The New Trailer for “Gravity” Depicts a Dizzying Disaster… in Orbit!

If you’ve ever been involved in one, you know that even a minor vehicle accident is a confusing and scary event. Trying to desperately regain control of your own movement as you’re suddenly subjected to forces beyond your control is stressful and terrifying… now imagine it happening at 17,500 mph and 230 miles up and you’ve got an idea of what the upcoming film “Gravity” is about.

Still can’t quite picture it? Check out the latest trailer below:

Directed and written by Alfonso Cuarón and co-written with his son Jonas, “Gravity” is the story of two astronauts (played by George Clooney and Sandra Bullock) whose shuttle is destroyed by a run-in with space junk during an EVA, stranding them both in orbit.

If that wasn’t bad enough, their oxygen is running out and they have lost communication with the ground. Cast adrift in orbit, they have to figure out how to survive and get back home.

It’s like “Open Water” in space. Without the sharks. (Let’s hope things turn out better for them!)

I enjoy sci-fi and I especially enjoy when they try to get the “sci” part right. How do things move in microgravity? (Hint: really fast.) What happens when stuff smashes together? What would happen to the human body in that situation? And, most importantly for any movie, how do the people involved handle the experience?

Above all, “Gravity” is still a movie so it has to take us on a two-hour, candy-munching, soda-slurping ride. Based on this latest trailer, I’m confident that they’ve done their homework on the mechanics of movement in orbit… now let’s see if Cuarón (Children of Men, Y Tu Mamá También, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)  has once again worked his storytelling magic to bring the characters to free-falling life.

A Warner Bros. Pictures production, “Gravity” will be released in IMAX 3D and 2D this October. See the official movie site here.

ADDED 7/25: Here’s a new clip, titled “I’ve Got You”:

Video ©2013 Warner Bros. Entertainment. All rights reserved.

27 Replies to “The New Trailer for “Gravity” Depicts a Dizzying Disaster… in Orbit!”

      1. Examples? Every single scene.
        Look at how they move as it was a fast paced action movie.
        Look at how the Canadarm rotates

      2. My only beef is how he identified the satellite by the debris which is probably going too fast for him to resolve from inside his helmet. Heck, when WE first see it its still too far off.

        The physics? That’s artistic license, you have to have the license to have the movie. Worse than Armageddon? That’s kind of harsh.

      3. Is it the actors moving too quickly, or the cameras moving to quickly? How can you tell?

        How “should” the Canadarm rotate?

      1. Indeed. The fact that Apollo is long over, didn’t stop someone from doing ‘Apollo 18.’

    1. NASA probably wouldn’t be as helpful to moviemakers in helping them make a disaster movie about the shuttle if the program was still operational.

  1. Wow. LOVE how you can clearly see Florida and Cuba on the Earth. This scene has the potential to look great in 3D.

  2. I can’t stand the horrible inaccuracies. (1) There never was a space shuttle named Explorer! (2) Of the space shuttles that were destroyed, neither of them was destroyed by orbital debris! Need I go on? Of course not. Worse than Sharknado.

      1. Depends on if you pronounce it “Historical” or ” ‘istorical”. If you pronounce the “h”, then it’s “a historical.”

    1. “Oh, no – something is wrong! Then entire premise of the movie must be moot!”

      1. (facepalm) Yes. It was sarcasm.

        I do like accuracy a lot, the more the better. If there are good features (e.g., if it’s a classic-style science fiction “puzzle story”), I will make allowances elsewhere.

  3. Did the debris required ~2 seconds to cross the width of the shuttle?
    or 12m/s?
    (see 0:11-0:13)

  4. You never saw spacewalking astronauts move so fast. I strongly doubt the gear was even capable of that speed of movement/rotation. It will build great tension though. The movement in Space Cowboys was far more realistic (even if the ending was not!)

    1. Well, no. They don’t move that fast under normal circumstances…. but these aren’t supposed to be normal circumstances. It’s an accident in orbit.

  5. Wow that was intense! Much more exciting and interesting than the stupid “impossible physics” science fiction that is usually churned out by Hollywood.

  6. Consider taking dramamine before watching the trailer. 😉

    This will be quite the movie via 3D IMAX.

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