The film was directed by Oscar® nominee Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”).
In the film, Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
Right now, orbiting hundreds of miles above the Earth, there are people working in a place where there is very little separation between life and death. The inherent dangers of spaceflight have grown in the decades since we first began venturing beyond our own atmosphere…and those increasing dangers are manmade. The refuse from past missions and defunct satellites has formed a debris field that can cause disaster in an instant. NASA has even given the scenario a name: the Kessler Syndrome.
David Heyman, who produced “Gravity” with Cuarón, attests, “This is a real issue. Every screw or piece of junk that has been dropped or left behind is orbiting at an incredible speed and if, or when, they collide, they create still more debris. It is life-threatening for the astronauts, the spacecrafts and possibly for us here on Earth, too.”
Bullock affirms, “It is heartbreaking to think about not only the destruction of this planet, but also about what we don’t see: the trash that is literally orbiting above us.”
That premise becomes the catalyst for a harrowing fight for survival in “Gravity,” which transports you into the awe-inspiring but forbidding vacuum of space.
The film opens in the silent abyss above the Earth’s atmosphere, where the Shuttle Explorer is in orbit. Mission Specialist Ryan Stone (Bullock), attached to a robotic arm, is installing a new scanning system on the Hubble Telescope. Dr. Stone’s obvious discomfort in zero gravity is in stark contrast to Mission Commander Matt Kowalski’s (Clooney) apparent ease. On his final voyage into space, Kowalski is having a fine time testing the mettle of a new jet pack that lets him fly unrestrained by the usual tethers.
On the other side of the planet, the intentional demolition of an obsolete satellite has sent sharp fragments hurtling into space, setting off a chain reaction that puts the fast-growing debris field on a collision course with Explorer. The inescapable impact is catastrophic, destroying the shuttle and leaving Stone and Kowalski as the lone survivors. All communication with Mission Control has been lost…and, with it, any chance of rescue. Adrift in the void, the two must find a way to see past their own limitations and escape their inertia if they are ever going to get back to Earth.
Bullock remarks, “I think it’s a story about what makes us try when it seems there is no light at the end of the tunnel. What is it that makes you go that extra step just in case it was worth the effort to try?”
“It is very much a woman’s passage from a place of loss and being in an emotionally numb state to a place where she rediscovers her purpose and reason for life…and then fights for it,” Heyman concludes.
Opening across the Philippines in Oct. 3 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D, 2D and regular theatres, “Gravity” is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.
