Marooned (film)
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| Marooned | |
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| Directed by | John Sturges |
| Produced by | M.J. Frankovich Frank Capra Jr. |
| Written by | Martin Caidin Mayo Simon |
| Starring | Gregory Peck Richard Crenna David Janssen James Franciscus Gene Hackman Lee Grant Mariette Hartley Nancy Kovack |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 10, 1969 |
| Running time | 134 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Marooned is a 1969 film directed by John Sturges and starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, and Gene Hackman.
The film was released only four months after the Apollo 11 moon landing and is tied to the topical public fascination with the event. It won the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
The film was based on the 1964 novel Marooned by Martin Caidin; however, while the original novel was based on the single-pilot Mercury program, the film depicted a space station program resembling Skylab. Caidin rewrote the novel, incorporating appropriate material from the original version and updating it to follow the film.
Caidin acted as technical advisor for the film.
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[edit] Plot
Three American astronauts, commander Jim Pruett (Crenna), "Buzz" Lloyd (Hackman) and Clayton "Stoney" Stone (Franciscus) are returning from five months at a space station, testing out new technologies and investigating the effects of extended exposure to zero gravity, when Lloyd begins to exhibit signs of fatigue and possible emotional problems. NASA flight directors decide the mission has reached most of its objectives, and order the crew to return to earth, two months ahead of their original schedule.
When the crew attempts to fire the main engine on the Apollo spacecraft "Ironman One" to intiate reentry, the engine does not ignite. The crew is stranded in orbit, despite an indicator on the control panel confirming retrofire ("It's green," Pruett quips, "We're going to decorate it for Christmas!").
Flight controllers determine Ironman does not have enough backup thruster capability to reenter, or to re-dock with the space station and wait for a rescue or repair flight.
Mission Control debates whether a rescue flight can reach them before their oxygen runs out, in approximately four days. NASA director Charles Keith (Peck) is opposed to the risk of using a developmental craft, an X-RV lifting body craft (slightly resembling the real life X-24A) that would be launched on a Titan IIIC booster, and later land like a plane. The spacecraft is not yet "man-rated," the booster is not man-rated, and there isn't enough time to put a new mission together. Even though a booster is already on the way to the Cape -- ordered months earlier for an Air Force shot -- many hundreds of hours of preparation, assembly and testing would have to be done, which would likely cost lives on the ground due to accidents.
Keith is opposed by Ted Dougherty (Janssen), the Chief Astronaut, who demands that something be done. The President agrees with Dougherty. The President tells Keith that money is no factor -- "whatever you need, you've got it," he says, in a phone conversation ordering Keith to undertake the rescue mission.
Furious preparations begin to ready the rescue craft for launch. All normal testing and checklist procedures are bypassed to get the vehicle ready for launch. A hurricane headed for the launch area delays the rescue, but the eye passes over the Cape. With Dougherty aboard, the craft finally blasts off.
Unfortunately, there isn't enough oxygen left for all three astronauts to survive until Dougherty arrives. Realizing this, Pruett sacrifices himself, and his body drifts off into space.
Meanwhile, a Soviet spacecraft approaches as a deus ex machina and its cosmonaut tries to make contact, possibly offering to deliver oxygen since the Soviet craft is too small to carry additional passengers. Stone and Lloyd are suffering oxygen deprivation, and can't understand the cosmonaut's gestures or obey Keith's orders.
Finally, Dougherty arrives, and he and the cosmonaut transfer the two Ironman astronauts into the rescue craft. The film ends on the somewhat utopian wish fulfillment of the Space Race being resolved on a note of East-West cooperation. Both the Soviet craft and the X-RV return to Earth, and the final scene fades out with a view of the abandoned Ironman One adrift in orbit.
[edit] Technical and "Real to reel" aspects
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One way that the filmmakers tried to enhance the realism of the film was through the use of the actual Plantronics headsets worn by the actors in the spacecraft, Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR, in Houston) and Air Force Launch Control Center (AFLCC at Cape Canaveral). While most films strive to avoid "incidental" sounds, the headsets picked up the actors' breathing and other sounds.
