December 17, 2013 -- Most science fiction films made these days, including the fine film from this year, “Gravity” have serious scientific innaccuracies built into them, sometimes deliberately, to increase the drama. In most modern science fiction films, the science part is limited to a bit of technobabble.

This wasn't always the case. Some older science fiction films were made in a more scientifically accurate way, such as “Destination Moon” in 1950 and “The Andromeda Strain” in 1971. A notable example of an accurate depiction of space travel can be found in Stanley Kubrick's “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but even that film had substantial elements that could be described as fantasy.

This film, however, bucks the non-scientific science fiction trend. It is firmly rooted in science. One can nitpick some details of it, but for the most part the science in the story is accurate and well researched. That doesn't mean it is dull. The story has a dangerous alien, the crash of a space ship, a man adrift in space and solar flare damage. There is drama, suspense and heroism.

The film uses the “found footage” technique of piecing the story of a privately-funded Europa expedtion together from video files taken by the crew and transmitted to earth. There is narration on earth from Dr. Unger (played by Embeth Davidtz of “The Amazing Spider-Man”), CEO of Europa Ventures, which runs the Europa One expedition. There is also narration from Rosa Dasque (Anamaria Marinca of “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) a member of the expedition.

Other members of the expedition are Captain Willam Xu (Daniel Wu of “The Man With the Iron Fists”) chief science officer Daniel Luxembourg (Christian Camargo of “The Hurt Locker”) marine biology science officer Katya Petrovna (Karolina Wydra of “Crazy, Stupid, Love”) junior engineer James Corrigan (Sharlto Copley of “Elysium”) and chief engineer Andrei Blok (Michael Nyqvist of “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”).

As part of its realism, the film uses a lot of images of Europa, a moon of Jupiter obtained by NASA probes. Europa is thought to hold liquid water under a layer of ice and scientists think there could be life under the water there. There was a warning about Europa in the story “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which goes, “All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing there.”

The film reportedly uses footage from the launch of NASA's Juno probe of Saturn for its initial launch sequence of the rocket ship used to carry the explorers to the main Europa One spaceship in earth orbit. The film also uses footage of the interior of the SpaceX Dragon spaceship, the first privately operated spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station and return safely to earth. The Dragon is designed to carry cargo and people.

Things go terribly wrong during the Europa mission. A Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun knocks out the communications array on the main spacecraft. The ice under the lander becomes unstable. A crew member trying to fix the communications system rips a hole in his space suit. Another crewman drifts away to his death in space. Other crewmen on Europa are seemingly attacked and killed by something under the ice.

Despite all this, the remaining crewmen try to make the mission a success, even at the cost of their own lives. This is a story about scientists who overcome obstacles to try to discover life on another world and who heroically attempt to get news of their discoveries back to earth. In most modern science fiction, scientists are not depicted as noble. In the tradition of Frankenstein, they are often depicted as villains. This movie presents scientists, and people, at their best. People at their worst, of course, would claim the whole Europa expedition was a fiction, a conspiracy, and, of course, a coverup.

The acting is good in the film and the special effects are adequate (this is not a big budget film). This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2013 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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