“Good Night Oppy” Amazon Original Film’s new Mars rover documentary, finally arrives on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, just in time for the Christmas season.

“Good Night Oppy” is ready to roll into your home and prove how emotional you can become over a robot.

Synopsis of Film

The real-life survival story of Opportunity, NASA’s legendary rover sent to Mars for a groundbreaking 90-day mission that lasted beyond all measure of hope for nearly 15 years, is presented in this heartbreaking-yet-inspiring documentary directed by Ryan White in association with Peter Berg’s Film 45 and Amblin Television.

“Good Night Oppy” pays homage to the tenacious wheeled machine and the engineers and scientists who built it on Earth and who grew to care profoundly for Opportunity throughout its improbably successful journey across the surface of the Red Planet.

“Good Night Oppy” is narrated by Academy Award winner Angela Bassett and depicts the bond formed with Steve Squyres, JPL’s principal investigator for the MER mission, and the entire ground team in California. It includes archival NASA footage, new interviews with NASA engineers, and brilliant CGI wizardry from the talented team at Industrial Light & Magic.

In 2003, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission sent twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to our neighbouring planet for a series of geologic and atmospheric tests and experiments. Spirit survived for six years despite not having the incredible longevity of Opportunity. “Oppy” broke all records for data and sample collection for another nine years before succumbing to death in June of 2018.

Director Statement on the Film

When the documentary “Good Night Oppy,” which follows NASA rovers Opportunity and Spirit before and after they land on Mars, premiered at a film festival in September, audiences had an unexpected reaction: they cried.

“It’s funny because I promise you we were not having conversations in the editing room on how we would make people cry,” director Ryan White told Reuters. “It is kind of the shocking resounding response to this film seems to be people coming up to me sheepishly with their hand over their mouths saying ‘I cried about a robot’.”

The film premiered in September at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado and examines NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, which was launched in 2003. Both solar-powered rovers were expected to last only 90 Martian solar days (SOLs), but Opportunity (or Oppy) lasted over 14 years until it sent its final message on June 10, 2018.

After Opportunity’s last message, “My battery is low and it’s getting dark,” went viral, White was inspired to make the film. However, it is the human characters in the film who elicit an emotional response. White had assumed that scientists and engineers would be cold and emotionless, posing a filmmaking challenge. “I was completely wrong,” White admitted.

“Once we met the human being characters, it was an embarrassment of riches. These are people that are living day to day getting to do the things that we all dreamed about doing as kids … and it’s not just work to them. It’s their life. It’s their daughter on Mars, as a lot of them see her.”

One of the most common comparisons made by moviegoers is that the rovers resemble the Pixar Studios animated character “Wall-E.” That film was released in 2008, following the rover landings.

“I think the comparisons are inevitable when we’re making a doc about a little robot alone on a planet,” White said.

“There’s just something so endearing emotionally to that idea.

“Good Night Oppy” Now Streaming on Prime Video.

Published by HOLR Magazine.