2019
Character: Roy McBride
Release Date: 18 September, 2019
Directed By: James Gray
Written By: James Gray, Ethan Gross
Genre: Adventure/Drama/Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Tagline: The Answers We Seek Are Just Outside Our Reach
MPAA Rating: PG 13
Produced by: New Regency Productions, Bona Film Group, CAA Media Finance
Distributed by: Twentieth Century Fox
Budget: $90,000,000
Filming Dates: August 2017
Cast:
…Brad Pitt…Roy McBride
…Tommy Lee Jones…H. Clifford McBride
…Ruth Negga…Helen Lantos
…Donald Sutherland…Thomas Pruitt
…Kimberly Elise…Lorraine Deavers
…Loren Dean…Donald Stanford
…Liv Tyler…Eve
Filming Locations:
Dumont Dunes, California, USA (Mars scenes)
Death Valley, California, USA (Moon scenes)
Santa Clarita, California, USA
Los Angeles, California, USA
Synopsis:
Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.
Trivia & Facts:
• Director James Gray admitted to Empire magazine that he had to compromise with the studio on the ending of the movie to get the film green-lit and even with a major star/producer like Brad Pitt on board they still struggled for years to get it made.
• When Roy reviews the Top Secret message given to him by Colonel Pruitt, the filename is shown as 6EQUJ5. Astronomy fans will immediately recognize this as the character string representing the so-called “Wow!” signal heard by a radio telescope listening in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius in 1977.
• The title means “to the stars” in Latin. It is often used as a shorthand for “Per Aspera Ad Astra” (Through adversity to the stars); less often for “Per Ardua Ad Astra (same meaning), which is the motto of the Royal Air Force.
• The first collaboration between Brad Pitt and James Gray. They planned to work together on The Lost City of Z (2016), but Pitt dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. He remained on board as an executive producer.
• Brad Pitt and James Gray originally planned to collaborate on adapting Mark Greaney’s novel “The Gray Man”, but Pitt later dropped out and the project never finalized. This marks the third time they plan to work together (second time on The Lost City of Z (2016), and the first time they really do as director and actor.
• The narration wasn’t in the original script and was only added while the film is in post-production. A good chunk of the voiceover, if not most of it, was written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (who, ironically, infamously made fun of such voiceover in his script for Adaptation. (2002).
• Jamie Kennedy’s role was cut from the final film, yet he appeared in the final IMAX trailer with Brad Pitt for a split second.
• Brad Pitt and Ruth Negga previously co-starred in World War Z (2013).
• The film cast includes two Oscar winners: Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones; and one Oscar nominee: Ruth Negga.
• While shooting the climactic scene, Brad Pitt ended up crying unprompted in character. But as the scene takes place in zero-g, Pitt told director James Gray that the tear should be edited in post to float like a bubble off his face, rather than run down his cheek. “You gotta replace my tear, that’s not how it works in zero-gravity,” Pitt reportedly said, to which Gray responded, “I’m sorry, I’m keeping it. The acting’s too good, buddy.”
From the gallery
Quotes
Roy McBride: [Last lines] I’m steady, calm. I slept well, no bad dreams. I am active and engaged. I’m aware of my surroundings and those in my immediate sphere. I’m attentive. I am focused on the essentials, to the exclusion of all else. I’m unsure of the future but I’m not concerned. I will rely on those closest to me, and I will share their burdens, as they share mine. I will live and love.
H. Clifford McBride: We need to find what science tells us is impossible. I can’t have failed.
Roy McBride: Dad, you haven’t. Now we know. We’re all we’ve got.
Roy McBride: Why go on? Why keep trying?
Roy McBride: So many times in my life I screwed up: I’ve talked when I should’ve listened, I’ve been harsh when I should’ve been tender.
Roy McBride: He captured strange and distant worlds in greater detail than ever before. They were beautiful, magnificent… full of awe and wonder. But beneath their sublime surfaces… there was nothing. No love or hate. No light or dark. He could only see what was not there… and missed what was right in front of him.
Roy McBride: Can I have a blanket and pillow?
Female Flight Attendant: Certainly, that will be $125
Roy McBride: Here we go again. Fighting for resources. What the hell am I doing here?
Roy McBride: I am focused only on the essential, to the exclusion of all else.I will make only pragmatic decisions. I will not allow myself to be distracted. I will not allow my mind to linger on that which is unimportant. I will not rely on anyone or anything. I will not be vulnerable to mistakes.
Roy McBride: I do what I do because of my dad.
Roy McBride: In the end, the son suffers the sins of the father.
Roy McBride: The zero G and the extended duration of the journey is affecting me both physically and mentally. I am alone. Something I always believed I preferred. I am alone. But I confess it’s wearing on me. I am alone. I am alone.
Roy McBride: I am looking forward to the day my solitude ends. And I’m home.
Roy McBride: I’m so selfish… I’m so selfish… I’m so selfish… I’m a selfish person…
Roy McBride: Goddamn it, they are using me!
Roy McBride: The attack it was full of rage. I understand that rage. I’ve seen that rage in my father and I’ve seen that rage in me. Because I’m angry that he took off. He left us. You know but when I look at that anger, if I push it aside and just put it away all I see is hurt. I just see pain. I think it keeps me walled off walled off from relationships and opening myself up and, you know, really caring for someone. And I don’t know how to get past that.I don’t know how to get around that. And it worries me. And I don’t wanna be that guy. I don’t wanna be my dad.
Roy McBride: [Arriving at the moon base] All the hopes we ever had for space travel… covered up by drink stands and t-shirt vendors. Just a recreation of what we’re running from on Earth. We are world-eaters. If my dad could see this now… he’d tear it all down.
Roy McBride: Forgiveness is bullshit.
Roy McBride: He captured strange and distant worlds in greater detail than ever before. They were beautiful, magnificent, full of awe and wonder. But beneath their sublime surfaces there was nothing. No love or hate. No light or dark. He could only see what was not there and missed what was right in front of him.
Roy McBride: Most of us spend our entire lives in hiding.
H. Clifford McBride: Home?
Roy McBride: Yep.
H. Clifford McBride: This is home. This is a one way voyage my son. You’re talking about Earth? There was never anything for me there. I never cared about you, or your mother… or any of your small ideas. For 30 years… I’ve been breathing this air, eating this food… enduring these hardships… and I never once thought about home.
Roy McBride: I know, Dad.
H. Clifford McBride: I knew this would widow your mother… and orphan you… but I found my destiny. So, I abandoned my son.
Roy McBride: I still love you, Dad. I’m taking you back.
H. Clifford McBride: Hmm… I have work to do. I have infinite work to do. I must find intelligent life.
Roy McBride: It’s time to go. We don’t have much time. Come on.
Roy McBride: I see myself from the outside. Smile, present a side. It’s a performance with my eye on the exit. Always on the exit. Just don’t touch me.
Roy McBride: I’ve been trained to compartmentalize. It seems to me that’s how I approach my life.
Roy McBride: A self-destructive side. That’s what she used to say to me. I should feel something.
Roy McBride: My destination. Seven weeks since Earth. Since air, since sun… trees and birds.
Roy McBride: Captain, I have a small oxygen leak in my suit, I’m just gonna check my patch.
Captain Lawrence Tanner: Have fun back there. We’ll let you know if we spot any ETs.
External Links
…Official Facebook
…Official Instagram
…IMDB