Author Topic: The Space Between Us  (Read 19957 times)

Offline wenderro

  • Member
  • Posts: 28
  • Romania
  • Liked: 17
  • Likes Given: 35
The Space Between Us
« on: 05/25/2016 11:12 pm »
The plot doesn't seem to be much space related but it has the most realistic space vehicles CGI, in the trailer you can see SLS, Dragon 2 and DreamChaser.

 Trailer:

Offline The Amazing Catstronaut

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1065
  • Arsia Mons, Mars, Sol IV, Inner Solar Solar System, Sol system.
  • Liked: 759
  • Likes Given: 626
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #1 on: 05/26/2016 12:13 am »
The trailer doesn't make it look amazing, and if it turns out to be anti-settlement I'll be hesitant to hand the studio my money, but the philosophical and ethical questions it raises are entirely valid. There are going to be people born on Mars with awareness of what Earth is, and the relative unknowability of life on Earth compared to the conventions of life on Mars.

At the same time, some people are born in countries with extremely positive social conditions at relatively high economic echelons, and many billions are not. This impacts some people enough to move between societies and positions within society, for some, it doesn't. Mars and Earth will likely have a similar dynamic.
Resident feline spaceflight expert. Knows nothing of value about human spaceflight.

Offline Lar

  • Fan boy at large
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13463
  • Saw Gemini live on TV
  • A large LEGO storage facility ... in Michigan
  • Liked: 11864
  • Likes Given: 11086
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #2 on: 05/26/2016 03:53 am »
What I think is kind of positive is that the backstory of this movie is about settlement. Not an expedition (or series) as in The Martian..... Settlement is becoming more of an accepted idea.

I didn't see the sort of exponential growth you'd expect to see as time went by, though. That could be because they were using SLS?? :)
« Last Edit: 05/26/2016 03:53 am by Lar »
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline RonM

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3340
  • Atlanta, Georgia USA
  • Liked: 2231
  • Likes Given: 1584
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #3 on: 05/26/2016 04:11 am »
It looks like it's just a teenage love story, but with a boy from Mars twist.

The realistic modern space hardware is encouraging. The "Martian" must have left an impression with Hollywood that this is what the public wants to see.

Maybe the general public assumes one day soon we will be going to Mars. The more that meme spreads, the more likely NASA, SpaceX, etc. will be able to get the funding needed to make it come true.

Offline sanman

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5970
  • Liked: 1309
  • Likes Given: 8
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #4 on: 05/26/2016 04:13 am »
It seems like they just took a generic awkward-boy-meets-girl storyline and threw Mars in there to make it more cool and hip.

Offline GalacticIntruder

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 512
  • Pet Peeve:I hate the word Downcomer. Ban it.
  • Huntsville, AL
  • Liked: 247
  • Likes Given: 70
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #5 on: 05/26/2016 04:53 am »
So NASA did not know the female Astronaut heading to Mars was pregnant? And then the boy, born and survived for 16 years in low G, returns to Earth, then breaks out of containment to meet a girl and explore Earth? Or was there some conspiracy not revealed?
« Last Edit: 05/26/2016 04:54 am by GalacticIntruder »
"And now the Sun will fade, All we are is all we made." Breaking Benjamin

Offline Endeavour_01

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 694
  • Hazards & Risk Analyst in SC, USA
  • Liked: 759
  • Likes Given: 580
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #6 on: 05/26/2016 07:07 am »
in the trailer you can see SLS, Dragon 2 and DreamChaser.

Indeed. I was quite encouraged by that. It appears that the "Genesis" company is an analogue to SpaceX and Gary Oldman's character is a mix between Elon Musk and Richard Branson. I really liked the fact that they showed all the spacecraft as well as NASA and "SpaceX" working together to get to Mars. That is the most likely way we will get to Mars in real life IMO.

