i remember catching this movie on television one day as a kid staying home from school with an awful fever. it's not too dramatic to say it was like a religious experience
In case you were wondering there are two rockets featured in this sequence. The first is a Saturn V on the launch pad, the second is the first Atlas-Centaur Missile launched on May 8, 1962. No one was hurt in that explosion and clues to why it exploded are a flapping liquid nitrogen line by the vernier engine and the venting liquid hydrogen some seconds into flight. The failure was determined to be caused by an insulation panel that ripped off the Centaur during ascent, resulting in a surge in tank pressure when the LH2 overheated. Beginning at T+44 seconds, the pneumatic system responded by venting propellant to reduce pressure levels, but eventually, they exceeded the LH2 tank's structural strength. At T+54 seconds, the Centaur experienced total structural breakup and loss of telemetry, the LOX tank rupturing and producing an explosion as it mixed with the hydrogen cloud. Two seconds later, flying debris ruptured the Atlas's LOX tank followed by complete destruction of the launch vehicle. The panel had been meant to jettison at 49 miles (80 km) up when the air was thinner, but the mechanism holding it in place was designed inadequately, leading to premature separation. The insulation panels had already been suspected during Centaur development of being a potential problem area, and the possibility of an LH2 tank rupture was considered as a failure scenario. Testing was suspended while efforts were made to correct the Centaur's design flaws.
I feel like Koyaanisqatsi is probably the best depiction of Humanity's epitaph we have at the moment. This ending is a cry for help. To God, to any other intelligence out there, to our future selves, and to anyone who can listen. This is our scream into the abyss, hoping that there's a way to survive this and that it hasn't all been for nothing. If Fermi is right and the great barrier exists, who knows how many other countless civilizations felt this exact feeling of existential fear. To bring all these feelings out with no more than footage and music is amazing to me. Transcendent film. A true piece of art.
@Moustachehilarity This is Koyaanisqatsi ffs, if it were a Marvel movie, or some Oscar b8, then sure I could understand that, but Koyaanisqatsi is pretty much the definition of subjective art. I mean THERE IS LITERALLY NO DIALOGUE IN THE FILM lol did you just sit there and watch it and have no lingering thoughts about it's message? Seriously, absolutely WRONG film to call analysis of it pretentious. It was made for this kind of discussion.
i have to agree with a lot of comments on here. no standard horror movie has ever scared me. nothing supernatural, no serial killer stories, no gore, no creepy dolls, no clowns whatsoever. if anything, movies like these bore me, with how dull and predictable they are. but this one right here. this is horror. this scares the ever loving hell out if me. this is existential dread. this is art. this shakes me to my very core. barely anything or anyone can do that. what a gem. what a terrifying gem.
Kaos on a serious note : why do you think they chose this failed rocket ( rockets) to end the movie, instead of , OH I don't know , maybe THE MOON LANDING !
The weights for the algorithm return me to here, and I do feel compelled to rewatch Koyaanisqatsi about once a year. It is one of my top 5 favorite films.
but the ting is... it kinda works! I couldn't help but notice the similarities but Interstellar is about mankind ruining earth to the point of no return so we'll have to look for another planet to survive. So, given the music, Interstellar actually proves to be kind of a story driven sequel to this film... doesn't change the fact that Zimmer said he came up with the score on his own, sadly...
@@LukDerVog Yeah, in fact, in 2012 Nolan originally just asked Zimmer to compose some themes in one day around the idea of a father-daughter relationship and the first main organ/piano piece of 4 minutes asserted the feeling of what it meant to be a father for Zimmer.
10,000 years of humanity's journey and trajectory summarised perfectly in 5 minutes. We aimed for the stars when we first looked up at the night sky but could never reach that dream. I cried when I first saw this 25 years ago and I cried even more when I saw this again in 2020.
We reached the moon. And then we gave up. We've given up on achieving the glorious for sake of glory. Thats all the moon landing was. This is the problem. We have become too comfortable and listless. We are creating the conditions of entropy which lead to destruction of our civilization by denigrating self sacrifice, and the drive for glory and excellence. In many ways, I take the opposite view of this film even if I do very much agree with the environmental theme.
@@adamjensen2304 The rules of the universe say that everything falls into disorder in the end, and even organized conscious life cannot overcome that. We have made such a colossal mess that even PFAS, that cancerous firefighting foam chemical, is present even in raindrops and the ocean spray at our beaches. It's not just the visual arresting scenes of large pieces of garbage blowing around or full to the sky landfills, but our planet is already polluted at a chemical molecular level from the sky all the way to the groundwater. And as a recent study in Europe showed everyone's feces and therefore their bodies are full of plastic particles microscopic of course
Great observation. I never thought about not seeing the engine hit the ground until now. And just like the other commenter said it's like we are endlessly spinning out of control.
J'ai vu ce film entre 1978 et 1980 dans un petit cinéma parisien pas très loin de la Place d'Italie.... J'en etais ressorti retourné comme une crêpe !!! La musique envoutante, les images, l'absence de textes parlés.... Un Chef d Ieuvre du Cinéma.... J'ai réussi à retrouver la trilogie en DVD, de piètre qualité hélas, repiqués sur les bandes VHS je pense.... La trilogie par ses qualités plastiques, sa musique, son message lancé avec tant d'avance, mériteraient et de loin une belle édition 4K re-masterisée.... Mais je rêve... Si cela existe, indiquez moi vite où l'acheter, le télécharger, l'echanger contre ma chemise !
This chillingly tragic ending aside, this entire movie is wonderful in that there is no dialogue, so nothing to distract you from your own thoughts and meditation on your own relation to our collective place on this orb as a species and our affect to this orb. Add to that the mesmerizing music. I was pleased to be able to watch this movie on a giant screen with the Philip Glass Ensemble playing to it live. I don't recall if the choral singers were present, but the ensemble surely played the score flawlessly.
@@donr6705 I wish I had known about that, I'd have given almost anything to see it that way. I was living just outside of Boston in 2002, where was it shown?
@Coasterdude, this is a big ask after 20+ years! The Orpheum entered my mind - does this sound like it could be right? It was a big, old venue with a full orchestra pit.
Ok, but it was a fake tragedy. The rocket that blew up was unmanned and on its first test launch; the one we saw lifting off was a spaceship which brought its crew safely to orbit. Thus the narrative was false, or to put it more charitably, fictionalized. Never, ever, trust a "documentary filmmaker."
It is unbelievable how the cameraman did not flinch *AT ALL* when the rocket exploded. Nerves of steel I cannot imagine. Hats off to him/her for filming one of the most profound scenes in cinema ever.
No, it's not. The telephoto tracking cameras were manually operated by people. The Apollo and Shuttle long range telephoto cameras were also manually operated. Automated tracking was just not advanced/reliable/practical enough to pull off these kind of shots back in those days.
I just watched the movie in an ancient theater two weeks ago, with a real orchestra and the Philip Glass Ensemble playing the music live. Watched it in cinema 40 years ago, too, but didn't remember it very well. It's shocking, this was our world 40 years ago, and now it is worse... Now, everyday, when I am in a car queue, or at the supermarket, or just walking in the street, I can't help thinking I am living everyday inside this scenes, an extra, from beginning till the end.
Godfrey Reggio was recognized by Coppola, Luca and many others gifted movie directors who wanted promote his trilogy. I think everyone may recognize how his work influenced many of our favourite movies nowdays. Recognized only by gifted movie directors while the rest of the world snobbed his work. His message. But that massage will crawl underneath your skin, you can feel it, you can sense the power of this images and the message hidden behind. But this message is revealing itself in these dark days. We are condemned and no one or nothing can help us to meet our self-destructive fate.
