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Orbit 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Orbital, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Isolation and the Limits of Human Connection
Time, Perception, and Alienation
Memory and Grief
Human Influence and Environmental Responsibility
Nature’s Power and Indifference
Summary
Analysis
The crew watches a Russian film about cosmonauts possessed by aliens during their re-entry to Earth. As they float together, they pass around a packet of mints. By the film’s end, all six are asleep in microgravity, their arms drifting in front of them. The film reaches its climax with loud music and intense action, but the crew, accustomed to constant noise, sleeps undisturbed.
The film’s plot—cosmonauts possessed by aliens during re-entry—suggests a fear of returning to Earth as something changed, no longer fully human. For the crew, this is not just fiction but an underlying reality. After months in space, they have adapted in ways they may not fully understand. The longer they remain in orbit, the less Earth feels like home, and the more they risk returning as versions of themselves that no longer fit into their old lives.
Themes