I didn't see the sort of exponential growth you'd expect to see as time went by, though. That could be because they were using SLS?? :)

Actually lack of exponential growth could have nothing to do with the usage of SLS. If you look back in history you will see that early European settlements in North America like Jamestown didn't grow exponentially in their first 20 years. A lot of that was due to deaths from famine and disease, which shouldn't be as much of a problem on Mars. However, given the vast distance and the need to manufacture the items necessary to survive on another planet the initial Mars colony may not grow that quickly (even using BFRs).

So NASA did not know the female Astronaut heading to Mars was pregnant?

I think what they are going for is that she gets pregnant in transit or once she is on Mars. If you look at the point in the trailer where the mom dies it looks like the father is sitting there mourning.
« Last Edit: 05/26/2016 07:09 am by Endeavour_01 »
I cheer for both NASA and commercial space. For SLS, Orion, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon, Starship/SH, Starliner, Cygnus and all the rest!
I was blessed to see the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-99. The launch was beyond amazing. My 8-year old mind was blown. I remember the noise and seeing the exhaust pour out of the shuttle as it lifted off. I remember staring and watching it soar while it was visible in the clear blue sky. It was one of the greatest moments of my life and I will never forget it.

Offline KelvinZero

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4286
  • Liked: 887
  • Likes Given: 201
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #7 on: 05/26/2016 07:46 am »
I like angsty drama so sure I would watch it, at least on video.

I suspect NSF members are nothing like the intended demographic. I welcome pop culture appropriating space culture. A tiny fragment of exposure to a few million will have an effect. People who never think about space may assume it is just more CGI and in a few years see Dragon 2 flying for real and think WTF. Life should be full of WTF moments. It makes you wonder what has been going on all this time outside your own bubble.

Offline Rocket Science

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10586
  • NASA Educator Astronaut Candidate Applicant 2002
  • Liked: 4548
  • Likes Given: 13523
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #8 on: 05/26/2016 12:38 pm »
Spaceflight for public in an entertaining way, good! :)
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
~Rob: Physics instructor, Aviator

Offline Ben the Space Brit

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7206
  • A spaceflight fan
  • London, UK
  • Liked: 806
  • Likes Given: 900
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #9 on: 05/26/2016 01:19 pm »
This film has a feeling (without the enormous and iron-booted religious sub-plot) of Heinlien's Stranger in a Strange Land. I can see myself going to see it. Yes, on the whole it's going to be a standard 'teens fall in love on the road whilst The Authorities pursue them for [[$Reasons]]" trope-fest. However, the concept of including the idea of a 'star-child' who by his very nature is in danger just breathing the unfiltered air of Earth is fascinating to me.

In some ways, a lot of it looks like it is going to be all about the protagonist seeing the world, first through his correspondent's eyes and words to him by message and then later with his own two eyes. It's going to be about 'what makes a human' and is it really the case that we can really be happy anywhere but here.

Yeah, and a teen romance flick too! ;)

What I saw, in terms of technology:

* An SLS/Orion crew launch and return vehicle;
* A 'Super-Dragon' possibly as a reusable Mars lander/ascent vehicle (maybe it gets refurbished and restocked in a Bigelow Olympus drydock module in between missions?);
* An SEP Martian transfer vehicle or cycler;
* A small but significant Martian 'foothold' base with hydroponics and a relatively large crew (at one point the number '15' is given as the largest number of people the boy had ever met at any one time);
* A Dreamchaser apparently in a LON state so that the protagonist can take it to give his girlfriend a LEO joyride.


FWIW, I'd love it if they handled the flight on the Dreamchaser as just a different sort of 'guy showing off his car to his girl' sequence, demonstrating to the audience that space is 'his world' in many ways and he knows it as automatically as she knows driving a car or flying her Stearman biplane.