I saw this when it first came out in 1982. I was 19 years old, and my moviegoing experience was pretty limited. But it sounded cool, and a friend and I went. We were wrecked by it. We tried to leave the theatre, and couldn't. We couldn't talk or think of what to say. I remember not knowing what to feel. The staff finally had to kick us out. We went out to the parking lot and starting crying. Then laughing. Then crying some more. We eventually recovered ourselves, and were able to talk or try to talk about what we'd just seen. I saw it again not long after the Challenger space shuttle disaster, which gave this ending new resonance. I have seen this film several times now--as well as the full trilogy--but this one haunts me more than the others. And this ending haunts me more. I think if I try to say more, it'll sound pretentious, so I'll leave it there.
I showed this film in class yesterday. I just love this ending. i'll be watching the dvd and my wife will say, 'are you watching that movie again?' then I have to turn the volume down. so elegiac and beautiful.
I watched this film at the age of 10, and I lost all hope in humanity. It did make me more aware of human nature, but this movie is disturbing to say the least, but it is perfect to show to everyone, because everyone needs to wake up and realize that Koyanisqatsi it our reality.
i have owned this since it came out , it taught me to be an independent thinker , and question authority so the word NASA definition 1 to lift up 2 to deceive. nasa=satanasa=female devil is that a red snake tongue on the logo of nasa . gravity or i should say , the THEORY of gravity since it is STILL a THEORY . sea LEVEL not sea curve , HORIZON not curvizon the horizontal eye zone, the horizon enters your eye zone. the UN flag is a flat earth map ,why? remember that scene THE GRAND ILLUSION think hard about all of this please and remember to follow the money . how much have they got from us taxpayers since they started and what have we got besides tortured animals to the death and CGI cartoons including THE INTERNATIONAL FAKE SPACE STAGE . Maybe you should show this comment in class and find out what your students can dig up with ,follow the money detective work. keep the peace teach .... i love all you kids, dont fall victim to deception. and do your own experiments.
If this poor commenter showed your garbage fire of an essay to his class, the students, their parents, and his superiors would all be mutually appalled. Your links between points are somewhere between schizophrenic and evangelical cult-like in logic, and your understanding of the words you have been fooled into believing are dead giveaways of a sphere earth conspiracy is vastly below that of any third grader who can multiply two numbers together. Do you know where the money for NASA goes? The money given to NASA goes to science that allows the USA to develop better weapons and better economic opportunities so that the USA can get a leg up on their rivals. The only thing that you've said that I can agree with is the advice to do your own experiments, but I can't even fully agree with you on that point because under your supervision, the math and rational habits that you would instill in these children would leave them too painfully stupid to pursue engaging and well paying careers instead of living lives of intermittent homelessness and odd - job lifestyles which cannot support rent anywhere, let alone artistic or creative pursuits and social hobbies with mentally healthy individuals. I know more people like you than I am comfortable admitting, and this is the reality for their kids if they can't find someone sane to anchor themselves to. I hope you can appreciate how formless and ugly my response's structure is, after all, I modeled it after your word salad that you just served to every remotely functional individual who will laugh at you for it as they pass through these comments.
You can't tell from that short ending (the film was about 2 hours long), but that was the most powerful environmental movie ever made. No dialogue, no main characters, no actors, just mostly sped-up (some slowed-down from memory) time-lapse scenes starting with the natural world and moving into ever-more urban scenes. Those urban scenes made us look just like scurrying ants, and the kind of ants that destroy all vegetation in their area.
I have a recommendation for you. Happiness, by Steve Cutts. Ants are not exactly the metaphor I would use to describe the height of human industry and ingenuity
This moment when the boosters ignite and the rocket takes off, the piece becomes extremely calm and hopeful. Like fear and hope for improvement. Until suddenly it bursts into flames and without much change in the melody it suddenly becomes depressing and sad.
Saw this in theatre in '83 with college friends from our photography program. Needless to say we were euphoric afterward. Saw it again with a pristine film print or restored digital version a few years ago and The Phillip Glass Ensemble performing the score live.
I had the pleasure of seeing this on a huge screen in 1990 at Boston Symphony Hall, with Philip Glass Ensemble playing the score live along with the film. I was swapping my viewing with the screen and watching the ensemble performing.
@@Aka_Venator Actually it hasn't, the making of the film was timely if coincidental, as it was around that time that capitalism blew past sustainable planetary limits. Today due to incentivised perpetual economic and biological growth we now take in excess of 30 billion tonnes more resources than the 50 billion the planet can sustain indefinitely without permanent ecological damage. And due to the doubling demanded by capitalism over 30 year periods, done so to stave of its collapse by giving "return on investment" at a globalized 3% long term average, we will be taking close to 150 billion tonnes of materials by 2050. We were not always out of balance, but we have been incentivized to be so by a globalised economic belief system in complete defiance of the immutable physics governing a finite world. Native peoples have often written of first worlders as knowing of the price of everything, but the value of nothing.
@@Aka_Venator Well on that I would say the existence of anything is chaotic be it from an atom to the largest black hole and entropy over time eventually claims all to bring existence to a final state of nothingness which is perfectly natural. But to my mind and my general point, I see no reason why a species as clever as we are would intentionally shorten our own existence within that window of everything. We are terribly clever, but not very wise.
@sacr3d g6om9try If you stretch anything or anyone beyond meaning and scope, they will look like anything you want them to be. But guess what "sacred geometry", slaves dont have a choice. We DO! No one puts a gun to your head to pay tax, insurance, get a job, consume advertisements and live in a a house and pay rent and use money. NO! You can get the hell out of here anytime you want. I know a cousin in India who just stopped everything. He lives in the outskirts of a national park and survives on growing potatoes and hunting game birds with sticks. He comes back to town once or twice a year to see his parents and siblings. He's off-grid. He burned his passport, his residence papers, everything. He doesn't exist. Slaves can't up and leave smart guy, but so many people do that anyway. Moot point, dumb analogy and a leap in logic is what you made here. If you want to make a bold point, do it with facts and reasoning, not shock value commentary. "slave" it seems lmao. If you don't like civilisation, get out. We don't want you either.
There is something at once terrible and beautiful about this ending. Watching the collective dreams of the human enterprise near satisfaction and then burst into flames and hurtle back towards earth. Like some mad hominoid fantasy that got out of hand and had to be put in its place.
In case you were wondering there are two rockets featured in this sequence. The first is a Saturn V on the launch pad, the second is the first Atlas-Centaur Missile launched on May 8, 1962. No one was hurt in that explosion and clues to why it exploded are a flapping liquid nitrogen line by the vernier engine and the venting liquid hydrogen some seconds into flight.
@@22over7aintpi Way to kill the mood. Take in the significance, not the technical explanation. We live in an era after the Challenger explosion. We touched the stars. Where has that got us? To a never-ending crisis, a crisis of the self, where we are entrapped by the technologies we made to make our lives more comfortable or connected. A crisis of the collective, where people care nothing for the woes of others, and fight over petty shit. And a crisis of existence, where the height of human industry and ingenuity has produced horrible inequality, misery and a climate crisis that will be the doom of us all. We were promised the stars. We were given death, famine, disease and hatred. It even empties the atavic wonder we have for the skies with dreams of plucking its stars to line our own pockets.
@@moscanaveia Touching the stars have nothing to do with this, actually touching the stars gave us a better appreciation for nature. Undestanding how small we are, sure we have many problems to solve still, and we will always. Or maybe not if we go extinct before, but that's part of the game. Humanity will always be destined to search for truth, with ingenuity and curiosity into the unknown of knowledge. This is just a small stepping stone.
I watched this documentary over 30 years ago... the end! Oh, my.. still impresses me ... goosebumps, philosophical thoughts of life, our place in the universe, progress, humanity, greed, love, war, and all that jazz that we come to experience in this so tiny path we call life. We come, we go, others will and have... Koyaanisqatsi remains.
Documentary? Just because the footage is real, does not mean the movie is a documentary. The launch was of a Saturn V while the explosion was an Atlas missile. The footage was edited to make it look like the same rocket. That's make-believe storytelling not a documentary.
