Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jul 25, 2004 4:14:00 GMT -6
I first saw this on televison in the mid '70's.
Set in the year 2001 and starring Bruce Dern as astronaut Freeman Lowell, the film chronicles the last days of Earth's only surviving forests now blasted some millions of miles into space on board a fleet of space freighters just inside the orbit of Saturn.
Assisted by three small robot drones, affectionately named Huey, Duey and Louie, Lowell tends the forests on his ship, Valley Forge, until the long awaited orders come - but not to replant the earth, as he had dreamed. Before returning the space fleet to commercial service, it was decreed that the domes enclosing the forests were to be jetisoned into space and then nuclear destructed.
Unable to conceive of a future in a desolate world with neither trees nor flowers, Lowell's dreams of replanting the earth perish. In a showdown with his crewmates who are in the process of nuclear destructing the forests, he manages to save the last remaining forest dome - but at a terrible price.
Badly injured, he blasts his ship into a lonely orbit in which, he hopes, he will never be found, whilst sending distress signals claiming a ghastly mishap causing massive explosions on board have killed the other crew members. Cutting the engines, drifting into deep space, Lowell silences all radio communications from the ship, going into what submariners term `silent running'.
The course of his ship hurls him through Saturn's rings, losing Louie in the process. Soon after this, an accident incapacitates Huey, despite Lowell's best attempts to repair him. Duey is now the only drone capable of tending to the forests. Events come to a head when a deep space rescue mission discovers Valley Forge and signals that they are preparing to dock in a matter of hours.
Lowell frantically makes last preparations in the remaining forest and instructs Duey that all he has to do now is take care of the forest. Taking the injured Huey with him, he quietly jetisons the last forest into space. Sitting alone with Duey, he relates a tale fom his childhood, of throwing a message in a bottle into the sea and wondering if it was ever found.
Around him lie all the remaining nuclear detonators that were to have destroyed his gardens and forest. Gently covering Huey's vision, Lowell finally gives up his dream of replanting his home world ... forever.
This was a powerful movie when I first saw it as a kid. While reading the plot details again...I am reminded once again on the thought provoking story. There is a sad moment when one of the robots gets destroyed, but how odd...not the same emotion when Dern kills off his crewmates. I still wonder how they got the robots to waddle around.
I might rent this movie after all these years. It's a good one.
_______________________________
Set in the year 2001 and starring Bruce Dern as astronaut Freeman Lowell, the film chronicles the last days of Earth's only surviving forests now blasted some millions of miles into space on board a fleet of space freighters just inside the orbit of Saturn.
Assisted by three small robot drones, affectionately named Huey, Duey and Louie, Lowell tends the forests on his ship, Valley Forge, until the long awaited orders come - but not to replant the earth, as he had dreamed. Before returning the space fleet to commercial service, it was decreed that the domes enclosing the forests were to be jetisoned into space and then nuclear destructed.
Unable to conceive of a future in a desolate world with neither trees nor flowers, Lowell's dreams of replanting the earth perish. In a showdown with his crewmates who are in the process of nuclear destructing the forests, he manages to save the last remaining forest dome - but at a terrible price.
Badly injured, he blasts his ship into a lonely orbit in which, he hopes, he will never be found, whilst sending distress signals claiming a ghastly mishap causing massive explosions on board have killed the other crew members. Cutting the engines, drifting into deep space, Lowell silences all radio communications from the ship, going into what submariners term `silent running'.
The course of his ship hurls him through Saturn's rings, losing Louie in the process. Soon after this, an accident incapacitates Huey, despite Lowell's best attempts to repair him. Duey is now the only drone capable of tending to the forests. Events come to a head when a deep space rescue mission discovers Valley Forge and signals that they are preparing to dock in a matter of hours.
Lowell frantically makes last preparations in the remaining forest and instructs Duey that all he has to do now is take care of the forest. Taking the injured Huey with him, he quietly jetisons the last forest into space. Sitting alone with Duey, he relates a tale fom his childhood, of throwing a message in a bottle into the sea and wondering if it was ever found.
Around him lie all the remaining nuclear detonators that were to have destroyed his gardens and forest. Gently covering Huey's vision, Lowell finally gives up his dream of replanting his home world ... forever.
_______________________________
This was a powerful movie when I first saw it as a kid. While reading the plot details again...I am reminded once again on the thought provoking story. There is a sad moment when one of the robots gets destroyed, but how odd...not the same emotion when Dern kills off his crewmates. I still wonder how they got the robots to waddle around.
I might rent this movie after all these years. It's a good one.
