The grand daddy of space mission films, 2001 changed the way spaceflight was depicted on camera. It's a world away from the rockets of the 50s and 60s films, which were little more than glorified aeroplanes. It bravely dared to show something a little more realistic - although the beehive hairstyles of the stewardesses on the Pan-Am flight don't quite make the cut - by slowing things down. Its languid pace might test the patience of a younger audience today but on first viewing it's frankly spell binding. It shows weightlessness as a necessary condition of space travel. There are two main flight sequences, the first on the trip up to Clavius base and the shuttle to the moon, in which Kubrick has a little fun with the concept of zero gravity - Floyd's floating pen, the processed in flight meal, the zero G toilet, and so on. The second, taking up the bulk of the film, is the main Discovery mission to Jupiter to investigate signals emanating from a mysterious black monolith discovered on the moon. There's the incredible shot of Frank Poole jogging round the artificial gravity wheel, and a scene of the astronauts communicating with earth, 80 million miles away, complete with excruciating time delay, edited for convenience. The film genuinely feels authentic in that respect. It also throws Artificial Intelligence into the mix, years before Kubrick worked on, and almost directed the film AI, which eventually fell to Steven Spielberg to complete. As the Discovery approaches its destination, Jupiter, the ship's computer, HAL9000, fearing that the humans are jeopardising the mission, which "he" is programmed to protect, murders one of the astronauts outside the ship, and terminates the life support systems of the crewmembers aboard and in cryogenic suspension, leaving the commander, Dave Bowman to enter the "stargate". What follows is a truly stunning psychedelic experience, which appears to convey the complete cycle of human life and evolution. Truly ground-breaking.
Part horror film, part science fiction, Alien was a game changer in more ways than one. It marked an obvious departure from the bright, shiny Star Wars type science fiction (more correctly fantasy rather than science fiction, but who's arguing with popular perception), it depicted a grungy, grimy, and dark environment. The Nostromo, on which the action takes place (barring a brief sojurn on Acheron / LV426 to pick up the latest passenger) is a working long haul cargo ship. The drama is mainly confined to the dank, steamy corridors of the ship, as the alien guest grows rapidly and picks off the crew one by one, leaving only Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) to save herself. One gets a distinct sense of claustrophobia, but at the same time the film hints at the hugeness of the ship itself, as evinced when the alien first bleeds and its acid blood eats through floor after floor. It also reminds us of the vast distances involved and the time taken to cross space. When the crew are first woken from hypersleep - a trope without which long haul space travel in films would not be possible - they find that they are in the middle of nowhere, a long long way from home. As with 2001 AI throws a spanner into the works, when the ship's computer Mother develops murderous intentions, in this case having been programmed to bring back the organism - a perfect killing machine - at all costs; "crew expendable" her instructions read. This leads to a nail biting climax. Alien may not be about the specifics of being guys on a spaceship, focusing more on the tension and oppression, but does make for a novel and absorbing film. It's another landmark of the oeuvre.
This is a space mission movie with something of a difference. Directed by Special Effects maestro Douglas Trumbull (indeed he of 2001 vfx fame), instead of marauding aliens or demonic forces, it tells the story of a crew of four men, adrift in deep space on board the American Airlines - nice touch - freighter Valley Forge, tasked with guarding "bio-domes" (massive greenhouses, essentially) containing the last flora and fauna from a dying planet earth, where such life has become extinct. Orders have come through that the domes are to be jettisoned and destroyed so the freighters can be redeployed for commercial use. For three of the crew this is no big deal, but for the hero Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) it is a horror, which he will go to any lengths to stop - even killing his crewmates. There are some charming interactions between Lowell and the ship's three drone robots; Huey, Dewey and Louie, he teaches them to play poker at one point, and they perform maintenance duties on the ship. These are more human than his dealings with the other humans on board, and the viewer cares more about the robots, two of whom are lost in the course of trying to save the domes. The films ends with Lowell steering this ship off course towards Saturn, and ultimately sacrificing himself to preserve the last remaining dome. It's an unusual but distinctly memorable film, not least due to the very of-the-time Joan Baez songs on the soundtrack, but because it although it drips of natural decline, and ends on a downer it nonetheless feels positive about the future.
