IMAX has
been involved with space since its inception. Journey to the Outer Planets and
To Fly were two of the first films made in this large format. They took the
audience, with breathtaking clarity, to places only dreamed of previously. At
the beginning of the Space Shuttle era, IMAX formed a partnership with Lockheed
Martin, which led to a highly successful string of films starting with Hail
Columbia, The Dream is Alive, and many others, including the most recent, Space
Station 3D.
These films
all appeared after the Apollo era was complete. Our missions to the Moon ended
in December 1972 without any IMAX cameras flying there with the astronauts as
they do today on the shuttle and station. It has thus been impossible to truly
share the experience of landing and walking on the Moon with everyone on Earth,
until now.
Magnificent
Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D opened September 23 with the widest
release of any IMAX film. Two days previously, a world premiere event was held
at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. In
attendance were a gathering of many Apollo and Space Shuttle astronauts, the
Administrator of NASA, officials from IMAX, and a few Hollywood celebrities.
The most
visible person was the one man responsible for making Magnificent Desolation happen, Tom Hanks. Tom is known for his devotion to the
exploration of space. He always held a fascination with human flights out of the
atmosphere, but this gelled during his starring role in Apollo 13, a decade
ago. Soon after making that film, he was compelled to create From the Earth to
the Moon, the epic 12-part miniseries for HBO.
Even after
all that, Hanks felt there was more to the story of the Moon landings, a
personal one of the men themselves and what they experienced. On top of that,
he felt a television or traditional movie screen could never impart the real
feeling of being on another world, which is ultimately what he wants to convey.
As Brad
Wexler, IMAX Chairman, told me, "Tom Hanks brought the project to us. He
felt that the story of the men who walked on the Moon had never really been
told, and the way the IMAX medium works, it really breaks down the wall with
the audience and sucks you in. His goal is very, very simple: When you leave
the theater, he wants you to feel as if you've walked on the Moon! IMAX is the
medium to tell that story."
Through
serendipitous happen-stance, the release of the movie coincided with the
announcement, just days previously, of NASA's plan of action to get humanity
off this planet and into deep space, with a return to the Moon by
2018 or even earlier.
Two time Space Shuttle veteran astronaut, Roger Crouch (STS-83
& 94), told me at the premiere, "I think there's a synergism between
NASA and the results of this movie. It has a positive view toward space
exploration. When I go talk to school children about space, it always crystallizes
their vision of the future. I really see their excitement come up. I think it's
very important not only for the kids but for adults to have that positive
vision of the future."
Movies and
literature have often provided the basis for inspiration, so I asked Roger what
made him want to get involved in space in the first place, what inspired him to
become an astronaut.
"When
I was about nine years old, I saw a movie called Destination Moon. They did all
these really exciting things, it had all this adventure and other cool stuff,
but then at the end of the movie it said 'The end of the beginning,' and that
really captured my imagination. The future of the world was that adventure of
going to the Moon or going into space."
Will this
movie inspire the next generation to go into space? "Yes," Roger
replied, "I'm hoping it will, I really am. Seeing
this movie in 3D will be absolutely awesome."
His
sentiments were shared by Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan.
"I've been trying to share with people what it was like to walk on the
Moon for over three decades," he said, "trying to recreate that
environment in their minds. I think this movie will help take them there
visually, and if you let your imagination wander, almost physically."
How
important does Gene believe it is for movies like this to be produced in order
to help inspire the public?
"Absolutely significantly important. I think the public will rally
around this movie. I think you're going to see every IMAX theater
in the country filled to capacity.
"People
ask me all the time," Gene continued, "'Why did we quit? When are we
going back?' They're starved for something like this. It's exciting, it's a
romance. Space and aviation have been a romance for a hundred years. The
greatest and most important legacy that Orville and Wilbur [Wright] left us was
the inspiration for people like me and those that follow to dream. Dream the
impossible, then make it happen. That's what this is
all about."
The hope of
Magnificent Desolation is the rekindling of memories for those of us who were
there to watch in person and give those who weren't, a
first- hand perspective. For NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, this task is
very important in implementing our future vision to return to the Moon and go
beyond.
Griffin
told me, "The biggest lesson I want to bring forward from the Apollo
generation is commitment. The President has set us on a far more exciting and a
far more strategically important course for America's manned spaceflight
program than we've had for 45 years. We need to get on that course."
Russell
"Rusty" Schweickart (Apollo 9 Lunar Module
Pilot) was the first person to pilot the craft that would land us on the Moon,
but he never got to touch down there himself. How did he feel after seeing the
film?
"It's
really very, very good. What [the audience is] going to do is get this
tremendous experience, the really high-quality, three dimensional experience of
walking around on the Moon. It's very powerful, especially for kids. I thinks it's going to have a big impact. You realize the
degree of risk we were willing to take and the adventuresome spirit that was
embedded in Apollo. You kind of miss it when you realize we haven't had that
recently. "
Living with
a moonwalker had a significant impact on the life of Nancy Conrad. Better than
most, she understands what it must have been like to be there because her late
husband, Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad, shared his adventures with her over
their many years together.
"I
guess we all get to go to the Moon in this movie," she said. "I
finally get to see what Pete saw. It's about time I got to go! I wish Pete were
here to see this movie himself. He would have jumped up and clicked both heels
and said 'Whoopee!' When I got the invitation to attend this evening, Tom
[Hanks] wrote me and said Pete was inviting us all to come back."
Walt
Cunningham (Apollo 7), an astronaut who also did not make it to the Moon, said
of the movie, "I think it's excellent, it's very inspiring. Since I didn't
get to fly to the Moon, this is an immersion experience that makes me feel very
good and also makes me feel very envious of my friends who went."
Then Walt
confided in me that he did find a small fault in the movie. "You and I
both know that we had four remarkably successful missions that laid the
groundwork for them [Apollos 7, 8, 9, & 10]. I
tell you, most of the public doesn't remember and once more they are going to
see this film and think we just picked up and went to the Moon, landed, and did
it again and again."
He
certainly has a point, but obviously you can only put so much into a 40-minute
film and getting across the feeling of landing and walking on the Moon was the
mandate of Magnificent Desolation. To that end, it succeeds beyond anything
that has ever come before.
Commander
Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame had the opportunity to land on the Moon, and then
it was yanked away by the near catastrophe. As he walked in to see Magnificent
Desolation for the first time, I asked him if he was looking forward to stepping
onto the Moon vicariously. He confided, "That's why I'm here. Since I
missed it on [Apollo] 13, I might as well see what I missed in 3D!"
Nearly
everyone who is asked if they want to travel to the Moon and kick around on its
dusty surface, as did those twelve from Apollo, answer positively. With three
Space Shuttle flights and one long duration stay aboard the International Space
Station already under his belt, you might think Carl Walz
would say he has had enough of spaceflight. Instead, he enthusiastically jumped
on board.
"I
would love to go to the Moon. I would sit on that rocket, you bet!"
Watching
Magnificent Desolation puts all of us on that flight to the Moon.
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