Author Topic: The Apollo 18 Movie thread (Read 84734 times)

Jorge · « **Reply #60 on:** 08/16/2011 02:09 pm »

Quote from: brettreds2k on 08/16/2011 01:58 pm

So on the news the other day due to Apollo 18 coming out in Theaters, they had a guy on who was discussing how NASA and the Government did in Fact have an Apollo 18 and 19 Rockets built and paid for but as we know was cancelled due to funding, But he stated that since they were already built we did launch these 2 rockets in secret, But I don't believe that, But made me wonder... How could anyone think we launched 2 more anyways, Everyone in the area would have seen these 2 massive rockets launch, its not like NASA could have hid these 2 missions if they did exist, am I right in my thinking?? lol

I guess my question is, could NASA get 2 ships off the ground without anyone knowing? I dont see how.

You're right. There's no way they could have been launched in secret. And the rockets themselves are still on display on the ground, spread out across JSC, KSC, and Michoud.

Orbiter · « **Reply #61 on:** 08/16/2011 02:14 pm »

What if you did launch a Saturn V, but told the public that it was a high altitude orbital test flight or something along the lines of that and not tell the public that they where going to land on the moon.. that's what I always thought at least to make that aspect of the scenario 'make sense' Also, tell me how is it likely Apollo 18 and 19 where launched when their Saturn V's are sitting at KSCVC and at JSC?

Probably looking for sense where there is none though.

Orbiter

brettreds2k · « **Reply #62 on:** 08/16/2011 02:36 pm »

Yeah I agree, I know they were never launched, But I was assuming the movie and the conspiracy theory folks never thought about that question on how they would have been launched without the whole State of Florida knowing lol

kevin-rf · « **Reply #63 on:** 08/16/2011 02:38 pm »

Quote from: Orbiter on 08/16/2011 02:14 pm

What if you did launch a Saturn V, but told the public that it was a high altitude orbital test flight or something along the lines of that and not tell the public that they where going to land on the moon.. that's what I always thought at least to make that aspect of the scenario 'make sense' Also, tell me how is it likely Apollo 18 and 19 where launched when their Saturn V's are sitting at KSCVC and at JSC?

Probably looking for sense where there is none though.

Orbiter

I think most people can tell the difference between a small sounding rocket and that long liquefying rumble of the Saturn V.

Though when you look at the history of the N1, apparently in the 1960's, the CIA missed one of the N1 failures.

Now a better plot, almost believable in movie plot speak was something was found out there and the left over Saturn V's where secretly sent to the Soviet Union and launched from the failed N1 programs pad's to the aliens... Bad B-Film Space Cowboys idea rip-off, but it is the only way I can think of to hide a Saturn V launch. The plot twist being the aliens name was Barrack

But he was born in 61, so it would have to been a secret Juno launch ...

btw. This movie (I know Blackstar will take me to task for actually elevating it to the status of a "movie") already has a thread: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24146.0

dvsmith · « **Reply #64 on:** 08/16/2011 04:16 pm »

Quote from: Blackstar on 02/28/2011 03:02 am

Quote from: Orbiter on 02/28/2011 12:48 am
Skylon, I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking the same thing. Give this thing a chance, so far the general 'hate' on this is based of a two and a half minute trailer and a stereotype of bad unrealistic space movies like Armageddon.

Isn't this the one that was also produced in about four months? My reaction is "meh," not hate, but I pretty much expect it to be crappy.

Then again, how are they ever going to beat "Moontrap"?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097911/

I don't know which makes me a bigger geek: that I clicked on the photo because the cyborg-thing looked like the He-Man character 'Trap-Jaw' from my childhood, or the fact that I could tell the guy in the suit is Walter Koenig.

Quote from: grdja on 04/15/2011 02:32 pm

So how exactly does one hide a Saturn V launch?

