‘First Man’ had its scary moments
Missions were shot with big screen in mind.
Just in case you were thinking of taking a trip to the cosmos on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, “First Man” makes space travel look like both the coolest and the most terrifying thing ever.
Director Damien Chazelle’s period drama chronicles the lead-up to Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) taking his famous step on the moon and features hair-raising missions that were shot with the big screen in mind. (Naturally, the 1969 lunar landing that captured the world’s attention is one of them.)
Here are five of the most harrowing:
Let’s go for a test flight!
The movie opens in 1961, with Armstrong piloting an X-15 aircraft built for hypersonic flight and navigating crazy high altitude – just kissing the edges of space. But as Armstrong prepares to return, his equipment malfunctions (this becomes a running theme) and he starts to rise, getting dangerously close to drifting off into space to certain doom. Thankfully, he gets the plane moving downward (thanks, physics!) for a bumpy and stressful ride back.
Welcome to the vomitorium
Armstrong is accepted as an astronaut in NASA’s moon-centric Project Gemini program in 1962, and one of the ways managers see if he has the right stuff is in a gigantic machine called the Multi-Axis Trainer, which spins our heroes on three different axes to simulate being out of control in space. With his fellow dudes giving the engineer some side-eye, Armstrong gets in the contraption and is spun every which way until he passes out. When he wakes up, he wants to go again – this time he makes it through, then hightails it to the bathroom.
The worst kind of spin cycle
The Gemini 8 mission in 1966 allowed NASA to dock two spacecraft in orbit for the first time – integral to the success of getting to the moon – but also made some history (not the good kind) when it suffered a critical in-space system failure, sending Armstrong and co-pilot David Scott (Christopher Abbott) tumbling to earth. Armstrong took the reins for the white-knuckle voyage through re-entry, spinning out of control and leading to one of the most stomachchurning sequences in “First Man.”
Lunar training doesn’t go so well
The freaky stuff doesn’t all happen in space. When Armstrong is tapped to head up the jaunt to the moon – and land the thing – he goes through his paces back on Earth learning to pilot the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle. Looking like a very large mechanical grasshopper, the open-framed monstrosity malfunctions after jerking Armstrong around, and he ejects right before it crashes into a fiery heap. Chazelle shows the audience Armstrong’s perspective as he parachutes to safety, looking at the singed metal that could have been him. “We need to fail down here so we don’t fail up there,” Armstrong says.
Hello, moon
Naturally, the Apollo 11 landing is the
pièce de résistance. Nothing major goes wrong here (whew!) and Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (Corey Stoll) become the first guys to stroll on the moon’s dusty surface. From Armstrong’s view, we see the majesty and vastness of space that’s thrilling to behold, and in the middle of this historic achievement comes the most emotional moment in the entire film, when Armstrong can finally come to terms with his daughter’s death.