50 years ago today, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. It was a huge step forward in the race to explore space, a race which, for all its setbacks, continues to inspire people to this day. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the exploration of space has provided fodder for a great many films full of stars of a different kind. These are some of our favourites and we hope that you'll enjoy them too.
Not all space missions go to plan, and generally speaking, when they go wrong, they go really wrong. The Apollo 13 mission was an exception - after disaster occurred the crew still had a slim chance of finding solutions that would bring them safely back to Earth. Ron Howard's dramatic reconstruction start Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton as the astronauts in trouble, and though it has been accused of sentimentality there are plenty of gripping moments that remind us just how dangerous this exploration business is.
Wings Of Honnêamise
On a parallel Earth with a cold war of its own, a young Japanese man's hopes of becoming the first man in space become entangled in political conspiracies yet could offer a vital chance for peace. Made in 1987 this groundbreaking anime contribution to the canon at first fared poorly but has since come to be considered a classic. Visually innovative and engaging throughout, it brings a human dimension to the urge to explore without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Decades after the Star Trek saga first began, fans had every reason to expect that JJ Abrams bold reimagining of its opening salvo would go horribly wrong. Thankfully he dramatically exceeded expectations and produced a film that not only satisfied the die-hards but drew in mainstream audiences as well. Star Trek has probably been the single most influential media force when it comes to shaping our ideas about space exploration, with many real life astronauts citing it as an inspiration. Here Chris Pine's James T Kirk gets involved for all the wrong reasons but doesn't let us down when it comes to adventure.
La Voyage Dans La Lune
Made in 1902, this 14 minute spectacular is a classic of early cinema, inspired by the works of Jules Verne and HG Wells. It tells the story of six astronomers whose spacecraft is blasted to the moon from a giant cannon and who find themselves forced to do battle with the insectoid creatures who live there. Its incipient satire was welcomed in France but the film became an early victim of piracy elsewhere, when Thomas Edison's secretly copied versions proved more successful than the original.
Space travel isn't always glamorous, especially not when you're on a sixteen year mission and a freak encounter with an asteroid cloud has destroyed the ship's entire supply of toilet paper. Made on a shoestring budget by the young John Carpenter, this is a bittersweet look at the mundane life of astronauts in an all too probable human future. Reaching the stars hasn't made these men any better at dealing with one another, but it has introduced some unexpected predicaments and a very cute albeit mischievous alien.
Sometimes films don't fit easily into fiction or documentary categories. Where this one ought to be depends on which version of events you accept, with Brad Dourif's intense stranger claiming to be a member of an alien race stranded on Earth after a long space flight. Real mathematics, explained by experts, provides some justification for his claims, whilst director Werner Herzog uses real footage of life in orbit to reflect on the experiences of astronauts. He also takes us to some of the most alien parts of Earth to give us an idea of what we might find out there among the stars.
Of course, striking out into space isn't necessarily going to be peaceful and we may in time find that we're not the only civilisation eager to conquer new territory. Paul Verhoeven's underrated satire, inspired by a Robert A Heinlein novella, takes us inside a human civilisation which will let nothing stand in its way, least of all the wellbeing of its own citizens. Those old insectoid aliens are back and this time it's war. Do you want to know more?
The Right Stuff
Another exploration of the early days of the American space program, this film focuses heavily on the type of training and flying expertise involved in getting astronauts ready to go into space. Fred Ward and Dennis Quaid get the starring roles but it's Ed Harris who stands out as John Glenn, who would eventually become the first American to orbit the Earth. Though it focuses heavily on personal stories it's an interesting one for viewers with a passion for the technical stuff.
Bringing together the considerable talents of Andrei Tarkovsky and Stanislaw Lem, this 1972 Russian original uses the exploration of outer space as a metaphor for a journey into the interior of one man's mind, but just when you think you've understood it, it shifts tone yet again. Contact with the Solaris space station has been lost and psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to investigate. What he finds there, and on the alien world it inhabits, is a reminder of the frailty of human ambition in a vast and unknowable universe.
One of the most important and influential space exploration films ever made, as remarkable for its scientific accuracy as for its iconic visuals and suspenseful plot, 2001 treats space as the natural next step in human evolution but reminds us that there may be things out there we don't expect. Combining the talents of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke it tells the story of a spaceship crew who suddenly discover that their onboard computer considers them expendable, but what is the strange phenomenon that HAL 2000 has been directed to investigate, and what might it hold in store?
Keep watching the stars.
