MovieChat Forums > The Last Push (2016) Discussion > Amazing movie, 9/10

Amazing movie, 9/10

posted 10 years ago by JungleHyena
6 replies | jump to latest

I stumbled across this movie. I never heard of its existance before. But this was am amazing piece of work.

Yeah, as with all space movies you'll have alot of tech questions afterwards,... but that does not take away the great acting and the wonderful job the director did.

How could you for about 90 percent of the movie make a movie so solid that you do not get bored seeing just one actor whole that time? Well they did it in this movie.

This was an extreemly realistic movie, very entertaining and exiting and I'll sure buy it when it hits the shelfs.

The main focus is on the Astrounaut Michael, who in a privatly funded spacecraft goes to investigate life that has been found on one of the moons of Jupiter. But very early on in the mission the craft gets hit by a micro meteorite and one of the crew dies. Michael, now not able to use the hibernation chamber, all alone and years from his end goal, has to find ways to stay alive, keep his sences and try to make it back to earth.

The movie does not really go into great detail on the tech. But it does not have too. It mainly focusses on his personal journey, to keep his mind focussed on the tasks at hand. Survival.

I especially liked the last 5-10 minutes of the movie. As a surprise to all, almost home, he decides to make that last push to Jupiter instead. Having been to Venus, slingshotted back to Earth, he decides to slingshot to Jupiter, instead of making the deceleration burn and re-enter Earth's gravitational field, landing on Earth. So yes, he decides to continue his journey of exploration, with all the risks it will hold.

I think the poem he recited at the end, by T.S. Eliot, will in the years to come, become a fine piece of movie heroics and a classical piece of cult space movies. Making this movie a fine piece of art for all the space movie fans.

Autronaut Michael is my hero here... showing exactly what we as humans should aim for. Reach for the stars, explore... and go out there.

But that is just my humble opinion, here on Earth.

I'll rate this movie 9/10... because it deserves it.

[–] mpias 10 years ago

I was loving the movie right up until the last few minutes. That last part of the movie was precisely what ruined it. Up until then it was a believable, albeit slow moving story. Not necessarily exciting, but thought provoking and relatively on the mark, with no major liberties being taken with science.

Then at the end the writer decides to make up for the lack of action with a noble grand gesture that just spits in the face of science.

Just off the top of my head:

1. You can’t just decide to go to Jupiter on a whim. Orbital trajectories need to be calculated, and they need to include the planetary sling shot maneuvers just to determine the time involved and fuel required.

2. Leave orbit on a decades long trip without refueling and restocking supplies?

3. Drop the recovery module, throwing the center of gravity off on a ship designed to spin and then firing the engine and expecting the ship to go in a straight line and not loop and twirl?

It could have been one of the greats, but they choked at the end. Now this movie will fade into obscurity.

[–] StrangeSwami 10 years ago

You can’t just decide to go to Jupiter on a whim. Orbital trajectories need to be calculated, and they need to include the planetary sling shot maneuvers just to determine the time involved and fuel required

The trajectories were preprogrammed, and everything went as per the original plan (see below).

Leave orbit on a decades long trip without refueling and restocking supplies?

He hadn't lost any of the original fuel, and even had extra fuel, as he wasn't planning on coming back.
Regarding supplies... They made it clear that he was, ahem, "Recycling."

Drop the recovery module, throwing the center of gravity off on a ship designed to spin and then firing the engine and expecting the ship to go in a straight line and not loop and twirl?

He stopped the spin before dropping the reentry module, and started it again before firing the engine. The engine itself was not spinning (the pods and their support struts were freewheeling around it), and after the sling shot manouver the ship would continue in a straight line as precalculated. The angular momentum of the mass-adjusted (i.e. minus reentry module) parts of the ship would not affect the trajectory, but the loss of mass would help conserve fuel.

All of this was presented in the movie.

If the engine tests had worked, the extra thrust would have sabotaged the original plan (of going to Europa), but they didn't work, so the astrodynamics remained unchanged.

[–] ozz1121 9 years ago

Your points are noted and the ending does make you go "huh", but even though there may be scientific reasons why the ending won't work, that doesn't mean in Michael's mind, it doesn't make sense. By this point, are we certain he is completely sane? Can he make logical decisions? Maybe they have the technology to follow the original path and succeed? In the end, I would have liked a little more story, but I really enjoyed it and was surprised how much I ended up caring for the Michael character by the end. I would highly recommend any sci-fi movie fan to watch it and enjoy a beautiful movie.

9/10 is overrated, but I do give it a solid 6/10

ozz

[–] Sean673 9 years ago

Agree with everything you've said. I too found this movie by accident and it's probably in my top 20 or 30. Very memorable.

[–] Fearnotthezone 8 years ago

Seen this film at least 6 times. Is fantastic film about the journey not destination. I love solitude and solitary trips and as far as it goes this is the best. It is very realistic and well thought, in complete details! 9/10

[–] DeckardB26354 (961) 5 years ago

I totally agree with you JungleHyena, like you I stumbled upon it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

Deckard B26354, I'm filed and monitored.