posted 04-04-2016 09:04 AM               

The film is based on the daring mission of Soyuz T-13, flown by Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Dzanibekov and Viktor Savinikh, to resuscitate the failed Salyut 7 space station.

Two teaser videos have recently been released:

posted 04-07-2016 11:49 AM               

There are some good photos of the very authentic props and sets they have constructed.

posted 09-29-2017 02:40 PM               

From The Verge:

Like so many blockbusters, it is at times melodramatic and corny. It's nakedly obvious where it invents fictional incidents, or blows real ones up to outsized proportions. The major roles all share first names with real historical figures (cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh, and flight commander Valery Ryumin), but are given new last names to reflect how fictionalized and dramatized they are. It's notable that the film doesn't cover the real-life crew error that caused the Salyut malfunction in the first place, presumably because that works against the narrative that has the courageous space program facing off against an uncaring bureaucracy. The split-second, ultra-dramatic resolutions toward the end feel as contrived and artificial as the end of Argo.

But like Argo, Salyut-7 is an edge-of-the-seat experience even when it veers into obviously exaggerated territory.

At no point during Salyut-7 does the film ever feel like something new. Certainly, the tried and true tropes of blockbuster filmmaking are tried and true for a reason; we enjoy slightly exaggerated character development, spaceships launching while a rousing score plays, and the triumph of heroes over adversity. It all works in Salyut-7, but none of it stands out, turning what should be an incredible true story into a by-the-numbers blockbuster. It conforms so tightly to the archetype that it doesn't feel true.

The one place Salyut-7 does kind of stand apart is with its special effects. Though they aren't as abundant as in Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity," they can be just as gorgeous, if not moreso. There are incredible zero-gravity sequences throughout, stunning POV shots outside the space station, and sequences filled with seemingly impossible camera movement.

posted 04-17-2018 03:10 PM               

I also was rather disturbed by the anti-American subplot in the movie of the US launching a space shuttle specifically to pick up the Salyut and take it back to the US. Anyone with half a brain knowing about mission scheduling, much less the aspects of state piracy involved, would have to realize this was a scenario that could only be played up at the highest levels of paranoia in the Soviet military and/or civilian power structure, and those at the technical or professional levels would know this was nonsense.

Given how it was played up in the movie, it gave me a nasty taste in my mouth when I realize how Americans are portrayed in current day Russia. Yes, clearly 1985 (the time of the mission) was during the Cold War, but this is a space thriller, not a spy movie. One thing I did find amusing (amongst others) in the shot we see of the shuttle being flown was that the person in the Commander's seat was a Frenchman.

posted 05-18-2018 11:55 PM            

Perhaps they should have called it "Salyut 8," instead of keeping real spacecraft and call signs, whilst changing characters' names. I felt that blurred the situation unnecessarily.

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Originally posted by SkyMan1958:
However, the movie was ridiculously over-dramatized in my opinion... I realize there was dramatization in the Apollo 13 movie too, but nothing to this extent.

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Their visual representation of 1.5 degrees per second rotation rate was amusing though.

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Yes, clearly 1985 (the time of the mission) was during the Cold War, but this is a space thriller, not a spy movie.

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Remember that the space shuttle was designed to perform a military mission and that was obvious to both Soviet intelligence and space professionals. It's most critical design requirements - payload dimensions, payload mass, L/D - were solely specified to achieve classified mission objectives. Now the US had previously lied about the objectives of the MOL manned program which failed to fool the Soviets. Add to that mission creep on X-20 prior to its cancellation (the USAF wanted to make it's space plane a weapons system).

On the subject of illegal actions being inconceivable, consider the prior history of overflights of Soviet territory by US and allied reconnaissance airplanes. Perhaps even more disturbing to them would have been Project Azorian.

The point is they'd only know it was nonsense if they believed America - and why on Earth would they do that? Their enemy had clearly built a capable military space system. Why would they presume that their enemy wouldn't use it as such? Do you think we assumed that about them?

It may give you a nasty taste in your mouth, but I'm afraid that prior American behaviour makes such a Soviet interpretation quite credible — without any need to invoke their already paranoid tendencies. People that assume their enemies see their actions as they themselves do are likely to make some very dangerous errors. No-one's ever been shot by the cops because they reached inside their jacket for ID have they?

I thought that their attitude to the French crewman's presence was again a plausible Soviet assessment of something that I'm sure most of us would not have thought about twice.

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One thing I did find amusing (amongst others) in the shot we see of the shuttle being flown was that the person in the Commander's seat was a Frenchman.

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