The Farthest (2018)

From the Irish editor turned documentary filmmaker will take you on an interstellar journey. I am not talking about the scripted feature films with plenty of pleasant visuals. This is real. The real life human effort to see and learn about the universe. It was the first of its kind attempted, and so far only attempt. The film reveals many secrets that you might have not heard before in any space documentaries you have seen. What's special about it is the releasing on the 40th anniversary since the launch of the rockets.Well, there are real footages. But not exactly the real ones. Originally they are stills. The spacecraft took a series of picture, those received pictures were put together and formed into the video clips. Or you could say they ran it fast, so it looked like a video. Black and white to colourised, they have done a pretty nice work on that. Though there were many CGI works too for our better understanding what's going on. Like when the spacecraft travelling in the space, you can't send another one to keep picturing it from a pretty close distance like in the filmmaking what a cameraman does with the actors. That's how you would see the voyager's journey here.Like any documentaries, this too was a series of interview based film. That would never change for this genre. There were no Brian Cox or Neil DeGrasse Tyson to narrate the space story. But Carl Sagan himself was present with his 80s, 90s press conference footages that are given regarding the latest Voyager's breakthrough. And many people who worked on the project given some precious information and their experience being one of the first to witness the historical pictures. It is a must to observe their expressions, the story that came straight from the source, stunningly.The year was 1977. The man was already been on the Moon. The next attempt should have been the Mars. But that's another NASA story. They wanted beyond that, to see the actual universe. The technology was pretty good, though nothing like the present generation. But the great feast is, it was nearly half a century old attempt with outdated technology, yet round the year, every day, hour, minute, never it have ever had taken a rest. Travelling at the speed of 10 miles per second, it took 35 years to get out of out solar system bubble.❝It's a pretty small spacecraft, and it's a pretty big universe.❞Each phase of the Voyager's journey was breathtaking. It targeted the last four planets of our solar system. Started off with big brother, Jupiter. It was just a passing by and having a close look at the gas giant. Also spied at all of its moons. Then the Saturn, the guy with an icy ring. I really learnt lots about them. Particularly being first visual evidence of such phenomena.Then came the surprise. I never knew Uranus, as well as Neptune has rings. Being a space geek, I disappointed myself there. Then they said, this guy is not a photogenic. Yep, he was not. He was too plain. But its moons were another surprise. Like the scared villains from the western films. Particularly, Miranda. Maybe my favourite moon from all of our solar system for being so different. Especially it reminded me 'The Little Prince'. Going to the final guy, Neptune, everybody got emotional, for it is being the final stop.That was the last of our solar system. But I anticipated something about Pluto, the dwarf guy. These all happened like less than 20 years, but what came after was only an empty space within our solar system. Like it took next 15 years to exit the bandwidth of our sun. But what I guess is that there would have been some planets beyond Pluto in the ancient time, which some time later had escaped from the Sun's gravity to become the rogue planets. Because they were too far from the Sun and those empty spaces would not have been there without any reason. Is not it?The man is not on board, but his creation reached farthest. Now travelling between the stars, nobody knows what comes next. But the Voyager still in touch with the Earth with low signal. I have known about this project since my teenage. But till now I never knew there were two Voyagers. That took me by a surprise. I have known about the on board music, map, human anatomical structure et cetera. It is obviously to make contact with other intelligence in the universe.The Voyagers will travel thousands of years into deep space. From all, nobody knows or can predict the result of such unique space project the human has ever conducted. I think there's a possible that this documentary would feature in the upcoming Oscars. I'll be definitely happy for that. It is about the NASA's achievements. The Americans would be proud of it. But the world has too. After all, we're all the human's of the Earth. A must see documentary film by everyone.10/10

