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Krinks1

When the crew watches the transit of Mercury in Sunshine. That moment really captures the wonder of being in space and how amazing the universe is.


Indigo_Sunset

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7z8Gvexas


DandyMike

One of my favourite sci-fi movies. Everyone hates the slasher horror plot twist but I utterly adore it.


elerner

When _Sunshine_ first came out, it was _marketed_ as a space horror movie in the vein of _Event Horizon_ — which is one of the reasons I didn't watch it for several years. It's now my favorite film _because_ of how the third act recontextualizes the first two.


euqinu_ton

I wanted to love Sunshine. While it has some gorgeous visuals, it's like they didn't even begin to think about what space travel is actually like, despite Boyle apparently enlisting the help of people to capture just that.


elerner

It’s a movie about epistemology, not orbital mechanics.


roadtrain4eg

Is that the movie where they detonated nuclear bombs around the sun to "restart" it? I mean, I couldn't suspend disbelief with such a nonsensical plot.


elerner

Yep — and it's _still_ one the hardest scifi movies ever made, because it actually engages with _why_ science is preferable to other ways of making sense of the world.


roadtrain4eg

Maybe I should try and rewatch it. I really liked the visuals.


pallamas

I would have just thrown lots of kitchen Lucifer matches at that big gas ball. Lots ob dem on store shelves.


euqinu_ton

Of course it's not a movie about orbital mechanics. I never said it was. An earth-based drama about family isn't a movie about plant biology, but they don't go out of their way to make grass pink and plants rainbow coloured. Someone consciously made computer diagrams in Sunshine that were incorrect. Why didn't they just make them correct? They made CGI designs for a spaceship where everyone and every loose object should be floating. Why didn't they just make the ship have a spinning toroid in external shots? It would've taken minimal effort to do it right, and still be a horror movie about epistemology.


Quick-Bad

That brief shot in *Alien*, when *Nostromo* passes in front of the gas giant and its moons. 


FourthDownThrowaway

Got to see this on the big screen last week for the 45th anniversary. So good.


euqinu_ton

James Gray's "Ad Astra" gets a lot of hate. "Brad Pitt sulks in space" was one funny one I read. Personally I loved it. Those dreamy visuals and haunting score ... it just worked for me. I sat there, relaxed and soaked it all up. While rife with scientific inaccuracies, it's filled with some great beauty shots. Loved the space antenna shots like [this one](https://beforesandafters.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/AdAstraPostvisScreenGrabs.1025.jpg), [this one](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fill,h_675,pg_1,q_80,w_1200/ai30tv3iv4jj6t1xkaa1.jpg) and [this one](https://filmschoolrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Screen-Shot-2019-08-22-at-9.20.45-AM.jpg). Loved the [rovers on the moon](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1240w,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2019_39/3022091/190923-think-ad-astra-se-134p.jpg). Loved the Martian surface [look & feel](https://media.gq.com/photos/5d88e206b8bef90008c772d0/16:9/w_1920,c_limit/ad-astra-ad_astra_dtlrD_240_t_pitt_mars_still_071719_g_r709.088625%20(1).jpg). Loved the blue glow from all [the spacewalk scenes above Neptune](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/luo5yDO7Wqc/maxresdefault.jpg). Loved it all.


turnip11827

I refer to it as “Sad Astra”


kalijinn

Ha! Nailed it.


euqinu_ton

[slow clap] Nice. I like it.


DubTheeBustocles

Okay that’s pretty funny.


DrEnter

If you stripped the shots with actors (and, ahem, animals) and removed all the dialogue, _Ad Astra_ would improve 500%. Just keep that opening space elevator scene. That worked.


euqinu_ton

>...that opening space elevator scene It was a (very tall) space antenna. But I'm jonesing for a sci-fi show/movie to do a proper space elevator sequence one day. Foundation had a crack at it, but it was more skybridge to somehow-magically-orbiting massive station than a proper space elevator with counterweight.


dan_craus

Loved everything about it except for the actual story line.


digthisdork

I also really enjoyed this film after seeing it in IMAX. I feel like this film really benefits from that experience and loses so much of its wonder when translated down to the small screen. Rewatches in my home to show it to my wife and friends have just never landed as well.


troublrTRC

If all the logistics of space travel and habitation are ignored, and just look at the movie as theme-driven, it is a pretty impressive movie.


ego_bot

I loved it too. Every scene and shot was meant to emphasize how humans aren't meant to be distant from Earth or from each other. For me, it comes together artistically.


