutes to let a Briggie come back. So, yeah, that stuff of where she's just alone in space, and it's just like close-ups of her face and her like the breath on her mask, and just her like labored breathing, and then cut to seeing what she sees, and it's like, hey Matt, can't see brother, brother. Everything's black out here, it's just darkness. Um, and then you know, the first uh this is our first collision with someone like really at a distance closing in and colliding on something, and just being like it's like, geez lease. It's like, how are y'all not like just poking holes through their suits? Have you ever been around a spaceship suit? Like and held one? Damn, I really want to. I want to see feel how tough they are. I bet they're thick.
SPEAKER_00They have to be kind of tough. Want to wear one? Yeah, that's true. Or whatever.
SPEAKER_03I mean it's just I mean, I assume they I think I actually did look it up, and I think there is like a lot of layers, like different types of layers of things. Probably like Kevlar in there somewhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So rad.
SPEAKER_03Um yeah, and this is also just kind of a scene of Matt just it's the beginning of Matt and Sandra learning, don't give up hope. Continue to call out to people, don't give up hope. Um, so the duo begins their return toward the shuttle and um and I love when they're like floating together and she's on the stream. She's getting jerked around. She's like, Matt's like, can you knock it off down there?
SPEAKER_02It's like it's kind of hard here, man.
SPEAKER_00But what I thought was really smart is like you always see him adjusting because he knows that that's gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah, then it's really cool. I know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there was just like not a better person to put in that role, I think, than George Clooney. And it's obviously because I haven't seen anybody else in that role. But I'm just he's also like just like a calm, he's always calm and calm and cool, and there's like in one of our few actors where it's like he's really good at being cool, suave, but also very neurotic. And it's like, but when you this is the perfect situation, yeah, and like it's just like, all right, thank God we got the cool suave George Cloney. So um keep talking forever. Yeah. Once they're kind of getting close to um the uh their space shuttle thing, um, they see a body floating beneath them. It's Sheriff's body, uh, separated from the shuttle by his broken tether as well. Matt guided the propulsion back towards Sheriff and ordered Ryan to grab him. Looking at Shrif, she sees that a chunk of debris ripped through his helmet, leaving a hole through his face.
SPEAKER_00Have face. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Through which she could see clean through. She looks away, noticing the first time a laminate eliminated photo tethered to Shreef's suit to his family down below. Oh, he used to look normal. It's like, oh, that's what he looked like without a hole in his face. Yeah. Uh yeah, that that was insane. And I liked her reaction of just like stunned silence instead of being like, ah. Yeah. Though at this point it's like she can't breathe barely.
SPEAKER_00So um because they were talking about like, what's your favorite thing about being up here? Yeah. And she's like, I like the silence.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I will say, you know, she gets she gets to tell Sharice's family like he died the way he wanted to go. With a with a hole in his face. Yeah. So arriving at the wreckage of the shuttle, they see that the hole was breached and the rest of the crew died from exp uh being exposed to freezing vacuum of space.
SPEAKER_00Just lack of oxygen.
SPEAKER_03We also get uh um the a great jump scare. Yeah, which is I completely forgot there was a jump scare, and actually I was just like typing, and I was like, ugh. This is great. Um so uh with life support running dry, Matt made their next move clear. They need to get to the International Space Station nearby and use the escape pod to get back to Earth. It's
Shuttle Ruins And Run To ISS
SPEAKER_03only a quick jaunt across the globe. Yeah, right. Oh, I'd be like, I don't know, man. Maybe I'll just die. That seems scary. Or no.
SPEAKER_00Do a face dive into Earth.
SPEAKER_03Bright up in the air. I wish there was like some way. Like once we eventually are able to get into space and just kind of do stuff on space, which will probably never happen. Um, this would be a great ride for a theme park. Yeah. Just like slowly go across space.
SPEAKER_00And like you're you're kind of just locked into this traject trajectory. Yeah. You have to survive.
SPEAKER_03It's like there's nothing you can do. You can wiggle your arms and stuff.
SPEAKER_00They lower the oxygen in your ride, and you're like, sip. It's wine. It's not beer.
SPEAKER_03It's like now you'll start seeing hallucinations, and it's like, whoa, this is gonna be a trippy ride. Ooh, doing mushrooms just floating out in space. Oh, that'd be crazy. Never done them, so I wouldn't know. But I would probably be crazy. All right, so they travel leisurely and listen to country music. Lol. I'd be like, dude, you couldn't be into any other John. It's like at least it wasn't like at least it seemed like it seemed like pretty decent country music. It was Hank Williams. Yeah. All right. It's like I guess if you're gonna be out in space and listen to country music, that country music's not too bad. Right. So as Ryan continues to note her.
SPEAKER_00She thinks my tracks are six.
SPEAKER_03Honky tunk, but don't kid. Like, Matt, can we maybe change the session? Can we change the section, please?
SPEAKER_00I just turned my oxygen down to zero. Yeah. Just like time into one of those things. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Dude, I was so obsessed with that song, honky tonk, but don't kid. That was when I was in junior high and I was still listening, I still listen to a lot of country, and I had that I had that album, and I just remember being on the bus with that song on repeat over and over. It's like an hour drive. Such a horn dog. It was just such a funny song. It's like a good, it's a bad song that's good. It's catchy and bad.
SPEAKER_00It's the worst, it is the pinnacle of bad country music, and that's where we're that's where all honestly I think it's better than a lot of modern day country.
