Wanderers: A Short Sci-Fi Film About Humanity’s Future in Space, Narrated by Carl Sagan

Swedish ani­ma­tor Erik Wern­quist calls his short sci­ence fic­tion film, Wan­der­ers, a spec­u­la­tive look at “human­i­ty’s future expan­sion into the Solar Sys­tem,” a “glimpse of the fan­tas­tic and beau­ti­ful nature that sur­rounds us on our neigh­bor­ing worlds,” and “how it might appear to us if we were there.” The loca­tions shown in Wan­der­ers are all “dig­i­tal recre­ations of actu­al places in the Solar Sys­tem, built from real pho­tos and map data.” And Wern­quist has a big still-image gallery where he walks you through his cre­ative work. The voice accom­pa­ny­ing the film is none oth­er than Carl Sagan’s, tak­en from an audio record­ing of his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Astute sci-fi fans will also notice the influ­ences of Arthur C. Clarke, Kim Stan­ley Robin­son and the mas­ter of space art Ches­ley Bon­estell.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Free Sci­ence Fic­tion Clas­sics on the Web: Hux­ley, Orwell, Asi­mov, Gaiman & Beyond

Carl Sagan Presents Six Lec­tures on Earth, Mars & Our Solar Sys­tem … For Kids (1977)

Revis­it Futuria Fan­ta­sia: The Sci­ence Fic­tion Fanzine Ray Brad­bury Pub­lished as a Teenag­er

Arthur C. Clarke Nar­rates Film on Mandelbrot’s Frac­tals; David Gilmour Pro­vides the Sound­track