Directed by Danny Boyle, more commonly known for down to Earth fare, Sunshine tells the story of a crew of astronauts onboard the spaceship Icarus II (Icarus I having disappeared seven years previously), on a mission to launch an atomic bomb into the heart of the Sun, which is failing. If this sounds far-fetched, it is, although the film's Science Adviser was none other than Dr. Brian Cox, who reassures us that the sun is not "dying" in the typical sense, but refers to a theoretical particle called a Q-Ball, which could interact with the star in a negative way. Theoretically. The bomb, the size of Manhattan, is supposed to clear the infection and restore the sun. In any event it's best not to focus on the science, or its inaccuracies but enjoy it for what it is - a gripping, desperate, do or die mission in space. The cast is fantastic, including Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne Cliff Curtis and Mark Strong. Towards the climax, as the ship approaches the sun - the giver of like (metaphorically God) - things veer towards the realm of fantasy, horror and madness, as the crew encounter Icarus I's commander, Pinbacker, or possibly his ghost. Having succumbed to madness, Pinbacker attempts to stop the mission. The payload is eventually launched, and a short coda shows the sun seen shining more brightly from Earth, meaning that the mission was successful. The final act certainly marks a change in tone, but somehow works well in the overall context. The visuals, by cinematographer Alwin Kuchler, and the score, by John Murphy and (partially) Underworld, is creepy and atmospheric. This is certainly an atypical entry into the "on a spaceship" genre, but a memorable and effective entry to it.
Definitely one to file in the drawer marked "guilty pleasure", Event Horizon also adds copious quantities of horror, and gore into the mix; alternatively one could convincingly argue it's a horror film wrapped in some space stuff. More dodgy science ahoy; an Event Horizon is a boundary in spacetime at which the gravitational pull of an object renders it impossible for objects outside cannot escape, including light. It is most commonly associated with black holes. (*) In the film, the Event Horizon is a vessel, equipped with a gravity drive which creates artificial black holes, used to bridge two distant points in space time (think folding space using the spice, in Dune). The ship appears near Neptune after a disappearance seven years previously (what is it with spaceships and seven year absences?). Sent to investigate is the rescue ship Lewis and Clark, captained by Miller (Laurence Fishburne) and carrying the drives designer, Dr William Weir (Sam Neill). When the crew boards the Event Horizon they find the scene of a massacre, the drive reactivates itself, and hallucinations among them abound. It's a haunted house movie in space. Despite being severely edited (cut from 130 minutes down to 97, due to the graphic violence of the original version) the film is still one for those with a strong stomach. It's an effective, gory, scary journey to hell mixing jump-scares and an unsettling, gothic atmosphere, with a fine cast, also including Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13) and (Hello to) Jason Isaacs. Unfairly dismissed on its release, it has become something of a favourite, and it's a shame it was made in the pre-dvd days so the planned restoration could not be completed as the footage was lost. A largely unrecognised gem.
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Although nowhere near the quality of the above films, it's worth giving an honourable (?) mention to the 2017 movie Life, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds. It's an Alien knock-off so blatant that it's almost admirable. The plot is virtually identical to the 1979 masterpiece - crew picks up an alien organism, which grows rapidly and begins to pick off the crew. There's barely an original scene in it, although the design of the jellyfish-like creature is effective, and the entire film takes place in zero gravity (on the International Space Station) so there is a lot off very effective wire work of the astronauts floating around. Not good then, exactly, but rather enjoyable, and one almost has to admire the brazenness with which it feeds off its superior.
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See also - the discovery of a Black Hole.
