Koyaanisqatsi

[chrispanama]

Beautiful disaster

[OrdinaryRadicalism]

The definition of haunting

[tomsriv]

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!?? Double Rainbow in the sky!

[nargarothfreak]

@tomsriv

well it means that there ar 2 raibows n the sky:P

[animedude237]

This is the launch of Apollo 11, filmed by high speed cameras for our children's children's children. The explosion you see at the end with the tumbling flaming rocket fuel tank is an Atlas/Agena launch vehicle from the days of Project Gemini. I've been studying this stuff since I was in kindergarten, I watched Challenger blow up when I was 2 years old. trust me on this

[technicallyabsurd]

@animedude237 Apollo 11 didn't explode, dumbass.

[starrodkirby]

@technicallyabsurd He's not a conspiracy theorist. He never said that Apollo 11 exploded. He said that this is a merger of a Saturn V launch and a Atlas rocket explosion.

(Before Mercury, American rockets were crappier than Russian ones.)

The first shot is not an Apollo launch, but a Saturn V test though.

[IasKev]

@technicallyabsurd Lol, he didn't say it did. The rocket lifting off is Apollo 11. The rocket exploding is a totally seperate rocket, an Atlas-Gemini, like he said.

[GregTKD100]

Brilliant film, brilliant composer. Can't get bored of listening to Glass compositions

[JisakuJ]

@RezaShah4 Here's something that makes me cry: your terrible posting.

[ToushiroHollow2009]

What the hell with this thing?

[0123Squirrel0123]

SAAAAA IKOOOOUUUU ZEEEEE!

[OctillianODS]

RINGO MOGIRE BEEEAAAM

[PhilAEG]

At the very beginning this sequence shows a Saturn V launch vehicle, however the unmanned launcher which exploded was an Atlas-Centaur ... probably in 1962!

[Daveylopop]

One of the most hauntingly fascinating films I've ever seen. This scene in particular.

[tomsriv]

The rocket in the close ups had 5 engines, the one taking off looked like it had only 3. Was it the same rocket?

[lonestarr86]

@tomsriv definately not the same. the takeoff one was afaik a Saturn V, the one exploding a different kind, but far smaller.

[WG55]

@tomsriv No, the first rocket is a Saturn V, but the second was an Atlas rocket with a Centaur payload. It was the launch of May 9th, 1962, failed because of a collapsed payload shroud.

[tomsriv]

Sorry, but I'll take the modern age over living like Native Americans any day. We have our own set of problems, but we also live life to a much fuller extent.

[minamur]

@tomsriv how so?

[Snowuk95]

Spy sapping my Satellite!

[mirkow76]

Sometimes i wonder where this world is heading to.When i read previous comments wondering what kind of rocket that was i feel ashamed.Guys thats not about the rocket type but about our vulnerability.Did anyone of you really watched this movie?The NYC part.Anyone ever thought that most of people shown there are already dead?This movie is something that shouldnt be treated as pure documentary.Thats passing of life and our creations.We mean shit when it comes to nature.We are just passers by.

[heyz185]

i think the name of that rocket shoulda been irony

[StormtrooperMega]

Human error leads to progress, progress leads to intelligence , intelligence leads to advancing, advancing leads to growth, growth leads to power, power leads to thirst, thirst lead to instable, instable leads to anger, anger lead towards destruction, destruction leads to..........nothing, we're practically killing ourselves.

[pizzaspy]

@StormtrooperMega This post is what you would get if yoda drank a case of mountain dew

[gimme2utah1]

I first heard about this movie after watching Siskel and Eberts Sneak Previews.

They both gave it a resounding "Thumbs Up!" I couldn't wait to see it after that.

It finally showed up at the Art-House theatre near my home. I called a friend, we smoked some J's, ate some shrooms and we went to see it.

I was extremely baked throughout the whole film.

There's nothing like taking in this movie in a total fog.

