There is a body of films that feature space stations. Science fiction films are the most popular genre to have featured both real-life space stations such as the International Space Station and Mir as well as fictional ones such as the Death Star and the Satellite of Love.
Film | Release year | Space station | Spacecraft transporting the crew | Spacecraft transporting the filming equipment | Cast aboard the space station during production | Time aboard on space station during production | Time shot on space station during production | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Return from Orbit | 1984 | Salyut 7 | Soyuz T-9 | Soyuz T-9 |
| 27 June - 23 November 1983 (149 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes) | Unknown | [1] |
Apogee of Fear | 2012 | International Space Station | Soyuz TMA-13/TMA-12/STS-124 | Soyuz TMA-13/TMA-12 |
| 14 - 24 October 2008 (11 days, 20 hours, 35 minutes) | 8 minutes | [2] |
Yolki 5 | 2016 | International Space Station | Soyuz TMA-16M/TMA-18M | Soyuz TMA-16M/TMA-18M/Soyuz MS-02 | Mikhail Kornienko (Astronaut) | 27 June - 23 November 1983 (340 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes) | 3-4 minutes | [3] [4] |
Soyuz MS-02 | Soyuz MS-02 | Andrey Borisenko (Astronaut) | 27 June - 23 November 1983 (340 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes) | |||||
The Challenge (Vyzov) | 2023 | International Space Station | Soyuz MS-19/18 | Progress MS-17/Soyuz MS-18 |
| 5 - 17 October 2021 (11 days, 12 hours, 52 minutes) | 35-40 minutes | [5] |
Film | Year | Space station | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Armageddon | 1998 | Mir | [6] |
A Beautiful Planet | 2016 | International Space Station | [7] |
Contact | 1997 | Mir | [6] |
The Day After Tomorrow | 2004 | International Space Station | [8] |
Gravity | 2013 | International Space Station and Tiangong | [9] |
Life | 2017 | International Space Station | [10] |
Love | 2011 | International Space Station | [11] |
Marooned | 1969 | SIVb Orbital Workshop | [12] |
Mission to Mars | 2000 | World Space Station | [13] |
Mission to Mir | 1997 | Mir | [14] |
Out of the Present | 1995 | Mir | [15] |
Rampage | 2018 | [16] | |
Salyut-7 | 2017 | Salyut 7 | [17] |
Searching for Skylab | 2019 | Skylab | [18] |
Space Explorers: The ISS Experience | 2020 | [19] | |
Space Station 3D | 2002 | International Space Station | [20] |
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | 2017 | Alpha (former International Space Station) | [21] |
Virus | 1999 | Mir | [22] |
The following films also include spacecraft that have also been called space stations by outside sources:
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's Islands of Space in the November issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The complementary term soft science fiction, formed by analogy to hard science fiction, first appeared in the late 1970s. The term is formed by analogy to the popular distinction between the "hard" (natural) and "soft" (social) sciences, although there are examples generally considered as "hard" science fiction such as Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, built on mathematical sociology. Science fiction critic Gary Westfahl argues that neither term is part of a rigorous taxonomy; instead they are approximate ways of characterizing stories that reviewers and commentators have found useful.
Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction, which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. It is related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers.
Science fiction films This is a list of science fiction films organized chronologically. These films have been released to a cinema audience by the commercial film industry and are widely distributed with reviews by reputable critics. This includes silent film–era releases, serial films, and feature-length films. All of the films include core elements of science fiction, but can cross into other genres such as drama, mystery, action, horror, fantasy, and comedy.
Dark Star is a 1974 American science fiction comedy film produced, scored and directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon. It follows the crew of the deteriorating starship Dark Star, twenty years into their mission to destroy unstable planets that might threaten future colonization of other planets.
Tarantula is a 1955 American science-fiction monster film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold. It stars John Agar, Mara Corday, and Leo G. Carroll. The film is about a scientist developing a miracle nutrient to feed a rapidly growing human population. In its unperfected state, the nutrient causes extraordinarily rapid growth, creating a deadly problem when a tarantula test subject escapes and continues to grow larger and larger. The screenplay by Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley was based on a story by Arnold, which was in turn inspired by Fresco's teleplay for the 1955 Science Fiction Theatre episode "No Food for Thought", also directed by Arnold. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures as a Universal-International release, and reissued in 1962 through Sherman S. Krellberg's Ultra Pictures.
Moon is a 2009 science fiction film directed by Duncan Jones and written by Nathan Parker from a story by Jones. The film follows Sam Bell, a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year solitary stint mining helium-3 on the far side of the Moon. Dominique McElligott, Kaya Scodelario, Benedict Wong, Matt Berry, and Malcolm Stewart also star. It premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was released in selected cinemas in New York and Los Angeles on 12 June 2009. The release was expanded to additional theatres in the United States on 10 July and to the United Kingdom on 17 July. A follow-up film containing an epilogue to the film's events, Mute, was released in 2018. A third installment, a graphic novel called Madi: Once Upon A Time in the Future, was released in 2020.
Alien Trespass is a 2009 science-fiction comedy film based on 1950s sci-fi B movies, produced by James Swift and directed by R.W. Goodwin. It stars Eric McCormack and Robert Patrick. The film was shot in Ashcroft, British Columbia.
Gary Wesley Westfahl is an American writer and scholar of science fiction. He has written reviews for the Los Angeles Times, The Internet Review of Science Fiction and Locus Online. He worked at the University of California, Riverside until 2011 and is now an Professor Emeritus at the University of La Verne.
American actor, director, and producer Robert Duvall has had an extensive career in film and television since he first appeared in an episode of Armstrong Circle Theatre in 1959. His television work during the 1960s includes Route 66 (1961), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962), The Twilight Zone (1963), The Outer Limits (1964), The F.B.I. (1965–1969), and The Mod Squad (1969). He was then cast as General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1979 miniseries Ike. In 1989, he played Augustus "Gus" McCrae alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the epic Western adventure television miniseries Lonesome Dove. The role earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. Three years later, he portrayed Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader Joseph Stalin in the television film Stalin (1992), which earned him another Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Film.
Pop culture fiction is a genre of fiction where stories are written intentionally to be filled with references from other works and media. Stories in this genre are focused solely on using popular culture references.