The Wandering Earth

On something of a locked down Planet Earth, we turn our attention to the massive science fiction hit film The Wandering Earth.

Set in the far future, The Wandering Earth follows a group of astronauts and rescue workers guiding the Earth away from an expanding Sun, while attempting to prevent a collision with Jupiter. The film was theatrically released in China on 5 February 2019 (Chinese New Year's Day), by China Film Group Corporation, followed by North America and Australia on 8 February 2019.

The film has  grossed $700 million worldwide. It is China's third highest-grossing film of all time and the third highest-grossing non-English film to date. Now it's the subject of an episode of The Cosmic Shed podcast.

The original poster for the Chinese Theatrical Release.

The film is loosely based on the 2000 novella of the same name by multi-award-winning author Liu Cixin, he of the Three-Body Problem. It stars Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinmai, Wu Jing and Qu Jingjing. 

Andrew, Ti, Tushna and Steve gather in the virtual shed to discuss it and wonder just how plausible is taking the planet on a one way trip to Alpha Centauri, using Jupiter to get us there?

show notes

The Wandering Earth is on Netflix
The Cosmic Shed is part of the Stimulus Network
You can subscribe to The Cosmic Shed podcast
Very special thanks to Will Mountford of the Eureka Nerd podcast for editing this episode.