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I need help identyfying this movie I once saw late night on TNT, late 90s or early 2000s.

I don't have very clear recollection about it. The movie was very strange. It all took place in a single room of a spaceship or an escape pod that had lost power. A woman and a man, or several men, were stuck in a ship or a spacepod that was somehow damaged or didn't have power.

The movie was entirely made of the dialogs between the woman and the man (or men). They would talk about what was happening outside, how to contact help, about their lives. During their conversation details about the world around them emerge. In this movie people have colonized the solar system but not moved outside it, and there is some sort of a war.

Other things I remember are that it was dark in that room. I think they used only a lightbulb or even direct starlight and sunlight (if they were far away from the sun), because there was no power. Also it was getting colder, becaus the ship's heating system was not functioning, and so it was losing its heat. The people would constantly complain about how cold it's getting. I think that the woman was the captain of the ship. She would sometimes go to the control cabin and try to do something to help their situation, either restore power or contact someone so they can be rescued.

What impressed me about it was how they managed to make it realistic. Because the actors would talk and act like it was all real, it made it somehow feel very realistic to me as well.

That's about it as far as I remember. Hope someone has watched this movie and can tell me what it is.

Update

I want to add a few more details about the movie. While I watched it in the late 90s/early 2000s the movie looked much older. It looked like a vintage B-Movie made in the style of the 70s or 80s. In particular the decor looked more like Alien 1 or Cosmos 1999.

I just watched the firefly episode and it can't be it. It has too much action, and the atmosphere is not dark enough.

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    Quite related: firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Out_of_Gas
    – bitmask
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 12:08
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    The spareness you describe could be a rendering of The Cold Equations. Wikipedia says it's been on TV a couple of times. Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 14:07
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    I agree with bitmask, that sounds awfully like that episode of Firefly.
    – Poindexter
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 14:08
  • No, I just watched that episode of Firefly yesterday. It could be if the facts satuon are listing aren't accurate, but it doesn't sound like it to me.
    – BBlake
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 19:57
  • Hi, thanks everybody for the help. I just watched the firefly episode and it's not the movie I'm looking for. See the update to my question.
    – sashoalm
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 21:20

2 Answers 2

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Shot in the dark, as I haven't seen this in what seems like forever, but it sounds like it could be Lifepod.

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    I just watched Lifepod, and that's definately the movie! Thanks for identifying it.
    – sashoalm
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 8:43
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This sounds similar to the plot of "Marooned," from back in the 70's. A space capsule with 3 astronauts (Richard Crenna, James Franciscus, and Gene Hackman) was stuck in orbit. Gregory Peck was the director of NASA. With time and life support running out, they had to decide which of the three men would leave the capsule, allowing the other two to survive until a rescue ship could reach them. There was a scene where each man spoke to his wife via TV hook up, with everyone knowing, basically, that one of them was talking to her husband for the last time. Then, once the capsule went out of communication range, the 3 men had to decide who would die.

That might be the movie in question. I believe that it got the Oscar for special effects, or was at least nominated for it, that year.

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  • I discovered this “Marooned” recently, and this is a very nice film. Very quiet, yet with thrilling suspense. This film happened to come out just before the Apollo 13 events, and it gave nightmares to the wife of Jim Lowell. :-D Commented May 9, 2013 at 14:53

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