Fire Extinguisher

thumb|396px|link=The Fire Extinguisher was a key plot point in Gravity. 

Gravity

After Dr. Ryan Stone entered the International Space Station and breathed for the first time in several minutes, she was able to rest and calm down. Dr. Stone followed Kowalski's directions over the radio to find the Soyuz escape pods. The remaining crew of the ISS fled in one of the two pods so the second capsule should be fine for re-entry. Dr. Stone told Kowalski that she would get him after she boarded the Soyuz, but Kowalski insisted that she should not worry about him. She realized that the parachute on the second Soyuz Capsule was opened, presumably in a failed escape attempt which rendered it useless for a return to Earth. Nonetheless, she started heading toward the capsule, intending to get Kowalski with it and head to the abandoned Chinese Tiangong-1 station which contained a Shenzou escape pod which could take them home. However, she was too distracted by all of this planning that she failed to notice the tiny balls of fire floating into the station from an electrical source. Stone smelled smoke and realized that the pure oxygen environment was fueling a massive fire. She tried to put it out with a nearby fire extinguisher, but forgot that she was in zero-gravity. After she pressed the handle on the fire extinguisher, she was thrown back into a wall, leaving a cut and bruise on her face. Luckily, Stone was able to escape to the Soyuz Capsule and escape the fire, cleverly taking the fire extinguisher with her should there be another fire. Stone winded up having to put on a Spacesuit to untangle the parachute from the station so she could rescue Kowalski and get to the Tiangong.

Stone remembered the landing rockets on the Soyuz and used them to navigate to the Tiangong, only to realize that she would miss it by several meters. The Tiangong which was damaged by the debris chain was sinking into the atmosphere and Stone realized that she needed to go to the station now or else it would be too late. She ejected herself via explosive decompression and used the fire extinguisher to push herself toward the station. She had just enough chemicals in the extinguisher to push her to the Tiangong airlock, reaching the Shenzou and getting back home.

The ultimate fate of the Fire Extinguisher was left unknown. Stone threw it into space after it ran out of chemicals, presumably sending it tumbling into the void or leaving it in orbit. 

Trivia

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  WALL-E using a fire extinguisher to move throughout space

  The Fire Extinguisher's appearance in the film is a reference to WALL-E, another film about space.