The scene from "Event Horizon" comes to mind for this question. In it, there is a man in the airlock of a starship and the air lock opens. One of his crew tackles him back into the ship from outside and they rapidly repressurize the airlock and he lives. Is this possible even if the odds are astronomical? Would it even be possible if the pressure was reduced to 0 gradually and then repressurized gradually?















The other famous movie example is the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the astronaut is forced to blow himself from one airlock to another; however, in both cases, he would probably survive the decompression. Your blood would not boil, you would not explode, or instantly freeze. The main points of injury would be the lungs, and possibly the bowel – all of the air would explosively leave the lungs, which could cause significant damage (especially if the person tried to hold their breath), and same thing goes for the gas in the bowel. You would rapidly deoxygenate, as all of the dissolved or bound gases would leave the blood as they circulated through lungs exposed to vacuum, so you would only have a few seconds of consciousness. The only place stuff would "boil" is probably on your tongue, eyes, or any exposed mucous membranes, where the moisture would vaporize. Otherwise, the skin actually makes a pretty decent short-term pressure suit, and the blood vessels would keep your blood liquid (temporarily) – you would likely puff up a bit and be quite swollen afterwards, but assuming you were quickly repressurized, this would only be temporary. A slow depressurization/repressurization would limit the trauma from the pressure changes, but it might actually *decrease* the chance of survival because the person would suffocate during that period. Decompression accidents in vacuum chambers have actually happened before, and people have survived with no long term damage; you can read the links below as examples.