You say, 'Oh My God! What is that thing!?' very very loudly and point the other way, emphatically. For 3 minutes.

brettreds2k · « **Reply #65 on:** 08/16/2011 04:47 pm »

Thats how I would hide it!! LOL

Blackstar · « **Reply #66 on:** 08/16/2011 11:43 pm »

Quote from: dvsmith on 08/16/2011 04:16 pm

I don't know which makes me a bigger geek: that I clicked on the photo because the cyborg-thing looked like the He-Man character 'Trap-Jaw' from my childhood, or the fact that I could tell the guy in the suit is Walter Koenig.

Moontrap has some decent sets. It also has a rather ridiculous scene where the alien entity, which merges human flesh and electronic equipment, attacks people at the Johnson Space Center. They had so little money that the model stays in one place in a hallway in order to attack people (who, if I remember correctly, had to essentially walk into its grasp).

There's an amusing story about the actress in the film. The script called for her to undress on camera. Apparently, being european, this did not bother her and she ended up getting much more undressed than the director actually expected.

Why do I know useless trivia about a lousy movie? Because somebody has to, right?

CitabriaFlyer · « **Reply #67 on:** 08/17/2011 12:12 am »

They told you they launched Skylab on a Saturn V but in reality it was this secret Apollo 18, hidden in plain site. They Skylab you thought you saw on TV in 73 and 74 was really a wet workshop launched on a secret Saturn 1B. After all, how difficult could it be to launch a Saturn 1B in secret? Ridiculous still, but a little bit of realism that could perpetuate the fantasy among most moviegoers.

Capt. David · « **Reply #68 on:** 08/31/2011 07:22 pm »

The main problem with the LK in Apollo 18 is that they DIDN'T do their research. The LK they used as a model is the LK from lab 601 at the Moscow Aviation Institute (also displayed at Eurodisney for a time). This LK was a model which was used for teaching purposes. As a result many parts were cut out or dismantled. When it was "refurbished" for its stint at Eurodisney parts that were missing were either left off, replaced with sheet metal, and even replaced with parts that didn't belong to the LK (as in, parts that came from an LOK)!

There are five LK's remaining on this planet, all in different states of disrepair. But the one they used as a model is the least accurate example.

Regards,

David L. Rickman

apace · « **Reply #69 on:** 08/31/2011 07:24 pm »

Quote from: Capt. David on 08/31/2011 07:22 pm

The main problem with the LK in Apollo 18 is that they DIDN'T do their research. The LK they used as a model is the LK from lab 601 at the Moscow Aviation Institute (also displayed at Eurodisney for a time). This LK was a model which was used for teaching purposes. As a result many parts were cut out or dismantled. When it was "refurbished" for its stint at Eurodisney parts that were missing were either left off, replaced with sheet metal, and even replaced with parts that didn't belong to the LK (as in, parts that came from an LOK)!

There are five LK's remaining on this planet, all in different states of disrepair. But the one they used as a model is the least accurate example.

Regards,

David L. Rickman

It's a science fiction movie, or a B-Movie or something like this, and not a documentary ;-)

Rifleman · « **Reply #70 on:** 09/01/2011 11:37 am »

By Hollywood standards, the fact that they used an LK at all as a reference is better than most film makers would do. If someone told me that a movie would feature a Russian lander on the moon, my first reaction would be to expect to see Buran parked in the sea of tranquility.

Mark Dave · « **Reply #71 on:** 09/01/2011 01:01 pm »

They could say the secret Saturn V launch was more of a DoD mission and that was it. I mean as one documentary on the military space stations of the 1960s of both the USSR and USA went. The public had no clue as to what was going on. They thought a regular space mission was going up. That would fit better for the Apollo 18 movie's secret lunar mission.

That part in the trailer showing the LK is interesting. Perhaps a secret mission was sent and nobody noticed it. Then of course the dead , half buried cosmonaut nearby.

The part that you can tell what is going on is the scene where the one astronaut says something is in his suit. You see this crab thing crawl over his face. Who knows what it was as you only see it once in the trailer.