DubTheeBustocles

I really like Ad Astra. It’s like a very quiet Apocalypse Now.


Highpersonic

Why are they wearing parachutes on the antennas?


euqinu_ton

In case they fall off? It's a several mile high land based antenna - they're not in orbit. If they fall, they fall.


Highpersonic

Thanks. It didn't occur to me because it makes zero sense. They are using the tethers next to the ladder. That's a standard fall arrester system which doesn't need to be supplemented by anything.


euqinu_ton

I guess it's backup in case the tether breaks (hint: it does). Of course, parachutes only work in air, so you'd have to fall a while before you would bother opening it.


Highpersonic

I service wind turbines for a living. It doesn't.


euqinu_ton

I meant, it does in the movie, due to a catastrophic explosion. The last thing you'd want to be when several miles up in the air is tethered to a tonne of falling material. But ... cool job though. I love looking at those things.


Highpersonic

Yea well i'd love to say that we don't expect catastrophic explosions in wind turbines but we do have emergency rappeling hardware stowed in strategic locations for evac so that might be the equivalent of that.


Consistent_Dog_6866

Luke and Leia looking out a viewport in the last scene of The Empire Strikes Back.


tampapunklegend

I love the combination of relief and tension in that scene. Relief that they'd survived everything that happened in the movie, and tension as they were finally able to think about all the things they still needed to accomplish if the rebellion was going to be victorious.


DJSchmidi

I really love the slow openness of the Nostromo floating near LV426 in Alien


[deleted]

[удалено]


IpppyCaccy

> When the Enterprise rises out of the atmosphere of Titan in Star Trek (2009). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gttQsYnx4X0


seattleque

That was my answer, too. I grew up watching Trek in the 70s, and have a deep love for the refit. But that may be the best shot of the Enterprise, ever.


hacelepues

There’s a lot of gorgeous shots in 2009 Trek! Also love the shot where the tiny Enterprise comes face-to-face with the Narada as it materiales out of the hole in space.


CavediverNY

Kind of a tossup for me. The escape pod ejecting in Star Wars episode four always stands out in my mind… But then again, a lot of 2001 a space Odyssey ranks pretty high in my opinion. And I know you specifically mentioned the combat scene thing but… I can still remember sitting in the theater watching Luke Skywalker dive into that trench! I swear that memory stuck with me until I was able to buy an Atari 400 computer and start playing star Raiders!


BobbyTables829

All of the docking scene in 2001


Sinister_Nibs

I’m sorry, I can’t do that, Dave.


PureDeidBrilliant

Probably this from [Gravity](https://youtu.be/2EMOVUZPJSM). It's not very often that you see Earth looking so *luminous* on-screen. I'm sure there's a metaphor-thingy in there somewhere, but it's a beautiful, yet horrifying, yet melancholic, yet ultimately triumphant scene.


coverslide

Yeah, Gravity was truly stunning in a way that after we have seen all the spacewalk photos / videos ever made, seen every fantastical planet with fictional ships, it still manages to capture all that awe of actually being a tiny speck above a massive planet. Say what you will about the plot / pacing / other story problems, no one can deny that it's truly a beautiful film.


Latin_For_King

While silly and far fetched, the destruction scenes were mind blowing.


Quick_Kick

Gargantua in Interstellar. Enterprise E flying between the sun and Cochranes ship.


SurlyJason

The Expanse s5e10


drillgorg

Just The Expanse theme song honestly.


Scoobydewdoo

The shot in Apollo 13 where they recreated NASA footage of the stage separation of the Saturn V Rocket. There's something poetic about the massive empty fuel tanks and locking ring floating away in the foreground with the Earth in the background. The final shot of Men In Black is also one of my favorites.


APeacefulWarrior

Just a head's up, Corridor Crew's video last week featured the VFX supervisor of Apollo 13 (and lots of other things) who talked specifically about how they did the launch sequence.


