The older man in the background at 18:58-19:05 is the real Chuck Yeager. Yeager's friend in the movie who keeps giving him gum is played by Levon Helm, the drummer from The Band. Gonzalez, the orderly in the hospital is played by Pro Football Hall of famer Anthony Munoz, who played for the Cincinnati Bengals.
@@okchristina It's interesting that although Sam Shepard and the real Chuck Yeager are physically so different from one another, Shepard's performance here was so iconic that many people now have two images of what Yeager really looked like.
And Gus was right about the hatch. They discovered that the explosive bolts blew on their own and changed the design of the hatch to open inwardly, ironically it's what sealed (no pun intended) the fate of Gus, Ed White and Roger Chaffee when they were killed while performing a "routine" plugs out test for (what was later designated as a memorial to Gus, Ed and Roger) Apollo 1. If you haven't seen the miniseries I highly recommend watching "From The Earth To The Moon." The entire second episode is about Apollo 1 and its aftermath and even though I've watched it numerous times I still get choked up watching it.
The switch blow the hatch was mechanical with an explosive charge; It required some force to operate, and the explosive charge kicked back and bruised the astronaut's hand. Gus Grissom came back without this mark.
As I recall they recovered and examined his capsule in the late 90s and after examination confirmed the mechanical trigger for the hatch bolts had not been activated as well. They system did not rely on any electrical power so it would be operable even if all power was lost, however the fulminate used in the percussion caps that activated the detonators can be prone to electrical discharges so speculation has been a static discharge could have possibly set it off.
Gordon Cooper's flight was impressive. He had lost almost all power on his ship. He was useing manual mechanical linkage to controll his reentry useing only visual cues for guidence. And still managed to come down in the target zone.
The NF-104 test flight at the end was Yeager’s last record attempt. The flight wasn’t unauthorized as depicted, it was part of a program of tests. When he ejected from the plane the rocket motor in his seat smashed his faceplate and ignited the oxygen in his helmet, severely burning him. Yeager returned to line aviation afterward and retired as a Brigadier General.
It should be noted that "Pancho" Barnes was a noted aviator herself. She used to do barnstorming and air racing in the late 1920s and early 30s. She held the Women's Air Speed record for a while. She did aerial stunt work in the movies and set up the Associated Motion Picture Pilots union. She got the name "Pancho" when she was in Mexico and got caught up in the revolution, so she disguised herself as a man. During the great depression she sold her house in Hollywood and set up the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
I was in grade school during the early 60s. Every time they had one of these launches, they would take everyone in the school down to the gym where they had a couple black and white TVs set up so we could watch them.
Yes, those were exciting times, altho we did see some live crashes, which luckily were before astronauts were inside. The most thrilling event however, was John Glenn orbiting the Earth in Feb 1962.
@@okchristina I wanted to be an astronaut since I was a kid. They were planning on 40 shuttle launches per year and needed many astronauts. I was filling out the paperwork to apply for a position as a mission specialist when the Challenger blew up, so no launches for a couple years, no expansion to 40 per year, and no bunches of new astronauts needed.
Tom Wolfe wrote the book. He interviewed everybody he could to get the story of the test pilots who flew the early jets, and became the first astronauts. My dad said Tom Wolfe wrote his interview notes on those yellow legal pads, and usually filled 40 handwritten pages per day. He also told me that Tom Wolfe said he was lucky to get two paragraphs for his book out of 40 pages of notes. If you have not seen the movie Asteroid City (A Wes Anderson movie), you must see it.
54:03 when Chuck Yeager ejected from the NF-104 and separated from his Ejection Seat, the bottom of the seat impacted with his head, breaking the glass visor of his helmet. The rush of Oxygen from his pressure suit ignited, setting the helmet liner and his head on fire; that was why he was gyrating in the air, trying to extinguish the flames from the helmet. Yeager suffered a head wound from the broken visor, and the blood from his wound burned, creating a layer of 'crust' which protected his face and left eye from more serious damage. The scab left over had to be scraped away every few days in order to minimize scarring his face permanently. His left eye was undamaged from the impact and fire.
"Beemans (Gum) first became popular with pilots because of its stomach-soothing pepsin powder. This addition, coupled with the act of chewing gum, helped early pilots avoid motion sickness and nausea. Shortly after, Beemans became known as the “lucky” gum for pilots when the world-famous Chuck Yeager admitted to chewing a stick before each flight."
@@js0988 Yeah, and when mounting the plane to break Crossfield's record Ridley didn't want to loan him a stick. "Here we go again". He knew if Yeager kept chasing the demon sooner or later Yeager wouldn't be coming back to pay him back. Yeager didn't even have the credit to borrow a stick of gum.
Pilots often chew gum to help keep the pressure equalized in their ears and sinuses. Being stuffed up during pressure changes can be painful and even dangerous.
