Image: tmdb
About This Quiz
This space epic, about an astronaut's harrowing journey home after a catastrophe, blew critics' and audiences' minds and took home seven Academy Awards. Revisit "Gravity" with our quiz!
Who plays the female lead in Gravity?
Julia Roberts
Charlize Theron
Sandra Bullock
Gravity took a very long time to make. For much of the filming, Sandra Bullock was by herself in a specially designed visual effects box.
Jennifer Lawrence
Advertisement
What is the first name of Sandra Bullock's character, Dr. Stone?
Christine
Beth
Ryan
Her partner, Matt Kowalski, asks, "What kind of name is that?" for a woman. Ryan tells his that her father wanted a boy and chose the name accordingly.
we never learn this
Advertisement
What kind of doctor is Ryan Stone?
acute-care specialist
biomedical engineer
Apparently, this field includes creating technology for use on a space telescope. Dr. Stone is so good at it, that NASA trains her for six months to be an astronaut, rather than having her explain to astronauts how to install it. Frankly, once you're out of the theater, it starts making a lot less sense.
neurologist
cardiologist
Advertisement
What is the name of the NASA spacecraft on which Ryan is traveling?
Aspiration
Explorer
The Explorer has a crew of four: Lt. Matt Kowalski, Mission Specialists Stone and Shareef, and an unnamed captain, voiced by actress Amy Warren. We only see the captain as a body, after she is killed in the accident.
Columbia
Pandemonium
Advertisement
Why does Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) spend so much time spacewalking?
he loves the view
the inside of the station makes him claustrophobic
he wants to impress Ryan
he wants to beat the record for time spent spacewalking
He credits the existing record to a Russian, Anatoli Solovyev. Solovyev was a real cosmonaut, who no longer holds the record.
Advertisement
Matt likes to listen to what singer while spacewalking?
Adele
Jackie Evancho
Luciano Pavarotti
Hank Williams
Matt also likes to tell stories from his past. Mission Control complains about having heard them all before, though Ryan hasn't.
Advertisement
What does Ryan say she likes about space?
the challenge
the silence
The wits at "Cinema Sins" note that with Matt's constant anecdote-telling and country music playing, Dr. Stone doesn't seem to get any silence to appreciate. ("Cinema Sins," if you haven't heard of it, is a YouTube channel -- Check out their "Everything Wrong With ..." videos about popular movies).
her fellow astronauts
the view
Advertisement
How many more missions does Matt intend to fly after this one?
one
three
zero
Admit it: Didn't you know he was a goner as soon as he said this was his last mission? If you've seen any cop movies at all, you should have seen it coming.
as many as possible
Advertisement
Who directed "Gravity?"
Alfonso Cuaron
Cuaron co-wrote the script with his son, Jonas, who is his writing partner. Cuaron also directed the third Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."
George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
Kathryn Bigelow
Advertisement
What causes the destructive field of wreckage?
an asteroid hit a space station
an unmanned space station broke up due to age
the Russians shot down a satellite
The Kessler Syndrome that the movie depicts could really happen. Hopefully, everyone's being careful up there and not randomly taking aim at satellites.
the Earth crosses an asteroid belt
Advertisement
Why did Russia shoot down its own satellite (according to Matt)?
its crew went rogue
it would have fallen to earth with nuclear material aboard
target practice
it's their way of de-commissioning it
Matt says the satellite had probably stopped working, and the Russians fired on it to put it out of commission. It's just his theory, but he sounds pretty knowledgeable to us.
Advertisement
Which is not an object we see floating in the Explorer's wreckage?
a Bible
Some critics saw religious imagery in "Gravity," including Kowalski's Christlike sacrifice for Dr. Stone. But there was nothing as explicit as a Bible in the Explorer.
a Marvin the Martian doll
an orthodontic retainer
a Rubik's cube
Advertisement
How long does it take the debris to make an entire orbit of the Earth?
90 minutes
That means the debris is traveling at 20,000 miles per hour. Of course, the imminent return of the killer junk makes for good tension in the story.
3 hours
7 hours
1 earth day
Advertisement
From what trauma is Ryan recovering?
the death of her husband
the death of her daughter
Because as we all know, in Hollywood, women can't be deeply dedicated to a challenging job unless they've lost a kid. Preferably a daughter.
an estrangement from her son
a sexual assault
Advertisement
What did Ryan's daughter die of?
a car crash
cancer
drowning in the ocean
a playground accident
Ryan says her daughter was playing tag, slipped and hit her head, and "that was it."
Advertisement
What does Matt say he'll miss about space?
his colleagues
weightlessness
the sunrises
Matt comes off like a space Casanova at times, but it seems like he has hidden depths. In addition to liking sunrises, he marvels at how the sun looks on the Ganges River.
spacewalking
Advertisement
What does Ryan do when she's not working?
drives aimlessly
Ryan explains that she was driving when she got the news of her daughter's death. So now, she just drives randomly when she's not working or sleeping.
plays bridge
works on a home observatory
works out obsessively
Advertisement
What does Matt say the Russians stash in the ISS?
extra oxygen tanks
extra fuel
better comm equipment
vodka
Matt jokes about knowing where the Russians "stash their vodka." Sadly, he's not going to make happy hour.
