Ryan Stone

Dr. Ryan Stone is the main protagonist of Gravity. She is portrayed by Sandra Bullock. Stone is a 32 year-old medical engineer who works at a hospital in Lake Zurich, Illinois where she specialized in x-ray imaging in medical devices. She mentions that she is not married (possibly divorced) but had a daughter. One day when she was driving home from work and listening to the radio, she got a call that informed her that her 4-year-old daughter had slipped and fell at the playground, getting a head injury which killed her. On her daughter's death, Dr. Stone says: "That's it. It's the stupidest thing". Ryan is devastated by this and spends her evenings after work taking long drives listening to NPR, the station that was playing when she first heard the news of her daughter’s death in an attempt to push away accepting it. Stone fell into a deep depression which left her guilt-ridden and angry at the world. Stone becomes withdrawn and decides eventually that she wants to die and be with her daughter.