I remember how I decided to watch this movie, looking at his assessment and not at all imagining what he is like. I'll be honest that I was almost asleep by the middle of the movie, but it's worth watching in its entirety at least for this final scene. This outburst of emotions and stupefaction immediately after the dragging scenes of the film is perhaps the best thing that happened to me when watching)
Just watched Interstellar and the music just reminded me so much of this piece and this scene. I just think it's pretty cool how one made it off the earth and one didn't
@@lullsbaby9321The masses have zero savings, a lots of debt, "living life"at the edge lonely and shellfishly with disregard for the common good and others. Eating junk food and slaughtered animals, working a job they despise, sleeping around and then having kids in a relationship that will most often end up in divorce. I can go on and on.... And BTW, disinfecting * and wearing a mask (breathing your own co2) is not living in balance. *Overuse of antibacterial products can reduce the healthy bacteria on your skin
@@ConstantinPhillipou I agree with you, bud. Its horrid that a lot of people dont save money, there's ton of unemployment, hospitals are overrun and our diets are disastrous. Thousands of innocent people dying each day. People have always worked jobs they hate, though. That hasnt changed. My point was: this chaos around the world has been going on for so long that its becoming normal. Its not like the world was all daisies before Covid, either.
@@lullsbaby9321 Great point, however you have to look at imbalance in terms of increase as time goes by. Eg. The power of nuclear weapons is increasing exponentially year after year while we only change for the better ourselves with baby steps. Guess what gets more powerful day by day, the good or the bad and ugly?? On top of that, if we throw the nukes tomorrow it's pretty much game over Something that all our ancestors combined could never do remotely combined. In terms of change for the better however, they could equally do the same baby steps we take.
First viewed it in the early 80's on the big screen. Sat and stared in awe the whole movie. Then...this ending. Wow...just...wow..... Bought the soundtrack and cranked this end music in the halls of the military barracks I roomed in....weirded some people out...but what an awesome sound.
This movie introduced me to Philip Glass. The brilliance of the movie, combined with the musical score by Glass, made this into one of the landmarks of my life. The scoring almost seems to be frame by frame, the imagery and the music are so perfectly matched. I thank both Godfrey Reggio, and Philip Glass for making this visual and aural masterpiece.
I think because it shows hopelessness. Despite all our efforts we are stuck here in gravity well. The falling engine couldn't make it and maybe we as a species won't either.
Koyaaanisqatsi and the Phillip Glass soundtrack is possibly the greatest piece of art ever created. It is particularly revelent in 2021 Man destroying the planet?? NO, the planet will destroy man. Do we really think we are more poweful that nature!! We are but a mere plague of tiny transient ants that the planet will dispense with when it's had enough!
+John Roscoe yea bro, I watched this movie when I was like 10, and it fucked me up for good. I lost all my hope of humanity then, and as time passes, its just reinforcing that feeling.
+hot2warm I remember I had quite some trouble sleeping after watching that movie. It's very scary in a very different way, it's not the kind of feeling you get in an horror film, it's worse.
I watched this movie when I was a teenager. A teenager with undiagnosed ADHD, who was also a gay boy in the closet, and with a really hard time building meaningful connections with people my age. It is baffling to me how this film managed to keep me watching from begining to end. But what I remember most is how this scene made me cry so much when watching it. And coming back to it, after not having watched it for well over a decade, I cry again and am amazed by how much my view of the world was informed, partly, by the unspoken narrative of the bafflingly beautiful imagery and the hauntingly profound music in this film.
Imagine how it feels to be a cameraman catching this falling detail of a rocket after great and unexpected explosion all the way down to the ground. Just imagine how cathartic it could be
Saw it performed live infront of movie in Cardiff, thought my head would exploded, the fast parts were played incredibly, I felt soo alive. But this is the key scene of the movie, so affecting and resonant today
I first saw this film on my first visit to the USA, from Canada. I was alone. It was during a visit to San Francisco. I was totally unfamiliar with the spirit of that part of the world, but it felt like an introduction through this film, especially the landscape scenes of the desert and the canyons, the clouds, the scenery, ageless, beautiful ....
Wow. It took me several minutes to figure out what you were doing. I almost clicked by it because it seemed boring to me. Then I saw Then I knew. Thanks
I remember this. Live. In study hall. They brought in a big TV so we could all watch the historical launch. Utterly SHOCKING and mind numbing at the time. Koyaanisqatsi is such an AWESOME ... er .. "movie" .... as is Poyaanisqatsi, the "sequel" Might could oughtta watch it in this time of abject madness.
I just wasted 1 hour of my life watching the movie in reverse on youtube, I was wondering why the soundtrack was in reverse the entire time. Now I know its not how it was intended to be watched lol.
Gracias Rikkiiz. Hace 15 años encontre tu video. Grande, Grande,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, y bello,,,,,,, El poder del hombre, inmenso,,,,,, subiendo,,,,,, y la catástrofe, la danza de la nave, ardiendo, en el aire, como si el universo danzara ante el hombre, tras destruirle su soberbia, su orgullo, danza con los trozos ardientes de tu soberbia. Precioso, Precioso,,,,,,, No he visto nada igual con esta preciosa obra de Phillip Glass.
We've always had problems, but if we were to go back in time to correct our current problems it would be leveraging our worth against a plastic card does regulated by private Industry, and charging interest for it. It's a horrible mistake. There has to be a better way. There is a better way
I saw this fantastic film at the Ridge Theatre in Vancouver BC.....in 1982.....with my friend Tony Roberts. This film is utterly mesmerizing.The launch portion of this scene is a Saturn V, but the explosion is actually an Atlas-Centaur missile which malfunctioned......its all stock footage folks. Try Powoquatsi and Noyoquatsie too
I discovered this because I was looking for Philip Glass music (contrary to many others I guess, who speak about the movie and the great impression it made on them). I wasn't disappointed. About the movie, I can't like it as a whole and I don't agree with its overall message. But I do find this scene very powerful and moving. Image and music perfectly unified, they reinforce each other. And to me this whole sequence is an image of modernity and technology, and all "real", but at the same time it has all the force of a symbol or the myth (for example, to me Icarus comes to mind). I consider that a truly great achievement. Recreating the mythical through - or better, seeing it in- our actual, everyday reality, using that and symbolism to communicate something "true" or "profound" about human nature or the nature of reality. It seems to me that this could be what true art is all about. *I hope this doesn't sound pedantic. I have tried to express what I feel and think in the most plain, clear way I could. I don't know if I succeeded.
I watched this as a child. My parents had it on VHS. But I usually fast-forwarded the building demolition part because I found it too scary, especially with that music
The images of the falling, burning engine remind me of the story of Icarus. His father, Daedalus, builds for his son a pair of wings - made of wax. Icarus sets off for the heavens, attempting to reach the sun (the god Apollo, actually). As Icarus approaches, the sun's intense heat melts the wings. Icarus plummets from the sky, falls into the sea, and dies. The question here is: will humanity's efforts to leave this Earth - our home in the Universe - also be in vain, as Icarus' efforts were?
Hubris. That is the significance of the Icarus story, and to me, the warning of this film. "We shall go to the stars..." but reach carefully and deliberately, not rashly and impulsively.
The answer is YES, our efforts will be a failure. We'll never leave the Solar system before it destroys us somehow. Nature destroys especies all the time and keep being the same. Our lives mean nothing in a (not so) big picture. Don't even bother yourself trying to find a solution, cause there's no solution. Enjoy your days in serenity by knowing Mama Nature doesn't need us... At least I love to know our lives mean nothing. It brings me calm and serenity.
"we will never get off this rock" Of course we will. At any given point, whatever the situation is, seems as if it will always be that way. But there has been progress, and there will be again. We are still in our infancy; we WILL grow up. Some day.
smartalek180 don't tell me you live on planet CGI with 1969 cellular technology that can reach fantastic distances. Maybe you should take advice from the meaning of the word of the movie you just watched and become an independent thinker. question everything
The original Koyaanisqatsi was shot with 16mm and 35mm film in 4:3 format. This transfer to HD digital is in 16:9 and the top and bottom part of the image was cut off to do this. Very sad.