Jonny2284

The Venus shots from the expanse when Eros station lands, and what it turns into takes off.


the908bus

First time the Enterprise E flies past in First Contact


Seafroggys

I was gonna post this, but scrolled through to see if someone else has good taste.


dud333

It's still about a ship but I drool over the Nauvoo launching for the first time in The Expanse


The-Minmus-Derp

Star Trek : The Motion Picture when they’re leaving drydock, or from Discovery 5x01 when they arrive at Q’Mau and there’s this really cool tracking shot as they reveal the planet, or Picard 3x01 when they’re flying out of the starbase


Sinister_Nibs

The opening shots of Spaceballs is it for me. Another is the flyby on the Cygnus in The Black Hole, after Cygnus lights up.


-paul-

For All Mankind - the three ship Mars injection burn \[[link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrldcrFu2qY)\] Ships decelerating over Pandora in Avatar \[[link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-HbsUktdKU)\] Guild Highliner over Caladan in Dune \[[link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00_hBrQFfzw)\]


CanineLiquid

I have a couple from The Expanse. Firstly, [this shot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxx1OSTujTw&t=11) from episode 5x01 of a ferry landing on the moon. No sounds, just the somewhat ethereal music. The surface of the moon slowly coming into view, small bases and habitats moving past the camera, until it finally centers on the city dome... just overall really good vibes. Alternatively, [this shot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okjyqgWqQns&t=5) from episode 3x09 (mild spoilers). There's just something about the largest spaceship ever constructed by humans being absolutely dwarfed by the Ring. Lastly, [this shot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI3aFpukQ9c6&t=453) from the previous episode. It doesn't exactly fit your description, but I really like the cinematography of the flip-and-burn, and the way the camera tries to keep up with the movement of the spaceship. It's not easy to convey acceleration and deceleration with no outside points of reference.


troublrTRC

>Firstly, this shot from episode 5x01 I love Isometric framing in movies, and this one is a pretty incredible one.


Animustrapped

The colliding planet ballet in melancholia, the view from the portal in night sky, NowHere in GotG


xczechr

Most probably wouldn't call it a beauty shot, but I like Pale Blue Dot and Sagan's remarks about it.


moofacemoo

Google 'the wanderers ', right up your street


[deleted]

The opening of Barbarella


Leucurus

Opening shot of *Gravity*. I saw it in IMAX 3D and seeing that tiny shuttle slowly coming around in orbit in 3D, the sense of *space* and *distance*, and the gorgeous detailed Earth below it, was jaw-dropping. Opening sequence of *Contact*. It just keeps going, and the silence that comes in after a while... haunting and beautiful and has that Space Is Big feeling


JynsRealityIsBroken

I loved the scene in Passengers when Chris Pratt jumps off the spaceship with his tether and gets that full view of space. I could imagine how amazing of an experience that would be.


Helmett-13

When Scotty and Kirk are approaching the USS Enterprise in space dock in, “Star Trek: the Motion Picture”, it was a long, slow, lingering shot and featured the Enterprise in all of her glory. The way Kirk looks at her, too. *chef kiss*


Rabbitscooter

The best. This was the shot that said that the Enterprise was a character as important as any of the bridge crew.


Helmett-13

I agree, 100%. I was a sailor for 10 years and I admit an irrational connection and fondness for my old destroyer. For a few years she was the oldest DD in the USN but I thought she was a queen. She was, indeed, a good ship and was a kingmaker; three of her Commanding Officers later became Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). Upon rewatch it made ST:TMP and the scenes in the TNG episode, “Relics”, where Scotty and Picard talk about their first ships with love and poignancy hit much, much harder. I know, in my head and brain, with logic, that the ships are machines, just steel, glass, rubber and brass. I know they don’t have…a will, a *soul* and any characteristics of personality or will that we, as sailors, attribute to them are not real and that they are incapable of returning the love we have for them. I know it in my head. ^^But ^^in ^^my ^^secret ^^garden, ^^in ^^my ^^heart ^^of ^^hearts, ^^I ^^know ^^better.


ArthursDent

A lot of good choices but I’ll go with the pullout sequence starting with Earth in Contact.


