Abstract

This article aims to study two films whose central plot unfolds from a tragic accident. In Alfonso Cuarón’s film Gravity, the accident occurs in space, while in Baltasar Kormákur’s film Adrift, the accident takes place at sea. Both films feature female protagonists who are survivors adrift in space and at sea. To maintain the characters’ lucidity, the directors employ the narrative device of the return of missing supporting characters. It is observed that this return throughout the plot is a kind of vision or hallucination of these characters, intended to encourage and instruct the protagonists. It is these post-accident appearances of the characters that we will discuss, drawing on the theoretical contributions of Todorov (2006), Propp (2001), and Camarani (2014), authors who work with fantastic and marvelous narratives. Camarani (2014) defines fantastic narrative as being characterized simultaneously by the union and opposition maintained between the real and the supernatural, which produces ambiguity and uncertainty in relation to strange, unusual and supernatural manifestations.
In addition to these reflections, we also added a discussion about tragedy with Jean-Pierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal Naquet, since both works deal with this genre, as well as a dialogue with Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener (2018) about the meaning produced in the spectators, who are surprised by the confirmation of the death of the supporting characters by the protagonists themselves.