Wanderers Short Blends Carl Sagan’s Words With Stunning Visions Of Space Travel
"As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote." - Herman Melville
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For all its problems, one thing Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar did very well was inspire a sense of wonder at the possibilities of traveling beyond our cradle and into the larger universe beyond. For anyone who grew up as a space junkie or sci-fi fan, it powerfully tapped into that part of us that longs to step foot on alien worlds and look up at distant suns. Well, if Interstellar tapped into that longing and wanderlust, this short film, entitled Wanderers, may do so even more powerfully.
Wanderers was created by Swedish filmmaker Erik Wernquist. It blends spectacular visuals, based on actual locations from solar system, with the words of Carl Sagan, reading from his Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. The result is a vision of what could be, of things achievable — not easy, not imminent — but things that our species could do, if only we worked together to step beyond our homeworld. I love that Wanderers doesn’t have to take us to far off galaxies, like Interstellar, but instead reminds us of the true wonders that are, cosmically speaking, right in our own backyard.
The jaw-dropping shots of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars are instantly recognizable, but some of the other moments from Wanderers might be harder to identify. Below you can see shots from the short film paired with the real-life images on which they were based. You can also click each image to see either Wernquist’s description of the shot or information about the real-life photograph, respectively.
