There have been so many great space sci-fi movies released over the last 100 years, and the best of these remain realistic in many ways to real-life space exploration. With NASA preparing to start its space program up again and send more astronauts to the moon, it is a good time to pay attention to these space-based sci-fi movies.
NASA is preparing to start the Artemis II mission, which should head back to the moon and prepare humans for possible trips to Mars in the future. This allows fans to watch several sci-fi movies that even astronauts have pointed out are very accurate, both with the idea of space travel and the camaraderie of astronauts themselves.
Gravity (2013)
Gravity was a monster success the year it was released in theaters. The film was about two astronauts who were aboard a Space Shuttle that was destroyed. While they both wanted to return to Earth, they realized it wasn’t going to happen like that, and only one of the astronauts made it back alive.
Sandra Bullock received high praise for her role in the movie, and Alfonso Cuarón won an Oscar for Best Director. The film received 10 Oscar nominations and made $723 million at the box office, and much of the praise went toward its realistic depictions of space, a 10/10 sci-fi movie from start to finish.
While some of the situations in the movie were not scientifically accurate for entertainment value, most of the adherence to physical principles was accurate, and one astronaut said nothing was out of place and nothing was missing. No less than Buzz Aldrin praised the film as “remarkable.”
Robert Zemeckis is known to go into painstaking detail to make sure his movies live up to history, even if he is playing with it as he did in Forrest Gump. In 1997, he set his sights on sci-fi space travel and came away with a film that has been highly praised as being one of the most accurate in movie history.
Jodie Foster stars as Dr. Ellie Arroway, a woman whose job is listening to radio emissions from space in the hope of finding intelligent extraterrestrial life. Just when the U.S. is about to end the program, Arroway discovers a hidden message that might prove life in space.
Zemeckis’s movie actually incorporated Kip Thorne’s study of wormhole space travel, which was inspired by the SETI Institute, and Jodie Foster met with the head of Project Phoenix to prepare for the role. In the end, SETI said that Contact was more accurate in its depiction of the organization than any movie in history.
Europa Report (2013)
Europa Report is a 2013 sci-fi space movie that not enough people talk about. One thing that holds it down somewhat from general audiences is that it is a found footage movie from an era where they were not anywhere near as popular as they once were. On a $10 million budget, it made just over $125,000.
However, the movie is a great look at space travel with the found footage used in a sci-fi setting rather than a horror one. It recounts a fictional story of a trip to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, but the mission goes horribly wrong, and the found footage shows what happened.
While it is found footage, it is still highly accurate because the filmmakers used real footage from the International Space Station and space walks when designing the film. The depiction of Europa was also pulled from NASA dada and Jet Propulsion Laboratory maps on the moon’s surface, ensuring it remained as close to real as it could be.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
While it might seem strange to label 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of the most realistic sci-fi space movies, many astronauts say that it holds that spot. The movie has a lot of sci-fi elements, including traveling to the possible birth of the universe and hypnotic illusions, but the space travel itself is accurate.
Astronaut Leroy Chiao was in space for more than six months when he commanded Expedition 10, and he points to 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of the most groundbreaking movies about space he has ever watched.
Chiao points to how Kubrick was able to film what he calls “real-looking space scenes,” saying that Kubrick got a lot more right than wrong in his film. The astronaut also points to Arthur C. Clarke’s novel as a must-read for anyone who loves NASA and space exploration.
Apollo 13 (1995)
It should come as no surprise that Apollo 13 is considered one of the most realistic sci-fi space movies ever made. That is because the movie is based on a real-life space mission and Apollo 13’s difficulty returning home. If anything, this is an emotional tribute to the original crew of the family mission.
The cast was spectacular, with Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Ed Harris, and Kevin Bacon leading the way, but what made the Ron Howard film so great was how it portrayed NASA, the astronauts, and the sheer desire to get these men back home.
Several astronauts have praised the movie, which was based on the novel by astronaut Jim Lovell (who Tom Hanks portrayed) and Jeffrey Kluger. It also paid tribute to the men and women of Mission Control and was one of the most accurate looks at the people behind the scenes.
The Martian (2015)
Clearly, there have been no manned trips to Mars, but that does not mean that Ridley Scott’s The Martian is not based on scientific realism. The movie stars Matt Damon as part of a human exploration team on Mars who gets left behind after an accident and has to survive until a rescue team can arrive.
When it comes to the movie, astronauts have pointed out that it remains highly realistic, especially when it comes to the dedication of the NASA workforce to work together, and often to make personal sacrifices, to get the job done. One astronaut said that protecting the crew is the first job, and The Martian played strongly in that area.
The novel is even more realistic, but the big thing about The Martian is that the filmmakers worked specifically with NASA on creating the science behind the Mars mission, especially concerning how biology and chemistry are used in space exploration.
The Right Stuff (1983)
The Right Stuff was a movie that got a lot of people interested in space travel, joining NASA, and becoming astronauts in the first place. The 1983 movie was based on Tom Wolfe’s best-selling novel of the same name. It followed the journey of the original Mercury 7 astronauts.
The Right Stuff also has a connection with another sci-fi space movie, as Ed Harris, who was part of Mission Control in Apollo 13, starred as one of the astronauts here, along with Scott Glenn and Sam Shepard.
To understand its significance, it was the movie that caused Michael Massimino to want to become an astronaut. Massimino went on to fly in several shuttle missions and performed spacewalks on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hidden Figures (2016)
As expected, the stories from history are often told by the winners, and in some cases, this also includes historical moments that are often slanted to the people who are behind the scenes and want to be praised. However, there were three women involved in the NASA Space Race in the 1950s and 1960s who didn’t get credit at the time.
Luckily, the movie Hidden Figures finally gave these women a chance to shine. Three female Black mathematicians did a lot of the heavy lifting during the Space Race, and Hidden Figures told the story of Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, and their roles in NASA.
The historical accuracy was highly praised for its look at the work of NASA itself, although there were some concerns that the segregation there wasn’t as bad as the film made it seem. Despite this, these women never got the credit they deserved until many years later.
Interstellar (2014)
Interstellar is a lot like 2001: A Space Odyssey in that it accurately depicts space travel, but then adds in some deep sci-fi themes and experiences to add to the entertainment factor. The film’s story follows an Earth that is dying thanks to a climate crisis, and humanity needs to find a habitable Planet B.
Most of the film follows Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain as they board a spacecraft and set off to find a suitable destination. Josh Cassada, who flew to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission in 2022, said that the movie nailed the science.
Dr. Sylvain Costes, a former scientist at NASA, also said that Interstellar was right on when it showed that time is even more important a resource than fuel. The entire tragedy behind the mission was extremely accurate with how space travel works, even with the sci-fi elements often overshadowing it.
Apollo 11 (2019)
It is also important to remember that there are a lot of movies to watch out there about space travel, and they don’t all have to be fictional tales. Sci-fi fans will find a lot to love about the documentary Apollo 11, which CNN released in 2019. This focused on the first spaceflight to land humans on the moon.
The spaceflight took Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins to the moon, and this was the moment that everyone became interested in space travel, as the footage of the astronauts taking the first steps on the moon remains the greatest moment in NASA history.
What makes this so engrossing is that there is no narration or interviews, and all that exists in the documentary is what was available in the contemporary source material. This is the movie that is as real as it gets, and anyone who loves sci-fi space movies or NASA should make every attempt to watch this documentary.
Source: CNN Entertainment
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