Gravity is a 2013 3D science fiction thriller and space drama film directed, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Alfonso Cuarón. The film stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts who survive the mid-orbit destruction of a Space Shuttle and attempt to return to Earth.
Trailer
Cuarón wrote the screenplay with his son Jonás and attempted to develop the project at Universal Studios. After the rights to the project were sold, the project found traction at Warner Bros. instead. The studio approached multiple actresses before casting Bullock in the female lead role. Robert Downey Jr. was also involved as the male lead before leaving the project and being replaced by Clooney.
Gravity opened at the 70th Venice International Film Festival in August 2013. Its North American premiere was three days later at the Telluride Film Festival. It received a wide release in the United States and Canada on October 4, 2013. Reactions from critics and audiences alike have been overwhelmingly positive, both groups giving much praise for Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography, as well as Bullock's and Clooney's performances.
Plot
Dr. Ryan Stone is a Mission Specialist on her first space shuttle mission aboard the Space Shuttle Explorer. She is accompanied by veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski, who is commanding his final expedition. During a spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope, Mission Control in Houston warns the team about a Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite, which has caused a chain reaction forming a cloud of space debris. Mission control orders that the mission be aborted. Shortly after, communications with Mission Control are lost, though the astronauts continue to transmit, hoping that the ground crew can still hear them.
High-speed debris strikes the Explorer and detaches Stone from the shuttle, leaving her tumbling through space. Kowalski soon recovers Stone and they make their way back to the space shuttle. They discover the shuttle has been damaged far beyond usability and the rest of the crew is dead. They use the thruster pack to make their way to the International Space Station (ISS), which is in orbit only about 100 km (60 mi) away. Kowalski estimates they have 90 minutes before the debris field completes an orbit and threatens them again.
Cast
- Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone
- George Clooney as Lieutenant Matt Kowalski
- Ed Harris (voice) as Mission Control in Houston, Texas.
- Orto Ignatiussen (voice) as Aningaaq
- Paul Sharma (voice) as Shariff Dasari
- Amy Warren (voice) as Explorer captain.
- Basher Savage (voice) as Russian Space Station Captain
Production
Development
The project was in development at Universal Pictures for several years. Warner Bros. acquired the project, which in February 2010, attracted the attention of Angelina Jolie, who had rejected a sequel to Wanted. Later in the month, she passed on the project, partially because the studio did not want to pay the $20 million fee she had received for her latest two movies, but also because she wanted to work on directing her Bosnian war film In the Land of Blood and Honey. In March, Robert Downey, Jr. entered talks to be cast in the male lead role.
In mid-2010, Marion Cotillard tested for the female lead role. By August 2010, Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively were in the running for the role. In September, Cuarón received approval from Warner Bros. to offer the role without a screen test to Natalie Portman, who was being praised for her then-recently released film Black Swan. Portman passed on the project due to scheduling conflicts, and Warner Bros. then approached Sandra Bullock for the role. In November 2010, Downey left the project to star in How to Talk to Girls, a project in development with Shawn Levy attached to direct. The following December, with Bullock signed for the co-lead role, George Clooney replaced Downey.
A big challenge for the team was the question of how to shoot long takes in a zero-g environment. Eventually the team decided to use computer-generated imagery for the spacewalk scenes, and automotive robots to move Bullock's character for interior space station scenes. This meant that shots and blocking had to be planned well in advance in order for the robots to be programmed.
Filming
Gravity had a production budget of $100 million and was filmed digitally on Arri Alexas. Principal photography on the film began in late May 2011. Live elements were shot at Pinewood and Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom, The landing scene was filmed at Lake Powell, Arizona. Visual effects were supervised by Tim Webber at Framestore in London. The 3D was designed and supervised by Chris Parks. The majority of the 3D was created through stereo rendering the CG at Framestore with the rest post converted, principally at Prime Focus, London with additional conversion work by Framestore. Prime Focus's supervisor was Richard Baker. Filming began in London in May 2011. The film contains about 200 or so cutaways, which is significantly fewer than most films of this length. Although the first trailer had audible explosions and other sounds, in the final film these scenes are silent: "They put in explosions [in the trailer]. As we know, there is no sound in space. In the film, we don't do that." The sound track in the film's space scenes is populated only by the musical score and sounds astronauts would hear in their suits or the space vehicles.
Most of Bullock's shots were done with her inside of a giant mechanical rig. Getting into the rig took a significant amount of time, so Bullock opted to stay in it for up to 10 hours a day, communicating with others only through a headset. Cuarón said his biggest challenge was to make the set feel as inviting and non-claustrophobic as possible. The team attempted to do this by having a massive celebration when Bullock arrived each day. They also nicknamed the rig "Sandy's cage" and gave it a lighted sign reflecting this.
Reception
Box office
As of October 31, 2013, Gravity has grossed $204,427,244 in North America, and $164,400,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $368,827,244.
Preliminary reports had the film tracking for a debut of over $40 million in North America. The film earned $1.4 million from its Thursday night showings, and reached a $17.5 million Friday total. It went on to break Paranormal Activity 3's record as the biggest October and autumn openings ever, as the film brought in $55.8 million. Of the film's opening weekend gross, 80 percent of the total was derived from its 3D showings for a sum of $44 million—which also includes $11.2 million, or 20 percent of the total receipts, from IMAX 3D showings, the highest percentage ever for a film opening more than $50 million.
Critical reception
Gravity had its world premiere at the 70th Venice International Film Festival on August 28, where it received universal acclaim from critics and audiences, praising the acting, direction, screenplay, cinematography, visual effects, production design, the use of 3D, and Steven Price's musical score. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 97% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 257 reviews with a "Certified Fresh" rating, with an average score of 9.1/10. The site's consensus states: "Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity is an eerie, tense sci-fi thriller that's masterfully directed and visually stunning." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 96 (citing "universal acclaim") based on 48 reviews. CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend revealed the average grade cinemagoers gave Gravity was A- on an A+ to F scale.