The ending...? Four options that I can foresee:

1) They agree to go their separate ways as she has her world and he has his and the two cannot meet;
2) Even though it will inevitably kill him, the protagonist decides to stay on Earth as it is where humans are meant to be (the 'anti-space' ending, if you will);
3) The girl volunteers to accompany him back to Mars on the grounds that she wants to see and experience his world as he has experienced hers and she feels a sense that Mars offers her a significant future that small town USA cannot offer her (the 'romantic finale);
4) The protagonist agrees to return to Mars but the girl sees him off from the ISS2 and gives him some keepsake from her home to take with him; five years later, she steps off the latest MCT to land at the growing settlement.

Overall, the big potential of this film is to fix in a new generation's mind that space and Mars in particular isn't 'elsewhere' but a reachable place where comprehensible human stories can and will take place - Tragedy, triumph, romance and life in general.
« Last Edit: 05/26/2016 01:20 pm by Ben the Space Brit »
"Oops! I left the silly thing in reverse!" - Duck Dodgers

~*~*~*~

The Space Shuttle Program - 1981-2011

The time for words has passed; The time has come to put up or shut up!
DON'T PROPAGANDISE, FLY!!!

Offline sanman

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5970
  • Liked: 1309
  • Likes Given: 8
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #10 on: 05/27/2016 04:16 am »
Science will be mangled in many ways in this film, as always happens in Hollywood (eg. The Martian)

Offline Dalhousie

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2761
  • Liked: 773
  • Likes Given: 1126
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #11 on: 05/27/2016 07:35 am »
Science will be mangled in many ways in this film, as always happens in Hollywood (eg. The Martian)

Speaking as a scientist I don't think The Martian mangled science too badly.
« Last Edit: 05/29/2016 08:59 am by Dalhousie »
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline Robotbeat

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 39270
  • Minnesota
  • Liked: 25222
  • Likes Given: 12114
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #12 on: 05/28/2016 02:02 am »
Stranger in a Strange Land reimagined. Looks cool, I'll definitely see it.
Chris  Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

To the maximum extent practicable, the Federal Government shall plan missions to accommodate the space transportation services capabilities of United States commercial providers. US law http://goo.gl/YZYNt0

Offline chalz

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 201
  • Austrangia
  • Liked: 104
  • Likes Given: 1668
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #13 on: 06/09/2016 09:11 am »
The ending...? Four options that I can foresee:

1) They agree to go their separate ways as she has her world and he has his and the two cannot meet;
2) Even though it will inevitably kill him, the protagonist decides to stay on Earth as it is where humans are meant to be (the 'anti-space' ending, if you will);
3) The girl volunteers to accompany him back to Mars on the grounds that she wants to see and experience his world as he has experienced hers and she feels a sense that Mars offers her a significant future that small town USA cannot offer her (the 'romantic finale);
4) The protagonist agrees to return to Mars but the girl sees him off from the ISS2 and gives him some keepsake from her home to take with him; five years later, she steps off the latest MCT to land at the growing settlement.
Good list and if I was writing it I would go for 3). But you missed one important option if this is more weepie than romance.

5) He dies on Earth and she goes to Mars  and has an explore_a_new_world experience. Perhaps finding that it has got a lot bigger during the time on Earth.

Online Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15265
  • Liked: 7773
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #14 on: 11/20/2016 07:02 pm »
I saw it last week at a free showing in DC. Only about 20 people in the theater, but Washington is a town where most people go home after work. It doesn't premier until Dec 16. It was originally scheduled for August release, but did well with test audiences so they pushed it back to December.

I'm going to write about it for TSR next week, without giving away spoilers. I could spoil it here if anybody wants to know...

A few things:

