Fly Me to the Moon (film) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Fly Me to the Moon
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ben Stassen
Written by	Domonic Paris
Starring	Kelly Ripa Christopher Lloyd Nicollette Sheridan Tim Curry Buzz Aldrin
Music by	Ramin Djawadi
Editing by	Kerry Fulton
Distributed by	Kinepolis Film Distribution (Belgium) Summit Entertainment (United States)
Release date(s)	30 January 2008 (2008-01-30) (Belgium) 15 August 2008 (2008-08-15) (United States)
Running time	84 minutes 50 minutes (IMAX version)
Country	Belgium United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Money made	$41.7 million

Fly Me to the Moon is a 2008 Belgian-American CGI-animated 3-D science fiction comedy film about three flies who stowaway aboard Apollo 11 and travel to the Moon. It was directed by Ben Stassen and written by Domonic Paris. The film was released in digital 3-D in Belgium on 30 January 2008, and in the US and Canada on 15 August 2008. The film was also released in IMAX 3-D in the US and Canada on 8 August 2008.

Fly Me to the Moon was produced by nWave Pictures in association with Illuminata Pictures, and distributed by Summit Entertainment and Vivendi Visual Entertainment in the United States.

Plot

The narrator explains that in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Earth's first satellite Sputnik 1 into orbit. In 1961, when NASA was putting a monkey named Enos aboard Mercury Atlas 5, astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to go to space. Feeling the sense of urgency to overtake the Soviets in the space race, U.S. President John F. Kennedy made a statement toward a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, stating that before the decade is out, he plans to launch a man to the Moon and return him safely to the Earth.

Eight years later, in 1969, an 11-year-old fly named Nat and his two best friends, I.Q. and Scooter, build a "fly-sized" rocket in a field across from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where Apollo 11 sits on the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. From his earliest memory, Nat's grandfather, Amos, often tells him of his many adventures such as his daring rescue of Amelia Earhart when she crossed the Atlantic Ocean on her historic 1932 solo flight. Wanting to be an adventurer like his grandpa, Nat tells his friends his plan to get aboard Apollo 11 and go to the Moon. They, with some reluctance, are in. The next morning, the three flies make it in to Mission Control and stow away inside the space helmets of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

Grandpa, Nat's mother, and the others watch TV to get news of their offspring's adventure. As the astronauts appear on camera, the heroic flies wave in the background, visible to other flies but barely seen by humans – except for the attentive NASA flight controller Steve Bales, who informs Armstrong of the "contaminants" on board. In the Soviet Union, there are other flies watching TV – Soviet flies who cannot tolerate the idea that American flies might get to the Moon first. Special Soviet operatives are enlisted to interfere with the American mission, including an operative named Yegor. Fortunately, Nadia, a Soviet fly, hears Scooter calling out the name of Amos, who she met in Paris and loved many years ago.

Onboard the Command Module Columbia, as the burn cycle to enter the Moon's trans-lunar injection orbit begins, the spacecraft is violently rocked. There's a short circuit in the service module that must be fixed manually or the ship won't be able to complete its mission. Nat and I.Q. fly through a maze of wires, find the problem, and repair it just in time. Unaware of the flies' aid, the ship enters orbit and just as they congratulate each other, the flies are sprayed with a numbing aerosol and held captive in a test tube.

The flies manage to break the vial. Nat sneaks into Armstrong's helmet as he enters the Lunar Module Eagle, which lands on Mare Tranquillitatis. From inside Armstrong's helmet, Nat beams with every awe-inspiring historic step. I.Q. and Scooter join him on the surface inside Aldrin's helmet. After a climactic rescue with Nat bringing Scooter back to Columbia, Eagle is jettisoned. Back on Earth, other plots are being set in motion. After more than 30 years apart, Nadia arrives in America and visits Amos, and tells him and Nat's mother about the Soviet plot to divert the mission. Amos takes off with a vow to save the mission. At Mission Control, the Soviet operatives prepare to alter the descent codes. Unaware of the potential danger, the Apollo 11 astronauts and the flies prepare to come back home.

Amos, Nat's mother, and Nadia join forces to stop Yegor and the Soviet plan as the command module Columbia arrives near Earth's atmosphere. After a period of radio silence due to ionization blackout, Columbia splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, where it is recovered by the USS Hornet. Nat, I.Q. and Scooter return to their junkyard as heroes.

At the film's end, the real Buzz Aldrin appears and explains that no flies were on board during the historic flight, and it is scientifically impossible for a bug to go to space.

Cast