[GangstaToby]

it falls so long o.O

[Schubeedoobee]

Superb... thank god I got to see phillip perform this music LIVE at UCLA with the move playing int he background

[1Cosmicmonkey]

Absolutly moving. Breath taking. Goose Bumps!

[alhroun]

this was released in 1982....and we still haven't learned a damned thing.

[smartalek1]

@alhroun "we still haven't learned a damned thing."

"Progress" is rarely (if ever) in a straight line.

Some days / weeks / months / years / centuries / millennia we move forward, others back. It's usually both at once; technologically forward / spiritually backward, or vice versa. Sometimes it's forward in both, or back in both. And there are many other criteria beyond those two.

There's comfort in MLK's famous quote: "the arc of the moral universe is long -- but it bends toward justice."

[maddenfball]

Atlas V rocket, Centaur upper stage explosion 54 seconds in to flight on May 8th, 1962

[AliasUndercover]

That debris is an engine.

[jaymeeharkeen]

koyaanisqatsi

[ogoperasinger]

so beautiful.

[jaymeeharkeen]

my mom told me that the last image is the capsule that held the people inside of it.

think how horrible that would be to die this way, falling while being burned alive.

this movie is amazing. this part makes me weep.

[ImTheMiddlBITCHxO]

isnt it the same soundtrack as at "the watchman" `??

recomment pls :)

[LongliveMarks]

It is not important if this is correct or incorrect...The important issue is that they created something that makes you think about life...something huge , and it has true meaning of art in every single fibers...

[Co19801003]

@LongliveMarks - Very true. But seeing all the comments about technical specifications and identification attempts, many people missed the wake up call. It may prove your intelligence and curiosity, but it also proves your lack of understanding of art, in my opinion.

To me, this closing segment is the most powerful in the movie. Other than the other segments, this one is hardly neutral; it seems to be meant to prove wrong those who up till this point felt positively about our technology.

[unwashedmime]

@Co19801003

I think it is defiantly a critique of the whole idea that technology will be our savior. Most people follow science and technology like a religion, and yes there is good reason for science and technology and along with it the rational and critical thinking process, BUT .. we have lost our way along the journey and now face massive environmental and economic consequences. We expect technology to solve problems created by technology, it seems never-ending.

[Co19801003]

@unwashedmime - I think our opinions are quite alike. Regardless of what everyone's opinion about the statement is, however, the point in my previous message is that there are apparently a lot of people who are more concerned about finding out where the footage came from, what techniques were used for several segments and what the name is of the people you see walking about in an apartment building in another segment. It's like watching the Mona Lisa and asking where Leo bought his paint :-)

[unwashedmime]

@Co19801003

yeah agree with you on that, we should just enjoy this amazing movie as a whole. people are just being silly trying to break it down in such a manner, the creative process in which this was created is the important part, not the tools.. in my opinion anyways. wonderful film and wonderful soundtrack!

[kesson12]

has it occoured to anyone that this (if its not) is not the original music video? its just a video with the music put ontop of it.

i still think its not the challenger. but at least have thought about that.

[jonsaintgermain]

Last Scene from Koyaanisquatsi, (Part two)

[tdbf2142]

Saturn V and an Atlas Centaur. Really old rockets, and that "stuff" is ice chunks.

[Sirradal]

I really don't udnerstand what/why all that stuff is/be falling off the spacecrafts during takeoff.

[hegiteri]

@Sirradal

This stuff is ice. Rockets like Atlas Centaur and Saturn V was liquid powered. The oxydation fluid was in fact liquid oxygen, and from the ignition it pumped by high pressure compressors into the combustion chamber. The rapid absorption of liquid gas causing rapid temperature drop, hence the atmospheric moisture freezes onto the rocket. The vibration is drop this ice then - this is the falling stuff.

