RocketMan

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For other uses, see Rocket Man.
RocketMan

A promotional film poster for RocketMan.
Directed by Stuart Gillard
Produced by Rodger Birnbaum
Written by Oren Aviv &
Craig Mazin &
Greg Erb (story)
Craig Mazin &
Greg Erb (screenplay)
Starring Harland Williams
Jessica Lundy
William Sadler
Jeffrey DeMunn
James Pickens Jr.
Beau Bridges
Music by Michael Tavera
Cinematography Steven B. Poster
Editing by William D. Gordean
Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s) October 10, 1997 (USA)
Running time 95 minutes
Language English
Budget Unknown
Gross revenue $15,448,043 (USA)
IMDb profile

RocketMan is a 1997 comedy/science fiction movie that was made by Walt Disney Pictures with Caravan Pictures and Gold/Miller Productions and was released on October 10, 1997. The movie was shot on location at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and in Moab, Utah for the scenes on the surface on Mars.

The movie was a big flop at the box office (with a gross of only $15,448,043 in the USA), but has now become a cult classic. It was one of the inaugural Disney titles released on DVD which soon went out-of-print and along with a rare, out-of-print VHS release commanded high prices on eBay. In April 2006, the Disney Movie Club began distributing a DVD re-release. According to Amazon.com it was re-released to the public in April 2007.

Taglines:

  • He's just taking up space!
  • One Man's Dream... Is NASA's Nightmare!

[edit] Plot

NASA is currently training for the first ever manned mission to Mars. Due to a supposed glitch in the computer navigation system, NASA looks for the original programmer of the software to see why the software seems to be broken. Fred Z. Randall (Harland Williams), the eccentric programmer who wrote the software, meets Paul Wick (Jeffrey DeMunn), the flight director of the Mars mission, William "Wild Bill" Overbeck (William Sadler), the commander of the Mars mission and Astronaut Gary Hackman (Peter Onorati), the computer specialist. After a series of explanations and hard headed stubbornness from Gary, he suffers a skull fracture by getting hit with a model of the Pilgrim 1 Mars lander. NASA decides that instead of delaying the mission they get a backup astronaut. In the end, Randall gets the job. While getting ready to go on the space shuttle, Randall realizes his fears and is afraid to go on with the mission. Bud Nesbitt (Beau Bridges), the man that Wick claims to be the cause of the Apollo 13 accident, tells Randall about the time he was given three commemorative coins by President Johnson. He gave one coin to Neil Armstrong, another to Jim Lovell, and finally shows Randall a gold coin reading, "Bravery". "It hasn't done me much good," Bud says. "Maybe it'll mean something to you."

Fred, along with Commander Overbeck, Astronaut Julie Ford (Jessica Lundy), and Ulysses, a chimpanzee that was trained for looking for fossils on the surface (and just happens to be Fred's roommate on the ship), blast off into space. In order to save food, all crew members are put to "hypersleep" for eight months while the space shuttle Aries makes its trip towards Mars. As if on purpose, Ulysses mistakes Randall's "hypersleep chamber" for his own and Randall has to sleep in Ulysses' chimp-shaped chamber. Randall falls asleep for only 13 minutes and has to stay up for eight months. While looking up the Mars weather data on the space shuttle's computer, Randall notices something that could put the crew's lives in danger. Randall calls Nesbitt and tells him about a group of severe "sandstorms" that are forecasted to head over the crew's landing site. If the crew is on Mars when the sandstorms hit, they could be lost forever. Nesbitt tells Wick about the situation but Wick just ignores him. The crew makes it to Mars, after Overbeck barks at Randall for being awake the whole time, and using all the food for painting. They land the pilgrim on the Martian surface. As Overbeck prepares to be the first to step on mars, Randal slips and lands first followed by Overbeck. Then Fred says that it wasn't him and then a USA Today Newspaper shows up with the head line that says "First Words On Mars (next line) 'It wasn't me!'".

A day after the crew lands, the sandstorms arrive ahead of schedule. After almost losing Overbeck and Ulysses in the sandstorm, the crew immediately flies off the Martian surface. The crew members almost make it out of the sandstorm until a rock slide kicked up by the wind hits the lander. Pilgrim 1 starts to spins out of control, without power. In order to boot up the power again, Randall has to rewire the entire system in less than 2 minutes or they crash and die. With less than 20 seconds, Randall has to complete the circuit. He frantically searches for something and finally grabs the coin that Bud gave him. Randall jams the coin into the slot at the last second and the lander regains power. The crew safely return to the space shuttle in Mars' orbit.

As Randall gets ready for "hypersleep" one last time, Ulysses climbs into Randall's "hypersleep chamber" once again, forcing Randall to stay up again for another eight months on the journey back home.

[edit] External links

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