-there's no SpaceX, they obviously did not pay for product placement
-DreamChaser makes an appearance and is part of the plot, they probably paid for product placement (well, so did Volvo)
-at times the movie feels rather cheap, for instance, lots of actors who never have any dialogue
-the two lead actors have good chemistry together
-they show a Mars spacecraft in Earth orbit, then heading to Mars (it looks somewhat like a clunky version of ISS--I didn't like the way it looked)
-there are a couple of SLS launches, although it does not have the orange tank
-the special effects are okay, but not outstanding, which was a shame because of the SLS launches
-the middle part of the movie was decent (chemistry between the actors)
-there are some very big plot holes
-physics is tossed out the window at several points (for instance, the kids IM'ing each other from Earth and Mars in real time)
-there are some odd choices in the movie, for instance, the initial Mars landing takes place in 2018
-even though the kid returns to Earth more than 16 years later, which would mean 2034/35, everybody uses Apple iPhones and computers, and drives 2016 pickup trucks and cars, the only "new tech" I saw in the movie consisted of transparent keyboards, which is not actually novel
-a number of scenes were filmed at the unused Virgin Galactic facility in the New Mexico desert, which looks like a sad and lonely place

You could cut the Mars plot out of the movie (just give the kid a disease instead of suffering from Earth's gravity) and the movie would have worked just as well, possibly better.



Online Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15265
  • Liked: 7773
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #15 on: 11/28/2016 06:14 pm »
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3115/1

Love and a Red Planet: popular entertainment and the settlement of Mars (part 1)
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday November 28, 2016


It takes Hollywood about two years to produce a movie or a television show. It can happen faster, and it certainly can be done slower—a situation often referred to as “development hell” in the industry—but two years is about average. Thus, it is unlikely that any of the Mars-themed shows and movies appearing today are a direct result of the success of last year’s movie The Martian. More likely, National Geographic’s Mars series and the weepy teen romance The Space Between Us got started as a result of the success of Andy Weir’s 2014 book that inspired the hit movie, as well as the increased attention that human exploration of Mars gained starting around 2013 or so with Mars One and Elon Musk. The success of the movie, which starred Matt Damon and premiered in fall 2015, probably only reassured any nervous financiers that movies and television shows that used Mars as a backdrop could find an audience.

Mars premiered on The National Geographic Channel on November 14. The Space Between Us was to open in theaters in mid-December (it has recently been delayed to early February), but had a special advance showing in Washington, DC, a couple of weeks ago. Both have at their core fictionalized stories about the first humans on Mars, and in both cases they depict plans for settlement involving public-private partnerships, as opposed to the more common theme of human exploration of Mars. Because of these similarities they serve as useful indicators of how the subject of human settlement of Mars—not simply exploration—is being depicted in popular entertainment. Has Mars-themed entertainment been liberated of some of its prior constraints and is it evolving in new ways, or is it still beholden to many of the standard tropes we’ve seen in numerous other movies? This article will address The Space Between Us, and the second part will address the National Geographic series Mars.

Offline laszlo

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 915
  • Liked: 1230
  • Likes Given: 529
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #16 on: 11/28/2016 06:34 pm »
...A lot of that was due to deaths from famine and disease, which shouldn't be as much of a problem on Mars...

Because there's plenty of food up there and our bodies are totally adapted to the environment?

Online eric z

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 543
  • Liked: 472
  • Likes Given: 2121
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #17 on: 11/28/2016 06:49 pm »
 Maybe also Heinlein-like they decide to join the first colony mission to Titan. 8)

Online Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15265
  • Liked: 7773
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #18 on: 12/19/2016 06:51 pm »
Just noticed something interesting.

This movie was originally scheduled for a late August release. That release date was apparently shifted to December 16 based upon positive test screenings. But that would have put it up against Star Wars: Rogue One. I noticed that in early December I was not seeing any ads for this movie. It just disappeared. Now I notice that it has been slipped to a February release date:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3922818/?ref_=nv_sr_1

January and February is where studios release movies that they think are going to do badly at the box office. So something prompted the studio to lose faith in this film.

Online Zed_Noir

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5468
  • Canada
  • Liked: 1801
  • Likes Given: 1296
Re: The Space Between Us
« Reply #19 on: 12/20/2016 10:23 pm »
...
January and February is where studios release movies that they think are going to do badly at the box office. So something prompted the studio to lose faith in this film.

February is the month that the Deadpool movie open in 2016 with final North america box office of $363M for a R-rated movie. So that point about box office dead zone might not be true anymore.

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
1