SPEAKER_03You're right. No, but I mean that is kind of whenever it's just like, you know, like country music was starting to not be country music and just mainly just pop music. Yeah, it's horrible.
SPEAKER_00Hot take. Country music sucks.
SPEAKER_03And if you like country music, that's okay. Uh, Neon Moon and Time Marches On. Fucking two good ass songs. God, that song is so good. So, as Ryan continues to note her dwindling oxygen supply, Matt tries to calm her down by asking her about her normal life on Earth and if there was anyone thinking about her. Uh, Ryan's very evasive about this, but Matt's prodding resulted in quiet confession. Years prior, her four-year-old daughter, Sarah, had an accident on the school playground and died when she hit her head too hard. Don't. Uh, Stone revealed that every day after work at the hospital, she drove and listened to the radio to avoid thinking about it. Ryan looks out at Earth, lost in her own head.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she wouldn't even go home. She would just drive forever.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's something that this movie does that it just it ups it into like, I don't know, like a four-star movie to a five-star movie. Is it multiple times during the movie? You'll just a character will be talking about something, and as they're about to start trailing off, the camera just pans the earth. Yeah. And then pans back around. It's a bigger picture. It did it earlier to Matt, and now it's doing it to her, and it's just like I don't know, it's just like who the fuck are we to be so upset about our problems? Like we have this whole earth that we could just go and do anything on.
SPEAKER_00That's also the line that made me realize that she would just do anything to get away from normal everyday life. Yeah. Like be in space.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I think there's a little bit of her looking out of the earth and it's being like, Do I really want to go back?
SPEAKER_00No, I don't think she does.
SPEAKER_03What's the point? Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04Just going through it up there, man.
SPEAKER_03Tough time in space, apparently. So the I ISS is in view while Ryan's auction is uh dwindling, but there are clear signs of structural damage from the debris strike to the ISS. The pair noticed that one of the Suyez re-entry modules of the ISS was gone. So yeah, they I guess the team got out of there. The crew abandoned the station. The other Suyez the more I say it, the harder it gets to say it. And it that should it should be the opposite, right? Uh the other uh module was damaged in the debris strike, resulting in a parachute that was deployed and currently entangled around the station. Matt told her that while it could not bring them back to Earth, they could use it to get to a nearby Chinese space station. The Tian Yang. Yeah. Uh Matt checked his propulsion pack. There are only two bursts left if they are lucky if this time Ryan's tank ran out of oxygen, but she has a small amount left in her suit. It's so good. It's almost debris time again.
SPEAKER_00I know, I couldn't fucking breathe at all during all of this. I was I was taking short breaths myself to conserve oxygen. It's like, man. It's such a strong feeling. Yeah. Um I know.
SPEAKER_04It's just like I love the propulsion systems on these seats.
SPEAKER_03I don't know what it is, but and I get real bummed out when it's like I only got two bursts left. I'm like, is there not a way to put more air in that thing? Well, he used a lot of it. I know. This is why I shouldn't have been messing around, floating around, George.
SPEAKER_00They're just spraying axe body spray out.
SPEAKER_03Space is never spelled better. So pretty man, uh axe body spray. If you need any commercial ideas, I think we got uh we got some ideas. And we have a good tagline already. So as their oxygen in supplies begins to bottom out, Matt fired the remaining bursts towards the ISS as the two blasted forward. They struck the ISS and rolled forward, tumbling away from one another. Ryan successfully caught on to part of the ISS paneling, but Matt was not so lucky, bouncing off the paneling out to space. The connection tether snapped um tight, ripping Ryan free of the ISS and dragging her out into space. Their connection tether Whoa. So as they were pulled out into space, Ryan's leg caught on a parachute cord of the uh the module, keeping her attached to the ISS. But Matt saw the connection was tenuous at best, his momentum from continuous deceleration was going to pull her free and they would both die. Ryan realized that Matt was going to detach his from his suit from the connection tether and begged him not to, but Matt told her that she had to get back to the planet. He disconnects to the tether and floats off.
SPEAKER_00Holy fuck.
SPEAKER_03Another great scene. This is a lot of like r bumping into the space stuff. And I'm like, how are they not dead? Just trying to grab anything. Man, just the point of view from like her just sticking her hands out and nearly missing everything. And then it's just it's so stressful. And it's like, of course, Matt did it perfectly. And then he's got a but then they're connected and they get wrapped around like the I don't know what they call it, the wings of the satellite or whatever. Yeah. And then it kind of rips the thing. And it's like, no. It's like y'all could have been safe in America. Um, but yeah, so um, as Ryan is propelled back towards the ISS by the disconnect, Matt continued to tell her what to do. Her spacesuit begins blaring alarms. She has no oxygen remaining, only carbon dioxide. Matt instructs Ryan to climb up to the side of the ISS to the airlock, roughly like 40 feet away, I guess, and made her promise that she was gonna make it. Instead, Stone claimed that she intended to take the Suyez and retrieve him first. He told her that the ship sailed because he had too much of a head start on her and joked that he would hold the record for the longest spacewalk for a long time. Stone said that she would make it for him. Matt asked her if she was attracted to him, claiming that many women said that he had beautiful blue eyes. Uh Stone said that he had beautiful blue eyes, and Matt claimed that her his eyes were brown. Like from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00But the whole this scene was like super stressful. And but like the whole, like, every time he mentioned a direction, he's like, it's up above the airlock is above you. Look to the west. I was like, Yeah. How the fuck do you know which way is which?