Well the movie will be out soon. IMO I have my doubts on going to see it. I mean it looks like another boring found footage film, which I think that genre sucks to begin with.

Lobo · « **Reply #72 on:** 09/02/2011 04:29 pm »

Quote from: kevin-rf on 08/16/2011 02:38 pm

I think most people can tell the difference between a small sounding rocket and that long liquefying rumble of the Saturn V.

Though when you look at the history of the N1, apparently in the 1960's, the CIA missed one of the N1 failures.

Now a better plot, almost believable in movie plot speak was something was found out there and the left over Saturn V's where secretly sent to the Soviet Union and launched from the failed N1 programs pad's to the aliens... Bad B-Film Space Cowboys idea rip-off, but it is the only way I can think of to hide a Saturn V launch. The plot twist being the aliens name was Barrack But he was born in 61, so it would have to been a secret Juno launch ...

btw. This movie (I know Blackstar will take me to task for actually elevating it to the status of a "movie") already has a thread: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24146.0

They probably could have "hid" a Saturn V launch if they'd set up a secret launch site on some little uninhabited atoll in the South Pacific. Maybe someplace they did nuclear testing, but wasn't so irradiated that you couldn't build something there. Launch it broad daylight as it would even stand out more in a night launch. And tell everyone that DoD is launching some sort of "Top Secret" satellite if anyone still catches sight of it from afar.

Shipping to the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War is less probable than launching it from KSC and no one noticing. ;-)

rsp1202 · « **Reply #73 on:** 09/03/2011 04:11 am »

Of course they could hide a Saturn V launch from a desert island. They hid a second Machine off Hokkaido that Ellie Arroway rode through the wormhole, didn't they?

Blackstar · « **Reply #74 on:** 09/03/2011 01:36 pm »

I have now seen a couple of reviews of the movie that don't tear it into little pieces. Here's one:

http://io9.com/5837067/will-conspiracy-flick-apollo-18-break-the-internet

Based upon the reviews, it's starting to look like the movie may not be as bad as we expected. Not good, mind you, but not awful.

collectSPACE · « **Reply #75 on:** 09/03/2011 07:02 pm »

Apollo flight director Gerry Griffin served as technical advisor for "Apollo 18," helping the filmmakers get "the technical look and the technical feel as accurate as they could in the limits of the story."

In this interview, he discusses some of the behind-the-scene details and why he feels movies like "Apollo 18" are something "NASA can be proud of."

Apollo 18's real-life NASA flight director
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-090211a.html

Moe Grills · « **Reply #76 on:** 09/03/2011 07:32 pm »

Quote from: Skylon on 02/28/2011 01:17 am

Quote from: Orbiter on 02/28/2011 12:48 am

Did I spy an USSR LK Lander in that trailer too?

Yep. Again, another point for the production crew as it looks like they at least took the time to look up some photos of the Soviet lander. Again, yeah, we being spaceflight enthusiasts know no such thing could have been pulled off by the Russians,

Of course! in the REAL world it did not happen.
But in this FICTIONAL Apollo 18 movie, we can assume that the FICTIONAL Soviets may have developed, built and flew an (actually designed) UR-700 in the 1960's.
Imagine if in REAL LIFE Khruschev replaced Korolev with Cholemoi in 1961?

I guess we should wait for the sequel to Apollo 18 to learn that the Russians have a moonbase terrorized by aliens today.

TerryNaylor · « **Reply #77 on:** 09/03/2011 08:01 pm »

It's got horrid reviews, and they all die from the killer rocks in the end.

Stupid.

kevin-rf · « **Reply #78 on:** 09/03/2011 09:27 pm »

No spoilers please

pagefrac · « **Reply #79 on:** 09/05/2011 05:36 pm »

went and caught this movie yesterday afternoon. i left all my expectations at the theatre door, but invariably was still disappointed. aside from the little things that irritated me (ex: the "overly-flexible" EVA suits) i couldn't get past the whole Blair Witch Project on the Moon aspect.

at least the popcorn was good...