[MrNerpp]

Before to read your comment i did imagine some people in the machine with the music i was completely frozen, completelyt aked by the music who is magnific and well im sure you see

[royatlvideo]

The first bit of film (where the engines tilt back and forth in unison) was from a static test of a Saturn V first stage in either Huntsville or Mississippi. Next was actual launch film from one of the first seven manned Apollo Saturn V missions. I can tell by the number of ullage motors on the second stage. Finally, the rocket that blew up was an Atlas with a Centaur upper stage. The piece that survived and was tracked spinning down was the center engine of the first stage.

[gregh1690]

could be an apollo-rocket or some test for it, couldnt it?

cause these boosters and the explosion are really huge, and alos this black/white optic...

[omgwtfbbqroflsauce]

this sounds alot like the song from watchmen when dr. manhattan was explaining how he became the way he was.

[dergelbevonderelbe]

@omgwtfbbqroflsauce

It is the track from the Watchmen Soundtrack.

For sure it was refined.

[qus123]

@dergelbevonderelbe ROTFL. So Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack was stolen from Watchmen, yes?

[dergelbevonderelbe]

@qus123 It is the other way round. But I wouldn´t say stolen. It´s totally normal to use already existing music for new movies.

You have to distinguish between Score and Soundtrack! Or are you saying Richard Wagner is still alive to underscore Dr. Manhattan´s appearance?

[EJConrad]

@qus123 no watchmen stole it.

[plsphd47]

A Lakota Elder once asked me, "where is the white man going?" I said I don't know. He said, "they are always going someplace. We think they are mad."

[thenothing87]

In the context of the entire film this is the most powerful scene in film history.

[thenothing87]

@RezaShah4 What?

[TheEmochild911]

@thenothing87 agreed



[RockingTheFro]

this song is called koyaaniquatsi, but there's also a movie? could someone explain this to me?

[jaymeeharkeen]

@RockingTheFro

it's from the movie. its the very last piece in the movie.

[Dormeur90]

1983 movie. but in 1986, January the 28th, challenger explode and 7 astronauts died in the sky. similarity ?

[linuxrules1337]

@Dormeur90 I sincerely hope, for your sake, that that was a rhetorical question. Yes, there is a similarity, the occupants of the craft died and it was sad. Powerful stuff...

[SaberTanker22]

This movie is a master piece shows just what going to happen to use if we don't control are needs.

[judgex]

1) it's OUR needs, not "are" needs.

2) We're fine. What you're seeing here is man reaching to expand and learn and grow. If you want to call it a crazy life because people desire progress, then go live with the Amish... but please, don't get in the way of progress.

[hippie324]

@judgex-

you are a fool

[judgex]

@hippie324

You don't know me, kid. Go fuck yourself.

[hippie324]

@judgex - no. i don't know you. and if you want to go right into it, fuck you too. otherwise, let's have a beer sometime

[psytechs]

@judgex

I think films like Koyaanisqatsi are part of the masterplan - they make us aware of the balance and therefore act as a kind of corrective.

[killbill402]

This youtube video is a spoiler. When i watched the movie i didn't know the rocket was going to explode. I was expecting to see some footage of the earth from space.

[themanfromrussia]

Does anyone remember when this happened? 196?

[northerbrewer]

Its happening right now look out your window. Its happening to you neighbors, it might be happening to you and its going to happen to your kids if we don't get a handle on the situation.

My worst fear is there won't be a smooth trasition to a more peaceful scene like in the film, but a hard abrupt stop when we hit the ground and are forced to pick up the pieces

[Pavelsni]

the best movie scene ever!

[Pwnialstrasz]

1:55 DAMN SON

[stockguy45]

used in the watchmen movie during Dr manhattan's self reflection. Still brings back memories of watching this film- as the small piece of debris tumbles down. looked it up on you tube; God bless YouTube

[Aqene1000]

Still moving after all these years

[sum1butno1]

The beauty of this always sets my hair on end. It's unmanned but I anthromorphize it, inventing frantic and panicked radio chatter as it desperately tries to beat back gravity. Then it becomes a fiery ball in an anguished scream as its volatile petrol dynamo's temper erupts, eviscerating it inside out. All that remains, a scrap of ruined shell, flaring meekly as its last lifeforce scorches away, channeling both Icarus and Prometheus' torch falling from grace.

