Photos of heads in space helmets

From Things Magazine: a grid of photos of heads in helmets. I recognize about a third of the images.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://nefariousnewt.blogspot.com NefariousNewt

I see a lot of Keir Dullea from 2001: A Space Odyssey, in his many incarnations as Dave Bowman.
jetfx

“I recognize about a third of the images.”

Which coincidentally is about the proportion of them that are David Bowman.
- Guest
  
  I think it’s only one sixth Bowman, plus one Ripley… damn, I thought I would be better at that.
http://twitter.com/CrnDffy CiaranD uffy

I love this.
Mind you…Thom Yorke in a glass tank is a tiny bit dubious, isn’t it?
TrollyMcTrollington

John Hurt *after* the facehugger is missing.

Happy to see a shot from ‘Moon’. Very underrated flick.
- Leto_Atreides
  
  Moon is the best sci-fi movie of the last 10 years IMHO.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ziccup akbar56

The re-use (2001 and Solaris that I see) screams of laziness to me. Where is Spock from ST:TMP? Cillian Murphy from Sunshine?
- bcsizemo
  
  At least 3 people from Robot Jox…. (they weren’t in space most of the time, but they did wear suits.)
  - niktemadur
    
    Sean Connery in Outland.
    - http://www.zazzle.com/InfinitudeTortoises* An Infinitude of Tortoises
      
      Prof. John or Dr. Maureen Robinson, from Lost in Space.
      Col. Edward McCauley from Men Into Space.
      Cdr. “Kit” Draper from Robinson Crusoe on Mars.
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  You should improve on it!
  - http://www.youtube.com/user/ziccup akbar56
    
    I might just have to do that.
- TrollyMcTrollington
  
  And Kirk from The Tholian Web, and Chekov from Khan.
- niktemadur
  
  Did David Janssen get to wear his helmet in Marooned? Can’t seem to remember, but I think he did.
- niktemadur
  
  The crew of the ill-fated Mars II in Mission To Mars.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=557683737 Adam Greenfield

4th column 2nd to last row: Isn’t that Ed Harris in The Abyss? Does it count as a space helmet?
- http://www.youtube.com/user/ziccup akbar56
  
  That is indeed Ed Harris in The Abyss. It does not belong here at all.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=557683737 Adam Greenfield
    
    Well, I checked the tumblr, the original title to the image is just “helmet” so you could say it does belong.
    - Boundegar
      
      I was only seeing four rows, so the 2d to last row was… Barbarella?
  - dioptase
    
    If we want to get really picky, most of them are not space helmets. They are plastic bowls on actors heads.
- chumpmeat
  
  The one above Richard Branson? Next to John Hurt in Alien? That’s another Keir Dullea from 2001. It’s the scene from the end with the room with the glowing floors.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=557683737 Adam Greenfield
    
    Yep, you’re right. I found the image. http://toppixautographs.net/dulleakeir7.jpg Creepy as hell.
Carlos Medina

Thom Yorke… Not a space helmet.
RogerStrong

When Babylon 5 needed space suits (episode “War Without End”), they ordered them from a local costume company. To their horror, they received the original and recognizable suits from 2001: A Space Odyssey. All they could do is slap some blue paint on them and hope nobody noticed.
- benattenborough
  
  Really? I thought Stanley Kubrick had everything destroyed from 2001: A Space Odyssey (in a failed attempt to stop anyone making a sequel). If they were the originals they would have been worth a fortune and surely they wouldn’t have ruined such icon film props by repainting them?
  - RogerStrong
    
    I found a quote on JMSnews.com at http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-3492&query=spacesuits
    
    According the J. Michael Straczynski, the creator and producer of the show:
    
    “Re: the suit…that wasn’t an intentional 2001 nod…we went to Modern Props to get a space suit for Babylon Squared, and the only one they had on hand that would work for us was one left-over from 2010, which I asked the folks in costume to change as much as possible…though it was pretty much what it was regardless. So that one wasn’t intentional.”
    
    So, my mistake: It was from 2010: Odyssey Two, not 2001. (Turns out I read it 15 years ago. I feel old.) Sorry!
lasershark

so hurry up already and animate a gif, internet…
http://countblastov.tumblr.com/ Count Blastov

Not enough Bowie.
TheMadLibrarian

I’m sad, in that the original link doesn’t identify the images. Is that to prevent discovery of how many images are of the same person? (I’m talking about you, Dave.)

Is first column, 4th down, Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes?
- benattenborough
  
  I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
  - Eark_the_Bunny
    
    Don’t give me that BS HAL and stop calling me Shirley, er Dave!
- chumpmeat
  
  Clint Eastwood – Space Cowboys probably.
Jake0748

Nothing spoils a space movie for me like the fact that there is usually some kind of lighting inside the helmet so you can see the actor’s face. You wouldn’t be able to see squat outside of your helmet with lights in there. Stupid.
- http://twitter.com/ManekiNico Maneki Nico
  
  Beat me to it…
  - Donald Petersen
    
    Yeah, me three. Man, that’s bugged me for years.
- http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
  
  Pointing right in the eyes, usually.
http://twitter.com/drmikefay Mike Fay

I can also see Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, George Clooney in the Solaris remake (three times perhaps), Jane Fonda as Barbarella, I assume the Clint Eastwood is from Space Cowboys (as he looks rather old), and one of Richard Branson
eldritch

It’s kind of curious that my initial response to this was: “Why haven’t we ever seen space suits in cinema that allow the helmet itself to rotate, not just the head to turn around inside of the fixed sphere?” I can understand that in the real world, achieving the proper level of flexibility in the neck region of the suit cannot be done without certain compromises of structural integrity or new high tech materials, but for so many films about the future, they sure do have suits very grounded in the present and the past.
- benattenborough
  
  To some extent I think this is about feeding expectations. People have an idea in their mind about what space travel should look like and a radical departure from this would jar with an audience. This isn’t limited to sci-fi. If you have a film about the police, say, there are a lot of tropes you will see again and again (think the alcoholic detective with personal problems, or the way forensic evidence is used in CSI) that are not typical of the real world. Audiences think space suits need to look a certain way and that is what cinema gives them. I also think having a fixed helmet is a good way for a director to convey a sense of isolation, claustrophobia and tunnel vision (the sense that the persons vision is impaired) – which are major themes in space sci-fi.
  - Donald Petersen
    
    Those expectations are difficult to break. The chirping tires we always hear when airline jets land in movies, as if they’re louder than the jet engines themselves. Oh, and whenever we’re looking through the windshield at two people driving and talking in a car, one very rarely sees a rearview mirror, ’cause if the prop guy didn’t remove it first (often with a Bic lighter), it’d block the camera’s view of the actors’ faces… and yet we never notice that it’s missing.
    
    The only one that really bugs me, however, is the binocular POV that’s shaped like binoculars instead of a circle. I hate that like you wouldn’t believe.
    - ohbejoyful
      
      Ha! I hadn’t noticed the missing rear view mirror. I’m sure though that from now on that’s all I’ll be able to see.
http://www.facebook.com/hillary.rettig Hillary Rettig

Greg Manchess’s astronaut oil portraits are the best

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/03/astronauts.html
http://www.facebook.com/a.frank.ellis Frank Ellis

My god, it’s full of Dave Bowman.