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Marooned (1969) More at IMDbPro »

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28 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
For the record..., 25 October 2004

Author: minimalist from Canada

...Marooned is a good movie.

If you're inclined to consider when it was made, or you're old enough to remember when the idea of manned space exploration was actually exciting, you might even think it's great. The worst thing I can say is that it's certainly not fast-paced: if you're looking for a sci-fi action spectacular, this probably isn't going to be your cup of tea.

The specifics are covered very well in previous users' comments (and in Roger Ebert's ***/**** review), so I won't repeat them here.

There is one thing I'd like to clarify, though, if I may:

Anyone looking at the user ratings and user comments should take into consideration that a (very) abbreviated version of this movie was shown on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 as "Space Travelers." I'm a pretty hardcore MST fan myself, and I agree that it was a funny episode. However, there's a certain type of MSTie that finds it entertaining to visit the IMDb and "vote" (negatively, of course) for the movies featured in their favourite episodes, with a view to knocking them down into the IMDb's "Bottom 100" list. Sometimes this is reasonably well-deserved: honestly, some of the worst (best) movies featured on MST3K would be indefensible in any form. Other times, particularly when the original is cut to pieces (this one lost approximately 1:15 of its 2:15 running time, while "gaining" some lousy incidental music and a shabby new title sequence*), I don't think it's right at all.

If you want to watch an interesting, thought-provoking sci-fi drama, "Marooned" is a good bet. If you want to watch a funny episode of MST3K, "Space Travelers" (#0401) is an equally good bet. You can even watch and enjoy both, as I have. Don't let the strange mix of votes and comments here dissuade you from watching it entirely, though, because that would be a mistake.

(A minor mistake, admittedly, but still -- a mistake.)

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* Credit where it's due: most of this hack job was courtesy of re-distributor Film Ventures International, and not the folks at MST3K. If you come across a non-MST'd version of this movie that runs about 1:30, don't waste your time: I guarantee it'll be neither interesting _or_ funny.

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15 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Flawed ... and yet it really draws you in, 21 December 2005

Author: Justafilmwatcher from Canada

I'm giving _Maroooned_ a generous 8/10 because of its artificially low total score.

Aside from being a finely-tuned and detailed look into the American space program in its 60s and early-70s era, _Marooned_ is one of my favourite types of film: it's seemingly banal, washed-out, and emotionless upon first viewing. Once you get past that, it's a subtly-acted character study.

After watching it several times, however, the characters' traits become more apparent as the story develops. We see Gene Hackman's character, astronaut Buzz Lloyd, on a slippery slope right from the start. He daydreams on the job, tries pathetically to win favour from Mission Control ("I, uh, fixed the razor"), and then slides into blatant panic as the emergency unfolds.

When we first see her, Celia Pruett presents an exterior persona toughened by fifteen years' experience of being an astronaut's wife. When Celia, in Mission Control, realizes she may be talking to her husband for the last time, her facade slips from forced, banal confidence to seeing her husband anew after fifteen years of marriage. Actress Lee Grant brings out Celia's desperate emotion with simple, innocent gestures: a suggestive laugh, tracing her fingers on the TV image of her husband, and a whispered, forlorn promise to him.

Even the rescue launch director (actor uncredited) is all business during the countdown, quietly reading off checklists and acknowledging reports from his colleagues. Yet, at the very last second--and still businesslike--he looks at Manned Space Director Keith (Gregory Peck) with sorrow and frustration as both realize their rescue attempt is going to fail.

But, again--it's all subtlety. In reality, people often are, so the viewer has to LOOK for it. Even IMDb reviewers who favour this film seem to want flashier character traits, claiming the film to be excessively dry.

There's a common complaint from IMDb reviewers about a lot of films: "boring--entertain ME!" Sorry, that kind of complaint doesn't cut it. Gratuitous gun violence, sexuality, constant profanity, and guts/blood/guts--THAT gets boring. A film like _Marooned_ (or its nearest contemporary, _2001_), is paced deliberately for a reason. You must watch the characters closely, listen to the dialogue, and place both in the context of the story and setting. To dismiss _Marooned_ as 'boring' means you won't (or can't) see the point, and more's the pity.

I will say the film deserved MUCH better treatment, particularly the inexcusably shoddy ending, some robotic performances from bit players, and clumsy use of props. Yet, _Marooned_ is TRUE science fiction, not that Star Wars fantasy stuff. Did Luke Skywalker ever show any character development over the course of one film?

