![]() ![]() They listened to us, and I was quite impressed with the final product’s attention to detail, including, for example, how harsh the radiation environment is and how it’d manifest itself. Once we got past getting to Europa, we played around with what it would be like on the surface. We here at JPL think robots make great characters, but it often takes human actors to make a film work. But it could still happen.įilmmakers are always about putting the story first. The surface is incredibly cold and bathed in dangerous radiation - and it would take a very long time to get there. It’s an icy moon of Jupiter, and not a desirable place to be. Something we talked about early on was the feasibility of getting humans to Europa. To me it seemed refreshingly out of the ordinary.Īnyway, both myself and my colleague, Steve Vance, had a pretty heavy hand in making sure they got some of the big-picture brushstrokes correct. They constantly emailed and called us to talk through ideas and see if they had gotten it right. They wanted a compelling story that adhered to science to make it believable. The leadership and writing team for Europa Report was very keen on learning as much as they could about the moon. They connect moviemakers with scientists, catalyze those relationships, and, if one works, we go off on our own to consult. Through the Science & Entertainment Exchange. How and why did you get involved with Europa Report? Spoiler alert: Key scenes and plot elements are mentioned here, so bookmark this article if you want to watch the movie first. Here, we pick the brain of Kevin Hand, an astrobiologist and expert on Europa at NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and one of the film’s volunteer science consultants, on how to create a truly realistic space film that won’t bore viewers to tears. Their characters behave like real people on a believable mission to search for life on Europa - an icy moon of Jupiter that astrobiologists yearn to explore. It’s clear director Sebastián Cordero and writer Philip Gelatt did their science homework. However, we recently screened the new movie Europa Report, and were taken aback by its respect for audience intelligence while still offering a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat story. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey easily sets the highest standard in this department. Successfully straddling the line between fact and reality, as these space oddities strive to do, is extraordinarily difficult. It’s rare that a great space movie breaks the Hollywood traditions of big budgets, blatant abuse of physics, over-the-top special effects, factitious characters, and hokey one-liners. ![]()
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