2:22 The actor guy in the middle playing Col Jack Ridley is Levon Helm (the drummer from the rock band 'The Band'). "Take a load off Fanny". He also narrates the movie.
He narrates the movie in his UNMISTAKABLE Arkansas drawl. Once you've heard him speak, you will always be able to identify him - just like Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones, or Sam Elliott.
I absolutely love the relationship between John Glen and his wife. It is so cool that the actress who plays Mrs. Glenn is Emily and Zooey Dechanel's mother.
Nice reaction. Thank you for adding the musical info. I typically don't think much about that, so nice to know the source. A true story. Chuck Yeager was such a chill guy, that when Germany introduced jets in WWII and we still had only propeller planes, Yeager was asked what he did when he first saw a German jet. In typical Yeager, he said simply "I shot it down".
Music is my day job so my ear can't help but hear. I have to be careful to not let it steal the show from the actual movie! Yeager sure sounds like he was an interesting dude!
The early space program had three phases. The Mercury phase taught us how to go into orbit with one pilot. The Gemini phase taught us how to dock two crafts together with two pilots. And the Apollo phase tught us who to land on the moon. The Rigth stuff is only about the Mercury stage. But it was those men who set the standard and later several of them would go to the moon. My Dad worked at Kennedy Space Center from 1958-72 and knew many of them. His favorites were Alan Sheppard and John Glenn which makes this movie special to me.
The woman who owned the saloon, the Happy Bottom Riding Club, was herself an interesting character named Pancho Barnes. She was one of the first women to get a pilot's license. Look her up! She knew and raced against Amelia Earhart. Chuck Yeager died in 2020, aged 97.
The story I heard is that Bill Conti used classical pieces like The Planets as stand-ins for pieces to be composed for the soundtrack, but the director liked them so much that they decided to just use the originals rather than compositions inspired by them. On the other hand, he was definitely 'inspired' by (read that as 'plagiarized') Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto for one of the main themes for the movie.
I've been hearing about the Tchaik -- I will have to go back and listen. There was at least one inspired-by piece in the soundtrack. It was Jupiter, but it wasn't. Kinda like what The Simpsons does. lol
@@okchristinaI listened to the entire Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and I didn't hear any resemblance to this score. I'm a musician so I don't know why people keep saying it sounds like it.
@@okchristinaCompare this scene from the movie (ruclips.net/video/ujeu-3C3sTg/видео.htmlsi=lSYq74itQ1FfJ8ue) with this recording of the concerto (ruclips.net/video/cbJZeNlrYKg/видео.html&si=QYXkFTtdfHr9FibX) starting at about the 6:18 mark.
I remember seeing pictures of Glenn after he was recovered from his flight in 1962... this was just before I started kindergarten. Mercury finished when I was in first grade. None of this had the "live" TV hoopla that the later missions had. If you saw it, it was through newspaper stories, Life or National Geographic, or the five o'clock news and Walter Cronkite. Live coverage of space missions started with Gemini 4... not even Grissom's pioneering Gemini 2 mission was live on TV. I do remember seeing the later Gemini launches live, as they brought a large TV into class assemblies at school for these events. Movies that honor these times include First Man and Apollo 13 - both are very good, and deserve watching.
The strict nurse was played by Jane Dornacker. She was killed in a helicopter crash in 1986 while doing a traffic report for a radio station while live-on-air. The helicopter crashed in the Hudson River and the audio of the crash is still available online.
Huge THANKS TO CELESTE MCALLISTER for picking this gem. This was a wonderful watchalong with you, Christina. So many great things can be said, but I remember even back then how great, if not just rare it was, for showing the wive's side of things. One of the cool things has been watching so many of these actors grow through the years, heck, decades! Even if one 'got to' bump into one another in another movie together (Ed and Scott in Absolute Power), or seeing Ed in another nasa role...
There have been some overlapping of actors, yes. I get them confused a bit, but still all good. Thank you for watching and always thankful for these excellent requests! (Hooray Celeste!)
The other government recruiter, along with Jeff Goldblum, was Harry Shearer, who is the voice of Homer Simpson, and, yes, played Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap. LOL.
Great choice enjoyed watching this with you. Jane Dornacker who played Nurse Murch was a very interesting woman. Songwriter for The Tubes, musician, standup comedian, actress and a news reporter in NYC. Died in a news helicopter crash in New York in 1986.
John Glenn was later elected US Senator from Ohio and served for 20+ years. He also became the oldest (at the time) Space Shuttle astronaut while he was a Senator. Alan Shepard was later an Apollo astronaut, and walked on the moon. First American in space AND walking on the moon, like the bookends of the early space program. Remarkable lives.
That's the problem - any REAL movie of her life would be lucky to squeak in as a hard-R rating - but damn, that would be a glorious movie indeed. She was a pioneer, and fearless.