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16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
A little dry, but good., 2 April 2001

Author: antiwolf (antiwolf@usfamily.net) from Minneapolis, Minnesota

I just rented this on VHS recently. After watching it, I remember that I had seen it many years ago. It was so long ago that I didn't remember details.

I actually liked it. The movie is rather dry, but I actually found it a refreshing change from movies that will throw in all sorts of irrelevant extras to make it an "excitement fest".

Apollo 13 did do a much better job of showing how Mission control worked in a crisis, but Marooned was made before the Apollo 13 mission took place.

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14 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Gut Check, 31 March 2005
Author: inspectors71 from The Man-Cave

John Sturges' Marooned, based on the Martin Caidin novel, tells the story of three Apollo astronauts trapped in orbit when their main engine fails to fire, and the slow, agonizing realization that there's pretty much nothing that can be done for them.

Unless.

It's a slow movie, with Sturges taking his time (or his sweet time if you have no patience for this stuff) to build suspense and tension. Miles of film is expended detailing the boys at Mission Control and Kennedy trying to implement the "unless" I mentioned, a bold rescue mission that will arrive in the last moments of their O2, lifting off into the teeth of a hurricane, no less.

What makes the movie work are the very things that were lampooned so accurately by the boys at Mystery Science Theatre 3000, the terse acronym-filled jargon, the performances by Peck, Janssen, Crenna, Hackman, and Franciscus, and the glaringly non-CGI special effects (that looked great in 1970).

For a space-happy 11 year old, this was the ne plus ultra of movies--and the fact that the boys on the Apollo 13 had recently gotten back alive made Marooned more than a leetle beet unnerving in its topicality.

There's a moment that the movie transcends a clinical yawner, and takes on the mantle of heartbreakingly human drama. When the astronauts' wives are brought in to talk to them on small TV monitors, one after the other, and Nancy Kovack coldly tells the NASA suit "I know why we're here--we're here to say goodbye to them," you feel sucker-punched. It didn't seem real until right then.

Then the wives are warned that their husbands are "degraded," meaning they're tired, cold, and scared beyond description. Richard Crenna and Lee Grant have a touching exchange, the commander and his tough, beautiful, middle-aged wife trying to say everything to each other except goodbye. Kovack struggles with James Franciscus because her husband is the Spock of this mission, clinical and scientific. Yet he angrily assures her that they will make it. You can see him expending every bit of energy to convince her and himself that he's not a dead man orbiting.

Finally, Mariette Hartley tries to comfort Gene Hackman, who is bordering on hysteria and panic. She watches in a gut-wrenching horror as he reacts to her reading a letter the wives have written to the President. He cries and rages something like "I broke the lawn-mower, and I can't fix it and everyone is blaming me for it!" Hartley is hustled away, but she stops in dumb horror as she sees her husband on the big monitor in flight control, screaming "Don't kill me!" as Crenna and Franciscus hold him down to shoot him full of sedatives.

It's the most painful and human moment of the movie. Sturges has kept you on the edge of boredom, then wham, it's somehow all real. The movie goes from intellect to emotion in a matter of a few moments. I didn't appreciate this as an a tweenager, but God how my mouth went dry watching it a few days ago. These poor bastards are already in their titanium-shielded coffin!

The rest of the movie is predictable, but brutal in its denouement. You know that, if the men are to be saved, there's going to be some dues paid. I remember seeing Marooned at the Garland Theatre in Spokane in May, 1970. When those dues were paid, my mom was tearing up.

I thought, typical for a woman.

I was clearing my throat a lot and having trouble focusing on the screen when my family and I watched it over the weekend.

Adulthood has its upside, I guess.

