Over the last few decades, we've seen many filmmakers take audiences to the reaches of outerspace, and with Christopher Nolan's Interstellar hitting theaters this weekend, we have a brand new supercut that celebrates some amazing cinematic trips to the stars.
The video comes to us from the folks over at Fandango, and while it's (understandably) a little heavy on the Interstellar footage, it's hard not to be impressed. There are more than 20 films that come together to make up this supercut, and while it comes together beautifully, it's actually kind of funny that some of the movie's sourced were not exactly celebrated pieces of cinema. Can you guess all of them? Write down as many titles as you can and then compare it to the list of 21 films below!
2001: A Space Odyssey, Apollo 13, Apollo 18, A Trip to The Moon (1902), Europa Report, Gravity, Interstellar, Noah, Nutty Professor 2, October Sky, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock, Star Trek 5, Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Nemesis, Star Trek, The Last Days on Mars, The Right Stuff, Tree of Life
If you honestly spotted the footage from Nutty Professor 2 in this video then I'm incredibly impressed. And am I the only one who is kind of surprised by the abundance of Star Trek but complete lack of Star Wars?
There are many things to appreciate about this video, as it's impressively edited and emotional, but easily my favorite thing about it is the release date difference between the oldest footage and the newest. Filmmakers - Georges Méliès specifically - were thinking about and imaging space travel all the way back at the turn of the 20th century, and while the footage in From The Earth To The Moon looks rather silly now, it still demonstrates bigger artistic vision. Directors like Stanley Kubrick, Alfonso Cuaron, Ron Howard and Terrence Malick followed in his footsteps and produced some absolutely magical films - of which you see parts in this video.
This video is a good primer for Interstellar, which (as I wrote in my review) has a good number of story problems but is pretty magnificent to look at. The clips featured in this supercut are a nice preview, but the visuals are rather jaw-dropping when shown on a big screen - especially an IMAX one. Christopher Nolan knows a thing or two about creating spectacle, and in that realm Interstellar is successful.
Personally, I'm not sure any space film will ever be able to unseat Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as the greatest of all time, but what's your favorite title in the genre. Hit the comments to tell us what you think!