When I was in High School I wrote a letter to General Chuck Yeager (Retired) and received an autographed photo. I'm 56 now and it is one of my most prized possessions.
Also: if there's a reason a lot of this score sounds like Holst's "The Planets" suite, it's because in large part it was directly lifted -- or inspired by -- it. The director, when meeting with Bill Conti (same person who did other legendary soundtracks like 'Rocky' and 'The Karate Kid') gave him Holst's "The Planets" and said something to the effect of "make it sound like this." After awhile of working on it, Conti pretty much was forced to make the soundtrack largely identical to "The Planets", so you'll see a lot of... um... references to it throughout the film. Still, one of my favorite movie scores.
During Gordon Cooper's Mercury mission, they lost the flight computer. He had to bring it in manually. His pulse and respiration never budged. He was dead calm the whole time. And he put her down less than 20 miles from the target. He may have been a cocky a--hole, but Gordo was definitely a pilot.
20 years later NASA offered Yeager a seat on a Space Shuttle flight...he said he wanted to 'fly' it and not be a passenger...NASA declined and he never went into space. The 'firefly' explanation....there were several explanations & the best one was tiny ice crystals were breaking loose from the spacecraft's 'rough' skin (humid Florida--some morning dew took a ride into space and froze. ...and incredibly, ocean explorers found Grissom's capsule sitting on the ocean bottom in the 90s. It was in amazing shape and after a 'clean-up/preservation' it's in a museum in his home state or goes on tour (an examination also proved he didn't 'blow the hatch').
I was in 4th grade when Allen Shepard was launched into space. A mother brought a TV to the classroom so we could watch the flight. It was on most of the day because of the delays.
I saw Chuck Yeager in person when he spoke at the National Air and Space Museum. He was the best public speaker I ever experienced and whey I went in line to get him to autograph my copy of his autobiography I looked into his steely blue eyes and felt a jolt right down to my toes! As Tom Wolfe called him, "the most righteous possessors of the right stuff," indeed.
One of my favorite books! By the way, he is not the "grim reaper" he's the "friend of widows and orphans. The book explains that one of the legacies of Chuck Yeager is his cool-under-pressure West Virginia drawl that pilots still imitate today....uhhhhh ladies and gentlemen... from the flight deck... etc ... that was taken up by most pilots and still used today wanting to imitate Chuck's no-stress-no matter what is happening flyinging genius. Read the book... it give much more insight to the Super-Seven and the shoulders on those whom they rose from 1957- now.🚀
Thanks, you educated me on "The Planets" by Gustav Holtz. I had listened to that tune lots of times when watching this movie (and more frequently in recent years on Forza Horizon 4's classical radio station), and had thought that tune originated with the movie. But you've now taught me its correct origin. 😄
The 'fireflies" really did fly around Glenn's capsule as well as Scott Capenter's. No one knows for sure what they were but it is theorized that they were crystalized ice that was on the exterior of the capsules.
Was so happy when you recognized The Planets by Gustav Holst! Great movie with wonderful performances, and it does tell an important story worthy of being remembered.
Jerry Pournelle was an old friend of mine. He was a contractor during the early space program. He told a story where an astronaut was in a capsule simulator calling out readouts when someone got a handful of gravel and threw it at the hull of the capsule. All of the physical readouts pegged the top of the dials, and went back to normal as the astronaut calmly completed the exercise. He wasn’t calm, nor pleased, when he got out. He had fun stories from that stage of his life.
The feat performed by Gordo Cooper mentioned at the end was that he had to angle his capsule for re-entry using only his eyes and his watch because of a total electrical failure in his capsule. Not only did he splash down safely but he landed in sight of the carrier that was to pick him up or, as he put it, "Right on the old bazzoo!"
I was two years shy of my 6th birthday when John Glen orbited the Earth. You may not believe me, but I remember it being talked about on my kitchen Radio in Brooklyn, NY, with blow-by-blow detail. You see, my 15-yr old brother had passed due to a tragic accident just five months earlier, so that period of my life was sealed in my memory. I wanted to e an Astronaut more than anything, so just 12-yrs later I was admitted to the U.S. Air Force Academy. Unfortunately, I could not maintain the minimum GPA to make into my second year their.
The dancer was Sally Rand, famous burlesque actress and exotic dancer. She was an actress washed out by the talkies (had a lisp), who rose to fame at the 1933 World's Fair and performed with those huge ostrich fans (and usually a body-suit) for decades (LOTs of state fairs, conventions etc). skirting just on the "it's art" side of things. She really did perform at the BBQ for the Space Center (she was around 60 at the time). The book has some details, and she was featured on a biography program on one of the education channels Edward's AFB was built near "Pancho" (one of her youthful adventures had her in Mexico during the Revolution) Barne's Dude Ranchand cafe/restaurant as a training center during WWII. It was a place where pilots rubbed elbows with Hollywood types (Barnes had founded the film stunt pilot's union during her flying days).