SPEAKER_03Where the sun's rotation. Like, how are we supposed to know here?
SPEAKER_00The only way we know what is west is where the sun is.
SPEAKER_03So, like, I don't Yeah, it's not like you can have a compass in space. I guess when you're upside down, maybe they don't use left and right, they use west and east. I don't know. I don't I have no idea. Matt tells Ryan that the sun on the Ganges was beautiful. Ryan is now only breathing the carbon dioxide in her suit in her oxygen-deprived state. She reached out to Matt and attempted to grab him with her vision distorted and her mental state slowing as she loses consonant cons consciousness from uh hypercapnia. Ryan eventually forced to jump into space towards the airlock and she barely reached it. She opens the airlock just in time, activated the decompression unit, flooding the chamber with oxygen. She stripped her suit and breathed large gulps of air as she floats. She slowly curls into fetal position and falls asleep. Oh yeah, that was the last scene. Yes, and this is a part of her rebirth. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. She's like in a womb. Yeah, I know. And then like you got the like her, I guess like her little tether from her spacesuit, and it's kind of flying up like it's an umbilical cord. Oh, cool. Yeah, I never thought about that. Yeah, it's uh a fucking radass scene. So I think I had it as my um phone wallpaper for a while.
Fire And The Capsule Escape
SPEAKER_03Just because I was like, I get what this movie's trying to say. Um, also, nothing seems more terrifying than well, scary from obviously both angles, but talking to someone that is drifting away that you'll never be able to save or see anything, and just having to live with that grief.
SPEAKER_02And it's just like, how does she come out of this more normal than she was before?
SPEAKER_03Obviously, she's not, she's gonna need tons of therapy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But you're right, it is good. Like, I was kind of glad that she lost connection with him because then she wouldn't have to listen to him run out of air. Yeah, yeah, that'd be awful.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I was just thinking, I was like, man, it's to be that I mean, luckily for him, he had music, so yeah. It's like at least he gets to enjoy a little bit of a movie.
SPEAKER_00I wonder if that was I wonder if that was um like a nod to Apollo 13. Because whenever uh in Apollo 13, they asked what kind of music would you take into space, and this guy's like, I would take all the Hank Williams albums.
SPEAKER_03Oh, maybe. Because I mean they had Ed Harris a part of the movie as a nod to Apollo 13. So I'm assuming that was a huge inspiration. Probably. Now I really want to watch Apollo 13. I know that's my Netflix. It's my double feature. Not figure too. By the way, don't take it, you asshole. I didn't. I chose a different space movie. One of my other favorite space movies. So after taking a few minutes to recover, Ryan started to make her way through the ISS. Despite the damage, the oxygen atmosphere was still intact. She passed by some sparkling wires which ignited the ignites into balls of fire that floated through the um environment. Ryan failed to notice this because she was too preoccupied to contact Matt. She quickly put on a headset and contacted Matt, who was not responding. At first, she chastised him, claiming that now that now that now was the only time during the whole mission where he stopped talking. Um but she asked him to continue his Mardi Gras story, begging to t begging him to tell her what happened to the hairy guy. Matt still did not reply, and she was forced to transmit to Houston that she's the sole survivor of the mission, with Matt having apparently succumbed to carbon dioxide poisoning in his spacesuit. Um I love when she's going through the little space thing, all the little things flying up, uh, and the the fire being balls. I was like, whoa.
SPEAKER_00I know there a lot of the things like floating around are kind of interesting. Like the first one they get to the space shuttle and the two dead people are inside, there's like Marvin the Martian.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, you gotta have Marvin the Martian. He's the OG space shuttle.
SPEAKER_00And then when they get to the Chinese one, there's like a ping pong paddle. Yeah. Like, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_02Well, China's really good at ping pong, I guess. I don't know. They like ping pong.
SPEAKER_03National sport, maybe. I guess it was like in the American one, there should have been a football and a baseball.
SPEAKER_00It's like a fucking McDonald's hamburger.
SPEAKER_03If it was British, it would be just some soccer balls or rugby. I guess that'd be Australia. So uh she looks somberly out the window at Earth, so close yet, so far away. And here's what I love about this, right? So this is kind of like her moment. Uh she's made it inside something. She can be calm. What does she look down at? A hurricane. Because this is calm before the storm, baby. That's cool. This movie is fucking good. Metaphors for days, baby. But I was like, oh shit, that's a hurricane.
SPEAKER_00Calm before the storm. Yeah, I think I feel like the lack of a lot of monologue really allows you to look at the surroundings in a cool way.
SPEAKER_03It's like the problem with a lot of movies is they talk too damn much. You can cut it's a visual medium. We can just see and put things together. Yeah. But I mean, a lot of movies now, um, like Netflix, all their movies are second screen. Like they force directors to be like, all right, you got to second screen this movie. You have to remember people are looking at their phones. So it's why in Stranger Things every episode they describe the plot of what they're doing five times.
SPEAKER_00Like, trust people to be smart enough to get what you're trying to say.
SPEAKER_03It's like sometimes you just need to, and it's just like that's something that's so beautiful about older, well, not older movies, because a lot of them they do talk too much, but like really in like the like Kubrick, like a lot of his stuff is just like you just have to feel what's going on more than just like hear what's going on. It's a real like a lot of shining is like that. Yeah, that's true. It's like it's they don't talk a lot, but like whenever he's like running around walking around crazy, you see the surroundings being weird and things like that.
