On July 20th, exactly 50 years ago, the Eagle module from Apollo 11 landed at Tranquility Base. Shortly afterward, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to ever set foot on the moon. To commemorate Armstrong and Aldrin's historic journey, here are the top 9 best movies featuring a moon landing:
A Trip to the Moon is a science fiction film dating back to 1902, starring Georges Méliès, Bleuette Bernon, Henri Delannoy, and François Lallement. Inspired by Jules Verne's stories Around the Moon and From the Earth to the Moon, the film follows the adventures of a group of astronauts who set out to reach the moon using a cannon-propelled ship. The astronauts exit the ship and begin exploring, meet and battle lunar aliens called the Selenites, and eventually return to earth with a Selenite in tow.
Destination Moon is a 1950 science fiction drama starring John Archer, Dick Wesson, Tom Powers, and Warner Anderson, directed by Irving Pichel. After losing government funding for a space program, scientist Dr. Cargraves approaches an aircraft magnate for help. The project obtains funding by private investors and, after some public outcry about safety, manages to launch an expedition. Once in space, the crew must overcome everything from a frozen piloting radar antenna, to a loss of fuel, to the discovery that they must find a way to lighten their craft's load if they're going to make it home alive.
2001: A Space Odyssey is an iconic 1968 science fiction classic, starring Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood and directed by Stanley Kubrick. Following the discovery of a black monolith on the moon that emits a strange radio signal, an expedition travels to Jupiter—including HAL 9000, the ship's advanced computer. After “Hal” begins acting in ways that jeopardize the crew's safety, Dr. David Bowman disables his decision making functions. Once he does, he makes an alarming discovery: the mission's real objective was to investigate the radio signal sent from the moon to Jupiter.
A Grand Day Out is a 1989 stop-motion film starring characters Wallace and Gromit. After trying to figure out where to spend their bank holiday, Wallace decides that they should go to the moon to taste its cheese. After building a rocket and blasting off, they run into a sapient coin-operated cooker that wants to return to earth with them.
Apollo 13 is a 1995 dramatization of the events of the aborted 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission, starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, and Bill Paxton. The film follows the crew of the Apollo 13, through the explosion of one of its liquid oxygen tanks, a leak in another, and the emergency shutdown of two of the shuttle's fuel cells. Without them, the mission cannot continue. In the midst of illness, fear, and failing equipment, the crew must find a way back home.
Moon is a 2009 science fiction film starring Sam Rockwell. The film follows Rockwell's character, a man who has spent three years mining for fuel on the far side of the moon. His workplace is highly automated, so he is its only crew member. After an accident leaves him unconscious, he is ordered to remain on base. Suspicious, he sneaks out to the scene of his accident, where he makes a disturbing discovery—what appears to be his clone.
Hidden Figures is a 2016 biopic starring Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Costner, Janelle Monáe, Kirsten Dunst and Jim Parsons. It follows the black female mathematicians working for NASA during the Space Race. Despite their expertise and contributions to the Mercury-Atlas 6, the women—Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan—are repeatedly forced to deal with the obstacles created by segregation. Goble later went on to calculate the trajectory for the Apollo 11 moon landing.
First Man is a 2018 biopic about Neil Armstrong, starring Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, and Kyle Chandler. It follows Armstrong's involvement in the moon landing, from his grief-stricken application to NASA's second human spaceflight program following the loss of his daughter, to the success of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Apollo 11 is a 2019 documentary directed by Todd Douglas Miller. It covers the 1969 Apollo 11 mission and, unlike the other films here, consists entirely of archive footage—including film never before seen by the public. For ages, people have been captivated by the moon. Even now, 50 years after man first set foot on it, it remains an object of fascination for us. These films don't just explore all of the dangers humanity has overcome in our journey to the moon, they explore what makes the moon a ripe subject for fantasy, horror, and obsession.