Thankyou for this delightful reaction. A few more 'astronaut' movies to consider From the Earth to the Moon is a twelve-part 1998 HBO television miniseries that goes extremely well alongside The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, and Hidden Figures. Farther afield, the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey and the lesser known sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
Fun fact that didn't make the film with Yeager's hot dogging. In Charleston WV there is a Bridge he claimed for himself by flying a loop under and over it. The first time created a stir with calls to the airport also with his name today. After during the Charleston Sternwheel Regattas he did reenact it a few times. The Bridge is the start of the WV Turnpike. He is a WV native and local hero that is one of the few in the military to have a Base/Airport or a Bridge named for them while they were still alive. He also was still flying with the Aggressor Squadron in his later years past normal mandated retirement age in his 80's. Also while you seem to have edited him out he did cameo in the film as the old man in the bar with the cowboy hat plus served as a primary consultant for the film. I also was stuck at work an extra 2-3 hours because the streets were locked down for his memorial service. From the Elk River (Civic Center) to the State Capitol all streets were shut down between the Kanawha River to 4 blocks back. I got back with lunch as they were sealing off Quarrier, Virginia, Piedmont Streets and the Kanawha Blvd. Lee and Washington Streets was already closed. The closures were twice what has been done for POTUS visits and longer. I live under the Yeager flight path outside Charleston and next to him in status was the astronaut (shuttle pilot) and former governor candidate John McBride (Also a distant cousin, 5th 0r 6th depending on branch)
I was 10 years old in February, 1962 and had to be in Florida with my family to deal my grandfather's estate.. I begged my dad to take me up the coast to Cape Canaveral to see John Glenn's launch but he said there would be too many people and it would be too crowded. I watched the launch on tv and ran outside when they mentioned that there is a vapor trail from the rocket. The image of the vapor trail I saw up in the Florida sky is burnt into my memory. Your reaction to this movie is wonderful, including your mentions of so many of your personal observations revealing your knowledge of the early years of the space program.
I love that movie. It is hilarious and thrilling. It was released around the time of Challenger. Not good timing. Maybe Phoenix can hop on and make sure that it isn't a cheesy reunion??
It's always been curious to me how 2 of the actors in this have the same names as the astronauts. Alan Shepard the first American astronaut, and Sam Shepard playing Chuck Yeager the first man to break the sound barrier. Scott Glenn playing Alan Shepard ,and John Glenn the first American in orbit. I met John Glenn at an air, and science convention when I was 7. I didn't know who he was but I knew what a space capsule was. He was with it at the convention. They had blocked off the back portion off the capsule interior so all you could see through the window was the control panel. I didn't understand that. I asked how he could fit. He didn't understand. He said everybody is surprised how small the capsule was. I said I meant how could he fit between the plate, and the control panel. Then he understood. He said the plate was put in so nobody could see to the back. I asked why was that. We had all come to see it. He said it was because the back of the interior was secret. I said I wouldn't tell anyone if he let me see. But he said he couldn't open it. I didn't believe him, and left resenting him. 7 year olds, right? I wanted to go to the convention so much but my mom said she didn't have the money for bus fare to take all 8 of us. Her, and 7 children. I collected pop bottles for the deposit to pay the bus fare. Going to the convention on the bus I found out the convention was just 6 blocks from where we got on the bus. Next day I convinced my 6 year old brother to play hooky with me, and hop a freight train to go to the convention by ourselves. We wandered around it all day. The following week the troop of Boy Scouts led a merit badge eligible hike of several Cub Scout troops to the convention center. Since I had already been there all day before I knew a lot about the science stuff that was there. I told the kids all about it the whole time we were there. Our scout master was so impressed he recommended me for 5 merit badges. I never got any because we were too poor to buy them. I never wanted to be a boy scout in the first place. It was a 10 mile bus ride to get there every Friday night when Star Trek was on. I played hooky from that too. Years later found out the assistant troop leader was a pedo.
The X-1 was painted orange so that it could be seen easily in flight. I was also shaped like a 50 caliber bullet because 50 caliber bullets were known to travel faster than sound.
I'm *SO* disappointed in RUclips for hiding this from me for 8 days. I genuinely let out an audible squeak when I saw this pop up on my home page! Despite a few artistic liberties taken, this is among my favorite movies and such a great tale about the early days of the space race. If you want to learn more about what happened next, be sure to check out the HBO miniseries 'From the Earth to the Moon' (a Tom Hanks/Ron Howard project)... it's fantastic. Thanks so much for hitting this one -- I'm bummed more reactors don't catch it!
