Movie of the Week: April 1, 2024: The Wandering Earth 2

“Indeed, it is the nature of intelligent life to climb mountains, to strive to stand on ever higher ground, to gaze farther into the distance. It is a drive completely divorced from the demands of survival.” ~ Liu Cixin, The Wandering Earth (2000 short story)

This week’s Movie of the Week is the 2023 sequel to the 2019 box office success The Wandering Earth, which tells the story of a perilous dystopia in which Earth is pushed through space.

From The Wandering Earth 2:

“In the face of crisis, only responsibility exists…. I believe that the courage of mankind can transcend time. It can transcend past, present and future. I believe that our people can surely complete the mission—real or virtual—at all cost. I believe that I’ll see the blue sky and branches full of flowers again.”

On the subject of space, Catherine comments,“If you read our 2015 and 2018 space Wrap Ups, I describe why I believe that one of the reasons for such fast globalization was to engage the Chinese and Indian populations to create the engineering capacity that we needed to become a multiplanetary civilization.” And about this film, Catherine adds, “I loved it. I like epic space dramas. While Hollywood is trying to drown us in idiocracy, the makers of Wandering Earth 2 are inspiring us to think in terms of intergalactic engineering and great human accomplishments.”