Film
Gravity
Gravity is a survival thriller set in near-Earth orbit, stripped down to almost nothing but a woman, a suit, and the vacuum of space. Alfonso Cuarón builds it from long unbroken shots and real-time dread rather than plot twists or dialogue. It's less a story than an experience — visceral, disorienting, best seen loud and big. For anyone who wants their pulse rate managed by cinema rather than words.
If you liked this
Apollo 131995
Same genre of quiet terror — competent people solving impossible problems with dwindling oxygen and no music cue to promise it'll be fine. Ron Howard treats the true story with total procedural respect.
But It's talkier and more ensemble-driven than Gravity's stripped solo intensity — this one lives in Mission Control as much as space.

The Martian2015
Another lone astronaut improvising survival against impossible odds, but traded for wit and problem-solving optimism instead of dread. Ridley Scott and Matt Damon make isolation almost fun.
But The tone is warmer and funnier throughout — if you wanted Gravity's suffocating dread, this will feel comparatively breezy.

All Is Lost2013
Almost no dialogue, one actor, one sinking boat — Robert Redford battling the ocean with the same stripped-down, unsentimental physicality Bullock brings to orbit.
But It's slower and even more minimal — patience is required, and there's no space-vista spectacle to distract you.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Marooned1969no page yet
Same premise almost beat for beat — stranded astronauts, dwindling air, a desperate rescue — made forty-four years earlier with models and matte paintings instead of CGI, proving the fear predates the technology that makes it look real.
Three astronauts stranded in orbit with dwindling oxygen and a rescue mission racing the clock — this won the Oscar for visual effects in 1970, and you can feel Cuarón's film in its DNA decades later.
But The pace is stately by modern standards and the effects, however innovative then, look their age now.
More like this (8)
First Man2018
Damien Chazelle shoots space travel with the same visceral, shaking-camera intimacy, but roots it in grief and the toll paid by the people who go up there.
But It's more biographical drama than thriller — the tension is quieter and the pace more deliberate.

Interstellar2014
Bigger, stranger, and more emotionally overwrought, but shares the same commitment to making space feel vast, silent, and genuinely dangerous.
But Nearly three hours long with heavier themes and a much more complicated plot to track.

Moon2009
Sam Rockwell alone on a lunar base, isolation curdling into something stranger — a small, cerebral film that trades spectacle for unease.
But It's a mystery and character study rather than a physical survival thriller — a different kind of tension entirely.

Sunshine2007
A space mission spiraling into disaster, with gorgeous visuals of light and heat instead of debris and silence, and the same small crew against vast indifferent space.
But Danny Boyle swerves hard into horror territory in its back half — tonal whiplash some viewers won't forgive.

Life2017no page yet
Same claustrophobic space-station setting and rising dread as Gravity, but with a genuinely hostile lifeform thrown into the mix.
But It's a straight-up horror movie underneath the space-thriller skin — bleaker and nastier than Gravity ever gets.
Ad Astra2019
Brad Pitt drifting through the solar system on a mission as internal as it is external, with the same hushed, meditative sense of scale and solitude.
But Deliberately slow and introspective — closer to a tone poem than a thriller, which will frustrate some viewers.

Apollo 112019
Gravity manufactures the vertigo of spaceflight through visual effects; this documentary shows you the unedited, unfaked version of the same disorientation and awe, using nothing but archival footage.
Restored, never-before-seen 70mm footage of the actual moon landing mission, assembled with no narration and no reenactment — just the real thing, terrifying and sublime.
But No score building tension and no manufactured peril — it's observational, and some will find it slow without a fictional plot to hang onto.

Locke2014
Strip away the space suit and Gravity is a story about one person, trapped in a small enclosed vessel, forced to confront a personal catastrophe completely alone — Locke does the exact same thing on a motorway instead of in orbit.
Tom Hardy, alone in a car, driving through the night while his life quietly falls apart over a series of phone calls — a one-man endurance performance in real time.
But There's no visual spectacle at all — it's a man in a Land Rover on a motorway, entirely dialogue-driven.

People
Cast
Sandra BullockRyan Stone
George ClooneyMatt Kowalski
Ed HarrisMission Control (voice)
Orto IgnatiussenAningaaq (voice)
Phaldut SharmaShariff (voice)
Amy WarrenExplorer Captain (voice)
Basher SavageRussian Space Station Captain (voice)
Directing
- Alfonso CuarónDirector
- Edward BrettFirst Assistant Director
- Josh RobertsonFirst Assistant Director
- Stephen E. HagenFirst Assistant Director
- Toby HeffermanFirst Assistant Director
- Laura MilesScript Supervisor
- Ben HowardSecond Assistant Director
- Marcia GaySecond Assistant Director
- Tom BrewsterThird Assistant Director
Writing
- Alfonso CuarónWriter
- Jonás CuarónWriter
Production
- Betty AinslieAssistant Accountant
- Fiona May McLarenAssistant Accountant
- Frances RichardsonAssistant Accountant
- Gemma Todd SmithersAssistant Accountant
- Sammy HortonAssistant Accountant
- Stephen McConnellAssistant Accountant
- Valerie RosewellAssistant Accountant
- Glenn DiotAssistant Production Coordinator
- Gabriela RodríguezAssociate Producer
- David RubinCasting
- Lucinda SysonCasting
- Richard HicksCasting
- Christopher DeFariaExecutive Producer
- Nikki PennyExecutive Producer
- Stephen JonesExecutive Producer
- Matthew BristoweHead of Production
- Kristján FriðrikssonLocal Casting
- Vilborg EinarsdóttirLocal Casting
- Siobhan BoyesPost Production Coordinator
- Alfonso CuarónProducer
- David HeymanProducer
- Dilip PatelProduction Accountant
- Alison WinterProduction Assistant
- Cenay SaidProduction Assistant
- Craig JamiesonProduction Assistant
- Phoebe Vale MarkhamProduction Assistant
- Ruth AntoineProduction Assistant
- Jonathan ScottProduction Coordinator
- Kevin BaulcombProduction Secretary
- Lisa StonePublicist
- David SiegelUnit Production Manager
- Steve HardingUnit Production Manager
Recommended by
Interstellar, Children of Men, Contact, The Martian, Apollo 11, First Man, 127 Hours, Sunshine, Life of Pi, Ad Astra, All Is Lost, Cast Away, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Buried, Project Hail Mary, Cliffhanger