With “Gravity” set to hit theaters next week, we decided to look back at some of our favorite space movies. When discussing it, we set the game up like this: in order to be on the list, the film needed to feature important and pivotal sequences set in space. Not on another planet, mind you, but in space.
There’s always been something mysterious and beautiful about the notion of outer space, and it’s easy to understand what drove us to look up into that vast expanse overhead and decide we had to go there. Even today, as we continue to learn more and more about what’s out there, we still seem to have only taken baby steps into what I believe is our eventual destiny. We make so many movies set in space because it continues to gnaw at us. I feel like there is a race between us ruining this planet and us leaving it, and I pray we make the right choice.
We sifted through dozens of films that fit the basic description here, and then the HitFix staff voted on what they felt the ten best were. The results were, as always, surprising in some ways, totally expected in others. It seems like we have a lot of love for “2010” here at HitFix, for example, something I wouldn’t have predicted, and the films that almost made the list are tons of fun, like “Galaxy Quest.”
One common thread that runs through most of these films, aside from setting, is that they seem to celebrate the potential of space. Sure, it can be terrifying at times, but beyond that, space seems to speak to the best in us, and these ten films are all worth your time and attention, and are sure to set the stage for when you get to see the remarkable “Gravity” starting next Friday.
Check out our picks here: