Taglines: He’s just taking up space!
Rocket Man movie storyline. NASA is training for the first manned mission to Mars by the spacecraft Aries. 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 display of hard-headed stubbornness by Gary, he is hit in the head by a model of the Pilgrim 1 Mars lander, resulting in a skull fracture. NASA decides to replace him instead of delaying the mission. Fred is brought to NASA to see if he has what it takes to be an astronaut; he, along with Gordon Peacock, go through a series of exercises, which sees Fred do well, even going as far to break every record that Bill had. In the end, Fred gets the job.
While getting ready to board the Aries, Fred chickens out and refuses to go on the mission. Bud Nesbitt (Beau Bridges), who Wick claims is the cause of the Apollo 13 accident, tells Fred about the three commemorative coins given to him 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 one day.”
Fred, along with Commander Overbeck, geologist Julie Ford (Jessica Lundy), and Ulysses, a trained chimpanzee, will look for fossils on Mars. To save on resources, crew members are put into “hypersleep” for eight months while the ship heads towards Mars. Ulysses purposely takes Fred’s “hypersleep chamber” for his own and Fred has to sleep in Ulysses’ chimp-shaped chamber. He sleeps for only 13 minutes and has to stay up for eight months.
While looking at Mars weather data Fred notices severe sandstorms that could endanger the crew. He contacts Bud in Houston and tells him about the storms that are forecast to hit the landing site. If the crew get caught in the storms, they could be lost forever. Bud tells Wick about the situation but Wick ignores him.
The crew makes it to Mars, after Overbeck barks at Fred for being awake the whole time and using all the food, except food that the former despises (anchovy paste, creamed liver, and gefilte fish), for painting. They land the Pilgrim on the Martian surface. As Overbeck prepares to be the first human to step on Mars, Fred slips from the ladder and lands first.
RocketMan is a 1997 comic science fiction film directed by Stuart Gillard and starring Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Beau Bridges, Jeffrey DeMunn, Ken Farmer, Brandon Kaplan, Paxton Whitehead and Pamela West. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Caravan Pictures, and was released on October 10, 1997.
Rocket Man (1997)
Directed by: Stuart Gillard
Starring: Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Beau Bridges, Jeffrey DeMunn, Ken Farmer, Brandon Kaplan, Paxton Whitehead, Pamela West
Screenplay by: Oren Aviv, Craig Mazin, Greg Erb
Production Design by: Roy Forge Smith
Cinematography by: Steven Poster
Film Editing by: William D. Gordean
Costume Design by: Daniel Orlandi
Set Decoration by: Brenda Meyers-Ballard
Art Direction by: Joseph A. Hodges, Michael Rizzo
Music by: Michael Tavera
MPAA Rating: PG for language, crude humor and thematic elements.
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: October 10, 1997
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