Well, if you have not yet seen the Gravity movie, I believe it is about time you did !! Although it is a sci-fi, the concept seems quite realistic, the computer graphics in this movie are amazing, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock deliver their best and the 3-D effects are just awesome !! Although, for some reasons, I always prefer movies either in 2-D or in IMAX, this one - I loved to watch in 3-D !!
Anyways, that was all true when I watched this movie the first time. Yesterday, I got a chance to watch it the second time, and as always, when it comes to movies, every time I watch a movie, something new is uncovered.
Yesterday, it was the aspirational side of it that impressed me the most and I am going to write exactly about this side of the movie today.
So, let's begin.
In its initial few minutes, we come across a couple of themes. When you are in vacuum and you are in the dark, you have to carry your own light and flash it for others to know you and to reach to you. Also, even while you are miles away from your loved ones, holding on to only a small picture of them with you, it is worthwhile to celebrate your little victories with some singing and may be a dance, without caring for how weird it looks or sounds, and without thinking of how others are judging you based on this - if you don't remember the judging part, remember the line stating Harvard?
Anyways, moving on, sometimes it is in our interest and in interest of everyone that is with us to just let go and to not try to be perfectionist!! I wonder if Sandra Bullock had moved away from her work as soon as she got her first instruction, would they have been able to save Shariff? You know what I mean now, isn't it?
And then comes a calamity and it doesn't come once - it comes with a shout that it will strike over and over again after every 90 minutes. That's life right there isn't it? We keep on facing troubles over and over again and we have to find ways to fight with them.
George Clooney appears to be the guy who is cool enough to embrace even death when time asks for it. He is that ideal image of an hero - both brilliant and smart enough to be an astronaut and cool enough to accept any situation. For this reason, I think I am going to continue more about how Sandra goes through her struggle rather than talking much about Clooney, as her struggle is more closer to reality.
So, the first destination for Sandra and George, which would mean successful return to Earth is the explorer. While trying to reach to this destination, they space walk towards the explorer only to find out that it is of no use to them anymore. Failure - or rather first failure. It has a potential to deter us from our paths and many a times, we survive and succeed to move ahead only becuase we have someone to guide us through. Clooney does that for himself and Sandra in this movie, and soon the duo sets off to the International Space station.
During this journey, Clooney is the one whose suit has a thruster that can be used to navigate and Sandra just needs to be steady and follow along. It's like those teenager years of our life - when we think that getting that girl or scoring that rank is the ultimate aim of our life - yet, to steer clear in this struggle, we need someone to keep our path aligned - and in these years even though many of us won't admit this, it's mostly our parents. But then, while Sandra stopped the initial struggle and unrest and finally decided to follow suit with Clooney, most of us struggle to follow and that sheer friction results in so much loss which we don't even realize. The drop in level of oxygen was just another way to represent this loss.
The duo reaches close to ISS only to find out that the thruster has run out of batteries and that means if they are not already attached to the explorer, they may never reach to it. This is the time when Clooney exits knowing that if he stays, he is only going to cause trouble to both of them. That again is life - you think you are so close to achieving your dreams and suddenly "shit happens". You are out of your job or you are not doing well in your work or you face some financial difficulties - shit can take any form - and the worst part - you are also either missing or are far away from your guiding north star and have no clue what future holds for you anymore - in such situations, when you are at the rock bottom, you find many of your companions just leave you, abandon you - some have their reasons [like Clooney in this cinema] while others just see that leaving you for a better alternative will keep them off your troubles. They just prefer the cosy life without you, than the path of struggle which you have chosen.
So suddenly, you are alone and there is a vacuum and darkness in your life. You are in a state similar to Sandra in that dark, endless space.
In this state, if you won't gather yourself and decide to move forward, you will be lost - you will just be a debris invisible in the vast darkness around. Trick in the life is to keep moving forward and that is the lesson we learn from this movie.
So, you get yourself out of the deep shit and in to a safe zone. But, if you haven't reached your destination yet, and if you are not careful enough, and if you do not let go, life has its own way to strike back at you and push you back at the rock bottom again. Sandra enters the explorer and as she rushes to find the communications room and ultimately find Clooney, the tiny sparks which she ignores in her rush on her way turn into a huge fire and she has to struggle getting to the escape pod on her way back. Lesson learned - if you deviate and don't pay attention to details, you are prone to face the fumes of danger.
