Gravity - Lost and Found: From Sartre to Tolkien

What I liked about the movie Gravity, apart from the stunning visual feats achieved, is that it is a story about getting lost and then being found. The story shows how man is lost and how when the lostness translates to meaninglessness, it logically leads to a point of suicide. Hollywood being Hollywood, the story does not stop there, it goes on to show how the redeeming force comes in the form of finding ones place through a Story. I believe exploring the movie from this perspective of finding strength from being rooted in a Story has much spiritual value.

Sartre and Camus say Hello:
Where 'Cast Away' is about man's loneliness in life, 'Gravity' is about man's lostness. The scene in 'Cast Away' that epitomizes what it is about is the one where lonely survivor (Tom Hanks) makes a doll-companion out of a soccer ball and talks to him/her. The scene in 'Gravity' which epitomizes what the movie is about is one in which after an accident in the shuttle, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is hurled into space (s)trapped in her spacesuit tumbling about helpless, alone in the vast empty black space only the stars for a distant background. Unlike 'Star Wars', in 'Gravity' there is no physical to enemy to fight and overcome. The enemy one is fighting against is the lostness of the human condition.

Gravity visually communicates, with an eerie beauty, the human lostness in an enormously hostile and empty cosmos. In seeing people strapped in space suits floating about, lost in space, I was reminded of famous existentialist Jean Paul Sartre's comment that "man's life is but an empty bubble floating about in void". In the follow up to Sartre, the other popular existentialist, Albert Camus, in his 'Myth of the Sisyphus' asks, "if life is as absurd and meaningless as it is, why not commit suicide." Camus' question is pertinent to the movie because, spoiler alert, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) attempts suicide in the movie.

Sartre's Bubble Bursts:
The movie starts with the scene where Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) a research scientist is working robot-like on the space station. In contrast to her robot-like personality is the astronaut Matt Knowlaski (George Clooney) who has fun going flying/floating in his jet-packs, telling stories. Once the accident occurs and they are thrown into space, Dr. Stone and Knowlaski realize how lost they are. They both have to fight to survive. They both need to be hopeful.

Astronaut Knowlaski relies on his story telling/listening abilities to stay cool and get through. But Dr. Stone is quickly losing hope. Dr. Stone has nothing to look forward to about her life on earth. Life, after her daughter's death was meaningless anyway. She says that her life on earth was about three things - working, sleeping and driving repeated in an infinite loop over and over again.

Living robot-like on earth isn't that inspiring to warrant a heroic deed of fighting for it. Realizing the  metaphorical lostness of her earth-life, she realizes that her life would mean nothing even if she survived. If Jean Paul Sartre's words are true that, 'man is but an empty bubble floating about in void'. Why not just burst the bubble? Would it make any difference. She decides to let herself die by reducing the oxygen levels in her Soyuz.

Tolkien to the Rescue:
During her low-oxygen induced hallucination, she sees Astronaut Knowlaski. Astronaut Knowlaski tells her that she should live just because she will have 'one heck of a story to tell'. He keep repeating to her, 'you have a story to tell'. She wakes up and has a refreshing change of heart. She finds her place in a story. She tells herself if she survives she will have a story to tell, and even if she dies she will have a story to tell (to her dead daughter). This perspective change of seeing her life as a Story being told gives her life a new sense of meaning, which gives her the strength to try to fight against death.

This scene, beautifully depicting the idea of finding strength by finding oneself in a story is my favorite. It has an amazing parallel to a scene from the Lord of the Rings, not the movie, but the book. It happens when Frodo and Sam have journeyed into Mordor. The weight of Evil of Mordor is pressing on them. They are exhausted. The cunning traitor-guide into Mordor, Gollum, has deserted them concocting a plan to get them killed. They are completely lost and exhausted!

In the midst of this lostness, Sam finds strength to fight on by seeing himself in a Story bigger than himself. Looking at the Star of Earendil, Sam tells Frodo, "Mr. Frodo, don't we have the same light that is in the Star of Earendil?... It just struck me that we are still a part of the same story (of Earendil)... Don't great tales ever end?". Frodo replies, "No Sam, great tales never end, we come play our little part in it and then go". (Sam and Frodo have a 'Phail' given the them by the beautiful Elven Lady Galadriel. It has the light captured from the Star of Earendil, the Savior of Middle Earth. In Silmarillion, which is the back drop for Lord of the Rings, Earendil becomes the savior of Middle Earth). Both Sam and Frodo find their meaning and hope in seeing themselves as being a part of a story of redemption of Middle Earth. In spite of their physical lostness in Mordor, they find their (spiritual) place in a story of redemption much BIGGER than themselves and are willing to play their part to whatever end.

Rooted in God's Story:
Though Tolkien, as he stated many times, did not mean for Lord of the Rings to be a Christian allegory (unlike the way John Bunyan meant for 'The Pilgrim's Progress'), Tolkien's Christian worldview nevertheless affected his story telling. Looking at this from a Christian point of  view, we see the rich meaning that being a part of a BIGGER story brings to us. The human condition of being lost as an 'empty bubble floating about in void', does not apply to the Christian. As Christians, we are not lost. We are people who are deeply rooted in the Story that God is writing of Himself in and through History. We play our little parts in His story.


Whether we live or die we will still continue to be rooted the Story of redemption that God is writing. In fact, when God chose Abraham to be His Friend, He chose him to be a part of His story of bringing redemption to the Nations. In the New Testament, we are all given parts to play in the BIG story of Christ - the story where He is the Groom and the Church is the Bride made ready for Him, not unlike the marriage of Aaragorn and Arwen towards the end of Lord of the Rings.

Lost and Found:
Existentially, our lives are but a conglomeration of many accidents, big and small - from losing our dear dreams to losing our loved ones. In every one of these little or big accidents, we are lost in one way or another. At such times, in the depths of deep despair, when we appear to be lost tumbling about in void without a sense of orientation of who we are and what we are to do, we will do ourselves a favor by reminding ourselves of the our true place in the BIG Story of  redemption that God is writing. When we say, 'everything we do, we do for the glory of God', what we really mean is that we play our little part in the BIG story what God is writing of His greatness and His glory. Finding oneself in God's BIG story will help us faithfully play our little parts without getting lost as 'a bubble floating about in void'.