Needless to say, my favourite scene.

[northerbrewer]

@sum1butno1

I don't have to anthromorphize it.

I see our mass production mass consumption socciety faced with raw material shortages. Technological displacement of workers. Accerating pace of change, over population, polution climat change....

The outcome of our lack of planning and vission.

We're riding that rocket and all I want to do is get drunk and ignor the reality of it all

[jaymeeharkeen]

@sum1butno1

wow

you need to be a writer. this is an incredible description.

[technicallyabsurd]

"Day of Purification"

wat

[bowersbe2002]

1:54 Oooopsie-doopsie

[framayx]

koyaanisqatsi = kopenhagen = life out of balance

[IExposeMormonism]

5:00 minutes is "The Grand Gallery", north east of Hanksville Ut. The largest pictograph in the world. Some 125ft wide. the figures here are some 10ft tall, the camera shows approx 1/3 of the total

[paoloniko]

the best sscene

[ConestyleTN]

what an incredible film

[animatek2000]

which shuttle was this?

[bpduff]

Challenger.

[memo8774]

Incorrect. This is clearly not a Space Shuttle, but an unmanned rocket. Koyaanisqatsi was released in 1982, the Challenger disaster occurred in January 1986.

[bpduff]

Yeah, your right. My bad.

[TimeLapseSteve]

It was the first Altas/Centaur rocket. Launched well before the Shuttle program, and probably well before you all were even born.

[fabianpiotr]

@memo8774 YOU ARE WRONG! The film was made to the music of Philip Glass - so they did the pictures to the music, not the opposite! And of course this is not a space shuttle, but the part of it! the part crew was in it! Why are you people so silly self confident????? Where are you from?? That makes you so proud of your "nothing to tell, but tell much" ??!!!

[fabianpiotr]

It may be the start of rocket, but the meaning is that the crew of challenger was dieying in a time of 2 minutes as far as i remeber. This film is not a discovery documentary - you have to know, but it is about our "civilization" - so called civilization.....

[memo8774]

@fabianpiotr : what am I wrong about? The space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986- four years after Koyaanisqatsi was released. So what's your problem?

[hyperseauton]

@memo8774 according to wikipedia the rocket launch is a Saturn V rocket, while the explosion footage is the first ever launched Atlas-Centaur, which was launched in 1962.

[uglyzombie]

@memo8774 Yet the point remains; and the disaster only 4 years later.

[mrmaciejm]

My favorite part.

[ffh8666]

At first i thought the the cave paintings was supposed to be people, but they look more like falling warheads.

[KieferSkunk]

@ffh8666 - I always thought those figures looked like skyscrapers. Fitting with most of the rest of the film, perhaps. Demons in the form of buildings that touched the sky.

[angryadams]

Only came across this movie during the week. Knocked me out like a feather. What a marvelous piece of work. Have been watching this clip over and over and still get the affect.

[drydyboy]

Same thing for me!

This scene (and the whole movie) is Brilliant (With a capital B)

[felmar67]

I think that sublime is also perturb

[stefanovit]

emblematico!

[Aimrehtopyh]

Sublime or perverse, I can't decide.

[northerbrewer]

Sometimes it keeps me up at night.

Not the movie, the reality of modern life

[Kroschler]

Sometimes it just fuck's my mind... Life itself...

Imagine EVERYTHING that has led to this point. From the Big Bang... Followed by forming THE RULES of this Universe, leading to our tiny little earth... And yet, I'm still sitting here writing this text. Is this universe really capable and meant to handle "intelligent" Life? OUR Lives?! Just sit back, listen to this song and....... we'll see...

[northerbrewer]

The rest of the universe doesn't know we are here.

As for the rest of us on earth its very obvious we are can't manage our home.

"If we dig prescious things from the earth we will invite disaster "

This above all rings to true to a man digging shiny rocks from 3 km underground for a living. Madness raping the earth for greedy people.