This edited version also cuts off the slowing down of the burning rocket. It placed the definition of Koyaanisqatsi before the final cave painting, and it cut off the final cave painting. Also, I figure the credits are important because of the background sounds: crowds of people walking or moving, TV or radio ads, TV shows, and other media playing. It all adds up to a full experience.
GOD DAMN somebody give that cameraman an Oscar or something. Keeping such a steady and focused teleshot for so long in such a stressful moment... I mean... GOD FUCKIN' DAMN IT!
This last fallen explosion debris reminds me of a camera. A camera that is left from our exploded civilization, still burning, but rotating trying to capture the truth around it. This last fallen explosion debris is, I believe, how Godfrey Reggio is viewing himself into the world. It is such a profound and powerful scene. And Phillip Glass score amplifies all to a heart tearing level!
Man I loved this film this scene and pruit igoe are my favorite. Now in Milan whenever i get in the sub station at san babila i hear this song only in instrumental and I simply adore it but at the same time that i rejoice hearing it it feels me with a sense of sadness.
so i downloaded a really weird torrent copy of this and the entire movie is backwards never seeing it before and knowing its weird film with no spoken words, i thought that was just the charm of it. it starts with the opening fade out of the cave painting until it fades out into the remains of the shuttle spinning. not knowing what i was watching, i was memorized as this unknown object that looked like a goblet or torch falling through the air spun until as it started to piece together. i also pieced what i was seeing together as the fireball reverses into the rocket. i watched the whole thing, backwards, just astonished and amazed at everything i watched, thinking that the only flaw on this masterpiece was how it started so amazing and never topped that finding out it was the ending made a lot of sense, but it robs the entire experience of this bizarre visual that i know was never intended to be seen like that, and thats what i think really defines how special and unique this movie is, that you can watch it completely reversed and get an entirely different perspective on it and not even realize that the movie wasnt intended to be watched like that
@@tedsmith6137 i realized that eventually (i did need to research what the actually rocket was) but it was just so interesting and bizarre to see it really sucked me in
Great part of this movie exists, as a short silent documentary, ten years before, I am italian, in my country at that time color tv did not exists, I was in Switzerland at the time for some days, as a child I was mesmerized by their color TV programs, and I saw the "prototype" of this movie, work of same authors I Think, and/or, there is a mention of it, in the final credits of the movie
I saw this movie in the first Imax theatre (before Imax was commercial) at the Museum of Science and Technology in LA in the 1980’s when visiting my dear brother in LA from NZ, still remember how stunningly impressive it was.
The rocket shown blowing up was an ATLAS ICBM which had a second purpose of orbiting astronauts in the Mercury program. They watched these blow up and they were scheduled to ride on top of one. So this was a test firing that went wrong. This used to come on TV at 2:00 AM in the 80's on Much Music. Usually during Christmas Vacation.
We smoked some weed and watched this movie the first time about 25 years ago. I am a little bit surprised - I remembered the final scene took much longer. The broken engine falls and falls. I like the residues of fuel reigniting casually. Clerical organ music mixed with ancient tribal prophecy. You will never forget this ending.
Never once have heard this movie but to me this seems like a masterpiece, the rocket, Both a symbol of destruction and peace I don’t want to survive a war if we lose it, the thought of the loss of freedom and the fact that people don’t have it is horrible, people automatically think that if you don’t agree your their enemy While we are on the verge of all out war all times,
The rocket? Singular? The launch footage was of a Saturn V while the explosion footage was of an Atlas missile. The footage was edited to make it look like it was all the same rocket.
i remember catching this movie on television one day as a kid staying home from school with an awful fever. it's not too dramatic to say it was like a religious experience
siugbait You learned more that day, then that entire year in school
I saw this when I was like 8 and it scared the living fuck out of me
"wtf are we doing"
@@joeribaeck9932 must have been an American school, then.
I'd have the DVD ready as you will be able to relive the experience shortly.
In case you were wondering there are two rockets featured in this sequence. The first is a Saturn V on the launch pad, the second is the first Atlas-Centaur Missile launched on May 8, 1962. No one was hurt in that explosion and clues to why it exploded are a flapping liquid nitrogen line by the vernier engine and the venting liquid hydrogen some seconds into flight. The failure was determined to be caused by an insulation panel that ripped off the Centaur during ascent, resulting in a surge in tank pressure when the LH2 overheated. Beginning at T+44 seconds, the pneumatic system responded by venting propellant to reduce pressure levels, but eventually, they exceeded the LH2 tank's structural strength. At T+54 seconds, the Centaur experienced total structural breakup and loss of telemetry, the LOX tank rupturing and producing an explosion as it mixed with the hydrogen cloud. Two seconds later, flying debris ruptured the Atlas's LOX tank followed by complete destruction of the launch vehicle. The panel had been meant to jettison at 49 miles (80 km) up when the air was thinner, but the mechanism holding it in place was designed inadequately, leading to premature separation. The insulation panels had already been suspected during Centaur development of being a potential problem area, and the possibility of an LH2 tank rupture was considered as a failure scenario. Testing was suspended while efforts were made to correct the Centaur's design flaws.
Thank you for posting this
"total structural breakup"
that's an excellent synopsis of the movie
So....Neil....what did you think of the music?
@@MrTubular13 Incredible. The perfect marriage of sound and vision. Thank you for asking.
Thanks for sharing the information 😊
I feel like Koyaanisqatsi is probably the best depiction of Humanity's epitaph we have at the moment. This ending is a cry for help. To God, to any other intelligence out there, to our future selves, and to anyone who can listen. This is our scream into the abyss, hoping that there's a way to survive this and that it hasn't all been for nothing. If Fermi is right and the great barrier exists, who knows how many other countless civilizations felt this exact feeling of existential fear. To bring all these feelings out with no more than footage and music is amazing to me. Transcendent film. A true piece of art.
Couldnt agree more friend.
Eloquently put
@Moustachehilarity This is Koyaanisqatsi ffs, if it were a Marvel movie, or some Oscar b8, then sure I could understand that, but Koyaanisqatsi is pretty much the definition of subjective art. I mean THERE IS LITERALLY NO DIALOGUE IN THE FILM lol did you just sit there and watch it and have no lingering thoughts about it's message? Seriously, absolutely WRONG film to call analysis of it pretentious. It was made for this kind of discussion.
@Moustachehilarity Cool, what's your interpretation then?
@Moustachehilarity Yup
i have to agree with a lot of comments on here. no standard horror movie has ever scared me. nothing supernatural, no serial killer stories, no gore, no creepy dolls, no clowns whatsoever. if anything, movies like these bore me, with how dull and predictable they are. but this one right here. this is horror. this scares the ever loving hell out if me. this is existential dread. this is art. this shakes me to my very core. barely anything or anyone can do that. what a gem. what a terrifying gem.
It's indeed something else. Philip Glass' accompanying work takes great part in it, too.
One of the greatest endings in cinema history.
yes... this whole movie changed my brain forever
agreed to both of your guys comments and remember its all a GRAND ILLUSION
Ok cheech you made no sense but up in smoke was a great movie when I was a kid in the early 90's
Kaos on a serious note : why do you think they chose this failed rocket ( rockets) to end the movie, instead of , OH I don't know , maybe THE MOON LANDING !
the story of Icarus and Daedalus ?
Welcome back. You know there is something special about this considering you look up this video once in a while.
True
Bruh
The weights for the algorithm return me to here, and I do feel compelled to rewatch Koyaanisqatsi about once a year. It is one of my top 5 favorite films.
Daily.
I feel that Hans Zimmer heavily borrowed from Philip Glass in conceiving Interstellar’s sound track.
Especially this scene.
same thought when I saw it! the organ, the simple tune, the melancholic vibe
but the ting is... it kinda works! I couldn't help but notice the similarities but Interstellar is about mankind ruining earth to the point of no return so we'll have to look for another planet to survive. So, given the music, Interstellar actually proves to be kind of a story driven sequel to this film... doesn't change the fact that Zimmer said he came up with the score on his own, sadly...
