[InspiredIdiot]

Also, he quite likely _does_ die in space. Which figuratively but very directly represents not leaving anything for the swim back. There is room to square the main message of the movie about transcending limits with Gore Vidal's line (something like) "No one exceeds his potential... It would simply mean we had failed to accurately assess it in the first place." Maybe he makes it back, maybe he doesn't, but he goes, does what he sets out to do with no consideration of whether he will be able to return and then tries to return. It's exactly equivalent to people who say they would go to Mars even without knowing whether it is a one-way trip at the outset.

[goatlover]

One message of the movie could be that there is no fixed measure of potential. There are too many variables. One of them being how badly someone wants to achieve something. Thus it’s massively unfair to measure someone’s potential at birth.