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10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
High drama set in space., 24 October 2002
Author: (tgodel@aol.com) from Denver, Colorado

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

- 4/5 STARS - Three astronauts find themselves trapped high above the earth when the space capsule Ironman One becomes disabled. The NASA ground team races to bring them back alive while each crewmember wrestles with his impending asphyxiation in the tiny spacecraft. A rescue mission brings hope to the crew, but it may not arrive in time to save all three men. Marooned is not an action-adventure movie, but rather a skillful character study. Most modern viewers of Marooned are likely to become bored by its pace, and the movie could have been trimmed by about twenty minutes to keep the plot moving. But, there's a method to this madness and everything about Marooned--from its deliberate pacing to its haunting single-chord soundtrack--is designed to evoke the vastness of space and its unrelenting hostility. Such an auspicious intent demands top-notch dialogue and performances, and Marooned successfully delivers some of the highest quality drama ever shown in a disaster movie. On the ground, we watch the chief of the manned space program Keith (Peck) slowly transform from a by-the-book director to a passionate leader determined to save his men. Peck's performance is understated but complete and peaks during the dicey launch of the rescue ship, which is jeopardized by a hurricane. Keith quietly paces and stews as the audience sweats through the countdown and watches the wind speed on the launch creep toward the redline. Meanwhile, the astronauts aboard Ironman One slowly deteriorate as their time and oxygen both run out. Each astronaut copes with death in different ways. The elder, experienced Commander Pruett (Crenna) quietly resigns himself to his fate. Pilot Lloyd (Hackman) is the opposite, and quickly becomes anxious and paranoid. Scientist Stone (Franciscus) is the most interesting character, as he combines the philosophical qualities of the Commander with the vocal tendencies of the Pilot. Stone becomes a metaphor for the movie itself, as he becomes fascinated with the concept of his own death by suffocation and studies himself in the same way that the movie studies the group. First from a philosophical standpoint and then later, from an almost spiritual perspective, Stone analytically explores the process of dying. He is intellectual and in control of his senses until only a few minutes of oxygen remain. Marooned is even more disturbing because the special effects are so good that the suspension of disbelief is never broken. Marooned won an academy award in 1969 for Special Visual Effects, in part because the movie exercised such tremendous restraint. The effects, like the movie, are paced very slowly and intended to establish the mood of actual movement and activity in a zero-G environment. It's hard to imagine the reception that greeted Marooned when it was first released. The concept that our own technology might fail and precipitate a situation whereby one astronaut's suicide must be considered as a method of saving the remaining crew members is very disturbing. Marooned forces the viewer to confront this morally unthinkable dilemma. Spoiler alert: the scene where all three astronauts are forced to decide which of them will, as Lloyd put it, 'have to go,' is desperately calm and all the more terrifying for it. Marooned is high drama set in space. For those with a longer attention span, Marooned is a very disturbing but incredibly satisfying piece of work. If you haven't become interested in the premise within the first thirty minutes of the movie, just switch it off and save yourself the time. For, just like the unchanging qualities of the movie's hostile environment, Marooned retains a similar tone throughout.

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Great for fans of science fiction; others need not apply, 27 June 2006

Author: philr8 from Baltimore

I found this movie while I was searching through all the new movies on OnDemand. I usually look through the new movies about once a week, searching for some hidden gem I've never heard of. I'm not always successful, but this time I was.

I'm a pretty big sci-fi fan and especially love "speculative fiction;" meaning content about the near future that isn't necessarily out-of-this-world sci-fi. Authors like Philip K Dick and Jonathan Lethem excel in this genre, and I like Marooned fits in it very nicely.

Released in 1969, it obviously takes place at a not-much-later date - the inclusion of SKYLAB, launched in 1973, proves this. The rescue vehicle used also looks like a very crude version of the space shuttle - a futuristic test vehicle that looks grounded in reality enough to escape being campy. A few lines of dialogue also hint that a Mars expedition is something that is considered to be right around the corner.

Most complaints in the comments section refer to the pacing. All i can say is: go read a book. If 90-minute action fests are your barometer for the worth of a film, go elsewhere. There are no exploding fireballs or meteors ripping through space stations with stereotypical crazy Russians here. Instead, you get a fully realized and believable view into what might happen if some of our astronauts became stranded in space.

Personally, I was invested fully into the film and felt sad when the movie ended, the same way I feel when I finish a good book. The pacing here, if you are interested in the subject matter, is fine. For fans of science fiction, this movie is a must-see. For those of us who actually can sit through a book and enjoy it (and I don't mean "page-turners"), this movie is a great way to spend an afternoon. For everyone else, please avoid. You will only drag this movie's rating further into the mud.