Advertisement
What does Ryan wear under her spacesuit?
a ventilated, cooling bodystocking
a grey camisole and black briefs
Experts say that astronauts would wear a special cooling garment under a spacesuit, not just underwear. But how else could they show off how marvelously fit Sandra Bullock is in her late forties?
a vintage NASA T-shirt and jeans
nothing
Advertisement
What goes wrong when Ryan gets the Soyuz capsule away from the ISS?
the airlock won't seal
it's out of fuel
This causes Ryan to finally have a bit of a tantrum. OK, a major one. But you can't blame her -- she's having a really rough day.
the steering is locked
a fire breaks out
Advertisement
Ryan speaks briefly over the radio with a man in what country?
Iran
Greenland
Most likely, few people in the audience recognized the language the man was speaking as Greenlandic. Cuaron and his son, Jonas, modeled the unseen man on an Inuit fisherman they'd met while scouting movie locations.
Russia
Zimbabwe
Advertisement
What else does Stone hear on the radio besides Aningaag's voice?
a baby crying
dogs barking
pop music
both #1 and #2
The conversation with Aningaag is what Ryan believes will be her last contact with anybody on earth. A little giddy with the prospect of impending death, she howls along with his dogs and talks to Aningaag, even though she knows he won't understand what she's saying.
Advertisement
Who does Stone hallucinate seeing in the Soyuz capsule?
her daughter
her father
Matt
Matt taps on the capsule door, lets himself in, and asks Ryan cheerfully if she found the Russians' stash of vodka. The fact that he then produces the vodka is a significant hint that none of this is really happening.
John Glenn
Advertisement
The final spacecraft to which Ryan navigates is a space station belonging to what country?
China
Relatively few countries have space programs. China is one of them, along with its neighbor, Russia.
Japan
India
Turkey
Advertisement
What is the name of the Chinese space station?
Jeung Hing
Manchuria
Tiangong
Tiangong means "Heavenly Palace" in Mandarin. Appropriate, given its location, though the interior is not exactly palatial.
Tiananmen
Advertisement
What does Ryan use for propulsion, to get from the Soyuz capsule to the Tiangong?
a jet pack
a fire extinguisher
Stranded without a jet pack, Ryan makes her own out of a fire extinguisher. She learned how effective it was after accidentally sending herself across the cabin of the ISS and smashing into a bulkhead.
an oxygen canister
a 2-liter soda bottle
Advertisement
On what kind of terrain does the Tiangong land?
the ocean
the desert
a lake
Alfonso Cuaron shot Ryan's emergence from the lake onto land in such a way that it symbolizes human evolution. She emerges from the water, crawls a bit on land, and then stands up and takes her first shaky steps. It's also a symbolic rebirth.
farmland
Advertisement
On what continent does the capsule land?
Africa
Asia
North America
We never know
It's never revealed exactly where the capsule landed. But the scene was filmed at Lake Powell in Arizona, which might surprise some audience members, since the surrounding hills look more green and grassy than Arizona usually does.
Advertisement
What personal item does Ryan see inside the Chinese escape capsule?
a Buddha statue
A smiling, seated Buddha rides in the escape capsule. That's nice, but we hope it's secured -- it would be painful to get hit with it during turbulence.
a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey
a red shoe
a wristwatch
Advertisement
At the Golden Globes, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler joked that George Clooney "would rather float away in space and die" than do what?
be in another movie with Matt Damon
not get top billing
spend another minute working in green screen
spend another minute around a woman his own age
Clooney was known for dating actresses quite a bit younger than he was. Did Fey and Poehler shame him into marrying human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin? It could be!
Advertisement
To which film did "Gravity" lose Best Picture at the Oscars?
12 Years a Slave
"Gravity" didn't do badly, winning seven of the ten Academy Awards for which it was nominated. Cuaron took home the Best Director statue -- usually a tipoff that the director's film will win Best Picture, but not in this case.
Frozen
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street
Advertisement
How did Sandra Bullock describe the experience of making "Gravity?"
delightful
intense
lonely
Bullock spent many hours a day alone in a mechanical rig in a green-screen studio. She communicated with other people on set via a headset. Not your usual filmmaking experience, to say the least.
physically painful
Advertisement
Who was the voice of Mission Control?
Gene Hackman
Ed Harris
We never see Harris, but his role is a nod to the ones he played in space dramas, "Apollo 13" and "The Right Stuff."
David Morse
Sigourney Weaver
Advertisement
Which of these actresses was also up for the role of Ryan?
Blake Lively
Natalie Portman
Angelina Jolie
all of them
The filmmakers first wanted action heroine Angelina Jolie, but she wasn't available. After that, a virtual who's who of A-list actresses were considered, including Lively, Portman, Carey Mulligan, Rebecca Hall, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Wilde, and more.
Advertisement
What actor was initially slated to play Matt Kowalski?
Robert Downey Jr.
Downey eventually left the project to make another film. Bruce Willis and John Travolta were also under consideration to play the role.
Tom Hanks
Mark Ruffalo
Vincent D'Onofrio
Advertisement
You Got:
/35
tmdb