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Author Topic: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]  (Read 2052 times)

AlleeCat

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The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« on: March 31, 2014, 05:38:23 am »

So I just saw the movie Gravity, and while it was very visually impressive and the music and sound design were great, the science nerd in me had quite a few problems with the whole thing. I still liked the movie, but for a movie that seems to pride itself on real world physics, it seems to get more things wrong than it gets right.

All that aside, it was a very pretty movie with a great score and nice sound design, but all those nitpicks kept me from enjoying the movie as much as I could have. Any thoughts?

alexandertnt

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2014, 07:53:38 am »

Quote
When Matt and Ryan hit the ISS and Ryan gets caught in the chute cable...
Oh yes, that magical force ruined that whole scene for me. It was supposed to be suspenseful, but it should have been a complete non-issue. It had me yelling in my head "WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM!".

Quote
I know it was all a hallucination...
Space exposure like that is actually less deadly than you would think. You could probably survive it for the duration the door was open.

Quote
stuff about unprofessionalism
This is a common issue with movies like this, where what should be a group of highly trained, intelligent and disiplined professionals suddenly turn into a bunch of yahoos (which is a peeve I have with many movies). Why was Ryan flying around the shuttle over and over? Shits 'n giggles? That seems like pretty careless abuse of the jetpack (if he had not done this, he probably would have survived).



One possibly interesting point: She gave up landing the Soyuz because it had no parachute, but it may still have been possible to survive a landing. Soyuz 5 "landed" with a tangled parachute and no landing rocket, and the poilet survived.

I also find it difficult to believe that, after losing contact with the shuttle, no space organisation would have thought about keeping an eye for anyone transmitting on channels that are probably standardised and well known.

I am also pretty sure those spacesuits have emergency life support. *googles* yes, 30 minutes of backup life support :-\
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This is when I imagine the hilarity which may happen if certain things are glichy. Such as targeting your own body parts to eat.

You eat your own head
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GlyphGryph

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2014, 08:11:02 am »

Except that in that scene, everything IS spinning - that's the entire freaking point of the scene, and part of what makes everything so difficult!

I am pretty sure the english/russian dual labeling only applies to the space station itself, not the pods.

The Chinese man stays on the radio because that's what ham operators do whenever something slightly interesting happens.

The "should be at different orbits" thing was unrealistic, though, yes - and intentionally so. In space, everything is just too far away. It was a necessary alteration of reality to make the movie work in any way. They tried to be as accurate as possible where possible... but in cases where that was obviously going to get in the way of making the movie any good at all, like this case, they were willing to diverge from reality a bit.
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Sheb

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2014, 08:15:15 am »

Why would the debris hit every 90 minute? Sure, the ISS orbit every 90 minutes... But since the debris are one the same orbit, they shouldn't be moving relative to the ISS at all!
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GlyphGryph

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2014, 08:28:07 am »

OR they should be hitting twice as often? :P
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alexandertnt

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2014, 08:35:42 am »

Except that in that scene, everything IS spinning - that's the entire freaking point of the scene, and part of what makes everything so difficult!

The scene with the tangled parachute, or the scene at the start of the movie?
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This is when I imagine the hilarity which may happen if certain things are glichy. Such as targeting your own body parts to eat.

You eat your own head
YOU HAVE BEEN STRUCK DOWN!

GlyphGryph

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2014, 08:37:56 am »

With the tangled parachute.

Although it spins a LOT faster later.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2014, 08:43:32 am by GlyphGryph »
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Sheb

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2014, 08:49:45 am »

Can anyone find a good clip of the scene? I'd like to compute the centrigufal force.
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redwallzyl

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2014, 08:59:02 am »

Centrifugal force is not actuly a thing you want centripetal force.
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AlleeCat

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2014, 09:02:05 am »

I cannot find any clips of the movie on Youtube besides official trailers, which of course don't show that entire scene since it's a major plot point.

Why was Ryan Matt flying around the shuttle over and over? Shits 'n giggles? That seems like pretty careless abuse of the jetpack (if he had not done this, he probably would have survived).
Matt was supposedly just testing a new EVA RCS pack, and finding something to do while he tried to break the spacewalk time record.

Sheb

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2014, 09:04:26 am »

Centrifugal force is not actuly a thing you want centripetal force.

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AlleeCat

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2014, 09:24:36 am »

Centrifugal force and centripetal force are basically the same thing, so let's just agree to disagree here.

AlleeCat

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2014, 03:11:01 am »

So I wasn't completely sure about the whole parachute disconnection thing, but I found a video that confirms it.

LeoLeonardoIII

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2014, 06:26:58 pm »

I'll say what I tell my girlfriend whenever we walk out of a movie like that:

"I have nothing negative to say about that movie. I liked it."

Because the alternative is an hour of bitching about minutiae.
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alexandertnt

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Re: The trouble with Gravity [SPOILERS]
« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2014, 06:40:14 pm »

Why was Ryan Matt flying around the shuttle over and over? Shits 'n giggles? That seems like pretty careless abuse of the jetpack (if he had not done this, he probably would have survived).
Matt was supposedly just testing a new EVA RCS pack, and finding something to do while he tried to break the spacewalk time record.

Ha! I new I would end up screwing up the names of the characters. I can't remember names for crap, so everyone usually turns into "that person".

Testing the pack makes sense, I suppose.
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This is when I imagine the hilarity which may happen if certain things are glichy. Such as targeting your own body parts to eat.

You eat your own head
YOU HAVE BEEN STRUCK DOWN!