@@LukDerVog Yeah, in fact, in 2012 Nolan originally just asked Zimmer to compose some themes in one day around the idea of a father-daughter relationship and the first main organ/piano piece of 4 minutes asserted the feeling of what it meant to be a father for Zimmer.
water is wet.
@Mr. Flapjack Presents Indeed, even that stupid robot in the Interstellar is shaped like the monolith
This is one of the most depressingly beautiful thins I've ever seen.
Full of educational fats.
Like Wheat Thins ?
You should watch Tarkovskij. Solaris.
Watch the whole movie on the big screen.
Yea but have you heard of oreo thins
10,000 years of humanity's journey and trajectory summarised perfectly in 5 minutes. We aimed for the stars when we first looked up at the night sky but could never reach that dream. I cried when I first saw this 25 years ago and I cried even more when I saw this again in 2020.
Our story isn’t over, I hope those are tears of joy.
We reached the moon. And then we gave up. We've given up on achieving the glorious for sake of glory. Thats all the moon landing was.
This is the problem. We have become too comfortable and listless. We are creating the conditions of entropy which lead to destruction of our civilization by denigrating self sacrifice, and the drive for glory and excellence. In many ways, I take the opposite view of this film even if I do very much agree with the environmental theme.
@@adamjensen2304 awfully optimistic
@@adamjensen2304 The rules of the universe say that everything falls into disorder in the end, and even organized conscious life cannot overcome that. We have made such a colossal mess that even PFAS, that cancerous firefighting foam chemical, is present even in raindrops and the ocean spray at our beaches. It's not just the visual arresting scenes of large pieces of garbage blowing around or full to the sky landfills, but our planet is already polluted at a chemical molecular level from the sky all the way to the groundwater. And as a recent study in Europe showed everyone's feces and therefore their bodies are full of plastic particles microscopic of course
Stop crying so much.
This puts me in a horribly tense mood, and the fact you never get to see the engine hit the ground makes me feel like it never ends.
Don't watch Inception then.
It doesn't. We're still spinning out of control even now
Great observation. I never thought about not seeing the engine hit the ground until now. And just like the other commenter said it's like we are endlessly spinning out of control.
@@TheRealSkeletor actually the it’s pretty clear he isn’t dreaming as the spinning top starts wobbling and about to fall
thats not the engine
Undisputably a life-changing film and soundtrack.
AGREED
J'ai vu ce film entre 1978 et 1980 dans un petit cinéma parisien pas très loin de la Place d'Italie.... J'en etais ressorti retourné comme une crêpe !!! La musique envoutante, les images, l'absence de textes parlés.... Un Chef d Ieuvre du Cinéma....
J'ai réussi à retrouver la trilogie en DVD, de piètre qualité hélas, repiqués sur les bandes VHS je pense....
La trilogie par ses qualités plastiques, sa musique, son message lancé avec tant d'avance, mériteraient et de loin une belle édition 4K re-masterisée....
Mais je rêve...
Si cela existe, indiquez moi vite où l'acheter, le télécharger, l'echanger contre ma chemise !
This chillingly tragic ending aside, this entire movie is wonderful in that there is no dialogue, so nothing to distract you from your own thoughts and meditation on your own relation to our collective place on this orb as a species and our affect to this orb. Add to that the mesmerizing music. I was pleased to be able to watch this movie on a giant screen with the Philip Glass Ensemble playing to it live. I don't recall if the choral singers were present, but the ensemble surely played the score flawlessly.
Wow I didn't know they showed movies with a live ensemble. Must have been a great experience.
I saw it with the Glass Ensemble also, in 2002 in Boston.
@@donr6705 I wish I had known about that, I'd have given almost anything to see it that way. I was living just outside of Boston in 2002, where was it shown?
@Coasterdude, this is a big ask after 20+ years! The Orpheum entered my mind - does this sound like it could be right? It was a big, old venue with a full orchestra pit.
Ok, but it was a fake tragedy. The rocket that blew up was unmanned and on its first test launch; the one we saw lifting off was a spaceship which brought its crew safely to orbit. Thus the narrative was false, or to put it more charitably, fictionalized. Never, ever, trust a "documentary filmmaker."
It is unbelievable how the cameraman did not flinch *AT ALL* when the rocket exploded. Nerves of steel I cannot imagine.
Hats off to him/her for filming one of the most profound scenes in cinema ever.
It's a radar controlled automatic camera ;)
No, it's not. The telephoto tracking cameras were manually operated by people. The Apollo and Shuttle long range telephoto cameras were also manually operated. Automated tracking was just not advanced/reliable/practical enough to pull off these kind of shots back in those days.
That cameraman was an artist.
That was a missile with a satellite on top. I don't know what kind. It was from the NASA archives. As was the Apollo footage.
That was an Atlas-Centaur
This is without a doubt one of the darkest films of all time. This is the type of movie where you feel depressed for days after watching.
I just watched the movie in an ancient theater two weeks ago, with a real orchestra and the Philip Glass Ensemble playing the music live. Watched it in cinema 40 years ago, too, but didn't remember it very well. It's shocking, this was our world 40 years ago, and now it is worse... Now, everyday, when I am in a car queue, or at the supermarket, or just walking in the street, I can't help thinking I am living everyday inside this scenes, an extra, from beginning till the end.
Godfrey Reggio was recognized by Coppola, Luca and many others gifted movie directors who wanted promote his trilogy. I think everyone may recognize how his work influenced many of our favourite movies nowdays. Recognized only by gifted movie directors while the rest of the world snobbed his work. His message. But that massage will crawl underneath your skin, you can feel it, you can sense the power of this images and the message hidden behind. But this message is revealing itself in these dark days. We are condemned and no one or nothing can help us to meet our self-destructive fate.
I saw this when it first came out in 1982. I was 19 years old, and my moviegoing experience was pretty limited. But it sounded cool, and a friend and I went. We were wrecked by it. We tried to leave the theatre, and couldn't. We couldn't talk or think of what to say. I remember not knowing what to feel. The staff finally had to kick us out. We went out to the parking lot and starting crying. Then laughing. Then crying some more. We eventually recovered ourselves, and were able to talk or try to talk about what we'd just seen. I saw it again not long after the Challenger space shuttle disaster, which gave this ending new resonance. I have seen this film several times now--as well as the full trilogy--but this one haunts me more than the others. And this ending haunts me more. I think if I try to say more, it'll sound pretentious, so I'll leave it there.
Thats such a cool experience.
tell us more, we have to know, please :)
Your comment'd given me some kind of inspiration. ruclips.net/video/ozwLuAvMHhk/видео.html
Thank you for sharing~
I saw it in my early twenties, in cinema, about '90 in Poland. I also couldn't leave, so much touched I was. This is a true piece of art.
I showed this film in class yesterday. I just love this ending. i'll be watching the dvd and my wife will say, 'are you watching that movie again?' then I have to turn the volume down. so elegiac and beautiful.
I watched this film at the age of 10, and I lost all hope in humanity. It did make me more aware of human nature, but this movie is disturbing to say the least, but it is perfect to show to everyone, because everyone needs to wake up and realize that Koyanisqatsi it our reality.
i have owned this since it came out , it taught me to be an independent thinker , and question authority so the word NASA definition 1 to lift up 2 to deceive. nasa=satanasa=female devil is that a red snake tongue on the logo of nasa . gravity or i should say , the THEORY of gravity since it is STILL a THEORY . sea LEVEL not sea curve , HORIZON not curvizon the horizontal eye zone, the horizon enters your eye zone. the UN flag is a flat earth map ,why? remember that scene THE GRAND ILLUSION think hard about all of this please and remember to follow the money . how much have they got from us taxpayers since they started and what have we got besides tortured animals to the death and CGI cartoons including THE INTERNATIONAL FAKE SPACE STAGE . Maybe you should show this comment in class and find out what your students can dig up with ,follow the money detective work. keep the peace teach .... i love all you kids, dont fall victim to deception. and do your own experiments.
