The Farthest

Informative, entertaining & breathtaking, The Farthest chronicles the history of the Voyager program & its dual space probes, a mission that was undertaken to study the outer planets of our solar system & the space beyond but has become an enduring legacy of mankind in the infinite realm of the universe that will live on as our remnant even after our species, our planet & our star is long gone.

Written & directed by Emer Reynolds, this documentary is narrated in a way that piques our curiosity & intrigues our ever-inquisitive mind, and covers the journey of Voyager 1 & 2 through the recollections from the crew responsible for making the mission an extraordinary success. Employing interviews, archive footage, CGI simulations & some of the breathtaking images these probes took, the film really acquaints the viewers with the wonders of space & importance of its exploration.

The documentary goes into detail with how this mission came to be, the golden record & its significance, the close-calls it survived and how the probes continue to defy expectations even today, becoming the first man-made objects to leave solar system & enter interstellar space. From Jupiter to Neptune, each planet & their moons are explored in fine detail. And the film not only looks at it from a scientific viewpoint but also offers a philosophical perspective. And it's accessible throughout.

Overall, The Farthest is amongst the most fascinating documentaries about space exploration and is one illuminating ride that aptly reflects the passion, intimacy & enthusiasm of the crew behind the Voyager program. Their testimonies lend solid weight & emotional depth to these scientific instruments, plus the fact that these space probes are most likely to outlive its inventors makes them a valid contender for humankind's greatest achievement. My only gripe is that it's only 2 hours long, for I didn't want this mesmerising journey to end. In short, a humbling experience.

This is an excellent documentary showing the achievement of a team and a piece of technology that launched from our planet in 1977. Imagine if our public money internationally was all so well invested and intrusted to such competent people. Great Irish film making also.

Have a lot of high appreciation for documentaries, on a diverse range of subjects. The story behind the two voyager space-crafts was a remarkable achievement at the time and still holds much fascination now, even for someone who isn't an expert and has admittedly never considered science a famous subject of theirs.

'The Farthest' does its subject justice and as every bit a remarkable achievement. It is for me a highlight of 2017, and is accessible to anybody. One does not have to have deep knowledge of the story of the two voyagers to be completely fascinated by 'The Farthest'. It will illuminate those who do, nobody should be frustrated at not learning anything new, but has enough that will attract a wider audience who may have heard of it but not in great detail or have no knowledge and want to know more.

Visually, 'The Farthest' is stunning, beautifully photographed and those images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are enough to take the breath away. Loved the wide variety of music choices and felt they added a lot.

Emer Reynolds' direction impresses hugely, she does play it safe with combining the NASA interviews with simulations of CGI, poetic shots of Earth and archive footage. Yet it doesn't feel too safe at all, with enough ambition that never comes over as over-ambitious.

Loved the way 'The Farthest' was written and assembled. The scientific elements are hugely intriguing and illuminating to anybody watching regardless of how expertly or limited their knowledge. Then there are some philosophical elements that are thought-provoking and even touching, without being self-indulgent.

Where 'The Farthest' particularly excels are how the enthusiasm (perceptive and honest and never glorifying) of the crew (namely the scientists and engineers) is conveyed, adding even further to how inspirational this mission and story are, and how ingeniously imaginative the technology (the technology itself and behind the scenes of how it came to be) is in making the mission possible. These are presented in a very humble manner.

In summation, remarkable. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The Voyager mission is one of the most interesting in of all NASA. Two spacecraft which have been functioning since their launch in 1977, the year I was born, are still sending data as they race outside of the Solar System. This film is telling the story of the mission and the people that worked in it and how important this mission was for the knowledge and identity of our species. The quote that stuck in my mind was "We've gotten away with it!", said by one scientist as he described his enthusiasm of the launch. I mean, here are these super smart people, planning ahead for decades one of the first and few real spacecrafts we humans have ever built, and what they feel is that they slipped it under the nose of their government and nation and species. I loved every one of the scientists that contributed to the show, their youthful enthusiasm so contrasting with their advanced ages, revealing the light in their hearts.

The film was a bit too long, at two hours, and maybe it would have been more powerful as a mini-series instead. It goes through the excitement when it first reaches Jupiter, then Saturn, then the bitter sweet moment when Voyager 2 reaches Uranus at the same time that Challenger explodes and finally Neptune. Another quote was about how small color dots from the Earth telescopes turn into worlds when Voyager goes past the planets.

I love all of these documentaries, which show who worked passionately to make things like these happen, to truly further humanity against all odds and against its mostly indifferent members, shows that really show the worlds around us and expand our horizons. If you love space, you should see this.

Mankind left its fingerprint in the outer space wit Voyager 1 & 2. This is, by far, the most remarkable thing human beings ever accomplished. And I could never be more proud and honored. Thinking that a man-made object will last billions of years, longer than we'll ever be able to exist, probably, it just blows my mind. At least this would be a signal for aliens to know that, far away, on a pale blue dot, a species of creatures called humans reached their goal of sending the message that we were here and we would never be forgotten. Documentaries like these prove that the sky is not the limit and that men are capable of doing things that are far beyond their potential. What we have done is more than history, it is a story worth sharing with... aliens.