EPIC ENDINGS : GRAVITY
In any heroic story the fate of the protagonist is always loaded with meaning, and the ending of Alfonso Cuarón’s movie Gravity is full of implied significance. One of the ways that cinematography conveys visual symbolic significance and meaning is the epic shot. This is used to great effect in the denouement of this drama.
Astronaut Ryan’s return to Earth, with the help of gravity (for without it she would have been lost in space) is depicted in the previous scene of re entry, and then her escape from the submerged Shenzhou shuttle after all she has been through, is just one more harrowing test of triumphant survival. But it is her transition from water to land that for me at least symbolises something bigger than one human's survival story, it is an epic symbol of life’s evolutionary arc on this planet.
In previous scenes of the Shenzhou re entering the atmosphere it is difficult to make out exactly where on Earth she is landing. When I saw the film I thought the geography revealed in the wide master shots might have been somewhere in the remote watery parts eastern Russia (the actual scene was apparently filmed at Lake Powell in Arizona) but it’s not specific. What is specific is that Cuarón doesn't want us to recognise where we have landed with Ryan, then we won’t make any present day association with the location. This allows the scene to widen its context and expand its meaning for us.
We see Ryan emerge from the water from which all life has evolved and slither onto the mud, not a sandy beach but something implying the primordial ooze. After time spent in a gravity free environment she is laid out flat on her belly. Life remained in this liminal zone between ocean and dry earth for a very long time, until primitive air breathing fish had developed four legs and the locamotion to venture onto the surrounding land.
In one continuous camera move we see Ryan slowly begin to crawl on all fours and then triumphantly stand up on two legs. Legs that are unsure at first whether they can hold her weight, let alone remember how to walk in Gravity, echoing here I think the complexity of bipedal biomechanics. As she raises herself to her full height the camera remains in its position looking up at her looking back at the sky, symbolising that our two legged footing on Earth is destined for the stars.
She tentatively begins to walk, the camera remaining in position allowing her steps to reveal what she is walking onto, or into … which is a fragile Earth bound human life.
The use of wide angle lenses are a hall mark of epic cinema and a wide angle is used throughout this whole scene, even tracking in for close ups and pulling back for the reveal. Cuarón brings all this together in one seamless piece of action, as is his preferred long take style. It keeps us focused and involved without introducing new camera angles that might break the spell and sever the meaning of this epic dramatic scene ending.
