In the summer of 2003, NASA decided to send two twin robots called Opportunity and Spirit to Mars. The plan was for these robots to stay on Mars for 90 days and send some important data to Earth, since the main goal of the mission was to try to find out if life on Mars was ever possible. Today we know very well that life on Mars is impossible, but Opportunity and Spirit have been sent to different parts of our neighboring planet in search of answers, and what was supposed to last three months will be extended to more than 14 years as one of those rovers will , title Oportunityy or for friends Oppy endure there.
In the documentary film shot by the American Ryan White (The Case Against 8, The Keepers), we follow what this mission looked like from the very beginning to the end of Oppy’s life on the red planet. Along with standard archival footage, interviews with project participants, i.e. scientists from the US space agency, and narration by the famous actress Angela Bassett, the most interesting part is the recreation of Oppy’s space adventures. The team from NASA apparently built a few more similar robots for the needs of the film, and White and the rest of the team in charge of visual effects then placed it somewhere in the desert and followed its trajectory on Mars exactly.
So although usually the subject of space travel and similar scientific research is not overly cinematic, especially since astrophysics, geology and aeronautics are completely unknown to the average viewer, White managed to make a film that is easily understandable to every average film consumer. Even though the main protagonist of the film is a robot, it’s somehow easy to relate to him, just as all the members of this mission have connected to Oppy over the years. “Good Night Oppy” was filmed almost in the style of space blockbusters that were extremely popular in the nineties of the last century, and it is an equally exciting, dynamic, educational and even emotional film that many have already included in the narrow circle of the best documentaries shot in 2022. year.