In this IMAX Behind the Frame featurette for Gravity, director Alfonso Cuarón and NASA astronauts discuss the intense and raw cinematic experience of the film and the preparation that went into delivering a true-to-life space exploration. Gravity plunges audiences into a shuttle mission that goes disastrously wrong and combines a chilling and suspenseful story with stunning imagery drawn from actual space footage from the IMAX documentary, Hubble 3D.
“We wanted it to be an immersive experience, as if you’re sitting in the theatre but you feel as if you’re floating in space. There’s no other format as immersive as IMAX,” said Cuarón.
Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alonetethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth… and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