SPEAKER_00And that's the makes you feel like this is a movie that was made to be seen in a big theater with lots, you know.
SPEAKER_03I wish they'd bring it back. If they brought it back to IMAX, I would go. Oh, sure. Yeah. So sadly, her sanctuary now may be her tomb. Because the sparks from the exposed wiring starts starts a massive fire inside the ISS, which quickly engulfs the entire station, making her uh terrified. Ryan grabs a fire extinguisher and tries to fight the inferno, but the lack of gravity causes the extinguisher to recoil to push her into a wall, bruising her and cutting her face. She likes loses consciousness for a moment and everything as her blood drips into space, which is rad as hell. But luckily was able to wake up and race past the fire, making it to the second Suya's capsule just in time as the inferno inferno engulfs the node that she was in. Stone. Uh Ryan also took the takes the fire extinguisher with her in case the blaze should erupt inside the capsule.
SPEAKER_00One of the things I really loved is that there's always a manual.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00There has to be. That many buttons? I know. There's so many buttons.
SPEAKER_03My biggest issue with everything these days, they don't come with manuals. You always gotta go to like a link, and it's like never the right manual.
SPEAKER_00I had to YouTube how to reprogram my remote like remote control for the TV last night.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I was stressed. I know. It's like, wasn't technology supposed to make everything easier?
SPEAKER_03It's only made things more frustrating, I feel like. So um right.
SPEAKER_00I would have been fucked. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you put me in that space.
SPEAKER_00Can I hold TV and the power button to reprogram this fucking Suez module?
SPEAKER_03It's like, hey, Siri, turn on the machine, please.
SPEAKER_00Point to Earth, please, sir.
SPEAKER_03Ma'am. Robot. That's why we need uh Scotty to beam them up. So Ryan glances at her watch and realizes she has seven minutes to escape the ISS before the debris completes another orbit and wipes out the remainder of the station. She fires the thrusters of the capsule and sets herself free from the ISS before jerking to a stop suddenly. The parachute cables kept the capsule anchored to the ISS and swinging her around in the ship narrowly misses the ISS a couple times before stabilizing. Crazy. So this is this whole starting from this scene now is probably my favorite part of the whole movie. It's just the visuals, just how into it I am at this point. It really starts with a ship just swinging around, narrowly missing everything. And it's just like bruh.
SPEAKER_00And every time she looks out the window, she's being dragged towards the destruction.
SPEAKER_03And like because she is she has like one little camera from like where she dogs, and then two tiny windows next to her, and she keeps turning to her. Make bigger windows. Um but yeah, so she quickly dressed into a spare spacesuit and goes outside um to the module and began releasing the parachute cables from the capsules as the debris strikes arrived, blasting the ISS that deflected narrowly away from Ryan's capsule as the ISS was destroyed. Ryan scrambled back into the capsule and fired away from the debris, remarking, I hate space.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, space sucks.
SPEAKER_03So this is this is what I was talking about earlier when I'm like, you're kind of focused on a character, and then you know, like stuff is happening behind them. And this is the best, I think, that it does it. Cause she's there, she's un she's got like a drill, and she un drills some things, throwing some more debris out in space, and it's like Sandra, this is what's causing this. And then you know, she sees the bird debris coming, it's like, oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. And then like this ISS is just getting pelted with it. And it's so good. And then of course it spins her around, and she's like, she's like lucky, she keeps getting so fucking lucky. It's like, hey, you want to die? Something something's trying to tell you that you're supposed to live. Whatever you believe in, it's telling you that you deserve to live. But man, crazy.
SPEAKER_00It was an incredible scene. I thought maybe she'd have a knife or something.
SPEAKER_03No, I mean you can't have a knife in space.
SPEAKER_00You don't need a knife in space. Should have brought a gun.
SPEAKER_03You brought a gun to space.
SPEAKER_00Shit in the debris.
SPEAKER_03It's coming right for me. So Ryan resets her watch to 90 minutes and begins setting this flight path to line up with the Chinese space station. When she passes uh the when she presses the fire button, she realizes she was out of fuel.
SPEAKER_00She taps the thing and it goes to empty. Like,
Ham Radio Tears And Clooney’s Ghost
SPEAKER_00what the fuck?
SPEAKER_03Ryan nearly has a breakdown after smacking the equipment, and I love it because she's starting to freak out, and then it cuts to the outside of the ship where it's very muffled, and I was like, man, the sound is everything is so effective. The silence is deafening. It's crazy. It's just like if someone's having like a nervous breakdown and screaming in a house, but you're like walking on the street outside, and it's like, that seems stressful. I'm gonna walk out of here. I'm gonna ignore it. So um she eventually stops uh and doesn't do anything and wonders what to do. Having stayed in the capsule for some time and already suffering from hypercapnia, stone Ryan begins feeling dizzy from carbon dioxide poison and realizing that she would die unless she got help fast. Desperate for some sort of assistance, Ryan tries to use the radio as a last resort, but only managed to stumble upon the frequency of a ham radio belonging to a Greenlandic fisherman who did not speak English. Ryan at first believed it was a person from Chinese space station, but realized that he was calling from Earth after hearing his dogs barking. Ryan gives up hope and she realized that the man could not understand her pleas, wanting some sort of accompaniment, she asked him to make her dogs bark, and after barking with them, she broke down crying, claiming that she was going to die and knowing this terrified her.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's really um makes you feel like when you're suffering from something and you don't feel like anyone else can understand. It's kind of what a panic attack feels like.
