John and Eugene look at George Pal’s 1950 Technicolor space extravaganza, Destination Moon. It’s the film about a plucky band of industrialists who shoot for the moon so they can save the U.S. Space Program by extracting massive government contracts.
Synopsis
At White Sands, Dr. Cargraves and General Thayer, Ret. are about to witness the culmination of two years of work. Cargraves missile launches and then crashes. Well, that’s the end of that project. It was probably foreign sabotage, but this is peacetime, and the US Military hasn’t got enough money to fund weapons research – it looks like it was all for nothing.
Darn, that peacetime military austerity!
Cargraves may be resigned to returning to his much-neglected wife and kids, but General Thayer isn’t so easily dissuaded. He’s already been run out of the military for his crusade for rockets, and no good crusaders quit till they’re dead.
He goes to Jim Barnes, head of Barnes Aviation. He convinces him that the conquest of space is absolutely critical for American security and prosperity, that the US is incapable of pursuing a space program, and that only a conglomerate of forward-thinking, high-minded industrialists have the money, brains, and resources to launch a rocket to the moon. Plus, they’ll be able to force the government to pay them for the technology when push comes to shove.
Forward-thinking, high-minded industrialists are hard to find unless you have a secret weapon to convince them, and Barnes has just that: Woody Woodpecker!
The rocket is built in the desert, but a well-funded, concerted effort to foment anti-rocket hysteria among the public is casting doubt on the success of the project. When they are denied permission even to test their atomic motor, Barnes realizes they’ll never be given permission to launch. Following the principle that it’s better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission, they decide to launch the untested rocket to the moon in 17 hours’ time.
There are more snags, as the communications technician, Brown, gets appendicitis, and they must recruit Sweeney, a man who does not believe the rocket will ever leave the ground, to take his place.
As a process server shows up at the gates to serve them a court-ordered cease and desist, they hastily launch.
The flight is not without problems, for their antenna gets stuck, and they must spacewalk and make repairs. Cargraves is separated from the ship and starts to float away, and Barnes must make a daring rescue to retrieve him.
They arrive at the moon, but the landing is rough, and they burn too much fuel.
Back on Earth, the world unites behind the heroes who took mankind to the stars, but on the moon, they must confront a horrifying truth: They must lighten their ship by over 3000 lbs. or they will never take off.
Stripping away everything that isn’t bolted down, and even even lots of things that are bolted and welded down, plus most of their oxygen, food, water, and the car keys in their pockets, they get within 110 lbs. of their goal – the weight of one person.
Cargraves, Barnes, and Thayer all argue that they will be the person that stays behind, but Sweeny slips away and makes the sacrifice.
When Cargraves can’t be the Big Damned Hero and sacrifice his own life, he comes up with a way to save Sweeney by jettisoning Sweeney’s spacesuit. They take off for Earth.
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