Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian – 7 space movies to watch before Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Life

With a name like Life, you expect a movie about the deeper meanings of life, perhaps directed by someone like Terence Malik. But not a movie about space and a dangerous alien parasite. Well, Life, the upcoming sci fi movie is all about that. Life is directed by Daniel Espinosa, known for helming Child 44, Safe House and Easy Money. Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson play the leads, while Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dihovichnaya form the supporting cast.

The movies follows a space crew who discovers an alien parasite on Mars. Happy with the discovery of a new life, the crew rejoice with their achievement. But things turn on a sour note when the parasite began to gain intelligence of its own, endangering the lives of the crew on the ship. If you are interested in the premise, and are looking forward to watch the movie on March 24. But before you get to watch Life, you should have watched the below movies by now…

Gravity

Gravity is not a movie; it is an experience. It’s tense and it’s relentless, but even within all the chaos, the visuals and the images would never fail to induce gasps and a sense of wonderment. Alfonso Cuaron, with ‘Gravity’ changed the way we will look at space based films forever.

Interstellar

Interstellar is a visual masterpiece that  may have gone over the head for many, but no one can deny its technical brilliance and its reliance on scientific accuracy. ‘Interstellar’ is also dense with ideas like black holes, wormholes, theory of relativity, 5th dimension and warping of space and time, but ultimately it is an emotional story of father trying to re-unite with his daughter in the face of insurmountable odds.

The Martian

The Martian may be the most ‘friendly’ space movie in the list, but it is definitely one of the best in its genre. The film was an immense success in the box office and received two Golden Globes. It also received 7 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor for Damon.

Alien

‘Alien’ tells us of a group of explorers, who, in their expedition, receive a distress call from an unexplored planet. When they reach the planet, they start looking for survivors and realize that the call was indeed a warning and a deadly bioform has already joined them in their vessel, Nostromo. The success of the film sprawled a franchise of sequels, novels, books and games. ‘Alien’ has become a cult favorite among cinema lovers since and remains one of the best space sci-fi movies ever made.

Moon

The very underrated ‘Moon’ is a story of a lone astronaut, Sam Bell, who is at the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems. It is a movie that slowly and mysteriously builds to a great climax leaving you plenty to ponder upon. An unusually brilliant film.

Apollo 13

Ron Howard took a true story to which the entire world knows the outcome and turned it into one of the most intense and tension filled films ever made. Based on the ill-fated 13th Apollo mission bound for the moon, it is the story of astronauts Lovell, Haise and Swigert who are scheduled to fly Apollo 14, but are moved up to 13. It’s 1970, and America have already achieved their lunar landing goal, so there’s little interest in this “routine” flight.. until that is, things go very wrong, and prospects of a safe return fade. Easily, the best film Ron Howard has ever made.

2001: A Space Odyssey 

Undoubtedly one of the most authoritarian piece of cinema ever made, Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ could aptly be described as the ultimate exploration of “the unknown”. Inspired by a short story named ‘The Sentinel’ written by Arthur C. Clarke, who co-scripted the screenplay along with Kubrick; the movie chronicles the journey of a crew of scientists to Jupiter along with the sentient computer HAL 9000.