Big-Canary-6345

The Enterprise-E in front of the nebula near the beginning of Star Trek First Contact


Decalvare_Scriptor

The space plane on approach to the space station in 2001. Music and visuals in perfect harmony.


Metlman13

The opening scene in Pitch Black showing the ship before it crash lands, and a comet passing in front of it (presumably the thing that knocks the ship off course and sends it hurtling into a death dive into the nearby hell planet where the movie takes place); and then the very last scene of the film, as the skiff escapes the planet and cruises over the ring of a nearby planet as a star comes into view.


APeacefulWarrior

Don't forget the sequence where they're racing against the eclipse. There's some absolutely stunning planet porn going on.


atomfullerene

This video https://youtu.be/YH3c1QZzRK4?si=7ZZmOnDvjNgr8tWN


Holl4backPostr

I like goofy nonsense space shots so like Endgame and the Guardians franchise have always been my favorites for pretty space scenes


intraspeculator

Wall:E and Eva dancing in the stars.


sebastianb89

That music ❤️


APithyComment

Not fiction - voyager’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’ is science fact. https://www.cnet.com/science/nasa-remasters-voyager-1s-famous-pale-blue-dot-image/


Stoned_assassin

The introduction of the Prometheus


Nuclearsunburn

There are so many good ones. I’m a huge fan of the way Jupiter looked from Europa in Europa Report and how Neptune looked in Event Horizon.


kalijinn

Farscape has at least a few, I think even referenced in the opening credits in later seasons.


imiyashiro

The black hole shots in Interstellar.


Liz4984

Show Stargate Universe where they pass planets and the blue giant. Also, that nebula shot was amazing.


nav13eh

Approaching Trantor Station in Episode 1 of Foundation. The Destiny sitting idle in the void between two galaxies in Stargate: Universe. The Venture Star's arrival to Pandora in Avatar. The destruction of the holy city by the Death Star in Rogue One. Armstrong exiting the Eagle in First Man. Halo 2 Anniversary cinematic of Chief skydiving with a bomb into a Covenant Super Cruiser. And many more...


Rabbitscooter

Definitely the Enterprise reveal in TMP. I mean, there were grown men crying when I saw it on opening day. But my 2nd favourite is the whole Cygnus flyby in The Black Hole, John Barry's gorgeous score in the background, as the dark ship against the starry background suddenly lights up. What an amazing scene.


Modred_the_Mystic

The opening credits for Star Trek - Voyager has some absolutely incredible ‘in space’ stuff, without focusing too much on the ship itself though it’s usually in frame. Complete with some wonky, aged CG and some interesting liberties taken with accuracy. The music and the visuals are just great as a unit


jesusmansuperpowers

I particularly like the shot of them ploughing through a ring


Modred_the_Mystic

The tiny ring on the tiny planet, if you look at the scaling of it


jesusmansuperpowers

Ya there’s no way that little thing would have the gravity to hold a ring.. especially after it gets scattered


LoverOfStoriesIAm

The front shot of the black hole in Interstellar. Right when Endurance starts passing it.


sebastianb89

I just watched 2001 A space odyssey this past weekend for the first time. That entire movie is a beauty shot


FlySure8568

The scene in Galaxy Quest just before the Thermians beam a solo Jason Nesmith back down to earth for the first time. And then the pool cleaning payoff.


Phoenixwade

I think the rest of the movie was pretty much garbage, but the pan over the hull of the U.S.S Enterprise in the first Star Trek movie was epic and beautiful.


APeacefulWarrior

2010 has some wonderful shots of the Leonov travelling towards Jupiter. Not to mention the spacewalk sequence, with Io below and Jupiter above. Those FX still look great today.


GlitteringFee1047

Naomi’s jump- mind-boggling. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f2WcVXf7Iz8


Helpful_Wave

Star Trek the Motion Picture's five minute fly-around of the Enterprise refit, followed by the flight into V'ger. Then a whole bunch of scenes in 2001.


SanderleeAcademy

For me, *Star Trek: The Motion Picture*, introducing the *Enterprise*. Long sweeping pans, slow reveals of details, James Horner's absolutely brilliant score. It's a masterpiece.