Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring.
The crew of the space shuttle Explorer is working on the STS-157 mission. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness.
Kowalsky and Stone have no idea if there is any outgoing or incoming communications with Houston control.
The two are left in a precarious position as Stone suddenly becomes untethered with a quickly decreasing oxygen supply on her person meaning that Kowalsky has to retrieve her quickly if she has any chance of survival.
Even if he does retrieve her and manage to get some oxygen to her quickly, they then have the difficult task of trying to get to another space station with whatever equipment is on hand, and from there ultimately get back to Earth.
Through the process, they are often left on their own without the other’s assistance, leading to an extreme feeling of isolation which leads to individual questions and ultimate decisions about their own mortality and what may be best for the other at the expense of oneself.
Gravity leaves you on the edge of your seat reeling from the nerve-wracking, sentimental and thrilling adventure that amplifies the terror of being totally alone and of the helplessness in outer space.
It has the perfect blend of all the elements of a science fiction blockbuster with all the amazing special effects as well with a powerful and subtle story line.
Bullock and Clooney worked amazingly together to make this movie seem more realistic and believable.
At the recent Academy Awards, Gravity landed seven Oscars in various technical categories. Bullock was also nominated for Best Actress, but lost to Cate Blanchett.
This movie left me wondering if they ever would survive and what would happen next. I truly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to any science fiction, suspense and thrill-seeker - they would definitely not be disappointed.
Sandra Cameron, of Movie Experts, is a local movie buff.