Space is an unnatural thing for humans, even though all of Earth and life as we know it is surrounded by it. Only very few of our own species ever get to experience life without gravity, and about 98% of our universe is invisible and an empty-vacuum. That means 98% of the existing space around everything that exists can is a dark deadly vacuum. Space is dangerous, scary and isolating; the movie Gravity is a thriller that demonstrates that space is not a safe place to be. The poster for Gravity encapsulates the how the environment of space feels as an astronaut. This movie poster is supposed to make the person looking at it feel fear, fear of the pitch black background enveloping the small astronaut that is floating all alone with nothing around them. The mission of this poster is to draw the viewer in by feeling heavy emotion from only one powerful photograph. As a victim of this poster’s visuals, I believe this poster brings in the exact audience it wants by demonstrating the horror of space in one single visual text.

As the first thing you notice in the poster is the lonely astronaut, it is the most important element of the poster. It creates the feeling of isolation and hopelessness in the viewer of the poster. The reason this astronaut stands out is the pitch black background and how much of this dark background there is. Not only is it because the astronauts suit is white, but he is stranded and dead center in the image. The dark black background forces you to look into the center, because there is nowhere to draw your attention away from there. 

The entire point of the poster is to make the human in frame seem as small as possible, because he/she is just floating endlessly in the giant emptiness of space. They are stuck there in motion without anything near them, and anything in their trajectory is   lightyears away. Without anything or anything around the person in frame, the person will be floating forever, without having anything to save themselves. Newton's first law of motion or also referenced as the law of inertia says, an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This of course infers the object is in a vacuum, which the astronaut in this poster is.  Even the text above says, “Don’t Let Go,” this is directly related to the fact that the astronaut is floating with nothing to stop him. Making the viewer see that he/she let go and is not going to stop themselves and will be left floating in space.

The lack of control in space is a common element in most space related culture. For instance, the song “Space Oddity” by the late and great David Bowie is a sad song that makes you feel sympathy for an astronaut floating in space, all alone without anything to stop him from going deeper into the dark abyss that is space. This song is a very similar to this poster, though it doesn’t make you feel scared, it makes you feel sad. This is because the astronaut in the poster is anonymous, not named in the picture. This is opposed to the infamous Major Tom in “Space Oddity,” and who you do not put yourself in the position of. When it is a nameless astronaut, with no specifications on who it is, it is generic enough when you think of yourself in that position since you cannot picture someone else in it. It is more of an embodiment of any human that is in space, because nobody is safe alone floating in space without any lifeline. This is an effective way to get the viewer to get more involved with the poster and make it more personal and memorable. 

Another element of the poster is the font; the font of the poster is very meaningful. It is skinny and spread out, which makes it both more enveloped by the black background behind it and makes even the letters seem like they are floating in space away from each other. This not only amplifies the fear and intimidation of how uncontrollable floating in space can be, but it contrasts the dark black background with the white letters. This makes the background even more enveloping and looming. 

The poster to a movie must capture the audience members that would enjoy the movie the most. So essentially the genre and plot must bleed into the poster to attract the audience members that look for that genre and plot. This poster shows the fear of floating in space alone that is prevalent in Gravity. This captures the audience that like a horror/thriller genre. The simplicity of the invisible danger that is only darkness sends a powerful message, even though the poster is only and astronaut and some white text.