Re Sam Shepard, who played Chuck Yeager: Shepard was a fascinating person. He was a terrific actor: charismatic, intelligent, strikingly handsome. But here’s the odd thing: Being a movie star was just his day job. He only did it to pay the rent. He was also a genius writer, a director, a musician (he collaborated with Bob Dylan), and mainly a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. Over 60 plays. Many rank him alongside Eugene O'Neill as America's greatest playwright. Astonishing. Nobody should be trusted with so much talent. It's just not fair. Ironically, Shepard was afraid of flying. He had guts though: to prepare for this role, he pushed through his fear and went on an airplane. But a commercial flight wasn't enough. He wanted to see what it was REALLY like, so he had the real Chuck Yeager take him flying in a military jet.
The sound barrier is an actual physical phenomenon. Sound is a pressure wave that moves at the speed of sound. If you move as fast as the speed of sound, you catch up to, or stay with all of the pressure waves ahead of you, which add up to a much higher pressure. The same phenomenon that creates the sonic boom. That pressure wall wrecked havoc on the aerodynamics of the airplane. Once plane remains stable and gets past the sound pressure wave, the plane stays ahead of the sound and flies more stabley.
Sound works by the sound waves moving away from an object. The sound can’t outrun a supersonic airplane, so the sound waves start to get combined into one large wave like the bow wake of a boat. A sound wave builds at the nose of the aircraft and another at the tail which is why you usually hear two sonic booms. Most of the problems with supersonic flight were solved by the use of swept-wings, which keep the wings out of the pressure wave, and all-flying tails that don’t require elevators.
Dennis Quaid grew up in Houston and the NASA astronauts were his childhood heroes. When the shooting on the movie was finished he asked if he could keep his space suit. They said no.
I truly enjoyed watching you react to this excellent film. There was something about your combination of personality and understanding of the time and the events that really made it fun. I loved that you recognized Holtz's "Jupiter the Jollity." I concur with those who've recommended "From Earth To The Moon" - the HBO mini-series produced by Ron Hward, Tom Hanks & Brian Grazer after they shot Apollo 13. It's brilliant. I'm sure somebody has revealed the older man who glares at the guys bad-mouthing Yeager was the actual Chuck Yeager. Also, back in the 70's, my band used to chew Beeman's gum when we played. It's help keep time, chewing with the beat. I always loved the pepsin flavor, but part of it was due to this movie. I have a ridiculous collection of NASA stuff, including a "First Step on the Moon" figure purchase from a gentleman who worked for NASA down the hall from Wernher von Braun, so these films are near to my heart.
Fantastic to see this reaction pop up!….so very few take the time to react to this film. There were liberties taken but the meat of the story is nonetheless a tremendous part of history. Those men were just cut from a different mold…the early days of flight, the boldness & sheer guts it took is inspiring.
Enjoyed your reaction very much. Fun Fact: the ticker tape parade for John Glenn was shot in the Financial District of San Francisco because it was the closest place where tall buildings had windows that would open.
Sam Sheppard that plays Yeager is so sexy in this movie, he was also very talented, a playwriter as well as an actor. The guy playing Ridley (not sure of his rank) is Levon Helm of The Band fame.
Annie Glenn was portrayed by Mary Jo Deschanel, the mother of Emily Deschanel (Bones) and Zoey Deschanel (The New Girl). The Director Of Photography on this movie was multiple-award-winning and six-time Oscar-nominated Caleb Deschanel, Mary Jo's husband. She usually has parts in the movies that he films. Caleb was the cinematographer on The Black Stallion, The Natural, Hope Floats, Anna And The King, The Patriot, Jack Reacher, and many others. Also, it's worth mentioning that this movie is based on the INCREDIBLY detailed book by Tom Wolfe, and is essentially a highlight reel of the book, showing the most interesting (to general audiences) 5% of the book. For anyone who is interested in the Space Program, this huge coffee-table book with hundreds of incredible pictures is definitely worth checking out. Wolfe spent years researching the book, and interviewed hundreds of people, including most of the "characters" in the movie, and while there is a bit of creative license in the movie, the vast majority of what you see is as close to what actually happened as you're ever going to get in a movie. Much of the dialog is taken directly from NASA transcripts and records. Wolfe was amazed that, despite all of the record-keeping, no one before him had ever made any effort to put this story together - the people involved knew parts of the story, but there was never an overall narrative of the beginnings of NASA, especially as it grew out of the ballistic missile and the test pilot programs. The whole test pilot program was really only known to those directly involved, because it was a secret when it happened and by the time it was declassified, most people didn't know why they should care. Had it not been for Wolfe getting the stories from so many people, most of this story - the early test-pilot part especially - would have all been lost to time.
Christina, 2016s HIDDEN FIGURES is another great film about the NASA women mathematicians and computer scientists that made the space race possible. It stars Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Costner, Jim parson and Glen Powell. You'll love it!
