Bad Astronomy Movie #2 - Gravity

In my Bad Astronomy May Term course, we recently watched the movie Gravity.  I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and although some may find it boring, I thought the 90 minutes flew by (pun intended!).  I'm not sure this is the type of movie I'd enjoy watching a second time, but the first time was very enjoyable.

Overall the science in the movie is good.  They do a great job depicting motion in a zero gravity environment.  The one major problem my students and I found was when both astronauts were falling toward the space station trying to grab on.  One grabs on and the other eventually grabs a rope/cable the first astronaut had a hold of.  Both astronauts come to a stop, barely hanging on to the space station.  The astronaut hanging on to the rope claims that letting go is necessary because he/she is pulling the other loose.  This doesn't make sense.  Once both astronauts have come to a stop, they have zero velocity relative to each other.  One astronaut can't be pulling the other loose.

Aside from that, I think most gravity scenes were depicted very well.  There are many, many very unlikely events that took place, but I'm not sure any individual event was impossible.  There were issues with the amount of oxygen available at certain times in the movie, but something has to give to make an entertaining movie.

Again, I really enjoyed this movie as I watched it for the first time.  Although this is the type of movie that I might not like as well the second time, the producers did a very good job with the science.