SPEAKER_03It's like for some reason you just have this overwhelming doom set in. And I'm sure this is way worse, obviously, because you're gonna die. But like whenever I have a panic attack, I'm like, I'm gonna fucking die. Yeah. And like every little pain or something like this is it. You don't think anyone else can understand? I remember um went to go watch uh last night in Soho, and you know, I had like coffee that day, and then like I think we had two cups of coffee and one right before the theater, then we go in, and then I get popcorn and a Coke. And usually if I get bad acid reflux, it triggers a panic attack. Oh no. So I'm just in the middle of this horror movie having a panic attack, and I'm like trying to stay calm and normal and just like ride it out while I'm just seeing like you know, stressful things on scene. I was trying not to wiggle too much, but Natalie afterwards like, Were you okay? I was like, I had a panic attack. Oh no, it's like it's just so weird the amount of doom it makes you feel. Just feels like everything's gonna go horribly. And then I'm like, Cool, now I can see women get killed.
SPEAKER_00We can just fill that hole with popcorn.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So Ryan asks the man to say a prayer for her as she was stuck in space and would be torn apart by debris, filled with no one to know that she survived. Um, this is where we start getting floating tears and it fucking rolls. However, when Ryan hears the man cooing his baby with a lullaby, she remembered how she used to sing to her baby and realized that she wanted she wanted to die so there was no more pain over the loss of her child. Accepting that she would die, she turned the oxygen flow off to the cabin and turned the lights off for painless suicide. Stone was slowly drifting to deep sleep to succumb to oxygen deprivation when there was a knock at the door.
SPEAKER_01Oh shit, it's George Clooney.
SPEAKER_03George, how'd you get out here?
SPEAKER_01Come on in.
SPEAKER_03I was just swinging by. Just in your neighborhood, decided to stop by. So yeah, there's an astronaut gesturing outside as she started to kind of resist like, don't open the door because she has no helmet on. He turned the handle, opened the hatch, quickly swinging in. The astronaut plopped down beside her and removed his helmet. And I love when it opens the door, it's just silent. It's just like, what the fuck, George Cleary? You killed her. And then you see her alive. You're like, oh, this is obviously a hallucination. Um, it's Matt. He grinned broadly and reactivating the oxygen flow to the cabin and told her to that he beat the spacewalk record. Ryan asked him how he managed to get back to her. And Matt explained, having tinkered around with a propulsion pack, he managed to get a few more bursts out of it to guide him back to her safely. And dude, just when George Clooney gets in there and he like puts on a shit eating grin, he's like, Hey, I have a bunch of quippy remarks here. And it's just like everything's gonna be okay. We're good, thank God. Already felt pretty safe with Sandra, but she was having a mental breakdown. So we really needed some some guy to come in and tell her, hey, Toots, everything's gonna be all right. Uh so um she tells him that the fuel was all gone, but he pointed out that the capsule had re-entry rockets for landing because she's like, There's nothing we can do. It's like there's always something you can do. It's like you gotta have that mindset, of course, going being an astronaut in space. Told her that she could pilot her way to the station that way. Landing is launching, yeah. Um, the landing, because like we'll see in a second that once it gets to like three meters away, it like you know, it's deploys deploys like a very small like blast, so it'd just be like poof. Um so Matt looks over everything and realizes that she was trying to kill herself, telling her that losing a daughter made everything harder, but that was not a reason to want to die. He conceded that if she really wanted to give up, all of what she had to do was to stay there, uh, shutting the airflow down once more. Delirious from hypoxia and barely able to speak. Ryan asked him how he got there, and he told tells her that it was a hell of a story before telling Ryan that it was time to go home. She turned around to look at Matt, only to see that he was gone, revealing that he's hallucination.
SPEAKER_00We also said, like, I I can see why you want to stay out here. It's safe.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like, apart from everyone.
SPEAKER_03I mean, technically, this is everything she wanted, just quiet time.
SPEAKER_00Quietness and feeling safe. But she'll die. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Ugh, dang, only one downside. So Ryan gasps back to consciousness, realizing that she still she was still alone. She reactivated the airflow to the cabin, and as the oxygen levels rise, she begins to recover, remembering what her subconscious was trying to tell her by maintaining Matt, by manifesting Matt, that the re-entry rockets ran on a separate field tank and she can still make it to Tian Gong with renewed determination. She fires the thrusters and shoots off towards the Chinese stations on momentum and asks Matt to tell her daughter that she loves her.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, that's sweet. So
Chinese Station Dive And Re-Entry
SPEAKER_00it's like she kind of finally is moving on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's like and ready to like save herself and live.
SPEAKER_03It's like she just needed like that one part deep back in her mind, telling her, you don't want this to come out. It's like all you had to do is just choke yourself a little bit.
SPEAKER_00I I feel like GC needs to be on standby for every every woman in America. From now on, call them GC.
SPEAKER_03Um, my immediate thought whenever I see her like turn on the uh landing rockets was that's going too fast.
SPEAKER_00That's good, that's a missile now. Yeah, she probably couldn't control how fast they were they came out. But like it was really cool and interesting to see her like trying to figure it out like how to trick the machine into thinking it was three meters away from landing. Yeah. That was so cool.
