When I first saw the trailer for Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt, I was pretty sure I was in for yet another Hollywood art film set in space. I’m fine with that as long as we don’t call it science fiction. This puts it in the same category as Interstellar and Gravity. Both are pretty films that ignore those pesky laws of physics. I saw it on IMAX mostly out of morbid curiosity.
This movie clearly follows the <name of actor> in space pattern. We’ve had George Clooney in space so this is Brad Pitt in space. Right there, you have some percentage of the audience looking at the star and ignoring the stars. Interstellar was proud of itself for portraying relativistic effects around a gravity well while at the same time forgetting how gravity actually works. Ad Astra is no better.
The opening scene refers to Space Antenna. I’m not sure what material is used in the construction but we can see the curvature of the Earth and jets flying below. It’s kind of like someone wanted a space elevator but stopped half way (or more like 1000th the way). I’m sorry but I’m not seeing material science making anything like that possible. We see Brad Pitt outside wearing a backpack and an astronaut launch suit. The tower is attacked by a plot device forcing Brad to fall off the tower. Fortunately he’s unaffected by high altitude winds and is able to fall straight down next to the tower without colliding with it until he falls far enough to get some atmosphere to control his fall and deploy a parachute from his backpack. This bit of stupidity was in the trailer. I was hoping the movie would explain it. Nope. If you want to read more about space elevators, check out Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars trilogy.
So the plot moves on. Apparently one of the remaining Space Cowboys is going to go with Brad Pitt to rescue another Space Cowboy. The plan is to send a message from Brad Pitt to Tommy Lee Jones who is apparently still alive after all these years in orbit around Uranus. But in order to send this message, Brad has to go to Mars because I guess we no longer have the ability in the future to record sound. Before he can go to Mars, he has to go to the Moon. This gives the director an opportunity to ape Kubrick by showing a Subway sandwich shop on the moon. Kubrick famously had Pan Am airlines featured in 2001 to show how common place it was to go to the moon. While on the moon the actors were all told to ignore the low gravity and just walk normally. This also gave us the opportunity to have a high speed chase across the moon surface to the dark side. That’s some serious range on those batteries. At this point it’s time to get rid of Space Cowboy Donald Sutherland. He is replaced by a thumb drive containing relevant exposition to move the plot forward.
Once on board another rocket we are heading to Mars. They make a point of showing the rocket engines being jettisoned on launch. I guess we don’t need those for the rest of the plot? For the most part we ignore the affects of acceleration inside the ship using the Hollywood rules of weightless actors in space. While on the way to Mars the ship stops to check out a distress signal. It must be nice to have that much fuel and a crew impervious to deceleration G forces to allow them to come to a full stop. After checking out the mayday, they again jump back to cruising speed. That’s one impressing rocket, and the whole time, the crew is weightless. Amazing.
I kept expecting Brad Pit to start arguing with the computer. We don’t see that but there is a recurring theme of mind controlling pills. Once on Mars, the transmission is sent using a secure laser beam. Hopefully Tommy Lee Jones has the decryption keys. They send the message and are immediately disappointed that they do not get a reply. Someone should tell them that Uranus is at least 4 light hours away. It could be much further away depending on the time of their years. Miraculously we get a response in a few minutes and we are off again to go get him. Here we are told the trip will take 79 days. We are not told how much of that will be acceleration but every external shot of the ship shows a glowing engine. The ship is of course weightless throughout the voyage except when it is important for the plot.
If you can ignore the complete disrespect of Newtonian physics, and you don’t mind a plodding homage to Kubric’s Apocalypse Now and 2001, then this might be the film for you. It did look good on IMAX. If you want more realistic physics, then I can suggestion Abbott and Costello.