If this poor commenter showed your garbage fire of an essay to his class, the students, their parents, and his superiors would all be mutually appalled. Your links between points are somewhere between schizophrenic and evangelical cult-like in logic, and your understanding of the words you have been fooled into believing are dead giveaways of a sphere earth conspiracy is vastly below that of any third grader who can multiply two numbers together. Do you know where the money for NASA goes? The money given to NASA goes to science that allows the USA to develop better weapons and better economic opportunities so that the USA can get a leg up on their rivals. The only thing that you've said that I can agree with is the advice to do your own experiments, but I can't even fully agree with you on that point because under your supervision, the math and rational habits that you would instill in these children would leave them too painfully stupid to pursue engaging and well paying careers instead of living lives of intermittent homelessness and odd - job lifestyles which cannot support rent anywhere, let alone artistic or creative pursuits and social hobbies with mentally healthy individuals. I know more people like you than I am comfortable admitting, and this is the reality for their kids if they can't find someone sane to anchor themselves to.
I hope you can appreciate how formless and ugly my response's structure is, after all, I modeled it after your word salad that you just served to every remotely functional individual who will laugh at you for it as they pass through these comments.
Crank Brankle and satan deceived the whole world
Crank Brankle you obviously support the cult of NASA , how much money do they give you?
You can't tell from that short ending (the film was about 2 hours long), but that was the most powerful environmental movie ever made. No dialogue, no main characters, no actors, just mostly sped-up (some slowed-down from memory) time-lapse scenes starting with the natural world and moving into ever-more urban scenes. Those urban scenes made us look just like scurrying ants, and the kind of ants that destroy all vegetation in their area.
I have a recommendation for you. Happiness, by Steve Cutts. Ants are not exactly the metaphor I would use to describe the height of human industry and ingenuity
Humanity won't reach 2080
@@koalaeinstein-y7rbut some humans might...
This film changed my life.
How?
This moment when the boosters ignite and the rocket takes off, the piece becomes extremely calm and hopeful. Like fear and hope for improvement. Until suddenly it bursts into flames and without much change in the melody it suddenly becomes depressing and sad.
Saw this in theatre in '83 with college friends from our photography program. Needless to say we were euphoric afterward. Saw it again with a pristine film print or restored digital version a few years ago and The Phillip Glass Ensemble performing the score live.
I had the pleasure of seeing this on a huge screen in 1990 at Boston Symphony Hall, with Philip Glass Ensemble playing the score live along with the film.
I was swapping my viewing with the screen and watching the ensemble performing.
One of the finest closing images and soundtrack of any movie ever made Simply superb
Life changing, entire trilogy.
Koyaanisqatsi = Life out of balance. It sure is now.
Totally true! I couldn't agree more.
@@Aka_Venator Actually it hasn't, the making of the film was timely if coincidental, as it was around that time that capitalism blew past sustainable planetary limits. Today due to incentivised perpetual economic and biological growth we now take in excess of 30 billion tonnes more resources than the 50 billion the planet can sustain indefinitely without permanent ecological damage.
And due to the doubling demanded by capitalism over 30 year periods, done so to stave of its collapse by giving "return on investment" at a globalized 3% long term average, we will be taking close to 150 billion tonnes of materials by 2050.
We were not always out of balance, but we have been incentivized to be so by a globalised economic belief system in complete defiance of the immutable physics governing a finite world. Native peoples have often written of first worlders as knowing of the price of everything, but the value of nothing.
@@Aka_Venator Well on that I would say the existence of anything is chaotic be it from an atom to the largest black hole and entropy over time eventually claims all to bring existence to a final state of nothingness which is perfectly natural.
But to my mind and my general point, I see no reason why a species as clever as we are would intentionally shorten our own existence within that window of everything. We are terribly clever, but not very wise.
@sacr3d g6om9try If you stretch anything or anyone beyond meaning and scope, they will look like anything you want them to be. But guess what "sacred geometry", slaves dont have a choice. We DO! No one puts a gun to your head to pay tax, insurance, get a job, consume advertisements and live in a a house and pay rent and use money. NO! You can get the hell out of here anytime you want. I know a cousin in India who just stopped everything. He lives in the outskirts of a national park and survives on growing potatoes and hunting game birds with sticks. He comes back to town once or twice a year to see his parents and siblings. He's off-grid. He burned his passport, his residence papers, everything. He doesn't exist. Slaves can't up and leave smart guy, but so many people do that anyway. Moot point, dumb analogy and a leap in logic is what you made here. If you want to make a bold point, do it with facts and reasoning, not shock value commentary. "slave" it seems lmao. If you don't like civilisation, get out. We don't want you either.
it was prophetical
one of the best cinematic experiences ever...
A musical and visual masterpiece.
GIVEN THE CURRENT WORLD SITUATION...THIS FILM SHOULD BE RE-RELEASED IN EVERY CINEMA...
Now more than ever.
@@jaswati If it was released in theaters today nobody would be allowed to go see it....
@BADSPOCK Human failure is inevitable...
Now what do you think? “GALAXYMAN” 6/26/2020 13yrs past !
mandatory viewing.
There is something at once terrible and beautiful about this ending.
Watching the collective dreams of the human enterprise near satisfaction and then burst into flames and hurtle back towards earth. Like some mad hominoid fantasy that got out of hand and had to be put in its place.
In case you were wondering there are two rockets featured in this sequence. The first is a Saturn V on the launch pad, the second is the first Atlas-Centaur Missile launched on May 8, 1962. No one was hurt in that explosion and clues to why it exploded are a flapping liquid nitrogen line by the vernier engine and the venting liquid hydrogen some seconds into flight.
@@22over7aintpi Way to kill the mood. Take in the significance, not the technical explanation. We live in an era after the Challenger explosion. We touched the stars. Where has that got us? To a never-ending crisis, a crisis of the self, where we are entrapped by the technologies we made to make our lives more comfortable or connected. A crisis of the collective, where people care nothing for the woes of others, and fight over petty shit. And a crisis of existence, where the height of human industry and ingenuity has produced horrible inequality, misery and a climate crisis that will be the doom of us all.
We were promised the stars. We were given death, famine, disease and hatred. It even empties the atavic wonder we have for the skies with dreams of plucking its stars to line our own pockets.
@@moscanaveia Jesus christ all he did was clarify which rocket this was. You sound insufferable. Get over yourself
@@moscanaveia Touching the stars have nothing to do with this, actually touching the stars gave us a better appreciation for nature. Undestanding how small we are, sure we have many problems to solve still, and we will always. Or maybe not if we go extinct before, but that's part of the game. Humanity will always be destined to search for truth, with ingenuity and curiosity into the unknown of knowledge. This is just a small stepping stone.
I watched this documentary over 30 years ago... the end! Oh, my.. still impresses me ... goosebumps, philosophical thoughts of life, our place in the universe, progress, humanity, greed, love, war, and all that jazz that we come to experience in this so tiny path we call life. We come, we go, others will and have... Koyaanisqatsi remains.
Documentary? Just because the footage is real, does not mean the movie is a documentary. The launch was of a Saturn V while the explosion was an Atlas missile. The footage was edited to make it look like the same rocket. That's make-believe storytelling not a documentary.
I remember how I decided to watch this movie, looking at his assessment and not at all imagining what he is like. I'll be honest that I was almost asleep by the middle of the movie, but it's worth watching in its entirety at least for this final scene. This outburst of emotions and stupefaction immediately after the dragging scenes of the film is perhaps the best thing that happened to me when watching)
Just watched Interstellar and the music just reminded me so much of this piece and this scene. I just think it's pretty cool how one made it off the earth and one didn't
Hans Zimmer was inspired by Philip Glass when he wrote the music of Interstellar.
Hans Zimmer ripped off the soundtrack by Philip Glass when he wrote the music of Interstellar.
Same here. Happy (and surprising) to know that I was not the only one who recall this...
демитри николаи йочансон fuck you piece of shit
Fake Name Fake Space
Masterpiece movie + Masterpiece music. And yes Koyaanisqatsi: in 2020, life is beyond out of balance.