SPEAKER_03It's a very smart movie.
SPEAKER_00I know.
SPEAKER_03And it's smart, short, and just beautiful.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03So as the capsule flies forward, Ryan sees that the station was greatly damaged by the debris and was sinking into the atmosphere. Ryan also noticed that she will be she will miss the station by several meters, retrieving the fire extinguisher that she used to fight the fire on the ISS, she blasts the airlock open and was thrown out into space, using the fire extinguisher to propel herself toward the Chinese space station. She manages to hang on as it drops faster through the Earth's atmosphere and begins rapid descent. The debris field reappears in the instance, racing towards her as she began her climb to the airlock while the station began to break apart.
SPEAKER_04This is the part where I'm like Is it what? Is how would she be able to catch up to that thing?
SPEAKER_03Like if it's starting to yeah, I would assume it's speeding up really fast. If because you can see the force of the wind, and I'm like, she's just like just going ham with a fire extinguisher. No, I do I do I do love that idea. It's like I wonder if like in NASA that that's a thing. It's like, look, if something happens, grab a fire extinguisher and maybe you can float around in space for a while.
SPEAKER_00That's I mean, sure. Anything that will give you propulsion. She even throws it at one point to give her a propulsion towards to help her like grab onto something.
SPEAKER_03And then when she gets close to it, she's like touching like the solar panels of it.
SPEAKER_02I'm like, just grab it.
SPEAKER_03And then when she does finally grab it, it was the shot I remember specifically from the trailer. Because I was just like, after seeing that shot, I was like, I gotta see this movie. Even though like I knew the director and everybody in it. So I was like, well, I'm gonna see it. But I don't know. It was it's like, even though it's sometimes the scene kind of feels a little silly. I'm like, I'm still kind of doing that holding my breath type thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because you like you want her to live.
SPEAKER_03And then like seeing the god dang debris come back, it's like, do you got nothing better to do?
SPEAKER_00Never go somewhere, Debris. Just constantly in danger. I love it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Ugh. It's like after you survive this, you're just like, I don't think I can die. Which will be a subplot in Fast Nine. With Tyrese's character. Because there's a point in those movies where like someone's like shooting at him and the bullets go all around him. It's like, I don't think we can die. And like the whole movie's like, think about when we did all this stuff and we never died. I think we're invincible. Oh hell yeah. So the debris strikes slams into the Chinese space station, shredding it and rapidly forcing the station out of its orbit toward re-entry. Ryan climbs into this airlock, determined to reach the Shinzhou, Xin Zhao. Uh she reached the capsule in time just as the station started plummeting the upper atmosphere. Um they're like 150 kilometers above Earth or something. Stone struggles to make sense of the symbols, pressing random buttons to see if she could initialize the re-entry protocol. Luckily, because um the new capsule is pretty much the same as the other capsule, she was able to piece together what she needed to allow uh her capsule to disengage its locks and undock from the surrounding Tian Gong as what was left of it hurled through Earth's atmosphere above the planet, and I think it's going like 25,000 feet per second. So yeah, really fat. She communicates to Houston over the radio that she had a newfound will to live. Whether she lived or died, she was ready for whatever came her way. It's gonna be a hell of a ride. Either way, it'll be a hell of a ride. Yeah, man. But yeah, I love the idea. It's like, oh, this is pretty much the same as the other capsule. Yeah. I wonder if they do that on purpose, you know?
SPEAKER_00Just I would think I would I would probably assume that whatever company makes rockets is probably maybe they all got together and were like, what if there's a situation in which another pilot from a different country needs to operate your machine? Yeah. And then they're like, we should just make all the everything the exact same. Yeah. Just in case.
SPEAKER_03Is wasn't it like they all eventually just started copying each other? Like once once one figured it out, they like somehow figured out how they did it, and then they all would just do the same thing at the same time. Yeah. That is true, especially once they've all eventually started working together up there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's the whole point of international space stations, I think.
SPEAKER_04Oh, is that what that means?
SPEAKER_03So um the capsule explodes forward, taking the lead of the debris field.
SPEAKER_00A fucking ride.
SPEAKER_03I know. Like one going through the atmosphere. Yeah, and just all launched. All everything's like red hot, all the debris on fire.
SPEAKER_00Spinning out of control. One like hits her little capsule. Yeah, then like kind of it kind of like evens out and she's just like rocketing down. It's increasing.
SPEAKER_03So Ryan closes her eyes and puts the helmet to her spacesuit on as the space station continues to break apart when the gravity took hold and dragged it to the Earth's lower atmosphere. Um, luckily the parachute was activated to her capsule above the surface, slowing the capsule and allowing to land gently in some water in the American Southwest. Capsule is hit. The capsule hits the water and floated for a moment with the radio crackling to life as Houston was finally able to make contact, promising a rescue. However, an electrical fire broke out, forcing Ryan to escape the capsule immediately. She ejected the hatch and the capsule rapidly filled with water and struggling to breathe. For a moment, it seems like she would uh drown, and the weight of the capsule and parachute quickly dragged her to the bottom. Ryan tries to swim to the surface, but the uh I guess the spacesuits are like 80 pounds. Yeah. Uh pinned her to the bottom. She was forced to frantically take off the suit and desperately fight to the surface. It's like, are you serious? I know. It's like if you made it back and it's like get to earth and you drown, it's like, you know, your first thought is like, fuck off.
