Movies that feature shots of satellites, preferably malfunctioning?
March 17, 2016 10:41 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for clips of satellites in movies, ideally shots of satellites visibly malfunctioning (sparks and whatnot, as impossible as that might be in space). This is for an internal not-to-be-distributed project, so there are no copyright concerns. Any ideas?
posted by Forbidden Equine Dentistry to Media & Arts (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Trying to remember if we saw any such satellites in Gravity. Certainly plenty of space wreckage in that film.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 10:50 PM on March 17, 2016


Not exactly malfunctioning, but I recall a scene in "Independence Day" where a satellite drifts into the enormous invading alien craft and explodes.
posted by lovableiago at 11:23 PM on March 17, 2016


Space Cowboys is about an unlikely mission to handle a large, decrepit Soviet satellite (well, the orbiting kind, not the other kind of decrepit Soviet satellite).

Spies Like Us features a CIA program to fire an anti-ballistic missile laser beam which accidentally takes out a critical communications satellite.

The anime Planetes is all about a crew whose job it is to de-orbit satellites that've become a safety hazard for people in orbit.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:37 PM on March 17, 2016


It's a major plot point in that God-awful Aloha film that came out last year.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:00 AM on March 18, 2016


Best answer: The eponymous EMP satellite of the Bond movie Goldeneye puts on a bit of a light show as it fires on its own controls station in this scene. There's a very brief scene near the end of the movie of the second satellite re-entering the atmosphere and starting to burn.

GI Joe: Retaliation has a scene where a satellite fires a "Rod from God," a kinetic bombardment weapon that roughs up London.

This final bit from Under Siege 2: Dark Territory features views of, the firing of, and the nicely rendered destruction of yet another satellite weapon, as well as Kathryn Heigl in one of her first roles, an evil Eric Bogosian, and an unlikely escape for Steven Seagal. A little bit of startling gore in the last few seconds, FYI.

"Escape from L.A." also had a satellite weapon, but I don't know if it ever got screen time. Like Goldeneye, it was an EMP weapon.

Launched by NASA in 1972, the spaceprobe Pioneer 10 arrived in Klingon Territory just at the start of "Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country," roughly 2287. The odd-number rule of Star Trek movies applies very firmly to V.

Ah, this is the one that was itching in my brain: Sol 740 is a Japanese military satellite weapon, a huge one, that was employed against Tetsuo, the angry young man who became a dangerously powerful psychic in the magnificent anime movie "Akira." It delivered a direct hit on Tetsuo with its weird antigrav laser, which made him even angrier. Features some tame animated gore. (Well, tame in this scene, at least.)
posted by Sunburnt at 12:15 AM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Until the End Of the World?
posted by rikschell at 4:41 AM on March 18, 2016


The awesome power of the Frinkiac only gives me

It's so bright out, you can't see anything in the sky except the Fox satellite. ( shutters creaking and banging )

I was really thinking of

( computerized voice ) SURVEILLANCE BEAM DISABLED. MARKET RESEARCH SHUTTING DOWN. DOESN'T THAT BEAT ALL?

but you only see the MLB satellite after Bart shoots it down.
posted by zamboni at 6:59 AM on March 18, 2016


Star Trek V is The Final Frontier. Star trek VI is The Undiscovered Country.

I was going to suggest Wim Wenders's execrable Until the End of the World (on preview it's already been mentioned) which has a failing nuclear-powered satellite as a major plot point, but I'm pretty sure it never appears onscreen.

I was also thinking of Moonraker which features an array of satellites that are destroyed by James Bond, but I can't find clips online that actually show them being destroyed. While I'm fond of that movie for personal reasons, there's no way I'm sitting through the whole thing to find out.

Please mark this answer as least helpful!
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:54 AM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Moonraker is right near the end where he's using a laser weapon(!) mounted on a shuttle(!) to blow up the biological death satellites.

Battleship (the movie) has alien ships crashing into satellites (and causing vast amounts of damage).
posted by idb at 8:21 AM on March 18, 2016


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