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15 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Superb script and cast stand test of time, 20 October 2002

Author: Ed Uthman (uthman@airmail.net) from Houston, Texas

TiVo recorded this as a "suggestion" recently, and I realized that I

had never seen the film before. MAROONED was released in the

science fiction film dark age that stretched between 2001 and

STAR WARS, so I wasn't expecting much. In fact, MAROONED is a

gripping film from the beginning. The cast, headed by Gregory

Peck (geez, do we miss positive male authority figures like him!) is

uniformly outstanding. We get to see a young Gene Hackman,

years before his breakout in THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and

career-best performances from David Jansen, Mariette Hartley,

Richard Crenna, and James Franciscus.

The production values are first-rate, and the scenes set in NASA

facilities on the ground are the most realistic ever filmed, better

even than APOLLO 13. NASA apparatchiks sling around enough

acronyms to fill a family-sized box of Alpha Bits, and die-hard fans

of space travel won't be disappointed in the technical detail.

The pan & scan print I saw on Cinemax was superb; it looked

brand new. The sound was pretty much what one would expect in

an average flick from the late 1960s.

I have rated this film as an '8', a grade I rarely give. I would have

ranked it higher but for a draggy ending with cheesy EVA effects. I

still recommend this film highly, even for those with no particular

interest in space travel or science fiction. The dramatic core is

what drives this film, and there is no disappointment there.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Long original Opener, 27 March 2006

Author: Ted Moran (tandkmoran@comcast.net) from United States

I've always liked this movie, still holds some modern jaded audiences to the edge of their seats. One comment. I saw this at age 10 in a downtown theater in original 70mm print. The curtain opened and the house lights went half dim. I knew what I was looking at on the screen but I suspect I was the only one there who did. I kept yanking on my dad's arm, pointing at the (blank?) screen, yelling "look!" "look!". The original opening was the coolest thing I've EVER seen on screen, a near silent, ultra-slow zoom-out and slow pan to the horizon through a fully extended Baker-Nunn camera that was looking out into nothing but black outer space. Damn amazing. Total, utter, deep space - pure blackness until it got to the horizon. Outstanding. There's about 10 seconds on the DVD, it was more like 10 minutes in the theater. Gave you a real feel for where these guys were about to end up Marooned -in-. The only thing I've ever seen on film that compares - and it's the reverse situation - is the ending of Electraglide in Blue. I'll never forget it. Thank you old time American cinema. These days you'd get commercials for your 9 dollars.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Suspense in theory but lacking on the screen., 1 July 1999
Author: yenlo from Auburn, Me

Another space flick that came out during the height of the space program. Only a tad better then 1968's Countdown and the tad refers to the props. The story it would seem would be filled with plenty of suspense but this ones orbit just decays and falls. Three astronauts played by Richard Crenna, James Franciscus and Gene Hackman who have been in a space station climb aboard their Apollo craft to come home and the engine says no.

Marooned in orbit the ground control crew led by Gregory Peck scratch their heads and try to figure out what to do before the trios air supply runs out. David Jansen wants to rescue them in an untried spacecraft but Peck is reluctant. To make matters worse a hurricane is brewing. The astronaut wives are brought into the picture to help boost the suspense. Will they make it? Who can help them? If you've never seen it it's worth a look. After seeing Apollo 13 however you may laugh at this one. The space travelers on MST3K do.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A Solid Space Drama, 20 November 2005

Author: John (darcyj) from Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I can't understand the low rating I see here - most users have given this only 5 out of 10? This puts it down into the same ranks of mediocrity as Red Planet or Stowaway to the Moon - and more than a point worse than You Only Live Twice. Please.

It is short on special effects, and that is its biggest failing - but this is a judgement using the standards of Star Wars or Apollo 13 as a benchmark. Marooned was made in 1969, and 2001: A Space Odyssey is the proper comparison; but the difference is that the effects in Marooned are only a backdrop for the astronauts - that is, the astronauts are the story - and in 2001 the effects are (at times) the entire story.

The story of Marooned is solid, and the lead performances - particularly Gregory Peck and David Janssen - add quality. The movie opens with genuine footage of a Saturn V rocket launch, which is a good reason in itself to watch. And it was made before the real-life crisis of Apollo 13 and threw a strong light on the possibility of an in-flight problem for which no contingencies were planned. It is food for thought that this piece of art was in the public arena some months before Apollo 13 and that even 25 years later NASA still has difficulty - apparently - in covering all the bases for space flight problems.

If you have already voted on this, then take another look and you will see that there is way more good than bad movie-making here, and that 5/10 is not justified.

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