3. The Take My Hand Trope Doesn't Work In Zero-G
We've seen it in hundreds, perhaps thousands of movies. In fact, it seems as though it happens in every single movie. The hero or the hero's significant other or sometimes even the villain is about to fall to his or her death. Dangling helplessly by one hand, this person's only chance of rescue is to be pulled to safety by the person above, who is usually also using only one arm to effect this daring save. In many variations of this trope, the person below chooses to let go rather than pull their would-be rescuer down to a certain doom. Meanwhile, the person above grits his or her teeth and says, "Don't let go, damn you! Don't you dare let go!" Now observe the picture above and try to imagine how this situation would play out in a zero-g environment. In their approach to the International Space Station (ISS), Clooney and Bullock have missed the mark a bit and the only thing keeping them from floating away is the fact that Bullock's foot is wrapped in the parachute rigging which has deployed from the damaged Soyuz. She has also managed to catch the severed tether that had been keeping her connected to Clooney and is grasping it for dear life with her regulation NASA oven mitts, keeping Clooney from floating away. Now, at this point, with Bullock's inertial movement arrested by her becoming tangled in the rigging that dangles from the ISS and with Clooney's inertial movement likewise being stopped after Bullock grabs the tether, that should be the end of the suspenseful moment. Because there is no other force acting upon the astronauts, they are essentially at a complete standstill. There is no - I hate to say it - gravity to pull Clooney away. In fact, just a minor tug by Bullock on the tether would cause him to come drifting back towards her, problem solved. Then, they could leisurely "climb" their way along the rigging and to the ISS. And, yet, because this is Hollywood, because the Take My Hand cliché is considered almost a necessity for a thrilling movie, we are subjected to several minutes of Bullock pleading for Clooney not to let go as Clooney bravely insists it is the only way. He then sacrifices himself by unbuckling his tether and mysteriously drifting away, pulled apart from Bullock by one of the fundamental forces of the universe, movie tropes. I would have much preferred that the scene play out with Clooney letting go and then looking momentarily surprised when he doesn't float away. A boyish flush of embarrassment would cross his face as he says: "Whoops! I forgot we were in space. There's no gravity up here."