I have no compunction whatsoever in giving this amazing documentary a 10 star rating and anyone interested in space and space travel is urged to watch this heart stopping and magical movie.SPOILER BEGINS This is the story of the Voyager 1 & 2 missions from their inception to the present day.In the 1970s it was suggested that we build a spacecraft capable of traversing our Solar System to discover more information about our neighbours Jupiter and Saturn because in the 70s very little was known about these two distant planets.When the idea was put before the President, Jimmy Carter, he was informed that the cost would be about one billion dollars so he said "Build two".The scientists and engineers set to work and on 21 August 1977 Voyager 2 was launched followed by Voyager 1 on September 5th 1977.This documentary follows the many successes and pitfalls of the hazardous missions of these two craft and it is riveting viewing.Not only did these two craft visit Jupiter and Saturn but went on to provide incredible information on their moons and not being satisfied with that Voyager 1 went on to both Uranus and Neptune supplying phenomenal and highly surprising data on these two planets and their moons.Their missions a total success Voyager 1 set its path for the end of the Solar System, reached and passed through 'The Bubble' on or about 25 August 2012. The human race can now proudly say that they are Interstellar Travellers.Voyager 1 has the ability to continue on its mission of sending back data for about another decade but when its plutonium is at last depleted it will traverse the Universe into infinity and will still be travelling when our Sun has given up the ghost and become a Red Dwarf swallowing up most of its planets in the process.It has already travelled billions of miles at a speed of approximately 44.000 miles per hour.The only true thing of interest when it has run out of the ability to send back information is the Gold Disc which carries many snippets of information pertaining to human life and its various cultures, music and photos of ourselves and other animals and man made creations.There is no reason to suppose that this disc will degrade and become unplayable for possibly billions of years so if/when an alien civilisation discovers Voyager 1 we very possibly will no longer be in existence.SPOILER ENDS I must say that this is one of the best and most insightful documentaries I have ever seen.

This is a fascinating look at the incredible Voyager 1 and 2 journeys, and who would have have thought that 40 years on (it was launched 4 days after the death of Elvis), the two would be powering away, all lonely in outer space and beyond. All credit to the dedicated scientists who worked around the clock to get this thing working. We also learned much about the golden record on both Voyagers. We learn that the publicity about the golden record received, much to the consternation of the scientists, more attention than the tech aspects!! It was lovely seeing interviews with the people who provided the oral greetings, although funnily enough they sounded like Linus.We learned that Voyager 2 launched first, but Voyager 1 was faster and overtook Voyager 2. Also the press conference for the launch was held at Frank Wolfe's Beachside Motel, in a hotel room separated from a Polish wedding reception LOL!!But Voyager is in need for an update. So for Voyager 3 they should consider a new golden record. For instance they need a LGBTI next to the naked man and woman drawing. This will enthrall the aliens.Talking about aliens, the Voyager 3 golden record should include a speech from President Trump, who has a lot of thoughts about aliens. The golden record should also include every episode of the Kardashians, a complete video of the OJ Simpson murder trial, MTV's the Real World and Road Rules, climate change reports, health reports about the rate of obesity, the Alien DVD collection with a special message from Ridley Scott), the Predator DVD collection, an E.T. plush doll, the complete ALF DVD collection, the Space Invaders video game, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Criterion Collection DVD of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and The Martian DVD.Also the Voyager 3 golden record must include the Death Wish DVD collection (including the Bruce Willis reboot), and the complete series of Third Rock from the Sun.Also don't forget David Bowie's movie The Man Who Fell to Earth and his classic Space Oddity, and The Carpenter's Calling occupants of interplanetary craft.

I was privileged to see this amazing documentary as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival in Christchurch, NZ. If you are enraptured by astronomy, physics, drama, tragedy, philosophy of science, or just amazing stories, don't miss this documentary. And if you're not, still see it and be prepared to change your mind. The documentary traces the whole story of the two Voyager missions to the outer planets of the solar system (and now beyond), from its earliest planning stages through to lift off and then all the incredible and unexpected discoveries since. The audience clapped loudly at the end of the showing, and deservedly so. Three cheers for the romance of science!