A Beautiful Planet is a 2016 IMAX Entertainment documentary produced in collaboration with NASA and filmed aboard the International Space Station by astronaut crews. Narrated by Jennifer Lawrence, it was produced and directed by Toni Myers.[4]

The film offers distinctive views of Earth and provides insight into the day-to-day activities of the crews, captured over fifteen months aboard the space station. It also examines the impact of humans on Earth and its potential analogues in the Milky Way.[5]

A Beautiful Planet was released in the United States on April 29, 2016 and later aired in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia/CIS.[6]

Overview

A Beautiful Planet is the first IMAX space film shot with digital cameras. It alternates between different views of Earth taken from the International Space Station and life on the station, such as exercising, transporting cargo, or following a spacewalk outside. The images are either a collection described by Lawrence with occasional comments from the astronauts, or they form part of a theme, ranging from revealing humanity’s presence on Earth at night from space to noticing the effects of the Earth’s changing climate.[7]

The documentary features both natural and urban landscapes: capital cities illuminated by skyglow, lightning storms above clouds, Typhoon Maysak observed from its eye, polar auroras viewed from low Earth orbit, the Great Lakes of North America locked in ice and snow, and reefs below the surface of the Caribbean Sea.[8] Images from the film capture a snow-capped segment of South America's Andes as well as some of Earth's driest and wettest areas, featuring an overhead sequence of the Namib Desert and the Atlantic Ocean's Skeleton Coast.[4] However, the film also portrays the difference in industrialization on the Korean peninsula, with lights all over the south contrasting to the north with lights only in the capital of Pyongyang.[9]

The documentary depicts multiple scenes of climate change and environmental degradation. Its cameras look down on deforestation in Madagascar, drought in California, the shrinking of rain forests in Brazil, and glaciers in the Himalayas.[4] Additionally, fracking fires in southern Texas, along with other sights that highlight humanity's impact on the natural world, such as the stark borders between countries in conflict.[5] Filmmaker Toni Myers shared with Los Angeles Times, "I wanted to inspire people, especially as to how beautiful, fragile, complex, diverse and varied the planet is... Most of all I wanted to show why we want to find solutions to look after our planet. It's our only one."[10]

The final scenes of A Beautiful Planet briefly examine the exoplanet Kepler-186f, which was discovered in 2014. It was the first planet found to be orbiting within its star's habitable zone with a mass similar to Earth, and was the first discovery of an Earth-sized planet on which life could reside.[11][12]

Cast

The film's cast reflects the crew of the International Space Station. The astronauts who appeared in the movie included:

Production

A Beautiful Planet was written, produced, and directed by Toni Myers, who has created seven other space-themed IMAX films[15] including Hubble 3D and Space Station 3D. Announced as a co-production between IMAX and Walt Disney Studios, the two companies jointly announced an April 29, 2016 release date on September 3, 2015.[16] The film was premiered in Manhattan on April 16, 2016, and was released in cinemas on April 29, 2016.[17][1] Despite being an initial distributor, Disney later removed association with the film prior to its release.[2]

Digital IMAX cameras

The astronauts who filmed the movie used digital IMAX cameras, and much of the footage they produced was shot through the seven window panes on the Space Station's domed Cupola module.[18] The use of digital cameras permitted cinematographer James Neihouse to review image sequences almost immediately and make suggestions for retakes, and was a lightweight alternative to using IMAX film which can be developed only when returned from space.[19]

Myers and Neihouse coordinated with their astronaut camera crew to make use of the digital cameras' augmented capacity for filming in dim light. According to Myers, "We would not have the nighttime scenes without the digital dynamic range ... What the digital capture did, totally open up that night world to us, with stars, cities at night, lightning and other phenomena that you see at night, like auroras."[20]

Computer-generated spaceflight scenes

A Beautiful Planet starts and ends with two computer-generated "trips" past stars in the Earth's region of the Milky Way Galaxy. Both scenes are based on astronomical catalog data and actual telescopic observations,[21] and both were created by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.[22] The film's first scene begins with a viewpoint “below” the plane of the Milky Way, continuing past neighboring stars and ending at the Sun,[23] and one of the movie’s final scene begin with facing the Space Station and ends at the Earth-like planet Kepler-186f, 500 light years away.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 13 critics' reviews are positive.[24]

