The 2013 film about a destroyed space shuttle and the struggle to return home is Gravity.
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity stars Sandra Bullock as medical engineer Ryan Stone and George Clooney as astronaut Matt Kowalski. During a spacewalk to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, debris from a destroyed satellite tears through their shuttle and leaves them stranded in orbit.
The film’s survival story moves from the wrecked shuttle to the International Space Station and then toward Chinese spacecraft. Its central tension comes from limited oxygen, damaged equipment, orbital mechanics, and the characters’ isolation from mission control. The debris crisis also evokes the Kessler syndrome, in which collisions create clouds of fast-moving orbital debris.
Gravity was praised for its visual effects, cinematography, and realistic-feeling depiction of weightlessness, even though several orbital details are scientifically compressed for dramatic effect. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Director for Cuarón.