1. Biblical Everywoman, Ryan as AdamEve. When she rises from the mud at the end of the movie, struggling to shrug off gravity, she is no longer the woman who was ready to die, she is reborn. But we are reminded to honor the cycle: Earth to Earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
2. The teardrop. If ever there was a reason for a 3D movie, Gravity is it. Just don’t sit in the second IMAX row, as I did: things tended to blur around the edges.
4. Ryan flipping pages of a manual to save her life. Great example of just-in-time learning. Pictograms! And also, the space brotherhood-sisterhood that enables her to push the right buttons in English, Russian, and Chinese.
3. The way the camera brought me inside Ryan’s helmut, as if vision could invade consciousness.
5. OK, forget the teardrop. My favorite image was the debris shooting like fireworks toward earth, all about to dissolve into thin air…except for that one capsule carrying life. And then we’re in a primordial landscape, fit for the beginning of life.
What is it about this movie that evokes such passion? Not sure, but it can’t be bad.