SPEAKER_00Fuck you, gravity.
SPEAKER_03Like I could have just died looking at the earth, now I gotta die this.
SPEAKER_00And even after she got the suit off, I was still worried because this movie keeps you in constant.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because you see her swimming in the parachutes coming down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then also the kelp.
SPEAKER_03Like, yeah, is she gonna get strangled in the kelp? And there's like a frog grabbing her foot, trying to pull her back down, like hey, come again, baby. Which I'm just saying that there is uh obviously a metaphor with a frog and her climbing out of the water and learning to walk. Oh yeah, cool, evolution, yeah, noise. So Ryan burst out of the water and floated onto the surface, taking a moment to catch her breath when she saw the remaining debris, the space station completing its own re-entry and burning across the sky. Man, what a day to be outside looking up.
SPEAKER_00I know it's like that scene from uh Robin Hood when he gets to land and he just like roll rolls around and kisses it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I'm like, dude, you're getting sand in all your clothes. Chill out, bro. Probably like you know, out of all the movies we did, like I think about that movie the most that we've done this year. Yeah, it's like I really love that movie. This is so good. So Ryan able to swim to shore where she claps momentarily on the beach, laughing and gripping the sand in her hands, happy to be on land again, forcing her herself to stand and walk, to wait rescue. She takes a look, uh, she takes her first shaky steps on dry land, acclimating herself to existing in the earth's gravity. Yes.
What Gravity Says About Living
SPEAKER_02Let's go. I mean, just it's not just a good action movie. It's like hey uh, yeah, I don't know. You were supposed to be back yesterday, you already missed a shift at the hospital, you're out of it.
SPEAKER_03But like what I really love about this movie is that like it's a great action ride. Yeah, but then by the end of it, you're just like all these like metaphorical things like came up, and you're just like, I feel good too, yeah. Emotionally, it's like anybody can get through anything. Just really what tops this movie. That's yeah, it was an incredible ride. I loved it. So uh let's get to the point of the movie. Uh I kind of put it's it's a movie about being born again. Like yeah, kind of like emotionally, I guess. Sure. Ron was pretty much dead inside, and the experience gave her life again. It's ultimately a metaphor for overcoming grief and isolation after a loss.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it was not only just overcoming grief, but also perfect um just like depression and personal loss. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_03You know, I've never really been depressed, but like, you know, I've always heard this like just lonely. Just makes you feel like you're alone all the time.
SPEAKER_00It makes you want to be alone, and then when you even when you're alone, you're still not you're still kind of you still don't it still doesn't help.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Being alone it makes it worse. Yeah, it does make it worse.
SPEAKER_03It's like you have to like force yourself into uh going to space and being in a giant disaster to get out of it. Which is crazy. It's like people will do anything not to go to therapy. I love therapy.
SPEAKER_00I love my therapist now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I should probably get I should probably go to therapy once.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03I just feel like I'm so well adjusted. Yeah. Are we all? All right, let's hit our categories. The good, the bad, the ugly, the fine. But we discussed the film, something we liked, the bad, something we didn't like, the ugly, something that didn't age well, the fine, something that did age well. For the good, I mean like everything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Sandra Bullock is amazing. Just from start to finish, it's just like a fucking roller coaster of the street.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it immediately from immediate silence, it's just like this feels better than it just you can usually in a movie tell within five minutes whether a movie's gonna be good or not, or even be worth your watching. Um, and it's just like as soon as I saw it, I was like, whoa, just the camera motion, the visuals, I was like, this is gonna be good. I mean, this would really have to fuck up to be bad. I mean, and I think the element of them using like, you know, more realistic, you know, like facts about space, like really helps it and doesn't make it silly. It's silly, but not overly silly. You know, I mean, the them constantly grabbing at shit and slamming into things, I'm just like, that's a little silly, but it also fucking rolls. Yeah, it does, really.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Unless you have like the technology to do so.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and you know, who knows? Maybe those suits are way tougher than I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00They're like super cumbersome.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I know every time they're like trying to grab something, I'm like, just use your hands and arms better. I'm like, and then I think like every time it snows, and I put like, you know, the big gloves on, I'm like, I can't grab anything. And they're sitting there like flailing. It's crazy. It's so good. Um, and Alfonso Cron's like one of our best directors, and I wish he'd do more movies.
SPEAKER_01Um you got any like I don't even know what his next movie is. I guess he's got three upcoming.
SPEAKER_00Um for the bad, I got another. It's a good movie. Yeah, I didn't think there wasn't really anything bad about it.
SPEAKER_04And for the ugly, I mean I really didn't have anything for the ugly either.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00I uh I think what will be my fine is, you know, to counteract and ugly, I guess, would be like the the loneliness of space and the helplessness of being um going into like being a from Earth and going into space and it's just so different that you really have when everything you rely on goes to shit, you're really fucked. Yeah. And that really ages well for me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, I guess to kind of go off that for something that aged well for me is it's like, you know, blockbuster action movie with a soul. Yeah, man. Or it's just like thought-provoking big budget action movie, right? Even though I think this I don't know. I mean, this is an action movie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, action all the time.
SPEAKER_03It's just like thinking about it, and it's like, man, we really don't get a lot of big budget movies like this that make you like, hmm, let me ponder about existence and like mental health and things like that. And it's just yeah, I don't know. It's nice that to see smart cinema. I don't know. It seems like far and few between these days.
