Fly Me to the Moon: How Stanley Kubrick’s Conspiracy Theory Inspired the Movie
Scarlett JohanssonKelly Jones—a marketing expert who uses everything from a fake baby bump to a fake Southern accent to close deals—can sell anything. At least, that’s what the Nixon administration is counting on in the new film. Take me to the moon, This creates a humorous twist in the space race. Kelly is pursued by Nixon spy Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) to peddle Apollo 11 space mission Led by NASA launch director Cole Davis, Channing Tatum.
“I’m not turning this ship into a flying billboard,” says Tatum’s Cole, a character have inspiration from Real-Life Air Force Pilot Who Became a NASA Employee Deke Slayton. But he was living in an era long before billionaire funded space travel at a time when any space exploration required government support. So NASA had to sell itself to the American public—and skeptical politicians, one of whom is played by Johansson’s real-life husband in the film. Colin Jost—about space travel.
This part of the movie is very true to life. “I believe the marketing aspect of Apollo was as important as the spacecraft, I absolutely believe that,” says marketing strategist and author David Meerman Scott speak New York Times in 2019. Some of the gonzo tactics Kelly uses are also based in reality: companies like Kellogg’s And Omega actually partnered with NASA for certain funding opportunities. Other plot points, like her hiring charismatic actors to pose as NASA engineers for on-screen interviews, never happened (probably). There are also no evidence that Neil Armstrong had come up with ideas for what he would say when he first set foot on the moon—although in the film, even Kelly admits that “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” was still better than any quote she had drafted.
Another important factor in rallying support was the decision to attach a camera to the outside of Apollo 11, bringing the launch to the largest possible audience. According to astronomy, NASA’s communications team had to argue in favour of broadcasting, as “some engineers were concerned that developing that equipment would distract from our efforts to achieve the goal of landing on the Moon”. But Scott said marketing and filming a human trip to the Moon was “absolutely necessary for us to be able to do that programme”.
But this is where things get tricky. In Take me to the moon, The Nixon administration was worried about Apollo 11 and came up with a contingency plan in case it failed. It was called Project Artemis (which is what the movie original title back when Chris Evans has been attached to the star with Jason Bateman director), and it involves staging a fake moon landing that will be broadcast on TV if the real mission fails. “This is not a space race, this is a war where ideology is running this country,” Moe tells Kelly. She reluctantly agrees to the ruse and enlists the help of director Lance Vespertine (Jim Rash), whom she calls “the Kubrick of advertising,” for the most important assignment of her life.
This is a clear reference to a lot is exposedBut somehow the conspiracy theory that Stanley Kubrick actually staged the moon landing persists. That notion, explained in a Short Film 2022 as well as in the 2012 documentary Room 237, looks like this:
One year later recruiting aviation professionals and aerospace engineers to design the interior of the spaceship for his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick was allegedly hired to fake the Apollo 11 landing scene. Much of the so-called evidence supporting this theory can be “found” in Kubrick’s Shine, which some have interpreted as the director’s confession to faking the moon landing. Conspiracy theorists point to “evidence” such as the “Apollo” sweater worn by Danny Torrance and the key to “Room 237” of the Overlook Hotel, the letters of which can be rearranged to spell “Moon Room.” Kubrick’s daughter Vivian Have publicly denied This theory calls it “a blatant lie.”
Jack Nicholson and Danny Lloyd on set Shine.Sunset Boulevard/Getty Images
