Ad Astra; opening analysis

 Ad Astra (opening)

Ad Astra is about a man who ventures into space to find out what has happened to his father, and to find possible alien life. What differentiates this movie to others like First Man is that its about the complexity and inner conflict within the main character, while First Man is a historical retelling of an actual person and retells the events leading up to the moon walking.

In this opening, we are not treated with a grand or intense opening like in 2001 and First Man. Instead we get the melancholy inner thoughts of the main character. The protagonist does not look happy, a far cry from the space race when people and astronauts alike were incredibly enthusiastic about space exploration. Here we see a character who does not look pleased with his life, only putting up a smile so that others does not disturb him or his work. 

This movie is specifically focused on the main character, portrayed by Brad Pitt, who shut himself off to the rest of the world, and would rather find his purpose elsewhere while the ever expanding universe strengthens the connections he had. This movie is more aligned with 2001, it being not just a space movie about "Man goes to Jupiter" or "Man goes out to find his father". It is rooted in a more deeper meaning than that.

I love it when sci-fi movie's environments and settings are used to fuel the deeper meaning within the protagonist, illustrating they are just a spec, a single story in a vast world: Like Blade Runner and Stalker and Space Man. 

For my film opening, I want it to have that same existentialism: the loneliness knowing that one's story does not matter to the infinite universe. Since I am only doing a two minute opening, the first thing I want to do is to show my character as a dot compared to the vast void of space.