SPEAKER_00I have to I had to go to the doctor to have them surgically unclinch my anus after this movie was over.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and like I have to like rub this, like I've got a cream, cream on it, and it's like, you have a wife. Why do you keep coming over every day? Making me do it. Jeez.
Double Features Plus Next Week
SPEAKER_03It's like you should shave back here if you're gonna have me look at it. All right, we're gonna hit but our next category, double feature, which is where we recommend a movie to go alongside this movie. I don't know why I said it like that. I picked a movie called Ad Astra with Brad Pitt in it. An astronaut embarks on a space mission to investigate a threat to the universe and uncover the truth about his father who disappeared 30 years ago. There is an and car chase on the moon. Yes. And it's you know very similar to the case. It takes like space seriously. So, you know, it's like a realistic, like, hey, if there's gonna be two cars driving and shooting at each other on the moon, it's gonna look like they got like neon lights on the cars and stuff. And um, it's it's a movie about daddy issues. Nice. So you know it's uh it's similar to kind of this movie where it's just like uh it's like a good, it's less of a blockbuster, I would say, but it's just like oh, a cool movie with good action scenes and something to say. And it's just fun. Uh James Gray is the director. Ad Astra. And he um, well, I don't know. He he's in some good movies. I don't know if you've seen any of them. Like uh The Immigrant, We Own the Night, Two Lovers, The Lost City of Z. Um, never seen him. And like his he was nominated, uh, I think his movie is nominated Armageddon Time for like best director and best picture. Um I haven't seen that one yet, but I hear it's really good. Nice. So yeah. Ad Astra makes me this movie made me really want to watch it. Oh, it's so good. It's all in theaters beautiful cried at the end. That's awesome. Every male has daddy issues.
SPEAKER_00Well, no, I guess mine my double feature is obviously uh Apollo 13. And I really love it because uh they got the all these astronauts in a really horrible situation where they think they're gonna die. And I think George Clooney's character is a lot like Tom Hanks's. He keeps everybody calm. Yeah. Yeah, because Tom Hanks is our dad. Yeah. He's everybody's dad. But I I just love like how they have to deal with the the failing of all their the technology, right? And they're still in communication with Earth, but like they have to find new way new solutions to problems that they're they've never had before. And it's just a really like fun movie, and I don't know.
SPEAKER_01It's I miss it.
SPEAKER_03It's been so long since I've seen it. It's on Netflix, you can go home and watch it right now, baby. Yeah, I've only actually seen that movie I think I've well, I think I've probably seen it twice. Saw it as a kid, I'm sure. It was always on TNT or something. Yeah. But like Natalie loves that movie, and we watched it, and I was like, holy shit, this movie rules. So I I kind of just want to watch the bass movies now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's not the mindset I need to be in with Halloween on the like around the corner. Um, so that is our conclusion to the masterpiece gravity. Um, join us next week because it's our last movie before Halloween season starts for us. That's right. So we're gonna give you all a little treat as in a comedy before we get into blood and guts. Yeah, yeah. Um, so yeah, join us next week because we are gonna do the Adam Sandler masterpiece, Happy Gilmore. No, yeah, so join us for that. Because I love golf. I don't, but I love this version of golf. Deep philosophical. I've just um I've just I kind of just been wanting to watch an Adam Sandler movie since we haven't done Happy Gilmore. We've only really done The Wedding Singer. It was between that, this and 50 First Dates, but I was like, let's do Happy Gilmore. More people like Happy Gilmore.
SPEAKER_00The most ridiculous movie. Yeah. I don't know. Might not be.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, join us next week for that. And then get prepped to get into spooky season. Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_00Probably gonna start with Blur Witch Project. I gotta start putting my uh Dungeon Crawler Carl costume together.
SPEAKER_03I'm probably not gonna dress up. We just usually have a party here. I guess I dressed up last year as ghost face, but that's easy peasy to do. My favorite costume I've ever done was the Invisible Man. Nice. Uh just like I had like this leather jacket and some blue jeans and of course taped up my face. Um, and then we went to a party, a party where I didn't know anybody at really there, um, other than like the friends we went with. And I just walked in, I was like, nobody knows what I look like. Hell yeah. This is awesome. Then I went to the bathroom, undid it, and then came back out later. And I was like, I wish I'd changed my like clothes completely because that'd be funny. Like, who the hell are you? Would have been great.
SPEAKER_00You were invisible.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Love that movie. Should be like, maybe we'll do that, like as one of our Halloween movies. Only like an hour and 10 minutes. Kevin Bacon one? No, definitely not. Uh, the original.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I haven't seen the original. Yeah, I haven't.
SPEAKER_03Oh, it's so good. So uh we're gonna conclude this podcast. So we would love to hear from you. There's a link in the description you can click, you can send us some fan mail, or at the bottom, we recommend mailbag at gmail.com. You can leave us fan mail that way or on YouTube. Usually, if you send us stuff, we say it on the podcast. So if you're that vain and want us to talk about you on the podcast, that's a good way to send it. Um, I'd like to thank Joey Prosser for our intro and outro music. You can follow him on X at Mr. Joey Prosser. And gosh dang it, this has been the We Recommend Podcast. I've been Jesse. I've been Jason. Um Gravity. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I was gonna I was gonna sing uh Gravity Keeps Us Together or whatever it is, but I didn't buy it.
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