Is it though? Im getting used to isolation and wearing masks and disinfecting everything all the time.
@@lullsbaby9321The masses have zero savings, a lots of debt, "living life"at the edge lonely and shellfishly with disregard for the common good and others. Eating junk food and slaughtered animals, working a job they despise, sleeping around and then having kids in a relationship that will most often end up in divorce. I can go on and on....
And BTW, disinfecting * and wearing a mask (breathing your own co2) is not living in balance.
*Overuse of antibacterial products can reduce the healthy bacteria on your skin
@@ConstantinPhillipou I agree with you, bud. Its horrid that a lot of people dont save money, there's ton of unemployment, hospitals are overrun and our diets are disastrous. Thousands of innocent people dying each day. People have always worked jobs they hate, though. That hasnt changed.
My point was: this chaos around the world has been going on for so long that its becoming normal. Its not like the world was all daisies before Covid, either.
@@lullsbaby9321 Great point, however you have to look at imbalance in terms of increase as time goes by. Eg. The power of nuclear weapons is increasing exponentially year after year while we only change for the better ourselves with baby steps. Guess what gets more powerful day by day, the good or the bad and ugly?? On top of that, if we throw the nukes tomorrow it's pretty much game over Something that all our ancestors combined could never do remotely combined. In terms of change for the better however, they could equally do the same baby steps we take.
Haven't watched this in 30 years. I watch it now, and I am so sorry as our world burns.
First viewed it in the early 80's on the big screen. Sat and stared in awe the whole movie. Then...this ending. Wow...just...wow..... Bought the soundtrack and cranked this end music in the halls of the military barracks I roomed in....weirded some people out...but what an awesome sound.
"I prefer the stillness here. I am tired of Earth. These people. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
Who are you quoting?
That is something what Doctor Manhattan says the movie Watchmen.
@@RikkiiZ Public Restroom Stall-Wall Poetry. She left out the ending; "It All Ends with a Royal Flush".
@@redle0pard Thanks!
Natalia Oliveira were tired of your complaining!
This movie introduced me to Philip Glass.
The brilliance of the movie, combined with the musical score by Glass, made this into one of the landmarks of my life.
The scoring almost seems to be frame by frame, the imagery and the music are so perfectly matched.
I thank both Godfrey Reggio, and Philip Glass for making this visual and aural masterpiece.
I don’t know why the ending scene and specially the music in that particular segment is so moving to me that makes me cry 😢
I think because it shows hopelessness. Despite all our efforts we are stuck here in gravity well. The falling engine couldn't make it and maybe we as a species won't either.
The prophecy only tells us we have weapons that will turn against us.
Our minds are our most powerfull weapons, and its creepy because what you say its true
One of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music. The visuals make it heartbreaking. An amazing film indeed
Scott Manley brought back the memory and I have to say thank you. This is a magnificent piece with thought provoking ideas on humanity's future.
Koyaaanisqatsi and the Phillip Glass soundtrack is possibly the greatest piece of art ever created. It is particularly revelent in 2021 Man destroying the planet?? NO, the planet will destroy man. Do we really think we are more poweful that nature!! We are but a mere plague of tiny transient ants that the planet will dispense with when it's had enough!
I saw this at the Inwood Theater in Dallas. Giant screen and a great sound system. One of the most beautiful movies I had ever seen.
Thanks for the upload! One of the most haunting sequences that I can recall in any movie I have watched.
I can't hear this music without getting the most horrible chills
+John Roscoe yea bro, I watched this movie when I was like 10, and it fucked me up for good. I lost all my hope of humanity then, and as time passes, its just reinforcing that feeling.
+hot2warm I remember I had quite some trouble sleeping after watching that movie. It's very scary in a very different way, it's not the kind of feeling you get in an horror film, it's worse.
+LuPe Yes, because it's not fictional in any way. It's the bare, naked, horrifying truth.
+hot2warm Hairs. Standing. On. End.
Glad I'm not the only one that thought "koyaanisqatsi" when watching Interstellar
Oddly enough Koyaanisqatsi is one of Chris' favorite movies.
Hans Zimmer himself told that he was inspired from this movies soundtrack.
Interesting also that this was made before the era of out of control CGI and the loss of more effective and human images for their own sake....
@@abdullah-il8go makes a lot of sense, thats the only real redeeming part of the whole thing XD
Yup we're here
The goosebumps I had is immaculate
that organ sounds like pure black metal...
Master's Hammer definetely took a hint
As a fan of Arcturus' 'Aspera Hiems Symfonia'...and Borknagar's debut album...I agree...
Moog Synthesizer
J'adore ce film, la musique est géniale.
Beautiful. Still brings a lump to my throat after 1000 listens....
Oil painting with music.
The exceptional ending of an exceptional film.
5:00 back to the humble beginnings. If only it was just a dream..
Somehow the distorted audio makes it even better
I watched this movie when I was a teenager. A teenager with undiagnosed ADHD, who was also a gay boy in the closet, and with a really hard time building meaningful connections with people my age. It is baffling to me how this film managed to keep me watching from begining to end. But what I remember most is how this scene made me cry so much when watching it. And coming back to it, after not having watched it for well over a decade, I cry again and am amazed by how much my view of the world was informed, partly, by the unspoken narrative of the bafflingly beautiful imagery and the hauntingly profound music in this film.
Just saw this in cinema. One of life changing movie. The ending is so beautiful and sad.
We are accelerating towards that now more than ever, aren’t we?
Life is just a metaphore for our existence.
😂😂😂😂
Imagine how it feels to be a cameraman catching this falling detail of a rocket after great and unexpected explosion all the way down to the ground. Just imagine how cathartic it could be
Why cathartic?
Saw it performed live infront of movie in Cardiff, thought my head would exploded, the fast parts were played incredibly, I felt soo alive. But this is the key scene of the movie, so affecting and resonant today
Thank you for existing PB&J
😊🎉😊
😊🎉😊
😊
What an incredible part of that strongest masterwork! My beloved and absolutely number one part from any kind of cinema.
2021 relevant feeelings
Profound and extremely moving stuff. Shows you the irony of us being torn between demigods status nad our eternal proness to mistake and vice.
I first saw this film on my first visit to the USA, from Canada. I was alone. It was during a visit to San Francisco. I was totally unfamiliar with the spirit of that part of the world, but it felt like an introduction through this film, especially the landscape scenes of the desert and the canyons, the clouds, the scenery, ageless, beautiful ....
Awesome eye opening video.
Closing
Wow. It took me several minutes to figure out what you were doing. I almost clicked by it because it seemed boring to me. Then I saw Then I knew. Thanks
I remember this. Live. In study hall. They brought in a big TV so we could all watch the historical launch.
Utterly SHOCKING and mind numbing at the time.
Koyaanisqatsi is such an AWESOME ... er .. "movie" .... as is Poyaanisqatsi, the "sequel"
Might could oughtta watch it in this time of abject madness.
what a masterpiece!! that’s exactly what the human being is
I watched this in the 80s...one of the most depressing things I've ever watched but mesmerizing.
I just wasted 1 hour of my life watching the movie in reverse on youtube, I was wondering why the soundtrack was in reverse the entire time. Now I know its not how it was intended to be watched lol.
😂😂😂
Watching a piece of metal falling in flames without any purpose is a beautiful way to express what we are
Eerily beautiful, masterful.
Gracias Rikkiiz.
Hace 15 años encontre tu video.
Grande, Grande,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, y bello,,,,,,,
El poder del hombre, inmenso,,,,,, subiendo,,,,,, y la catástrofe, la danza de la nave, ardiendo, en el aire, como si el universo danzara ante el hombre, tras destruirle su soberbia, su orgullo, danza con los trozos ardientes de tu soberbia.
Precioso, Precioso,,,,,,,
No he visto nada igual con esta preciosa obra de Phillip Glass.
Best soundtrack to a movie ever.
Maybe I'm weird, but this movie is beautiful and hopeful to me, not frightening.
getting a credit card ad right at the end of this is the most poignant irony imaginable. i wonder where exactly it was that we all went wrong.