Writing for The Guardian, Mike McCahill called it a "large-format eye-opener [which] achieves a breathtaking new perspective on Earthly life,"[25] while another appraisal in The New York Times, Ken Jaworowski asked, "how can your eyes not bug out when given 3-D views of Earth, taken from space, on a stories-high [IMAX] screen?"[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "IMAX And Disney Set Toni Myers' New 3D Space Documentary A Beautiful Planet For Release On April 29, 2016". IMAX Corporation. PR Newswire. September 3, 2015. Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Jaworowski, Ken (April 28, 2016). "Review: 'A Beautiful Planet' Shows a Dazzling Earth From Space". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
  3. ↑ "A Beautiful Planet (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 A Beautiful Planet - BluRay, retrieved 2024-03-15
  5. 1 2 Sarah Lewin (2016-04-29). "'A Beautiful Planet': A 3D Film of Earth from Space". Space.com. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  6. ↑ "A Beautiful Planet". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2022-03-21.
  7. ↑ "The Space Review: Review: A Beautiful Planet". www.thespacereview.com. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  8. ↑ Toni Myers, writer and director (2016). Scene from A Beautiful Planet - cities at night (film clip via YouTube). IMAX Entertainment, in cooperation with NASA.
  9. ↑ Morgenstern, Joe. "'A Beautiful Planet' Review: All the World's a Stage". WSJ. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  10. ↑ Hsiao, Cassandra (May 2, 2016). "Interview with director Toni Myers, mastermind of 'A Beautiful Planet'". High School Insider, Los Angeles Times.
  11. ↑ Culler, Jessica (March 24, 2015). "Kepler Finds 1st Earth-Size Planet In 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star". NASA.
  12. ↑ Chang, Kenneth (April 17, 2014). "Scientists Find an 'Earth Twin,' or Perhaps a Cousin". The New York Times.
  13. ↑ Spencer, Jim; Meyers, Dan. "Alumni Profile for Kjell Lindgren, 'Lofty Ambitions'". CU Medicine Today. University of Colorado School of Medicine.
  14. ↑ "Biography for JAXA Astronaut Kimiya Yui". Homepage for the International Space Station Japanese Experiment Module 'Kibo'. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. March 28, 2017.
  15. ↑ Hackett, Jennifer (April 29, 2016). "Astronaut Moviemakers Share Their Views of a Beautiful Planet: The newest IMAX movie filmed in orbit highlights Earth's precariousness". Scientific American.
  16. ↑ McNary, Dave (September 3, 2015). "Disney-Imax's 'Beautiful Planet' Documentary Gets April Release". Variety. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  17. ↑ Kelley, Seth (April 17, 2016). "Jennifer Lawrence Narrates 'A Beautiful Planet' in Support of Space Exploration". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  18. ↑ Moynihan, Tim (April 28, 2016). "A Beautiful Planet: Shooting IMAX Is Hard Enough On Earth. In Space, It's Preposterous". Wired magazine.
  19. ↑ Hutchinson, Sean (April 28, 2016). "A Beautiful Planet' Brings IMAX to the ISS: Filmmaker Toni Myers made her film with a crew 250 miles above the Earth". Inverse.
  20. ↑ Hardawar, Devindra (April 29, 2016). "'A Beautiful Planet' offers a bold new look at Earth in IMAX 3D: The first IMAX space film shot with digital cameras is simply stunning". Engadget.
  21. ↑ Donna Cox and Robert Patterson, NCSA Advanced Visualization Lab, University of Illinois (April 27, 2016). A Beautiful Planet: Computing the Impossible (YouTube video). IMAX Entertainment. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  22. ↑ Williamson, Kristin (April 21, 2016). "NCSA's Advanced Visual Lab contributed to IMAX 3-D film 'A Beautiful Planet'". University of Illinois News Bureau. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  23. ↑ Toni Myers, writer and director (2016). Scene from A Beautiful Planet - through the Milky Way to the Solar System (film clip via YouTube). IMAX Entertainment, in cooperation with NASA.
  24. ↑ "A Beautiful Planet". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved November 26, 2025. Edit this at Wikidata
  25. ↑ Mike, McCahill (May 26, 2016). "A Beautiful Planet review – vivid earthly phenonema and zero-gravity haircare". The Guardian. London.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Planet