Space movies educate us about ourselves, stretch our imaginations about the universe
While some view science as dull, films about space can spark curiosity and encourage a deeper interest in understanding how science works, said Kevin Clyde, a senior majoring in communications from the Philippines. He said curiosity is a theme he sees in space exploration films. “We really wouldn’t go up there if we weren’t curious,” he added. Science fiction and space exploration films help one’s mind be free…It helps us see that nothing is impossible. It shows how creative our minds can be. It has no limitations, ” he added.
Tumaliuan said a film he admires is the Martian. “After conquering the moon, man’s next big step was to set foot on Mars. ‘The Martian’ allowed me to appreciate the possibilities of mankind’s pursuit of evolution.” He said he admires the film showing examples like growing potatoes on Mars, using a spacesuit while in space and how boundless the human mind can be.
Space films show the reality
Jesse Cassandra Crank, a junior majoring in biology from California, said space movies push the “what-if ” answers to the “what-if ” situations with realism and scientific accuracy. For example, she explained some space movies show racism in an unexpected way. In the Alien-Romulus series, she said there are synthetic humans. “Other characters were looking down on them because they were not real people. That is why I like the Alien series as it includes real-life problems, ” she added.
She said she prefers Star Trek over Star Wars because it offers scientific insights, and her organic chemistry class teacher often references it in class. Although some parts in space films can be overly dramatic, she explained she enjoys the portrayal of aliens and the exploration of diversity, including the contrasts with humanity.
Brent Cowley, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Arts & Letters, said his master’s thesis was on Christopher Nolan, a film director known for the use of realism within his movies as a branding point. He said, “I think people are realizing just how important this science is with the entertainment they are seeing. Although space movies are fun, they are not always realistic.” The death star explosion in “Star Wars: A New Hope,” a space opera, created in 1997, showed there’s no sound in space, he shared as an example. Interstellar is all about immersion, he said, adding when the movie premiered in theaters, some viewers complained they couldn’t hear the dialogue in certain scenes.
Defining a great space film
A great space movie has to have a unique visual storytelling factor, Cowley said. The visual aesthetic and story outside the norm of space movies separates it from other genres people love, he added.
He said the most important factor in these movies is showing the fragility of humankind on earth. “The [movie] Martian brings up the question, ‘Why do we have to find these other planets to try to save humanity when all we have to do is save what we already have?’” he added.
Cowley said there is a notion of collaboration with space movies.“‘The Martian’ where we have Matt Damon, and he’s on Mars andeveryone is trying to help him come back to earth. But who is it that actually provides the method for him to survive? It’s China,” he added.
He said another example is the Chinese International space station providing Sandra Bullock, who starred in the space film, “Gravity,” helped her to survive. He explained the collaboration between industries is driven by China’s strict quota that permits only 34 foreign films to be shown in theaters annually. However, he explained films co-produced with China are exempt from this restriction because they involve Chinese funding. This partnership ensures such films gain automatic access to theaters in China, making co-productions a strategic choice for filmmakers.
According to IMDB, “Passengers” is a film about a starship during its 120-year voyage transporting 5, 258 people, but the spaceship is having a malfunction with one of the sleeping pods causing one person to wake up, still 90 years from his destination. “As far as filmmaking goes, the out-of-this-world music and sound make a great space movie. One thing I loved about ‘Passengers’ was the music that Thomas Newman worked on,” he added.
Further, Cowley said technology, specifically, AI has been an important factor in science fiction and space movies for a very long time. “Not just AI being science fiction. It’s science fact. We are living it now,” he added.
Historical and allegorical relevance
The movie “Interstellar” will stand the test of time because it is a piece of history, said Cowley. “ It’s already happened before. It is an allegory for things that already happened here on earth, and what our future may be if things don’t change,” he added.
He said the perfect example is the “dust bowl.” In the United States in the 1920s, he said when agriculture had come in, farmers had taken out trees and made the plains one sweeping wind-filled dust bowl. “It destroyed crops and was destroying humanity’s ability to live,” he added.
Interstellar shows exactly what happened in the past, Cowley said. “If you look at the end of the film, there was a documentary made by Ken Burns called the ‘Dustbal,’ and the interview footage where he’s on a space station talking of that era of the earth dying. That was actual footage from the documentary, the dust bowl, describing where we have already been,” he added.
When it comes to space exploration, Cowley said it is the frontier. “Space is a way we can move forward and teach ourselves about ourselves,” he added.
Space movie recommendations:
Professor Brent Cowley’s List:
Arrival
Dune 1 and 2
First Man
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
The Martian
Moon
Rogue One
Wall-e
Kevin Clyde’s List
Interstellar
The Martian
Wall-e
Gravity
Startrek
Mars Needs Moms
Zathura
Prometheus
Passengers
Jessie Crank’s List
Alien
Hidden Figures
Interstellar
Star Trek
Wall-e
Ender’s Game
Guardians of the Galaxy
Zathura
Treasure planet
Star Wars