@ 3:26 there is a three plane formation. But Air Force pilots enter battle in a two plus two four plane formation. The missing plane is recognizing the "missing man" who has perished. Much like at an Army funeral there is a horse without a rider.
Loved your reaction so much. This is one my favorite movies because it's like the story of my childhood. I was in 2nd grade when Shepard went into spac,e and the space program was a major part of my childhood.
The astronauts' capsules names were: Freedom 7 (Shepard), Liberty Bell 7 (Grissom), Friendship 7 (Glenn), Aurora 7 (Carpenter), Sigma 7 (Schirra), and Faith 7 (Cooper). Deke Slayton didn't go into space on the Mercury program because he was grounded because of a very minor heart defect in retaliation for the astronauts' defiance backing up John Glenn about LBJ coming into his house. Also grounded after their flights were Carpenter (for over shooting his splash down by 250 miles) and Shepard (dizzy spells)l.
@@vincentsaia6545 Shepard used an alias and with his own money went to a civilian doctor in Cali to have that condition fixed. He would eventually regain flight status and during Apollo landed on the Moon and actually drove a golf ball lol
I read the book before the movie came out. Lets just say the film maker took a lot of liberties with the movie. Chuck Yeager was the old guy in Panchos early in the movie. After the movie came out he did a bunch of TV commercials for AC.Delco auto parts. The Mercury program was the US first attempt to catch up and eventually surpass the Russian space program and going to the Moon. We got to see it all on TV back in the 60;s into the 70's.
Great film. You're watching a film starring Scott Glenn, which includes the character of John Glenn, and there's a poster behind you of "The Hunt for Red October" with Scott Glenn. I have no idea of that's significant, but it bears mentioning. 😁
Talk about psychic convergence- just this morning I watched a video by legendary group The Band. In the comments, someone mentioned that Levon Helm (*the* singer on The Weight) was the narrator *and* played Jack Ridley in the movie (no clue)! And now I see a this reaction posted by you today! I was also "part" of the Atlanta, Georgia premiere of this movie in 1985 (don't ask.) Chuck Yeager was there. I still have the commemorative program from that event...
it got an unprecedented 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Won 4 out of the 8 Oscars nominated. Popcorn In Bed did a reaction to this a year ago, but nobody else. I recommend it to all who did APOLLO 13.
The "fireflies" were determined to be frost crystals forming from the gases expelled by the reaction control system of the capsule. One theory claimed that the frost was from the urine dump but the Mercury capsule did not have the plumbing necessary for that to be the case.
I have loved this film since I saw it as a kid in the 1980s. Very few reactors do this one, and when someone does, I click really fast. Anyway, I am glad you enjoyed it. - Director Phillip Kaufman was one of the generation of filmmakers that included Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and others of the film school grad crowd of the 1960s and 70s. In fact, Kaufman helped flesh out the story of Raiders of the Lost Ark with George Lucas. Some of his other excellent films: - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 remake) with Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy...the last scene is terrifying!!! - The Unbearable Lightness of Being with Danel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, and Lena Olin - Quills with Geoffrey Rush (as the Marquis de Sade) and Kate Winslet - Rising Sun with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes is based on the Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park) best-seller. - Caleb Deschanel is the Director of Photography for this film, and his wife, Mary Jo Deschanel, plays Annie Glenn, wife of John Glenn. This was one of the films the two made together (another I know of is The Patriot with Mel Gibson). At about this time, their daughters Emily and Zooey were very young. Emily was about 6 or 7 and would grow up to become an actress, best known for playing Dr. Temperance Brennan on the hit series Bones. Zooey was about 3 years old, and she would also become an actress and be in films like Almost Famous, Elf, and the television series The New Girl. Caleb was nominated for Best Cinematography. - Playwright and actor Sam Shepherd was nominated Best Supporting Actor for playing Chuck Yeager. It was the only acting nomination the film had. - Bill Conti won one of the film's four Oscars out of eight nominations. I love this score the most of all his scores, which is saying something. Bill Conti is almost as important in film and TV music for the 70s through the 90s as John Williams. - In 2013, the Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry.
If you want to get a real feel for what these men had to do, at least from a technical standpoint, checkout the game Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator. You get to fly everything from Mercury to Apollo. It's ever so slightly "gamified" but only a little, so it's not quite as complex as the real thing, but pretty close. As someone who remembers the moon landings, it's really thrilling to be able to fly these simulations from "inside the spacecraft". Just FYI, docking is hard! LOL
The Project Mercury program had missions from 1958-1963. These astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot. Next was Project Gemini which had 16 pilots, and made 10 flights in 1965 and 1966. Then came the Apollo program from 1968 to 1972. Project Apollo's goals included: landing Americans on the moon and returning them safely to Earth, carrying out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon, developing human capability to work in the lunar environment, establishing the technology to meet other national interests in space and achieving preeminence in space for the United States. Six missions landed on the Moon. Apollo missions 18, 19 and 20 were cancelled by President Nixon and any funding was diverted towards the Space Shuttle program (from 1981 to 2011), Space Station Sky Lab (which was experiencing complications) and other activities. The government was concerned about losing astronauts and safety issues.