We've always had problems, but if we were to go back in time to correct our current problems it would be leveraging our worth against a plastic card does regulated by private Industry, and charging interest for it. It's a horrible mistake. There has to be a better way. There is a better way
I got a mcDonalds ad. I’m vegan.
I saw this fantastic film at the Ridge Theatre in Vancouver BC.....in 1982.....with my friend Tony Roberts. This film is utterly mesmerizing.The launch portion of this scene is a Saturn V, but the explosion is actually an Atlas-Centaur missile which malfunctioned......its all stock footage folks. Try Powoquatsi and Noyoquatsie too
I discovered this because I was looking for Philip Glass music (contrary to many others I guess, who speak about the movie and the great impression it made on them). I wasn't disappointed.
About the movie, I can't like it as a whole and I don't agree with its overall message. But I do find this scene very powerful and moving. Image and music perfectly unified, they reinforce each other. And to me this whole sequence is an image of modernity and technology, and all "real", but at the same time it has all the force of a symbol or the myth (for example, to me Icarus comes to mind). I consider that a truly great achievement.
Recreating the mythical through - or better, seeing it in- our actual, everyday reality, using that and symbolism to communicate something "true" or "profound" about human nature or the nature of reality. It seems to me that this could be what true art is all about.
*I hope this doesn't sound pedantic. I have tried to express what I feel and think in the most plain, clear way I could. I don't know if I succeeded.
I'll never forget seeing this the first time as i randomly decided to check it out as it aired at yle theme.
I watched this as a child. My parents had it on VHS. But I usually fast-forwarded the building demolition part because I found it too scary, especially with that music
The images of the falling, burning engine remind me of the story of Icarus. His father, Daedalus, builds for his son a pair of wings - made of wax. Icarus sets off for the heavens, attempting to reach the sun (the god Apollo, actually). As Icarus approaches, the sun's intense heat melts the wings. Icarus plummets from the sky, falls into the sea, and dies. The question here is: will humanity's efforts to leave this Earth - our home in the Universe - also be in vain, as Icarus' efforts were?
It does give the same feeling.
Hubris. That is the significance of the Icarus story, and to me, the warning of this film. "We shall go to the stars..." but reach carefully and deliberately, not rashly and impulsively.
The answer is YES, our efforts will be a failure. We'll never leave the Solar system before it destroys us somehow. Nature destroys especies all the time and keep being the same. Our lives mean nothing in a (not so) big picture. Don't even bother yourself trying to find a solution, cause there's no solution. Enjoy your days in serenity by knowing Mama Nature doesn't need us... At least I love to know our lives mean nothing. It brings me calm and serenity.
This is the real horror. More horrifying than ghost, monster, or murderer.
we will never get off this rock
not that way anyway , nasa liars all space is fake
"we will never get off this rock"
Of course we will.
At any given point, whatever the situation is, seems as if it will always be that way. But there has been progress, and there will be again.
We are still in our infancy; we WILL grow up. Some day.
"nasa liars all space is fake"
You are a remarkably stupid person.
smartalek180 don't tell me you live on planet CGI with 1969 cellular technology that can reach fantastic distances. Maybe you should take advice from the meaning of the word of the movie you just watched and become an independent thinker. question everything
The original Koyaanisqatsi was shot with 16mm and 35mm film in 4:3 format. This transfer to HD digital is in 16:9 and the top and bottom part of the image was cut off to do this. Very sad.
An abomination
This edited version also cuts off the slowing down of the burning rocket. It placed the definition of Koyaanisqatsi before the final cave painting, and it cut off the final cave painting. Also, I figure the credits are important because of the background sounds: crowds of people walking or moving, TV or radio ads, TV shows, and other media playing. It all adds up to a full experience.
GOD DAMN somebody give that cameraman an Oscar or something. Keeping such a steady and focused teleshot for so long in such a stressful moment... I mean... GOD FUCKIN' DAMN IT!
Somebody give him a raise GOD DAMN IT
This last fallen explosion debris reminds me of a camera. A camera that is left from our exploded civilization, still burning, but rotating trying to capture the truth around it.
This last fallen explosion debris is, I believe, how Godfrey Reggio is viewing himself into the world.
It is such a profound and powerful scene. And Phillip Glass score amplifies all to a heart tearing level!
Man I loved this film this scene and pruit igoe are my favorite. Now in Milan whenever i get in the sub station at san babila i hear this song only in instrumental and I simply adore it but at the same time that i rejoice hearing it it feels me with a sense of sadness.
Is it okay that I am crying?
it is ok, its like having a profound religious experience.
I did too when I first saw this scene...
:-)
Yes
no
It is as if we (the human race) are a living embodiment of Icarus.
so i downloaded a really weird torrent copy of this and the entire movie is backwards
never seeing it before and knowing its weird film with no spoken words, i thought that was just the charm of it. it starts with the opening fade out of the cave painting until it fades out into the remains of the shuttle spinning. not knowing what i was watching, i was memorized as this unknown object that looked like a goblet or torch falling through the air spun until as it started to piece together. i also pieced what i was seeing together as the fireball reverses into the rocket. i watched the whole thing, backwards, just astonished and amazed at everything i watched, thinking that the only flaw on this masterpiece was how it started so amazing and never topped that
finding out it was the ending made a lot of sense, but it robs the entire experience of this bizarre visual that i know was never intended to be seen like that, and thats what i think really defines how special and unique this movie is, that you can watch it completely reversed and get an entirely different perspective on it and not even realize that the movie wasnt intended to be watched like that
I saw it that way cause it is posted on RUclips like that 😒 spoiled the ending
That 'goblet or torch' was the bottom of the Atlas rocket body with the central motor attached and both outer booster motors and skirt missing.
@@tedsmith6137 i realized that eventually (i did need to research what the actually rocket was) but it was just so interesting and bizarre to see it really sucked me in
Great part of this movie exists, as a short silent documentary, ten years before, I am italian, in my country at that time color tv did not exists, I was in Switzerland at the time for some days, as a child I was mesmerized by their color TV programs, and I saw the "prototype" of this movie, work of same authors I Think, and/or, there is a mention of it, in the final credits of the movie
This ending made me cry so hard
I saw this movie in the first Imax theatre (before Imax was commercial) at the Museum of Science and Technology in LA in the 1980’s when visiting my dear brother in LA from NZ, still remember how stunningly impressive it was.
The rocket shown blowing up was an ATLAS ICBM which had a second purpose of orbiting astronauts in the Mercury program. They watched these blow up and they were scheduled to ride on top of one. So this was a test firing that went wrong. This used to come on TV at 2:00 AM in the 80's on Much Music. Usually during Christmas Vacation.
Really? Wow, I thought this was the Challenger explosion. Hey, the more you know, am I right? :)
+X Painsteiner Nah, the Challenger looks nothing like this rocket.
Actually it was the first launch of the Atlas-Centaur.
@@michaelclentworth1283 Yep, Atlas Centaur, 1962. Cursed project.
We smoked some weed and watched this movie the first time about 25 years ago. I am a little bit surprised - I remembered the final scene took much longer. The broken engine falls and falls. I like the residues of fuel reigniting casually. Clerical organ music mixed with ancient tribal prophecy. You will never forget this ending.
Right at 5:00 the small piece of music makes me skin crawl.......gosh I love Phil
I've seen the German premiere with Reggio and Glass ;-) The day before was a concert of and with Glass.
Never once have heard this movie but to me this seems like a masterpiece, the rocket, Both a symbol of destruction and peace I don’t want to survive a war if we lose it, the thought of the loss of freedom and the fact that people don’t have it is horrible, people automatically think that if you don’t agree your their enemy
While we are on the verge of all out war all times,
It's a very thought provoking film to say the least
The rocket? Singular? The launch footage was of a Saturn V while the explosion footage was of an Atlas missile. The footage was edited to make it look like it was all the same rocket.
Che opera d'arte! Complimentissimi!
So much inspiration channeled
I tear up every single time.