Astronauts say this movie is as close as you can get to being in space without actually going
"Blue Planet" director Toni Myers tries to bring that sense of wonder to Earth-bound audiences with her new, Jennifer Lawrence-narrated IMAX movie, "A Beautiful Planet," set to premiere April 29.
Filmed aboard the International Space Station (ISS), resident astronauts recorded sunrises and sunsets, auroras, city lights, and massive storms from a celestial perspective.
The astronauts filmed most of the film from the ISS "cupola" - a bubble-like observation deck with an panoramic view of Earth from space.
"There's no way to match what you see with your own eyes when you're in orbit, but this comes as close as possible," Barry "Butch" Wilmore, Myers' first astronaut-turned-cinematographer, told a room of journalists.
The film also features footage of a spacewalk filmed on a Go Pro - one of most dangerous duties of being an astronaut.
The camaraderie of the astronauts comes through strongly: One scene shows the crew celebrating Christmas; in another, an astronaut cuts his colleague's hair.
If that wasn't enough to pack into 45 minutes and change, the movie has a message, too. Myers wants to communicate the delicate nature of our planet - and show how we've impacted its surface.
From above, the astronauts could spot (and film) fracking fires, huge, deforested tracts of the Amazon Basin, and sprawling megacities.
Myers said she wants to inspire young people to find innovative solutions to the problem of climate change, and hopes that audiences "walk away with a feeling of ownership; of being part of this planet."
Watch a trailer for the movie below.