When it comes to science fiction movies and movies that are set in space, it’s hard to gauge just how good and accurate the movies are. Us common folks can only dream of one day spending a few minutes in space and even then we probably wouldn’t be comparing the experience to what happens in movies.
People that do have that luxury, however, are astronauts. They’ve spent prolonged periods in space and are perfectly aware of how it impacts the smaller and bigger things of daily life. So why not have a few astronauts that spent time on the ISS (more specifically: Chris Hadfield, Garrett Reisman and Nicole Stott) review some space movies?
Armageddon
We can finally let this issue rest and can agree on the fact that Armageddon is just a horrible space movie. One of the astronauts even calls it “as bad as any space movie has ever been”, which is probably not something you’d want to put on the box cover.
Guardians of the Galaxy
I mean, we kind of know that we won’t rate this movie highly when it comes to realism. The one scene that really doesn’t work though, is the part in outer space where Star-Lord saves Gamora wearing just his mask. That’s… that’s not accurate. They’d both die, basically.
The Martian
This movie is actually pretty accurate, apart from two small things. First of all, they don’t take into account that gravity and air on Mars are a lot thinner than on Earth. Second of all, you sadly can’t puncture a hole in your space suit and become Iron Man. The growing potatoes on Mars is actually technically possible, though.
Interstellar
Don’t feel bad if you were confused when watching Interstellar, because astronauts are too. There’s not much to say about how accurate this movie is, since the main plot point is traveling through a black hole, which no one has done before. We can agree that you probably won’t end up behind a bookshelf, however.
Apollo 13
Considering the great lengths director Ron Howard went to make everything as accurate as possible, it’s no wonder that this movie is probably the most realistic space movie of all the ones on this list. The only way to get a more authentic feel, according to the astronauts, would be for the director to haul his equipment into space.
Gravity
The astronauts seem to agree that this movie gives you the most accurate feeling of what it’s like in outer space. There’s still a few things that don’t make a lot of sense that are pretty integral to the story of the movie, but at least they got the environment of space right.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Surely a movie made before man even walked on the Moon wouldn’t make much sense from a scientific point of view, wouldn’t it? Well, wrong. It’s actually a very accurate space movie and even the science used in the movie holds up nicely.