12:15 AM and again I am not sleeping

[KieferSkunk]

@northerbrewer - Wholeheartedly agree.

[i742]

@northerbrewer and if this film was shot 30 years ago showing how shitty this world is, picture it today.

[666kazelot]

@northerbrewer Yeah, modern life keeps me up too - fucken cars speeding next to my house or some drunk bastards shouting.. fuck city life :)

[animedude237]

Two of the Hopi prophecies sung during this sequence:

"If we dig precious things from the ground, we will invite disaster"

"There may come a day when a container of ashes will be thrown from the sky which will burn the land and boil the oceans."

[xtom1973]

@animedude237 this prophecy could mean an meteor impact or more likely a blow up of an hotspot vulcano. the hotspot desaster is more then too late to come (depending on researches and studies of past blowups of yellowstone).

[fattybastard2000]

we try to escape what we have created, using methods which we have created. what is so wrong with this planet that we live on, that we have to escape it and explore new frontiers. we dont even know half of what there is to know about this planet.

[untamedc]

No one is saying humans should revert back to a primitive livestyle. No one is saying that living in caves and a lifespan of 40 years is preferable.

No the lesson here is just to be aware of what was lost when we abandoned our natural balance with nature. We have gained and learned so much, but at what price? The earth is a generous mother, but someday the bill will come due.

[qpv78]

very well said.

[uscdb07]

you are profound untamedc

[kiteofdark]

Does the rocket in this shot have a name?

[MILQUETOASTE]

looks like a combo of an atlas launch failure and a closeup of apollo engines igniting.

[kiteofdark]

Weird to me how the camera man focused on that one bit of debris for a few minutes. I would have been watching the explosion. It nearly seems like the camera man planned for the explosion.

[MILQUETOASTE]

the thing definitely was dragging bits of hose from the launch tower if you look closely, as well as jetting a plume of gas out the side... I bet there were flashing red lights all over mission control on that one. The cameraman's job is to try and capture the initial BOOM and whatever chunks he can in order to figure out what happened. It could very well have been destroyed by mission control, so the foto peeps would have known it was coming...

[KieferSkunk]

@MILQUETOASTE - I believe this was one of the missions in which the rocket was intentionally blown up, specifically to study what would happen and what kinds of factors could lead to a catastrophic failure. The reason it hits home so hard for us looking back on it now is because a very similar kind of failure led to the Challenger tragedy just a few years later, and so this footage makes people think of that event. But IIRC, the rocket in this sequence was intentionally destroyed for science.

[jaymeeharkeen]

@kiteofdark

my mom said he did that b/c that piece of debris is what the people were in. thats what my mom said anyway.

[bradyobrien666]

@jaymeeharkeen I haven't seen the movie, but the actual launch vehicle that this is footage of was unmanned.

[ductonius]

The first rocket is a Saturn V. The one starting at 1:08 is an Atlas.

[ItsAmadWorld2]

This music fits well with all sad and tragic stuff.  Still, pretty cool ending to the movie.

[ItsAmadWorld2]

Things aren't koyaanisqatis yet. But, they very easily could become so, and, in a very dramatic and horrible way. America is like a big balloon, decending around some needles in a room with it's window open to a draft.

[csicskafasz]

wonderful music and video!

[alex7171]

And yet, everyone around the world wants to live like us.

Do you try to live a 3rd-world lifestyle?

[ohadrean]

Thats not true, thats a farce.

[alex7171]

Yeah, no one else wants to live well, with enough food to eat, top-quality medical care, their own cars, etc.

They prefer living a dirt-poor 3rd-world existence. Thanks for clarifying.

I guess that's why people from everywhere are trying to get into our borders.

[alex7171]

P.S.: The only farce is in your pants. :^)

[ohadrean]

my wallet?

[liamstoaster]

I think the message in this movie is right on: our western way of life is really out of balance, and we're going to pay for it if we can't change it. Heck, we're paying for it now, in many ways. Nice selection.