Warner Bros. 2013

    I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid – until I saw the movie Marooned.

    I’m sure Gravity will do the same to any boys and girls considering such a career.  It is out of this world in more ways than one.

    Veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and civilian Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) are stranded while spacewalking after a freak accident.  

    Kowalski continues to talk to “Houston in the blind” until Ryan asks why he’s wasting his time.  Matt says NASA might be able to hear even if they can’t talk back – and someone may be able to save their lives because of that.

    Isn’t this the essence of prayer?  We might feel that God doesn’t hear us because our prayers aren’t answered – but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t hear the prayer.

    Ryan later says she would pray but no one taught her how.  She eventually does pray when she voices her desires and requests.

    There are signs of spirituality in the two foreign spacecraft she enters: the Russian ship has an icon of St. Christopher carrying Christ – the common patron for safe transportation.  In the Chinese ship, there is a statue of Buddha.

     SPOILER ALERT – Major Plot Points

    Ryan can’t get the spacecraft to work and she is resigned to die.   Suddenly  Matt appears and gives her the solution she needs: something she had learned in training but forgot.  He encourages her to keep on living.  Ryan realizes this conversation really didn’t happen – Matt is dead.  But his solution definitely works and saves her.

    Was this a hallucination . . . a dream . . . or Matt actually appearing to her?  Just like the Josephs in each Testament, it was definitely a way for God to transmit life-saving information.

    Re-energized and committed to living, Ryan talks to Matt even though he can't hear her – more prayer –  and says that he will soon be meeting her dead daughter, a firm belief in the Afterlife.  She asks him a question, pauses, and then says “Roger that,” as if he did answer. What a great way to illustrate the Letter to the Hebrews’ idea of the cloud of witnesses/communion of saints cheering us on and helping us.

    When the craft splashes down, we hear NASA trying to contact Ryan  – apparently they were hearing her (prayers), even if they couldn’t contact her.

    When Ryan is finally back on safe, solid ground, she stands up and says a prayer of thanks.

    To paraphrase Kowalski, the movie is a hellova ride – but filled with heavenly ideas.