By Lucie M. Winborne, ReMIND Magazine
Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars … if only from the safety of a movie theater seat.
Would you board a spaceship if given the chance? Mysteriously beautiful as the sky appears from afar, who knows whether its seemingly limitless possibilities are hostile or friendly? What if you got homesick but couldn’t make it back to Earth? Here we look at some of our favorite films about space and life beyond Earth.
For some, like engineer Dr. Charles Cargraves in Destination Moon (1950), risks are outweighed by the lure of adventure. And though he blew up a rocket during its testing phase, he still finds his way to the stars with some help from friends and American industrialists. But the amount of needed fuel was miscalculated, meaning getting back to Earth will require jettisoning some weight … and not just equipment. Will great adventure represent great sacrifice?
If we’re honest, the answer is usually yes. And if we’re being really honest, another question of a more earthy nature that we’ve been posing for decades goes something like: “Is there sex in space?” Um, ask Barbarella (1968). The voluptuous, futuristic blonde may be out to locate mad scientist Durand-Durand before he can snuff out mankind with his positronic ray, but that doesn’t stop her from enjoying a smorgasbord of erotic delights after she crashes on Planet 16 of Tau Ceti. Don’t ask, don’t tell? We’ll leave it at that.
The more serious (if equally eternal) theme of light vs. darkness underlies every thrilling plot twist of Star Wars (1977), and though many more films will be needed to bring George Lucas’ epic vision to fruition, was there ever any doubt about which side will ultimately triumph? Callow youths who grow into adventurous fighters (and clever smugglers). High-speed chases and chivalrous rescues. Lightsaber duels, an all-wise mentor and legendary paternity reveal — there’s something for every space fan here.
Still, our darkest fears about where no man has gone before found a voice in Aliens (1986). As if Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), sole survivor of the crew of the Nostromo, hadn’t endured enough in her initial encounter with a slime-dripping extraterrestrial hellbent on destruction, 57 years later she discovers that not only is her story met with disbelief, but also that the moon where she battled Mr. Nasty was colonized by humans … with whom contact has been lost. Fortunately, our heroine is ready to face her demon once more — only this time, his friends have joined the party.
Hey, it’s one thing to play an intergalactic traveler on TV or in a movie. It’s all just pretend … until one day it isn’t. That’s the shocker for a troupe of largely unemployed actors enlisted to help save an alien race from genocide at the hands of an evil general … since said aliens have no idea their heroes were actually fake. Now the faded leads of Galaxy Quest (1999) must reenact their roles for real, but with no scriptwriters — or technical advisers — to guide them.
Lastly, we give a nod to two of Hollywood’s most recent films on space (both having far more heart than the traditional space-catastrophe films) — 2013’s Gravity, which starred George Clooney and Sandra Bullock coping with disaster, and 2015’s The Martian, which found star Matt Damon playing a botanist astronaut stranded on Mars.
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