The names of the film astronauts (Jim, Buzz and Stoney) were chosen out of the blue, not to reflect on the real astronauts with those names.
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Ted Dougherty closely resembled real-life Chief Astronaut "Deke" Slayton, both in character and physical appearance. While Slayton, one of the Mercury 7, had been grounded due to suspected heart problems, the film put him into space as the pilot of the rescue ship. David Janssen, who was a pilot himself, was selected in part due to his resemblance to Slayton.[citation needed]
In 1975, Slayton was medically cleared, and made his only space flight on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which may have been partially inspired by "Marooned."[1] The agreement between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to conduct the ASTP was signed in Moscow in April, 1971.
The MOCR and AFLCC sets were built by Philco-Ford Corporation, builders of the actual facilities. Many of the technical personnel seen in those sets were Philco-Ford technicians.
In his book "Lost Moon," Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell reported that he had taken his wife, Marilyn, to see "Marooned." This added to her worries in the weeks leading up to the launch of the ill-fated mission.
The Apollo Command Module used in making the film was an actual "boilerplate" version of the "Block I" Apollo spacecraft (no Block I ever flew with a crew aboard). While the Block II series had a means of rapidly blowing the hatch open, the Block I did not, and the interior set was constructed using the boilerplate as a model. To blow the hatch in the movie, Buzz pulls on a handle attached to a hinge.
Several scenes show various people communicating directly with the astronauts in space. In actuality, only CAPCOM (an astronaut) and astronaut's wives would be able communicate with the spacecraft, all others in MOCR and AFLCC would only be able to communicate on the internal network or to their respective backroom teams.[citation needed]
While the Titan IIIC was described as the booster which would launch the X-RV rescue craft into orbit, the only available launch footage (other than well-known Mercury and Gemini missions) was of an Air Force Titan II. The aerodynamic shroud placed over the lifting-body was designed to resemble a similar shroud which protects Titan payloads.
Conspicuously absent from the film is any person resembling a Flight Director. In real life, "Flight" is in charge of a space mission during that director's shift. The filmmakers felt that adding a Flight Director would distract from the interpersonal dynamic between Keith and Dougherty.
The offscreen voice of the President closely resembles that of Robert F. Kennedy, who had been a candidate for that office at the time of production. Following his assassination in 1968, producers decided not to re-record the audio with a different accent.
One scene portrays Keith leaving the Air Force Launch Control Center to have a private conversation with Pruett. In reality, all communications with the spacecraft would have been carried over the internal audio network, so Keith would have had as much privacy in the middle of the AFLCC.
While flying the Manned Maneuvering Unit, Lloyd's control inputs not only take place after the movements begin, but are also the opposite of what they should be, to match the preflight test shown a moment before.
[edit] The film's legacy
Marooned debuted only months after the moon landing of Apollo 11. However, it also debuted six months before the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. After seeing the same drama from the movie played-out in real life, the public and NASA began to question the safety of the US Space Program. Some say that the result of this contributed to the end of the NASA Apollo Project, the development of the space shuttle, and also the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project between the US and the Soviet Union. However, the plans to cut back the Apollo program, as well as plans for the Space Shuttle had been in the works well before the film appeared.
In the 1980s, Marooned was redistributed under the name Space Travelers by Film Ventures International, an ultra-low-budget production company that prepared quickie television and video releases of films that were in the public domain or could be purchased inexpensively. As Space Travelers, Marooned was mocked on a 1992 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, becoming the only Oscar-winning film ever to receive the MST3K treatment.
[edit] External links
- Marooned at the Internet Movie Database
- Marooned on Cloudster.com - Site with pictures of the models used in the film
[edit] References
- ^ Shepard, Alan; Slayton, Deke; Barbree, Jay; Benedict Howard, MoonShot: The Inside Story of the Apollo Project
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