From the time people first gathered around fires to cook their latest kill, mankind has told stories about astronauts and their travels into space. From Icarus in Greek mythology (who didn't exactly become an astronaut, but he tried) to the upcoming Buck Rogers movie, our fictional heroes have sought to fly higher and farther; often with disastrous results. But as is usually the case in real life, when disaster strikes we learn a lot about our individual strengths and weaknesses. Disasters in space come with their own brand of obstacles (anoxia, weightlessness, etc.). It takes a very special astronaut to succeed where most of us would fail. It is these heroic astronauts that we'll cover for this article. But since so many sci-fi flicks have rocket loads of astronauts; including the likes of Luke Skywalker, Captain Kirk, and Lt. Ripley; I need to limit the definition of "astronaut". To begin with, if a ship leaves our home solar system, such as Leslie Nielsen's ship in Forbidden Planet, then for my purposes the people on that ship are no longer astronauts but are instead spacefarers. Also, cartoons and animated films such as Toy Story do not make the list. I want real fake astronauts, not fake fake astronauts. And finally, the list will only include fictitious astronauts, otherwise I would have to fill this article with every astronaut from The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. A real astronaut will kick a movie astronaut's tail any day. If you doubt this statement, check out the story of American astronaut Gordon Cooper, who was forced to manually pilot a Mercury capsule that had NO MANUAL CONTROLS. Now that's the right stuff! Let's get started, shall we?
Honorable Mentions
Stranded: Náufragos (2002) A classic plot line most famously seen in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (although not exactly the same plot), Stranded gives us the tale of astronauts stranded on Mars with enough supplies to last a year. Unfortunately, it will be two years before a rescue ship arrives. Sunshine (2007) A British sci-fi film about a spaceship on a mission to the sun. They are shocked when they receive a distress call from a ship that disappeared seven years earlier. Superman II (1980) Those poor bastards on the moon deserve a mention for having the worst timing in space travel history. I mean really, who goes out for a moon walk just as General Zod escapes from The Phantom Zone and arrives at Earth's moon? Red Planet (2000) - Robby Gallagher manages to fight off Martian life and a killer robot while still finding a way to activate a dead Russian launch vehicle so he can get back home. Pretty tough guy, eh?