Like Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey, Christopher Nolans epic unashamedly celebrates travelling to the stars as the next logical step in our evolution. Perhaps, after years of cynicism, were ready to be inspired by space exploration again
Stanley Kubrick was right about most things but when it came to 2001: A Space Odyssey, he got it hopelessly wrong. Were now 13 years on from that particular date, so wheres our future? Instead of Pan Am flights to the moon weve got the faltering efforts of Virgin Galactic, which suffered another setback with the crash of its test plane last week. Instead of elegant space stations resembling modernist furniture showrooms, we have got the cramped tin cans of the International Space Station. And forget survey missions to Jupiter, Nasa doesnt even have a space shuttle any more. As it is, we are not even on track for the dystopian future of Blade Runner, unless we can knock together some off-world colonies in the next five years. Charlton Hestons Soylent Green is definitely still on, however, being set in 2022 (spoiler alert: we end up having to eat each other).
From a space enthusiasts point of view, there is nothing more depressing than the fact that 2001 does not look particularly dated. If you had told those 1960s star children we would be no further out of Earths orbit nearly half a century later youd have been laughed out of the cinema, and many of those people, Americans in particular, have never forgiven their governments for not fulfilling their promises. Political and economic pressures and conspicuous accidents, such as the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters, have clipped Nasas wings considerably, and the multitude of Earthbound problems have put interplanetary exploration on the back burner.
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