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Science fiction directed by Christopher Nolan in 2014 turned out to be successful in every sense: “Interstellar” was favored by critics, paid off the budget and earned decent money from above, received an Oscar for special effects, and it’s not worth talking about audience delight.
It’s no joke, even some scientists praised the picture for realistically (by Hollywood standards, of course) showing the cosmos and describing black holes.
Interstellar is not the first and certainly not the last of its kind, and we have selected a list of films that are as similar as possible in spirit and style. Of course, they don’t have the trademark “Nolan” atmosphere, but otherwise they are very worthy works, like Nolan’s masterpiece.
10 Gravity, 2013
Alfonso Cuarón’s film was released a year before Interstellar and was shown at the 70th anniversary opening of the Cannes Film Festival.
The story of two astronauts trying to return to Earth after an accident in outer space turned out to be chamber, soulful and incredibly beautiful.
There are only two actors in the frame, but which ones: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney (Ed Harris speaks off-screen).
Almost all publications included the film in the top 3 of the best at the end of the year, noting, first of all, the excellent graphics and the work done by Cuarón.
“Gravity” won 7 Oscars (plus 3 nominations) and 6 BAFTAs, earning $723 million worldwide on a budget of $100 million.
9. Pandorum, 2009
Two astronauts wake up from artificial sleep on a spacecraft with 60 more passengers sleeping on board.
The heroes must change pairs and take over flight control, but can’t contact anyone. Neither with the command, nor with the crew members.
In an already unhappy situation, the conversation turns to pandorum – a mental disorder due to prolonged sleep. The disease manifests itself in the form of paranoia, schizophrenia and … realistic hallucinations.
The film was directed by a little-known German director Christian Alvart, calling on the main roles of Ben Foster, Dennis Quaid, Cam Gigandet and Norman Reedus.
Considering a modest, by the standards of the science fiction genre, a budget of $ 33 million, visually before Interstellar or Gravity “Pandorum” does not hold out, but according to the twisted plot, it can subsequently compete on equal terms.
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
Cult director Stanley Kubrick with his film “2001: A Space Odyssey” not only earned +100 reputation points, but was literally ahead of its time.
Technically and ideologically, the film for 1968 turned out to be out of the ordinary. It is now considered the best science fiction in the history of Hollywood according to the US Film Institute, and film critics consider it the best in principle, outside the genre.
This is not even a film, but a whole milestone in the development of cinematography, which largely predetermined its further development.
The plot tells about a group of astronauts flying to Jupiter. A mysterious monolith discovered on the Moon emits radiation towards this planet, so it was decided to find out what it was. Previously, such a monolith was found on Earth; the outcome, put by someone at the dawn of mankind, influenced the course of evolution.
7. The Martian, 2015
Ridley Scott’s film is scientifically bad, as the events shown are impossible in real space, but there is Matt Damon and a fascinating presentation of the story.
The astronaut, who was considered dead by the crew of the ship and left on Mars, survived and now he will have to wait all alone until he is rescued.
The wait is long, and the provisions in the small research module are few. Therefore, he will have to become the first to grow potatoes on the red planet, and also try not to go crazy.
Despite some tape congestion “Martian” scientific and technical information (not always reliable), it was presented so captivatingly that it became one of the main “chips”. For this, we should thank Ridley Scott, who was sitting in the director’s chair, as well as Damon, who managed to get used to an image that was not quite familiar to him.
6. Apollo 13, 1995
Phrase “Houston, we have a problem”, used throughout the world, is the slogan of this film, so even if you have not watched it, you have heard about it in absentia.
The successful flights of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 were some of the greatest milestones in space exploration, but Apollo 13 nearly became a disaster.
The plot of the film completely (albeit with some inaccuracies) repeats real events: the ship is supposed to deliver astronauts to the moon, but an accident occurs on it. Because of it, the landing becomes impossible, as well as the planned return home.
Now NASA and the crew have to come up with a new plan as they go to get the people back alive. It stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton and Ed Harris and is directed by Tom Howard.
5. Luna 2112, 2009
Film “Moon 2112” attracted attention even before the release: firstly, the director was appointed Duncan Jones, who was the son of David Bowie and had not filmed anything before, and secondly, the $ 5 million budget for science fiction is a small amount, frankly. The result surprised and delighted everyone, as it turned out even better than expected.
An astronaut in the not-too-distant future is working all alone on the moon and is due to head home soon, but things don’t go according to plan. Due to prolonged loneliness, he begins to see hallucinations and gets into an accident.
Having gone into himself, he does not remember anything about the incident, but suspecting something was wrong, he begins to dig and finds a double, confident that he is the real one.
4. Armageddon, 1998
The Michael Bay film with Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler and others is a real classic of the late 90s.
A chic soundtrack from Steve Tyler and Aerosmith (Liv’s father), pathetic characters in a good way and a well-chosen plot made “Armageddon” picture for all time.
The final collection of $553 million was a well-deserved reward for Touchstone Pictures.
3. Hell, 2007
The events of the tape unfold in 2057, when the Sun began to fade and the Earth was on the verge of disaster. A ship with a bomb is sent to the heavenly body, hoping to “restart” it with an explosion, but the flight of last hope does not go as planned.
It is noteworthy that “Hell” Danny Boyle filmed in just 3 months, but it took a total of 2 years to write the script and post-edit.
2. Man on the Moon, 2018
The most recent film in our selection was directed by Damien Chazelle in 2018 and is based on the biography of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
The main role was played by Ryan Gosling, who had already worked with Chazelle (“La La Land” in 2016). biopic “Man in the Moon” attractive in that it does not try to let the drama out of the blue and expose real events in a different light. Everything is shown as it really was, which was confirmed by eyewitnesses of that flight and NASA documents.
1. Europe, 2013
A wealthy private corporation is outfitting an expedition to Jupiter’s sixth moon, named Europe. The purpose of the crew is to scout the situation, as there is a possibility that the planet is suitable for life.
The flight fails and the crew is killed, and the film is presented as a cut of video files filmed by members of the team and provided with comments from the people who led this mission.
With a modest budget of less than 10 million dollars, one should not expect a cool visual component from the tape, but it boasts amazing realism: a minimum of omissions and “jambs” with a huge amount of reliably presented information about space.