When discussing DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, I like to cite the line from this film: “Our Germans are better than their Germans.” I’m glad we have this film to connect with HIDDEN FIGURES and APOLLO 13. Also, one of the original musical themes seems to derive from Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, which is ironic because Russians were on the opposite side of the space race.
This book was PHENOMENAL! The Movie is true enough to it - as good as movies can get - and I recommend it to EVERY reactor who did APOLLO 13. It won 4 of the 8 Oscars it was nominated for. KUDOS for doing this, I just Subscribed and Liked! The old lady bartender was Florence 'Pancho' Barnes, a true pioneer pilot, Speed Racer, rival of Amelia Earhart (she broke Amelia's air speed record in her Type R Mystery Ship), WW2 Air Force flight instructor, organized the 1st Stunt Pilot Union (flying for Howard Hughes), owned and operated the Happy Bottom Riding Club on her ranch (a fly-in Dude Ranch for test pilots, which was closed in the '50s when Edwards AFB expanded and built a long runway across her property) was a 'surrogate mother' to notables like Gen. Chuck Yeager, Jimmy Doolittle, Buzz Aldrin, etc. and she deserved a Feature Film of her life, as the made-for-tv-movie in 1988 was 'highly sanitized'.
This is a Best Picture winner that is sadly underappreciated today, though there were a few liberties taken with the facts to make a better movie. The book that this is based on, The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, is a well-researched account of this period in test flights/space flight. The real life Chuck Yeager was in the movie, when Gordo Cooper walks in to the bar and asks for a Coke. He did not like the movie because the crash shown was not an authorized flight-it was a scheduled test flight. After he ejected and he separated from the seat, it spun around and the hot propellants hit him in the head and melted part of his helmet on his face. He was standing on the ground when the ambulance came to pick him up, but he spent some time recovering from his injuries.
Serious and historical. He broke the sound barrier with a broken rib ;-) Pilots would call that a DNIF. You can't fly if you have so much as a head cold. Did you see Hidden Figures? First Man? Navy vs MC ;-) John Glenn was such a Boy Scout ;-) Yeager's face was burned accidentally by the rocket fuel from his ejection seat.
Re music: you're right, of course, about Handel and Holst. Also, one of the recurring themes was stolen (and somewhat rewritten) from the orchestral interludes in the first movement of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. It's the heroic bit with the characteristic rhythm in the brass: eighth note -- sixteenth note triplet -- two eighth notes -- quarter note. Almost, but not quite, a polonaise. (I think it was T.S. Eliot who said a young poet imitates, but a mature poet steals. And if you're going to steal, steal good.)
If you're really interested in the test pilot section of the movie you need to read the book Yeager, Chuck's biography. When he asks Jack to borrow a stick of Beeman's (chewing gum); the borrow part means he'll be back to repay him. By the way the actual Chuck Yeager is in this movie; the older guy wearing a hat that works at Pancho's. VERY appropriate that they had him in the movie. As a young boy in the 60's the space race was the thing to follow. I remember the post office coming out with special stamps and going to get a block of stamps that when kept together showed a picture of different events, my favorite was always the 4 or 6 stamp block showing the first space walk.
Lot of stuff composited in this movie but damn what a great film. Interesting stuff: The howling shriek of the X-1 while being fueled is accurate. It was liquid oxygen. And it was, actually, a rocket that flew and was landed. There was real thought that the X series of aircraft such as X-15 and X-20 would put a man in space before the Mercury program did. Test pilots being killed was really common, the funerals were not unusual. The real Pancho Barnes was just as colorful as the character in this film, and she was an aviation pioneer herself. Her nickname was Pancho because she decided to kick around in Mexico during their Revolution of the late 1920s. Yeager was not just some war hero, he was top of the heap as far as test pilots after the war. He was quite proficient in combat as well and very accomplished, shooting down five aircraft on the same day, and ending up a double ace, and his exploits and that of his friend Bud Anderson should be a movie itself. Yeager's combat aircraft were named "Glamorous Glennis" in honor of his wife, Glennis. Yeager was quite remarkable. The woman who played Annie Glenn is Zooey Deschanel's Mom.The "Oh I hope not" was in reference to Alan Shepard's favorite comedy routine, which featured a Cowardly Astronaut. Today we'd call it racist but it was pretty funny. The Fireflies were particles of frost, illuminated by the sunlight.