And what happens when the very thing that you collect with an objective that it would help you in the future turns against you? The parachute which is supposed to help you land safely becomes the greatest hurdle for your escape, as it is now open?
When the very people you collected as friends, turn against you and open all your cards in front of strangers and competitors? When the trusted become the biggest catalysts of your failure, the first thing to do is what Sandra promptly does - get a spanner and cut off ties with these assets-turned-into-liabilities. Let go off the past and realize that there is no point in staying attached with these people anymore - people who are more happy to be a hurdle in your path and enjoy the show rather than be your supporters, when you find yourself in troubles.
So, Sandra now comes over to the escape pod in ISS, after all the struggle and graphics effects, only to find that it is in fact out of fuel needed to launch itself. She tries reaching out for help and hears some unknown voice from a stranger in an unfamiliar language.
In her desperation, she tries everything to communicate with this far away stranger and fails. And then, guessing that this stranger is singing a lullaby, she just wants to switch off her own life and sleep forever to the tunes of his voice. She turns off all the life supporting systems in the escape pod.
This may seem weird to many, but if we really think about it, don't we all do this? When we are so close to failure and when we don't see any way out and when we are desperate, don't we just listen to anyone who "listens" to us - without even thinking if the person is able to understand us or if the person is able to relate to us. And then, these strangers decide our faith by their sweet words - a lawyer who advices us for legal action, a property agent who advices us to just sell off everything and move to a different place, a headhunter who convinces us how the new job is going to be so much better - somewhere, deep down, we all know that these people don't know a thing about what we are going through, yet, we are so desperate that we start nodding to their lullabies and enter into decisions without any thought, and in fact decisions which are just suicidal at many times.
But then, if we have faith, if deep inside we believe in our goal, then our subconscious mind is still working to find a way out. It tries to seek guidance from the way our elders and our mentors would have handled this situation, it tries to think laterally, and at the right moment, it just offers us a great solution. The escape pod sequence with Clooney, the picture of Saint Christopher in the escape pod, the quote by Clooney "If we shut down the rest of the world, then whats the point of living" and the excellent idea that Clooney gives Sandra, all of it comes together nicely to stress importance of having faith in yourself and may be your god, and sometimes your god or your subconscious just helps you in a way, and at times, when you need it most.
So, finally, Sandra reaches a Chinese escape pod and this pod along with many other parts of satellite are falling into the earth's atmosphere. At this point, Sandra knows that she may or may not live and yet, she has accepted her faith, she has cleared off her baggage, she has sent greetings to her daughter and now she doesn't care. This fast ride is going to either going to take her home alive or going to kill her - either way, she is fine.
And this is what I think when I am thinking of small ventures and ideas who get caught up in the heat of things. When you go along the flow, and when you let go off all the control - you can either rise to be a superstar or you die - either ways, its the journey which matters. So, sometimes when things are absolutely not under your control, and you know that you have given your best shot, and when all you can do is sit back and wait, you just need to stop thinking, trusting that your faith and your past good deeds will bring out the best results, yet knowing that things can go worse as well. This state of being prepared for any risks is sometimes what takes you through situations of uncertainty.
And then, when you have landed, when you are so close to the victory, you tend to forget all the outside elements that will flow in when you open your shell and declare your arrival. The water which rushes in, when Sandra open the pod in water, without giving much thought to what will happen next, is just that. In such times, you just need to keep doing what you do best, and you will swim through this deep water. Sudden publicity, or popularity, a breakthrough deal, a great discovery after a long and tiring research, they are all great - but they bring in with them so many hopes, and comments and opinions - it's easy to drown with these inflow of public sentiments; but it is more important to just keep doing what you have been doing, with the same faith and vigor and you will come through these floods and will be able to stand on your own feet in the end.
And when you do, don't forget that there are so many expectations and stakes involved around you, a gravity, a pull that will make your feet heavier, and will need you to strive even harder for each new step you take. Just like Sandra, knowing this new regime and accepting it happily with a smile, is what will make your walk and the future runs stable.
I realize this has turned out to be a long post, but then its just how much we can learn out of watching this movie. So, if you haven't done it yet, just go buy a ticket - it is still showing in the cinemas around you :-)
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