Levon Helm also played Loretta Lynn's dad in "Coal Miner's Daughter. "
The older man in the background at 18:58-19:05 is the real Chuck Yeager. Yeager's friend in the movie who keeps giving him gum is played by Levon Helm, the drummer from The Band. Gonzalez, the orderly in the hospital is played by Pro Football Hall of famer Anthony Munoz, who played for the Cincinnati Bengals.
I never knew that about Munoz-- and I went to high school in Cincy, and he came to speak!
How cool!!!
@@okchristina It's interesting that although Sam Shepard and the real Chuck Yeager are physically so different from one another, Shepard's performance here was so iconic that many people now have two images of what Yeager really looked like.
And Gus was right about the hatch. They discovered that the explosive bolts blew on their own and changed the design of the hatch to open inwardly, ironically it's what sealed (no pun intended) the fate of Gus, Ed White and Roger Chaffee when they were killed while performing a "routine" plugs out test for (what was later designated as a memorial to Gus, Ed and Roger) Apollo 1. If you haven't seen the miniseries I highly recommend watching "From The Earth To The Moon." The entire second episode is about Apollo 1 and its aftermath and even though I've watched it numerous times I still get choked up watching it.
Also, at no point was Gus anxious. The audio from the capsule is available online. Gus was so calm he sounded disinterested.
Yes, From The Earth To The Moon is an excellent watch. FYI, it’s on HBO MAX
The audio dialogue during the fire between the capsule and command is heart wrenching.
The switch blow the hatch was mechanical with an explosive charge; It required some force to operate, and the explosive charge kicked back and bruised the astronaut's hand. Gus Grissom came back without this mark.
As I recall they recovered and examined his capsule in the late 90s and after examination confirmed the mechanical trigger for the hatch bolts had not been activated as well. They system did not rely on any electrical power so it would be operable even if all power was lost, however the fulminate used in the percussion caps that activated the detonators can be prone to electrical discharges so speculation has been a static discharge could have possibly set it off.
Always found it cool that Ed Harris played John Glenn in this, and later played Flight Director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13.
Gordon Cooper's flight was impressive. He had lost almost all power on his ship. He was useing manual mechanical linkage to controll his reentry useing only visual cues for guidence. And still managed to come down in the target zone.
I grew up watching all of this on tv. I had posters on the walls. Glad I seen this part of history.
I'm so jealous!
The NF-104 test flight at the end was Yeager’s last record attempt. The flight wasn’t unauthorized as depicted, it was part of a program of tests. When he ejected from the plane the rocket motor in his seat smashed his faceplate and ignited the oxygen in his helmet, severely burning him. Yeager returned to line aviation afterward and retired as a Brigadier General.
I thought it looked like there was a burn issue! Ouch!!
@@okchristina Yeah, face on fire. Fortunately the blood on he face from the faceplate shattering baked into a crust and saved his eyesight.
The plane required gound prep that prevented Yeager from jumping in the plane and taking off.
@@jd-zr3vk And Jackie Ridley had been dead for six years at that point, killed in a crash in Japan.
@@okchristina There is actual film footage of Yeager's flight, plummet and ejection (from a distance). The movie and the footage look pretty close.
It should be noted that "Pancho" Barnes was a noted aviator herself. She used to do barnstorming and air racing in the late 1920s and early 30s. She held the Women's Air Speed record for a while. She did aerial stunt work in the movies and set up the Associated Motion Picture Pilots union. She got the name "Pancho" when she was in Mexico and got caught up in the revolution, so she disguised herself as a man. During the great depression she sold her house in Hollywood and set up the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
I was in grade school during the early 60s. Every time they had one of these launches, they would take everyone in the school down to the gym where they had a couple black and white TVs set up so we could watch them.
Yes, those were exciting times, altho we did see some live crashes, which luckily were before astronauts were inside. The most thrilling event however, was John Glenn orbiting the Earth in Feb 1962.
I really am envious of you who got to experience Glenn's orbit. I got to watch the Challenger "launch" live in school when I was a tiny kid. Sigh.
@@okchristina I wanted to be an astronaut since I was a kid. They were planning on 40 shuttle launches per year and needed many astronauts. I was filling out the paperwork to apply for a position as a mission specialist when the Challenger blew up, so no launches for a couple years, no expansion to 40 per year, and no bunches of new astronauts needed.
I went to elementary school in Orlando. When there was a launch, we all went out on the playground and watched from 50 miles away...
@@flarrfan Lucky guy!
Thanks for reacting to this excellent movie. I've been begging RUclips reactors to do it for years with no success.
Popcorn In Bed did it last year.
Tom Wolfe wrote the book. He interviewed everybody he could to get the story of the test pilots who flew the early jets, and became the first astronauts. My dad said Tom Wolfe wrote his interview notes on those yellow legal pads, and usually filled 40 handwritten pages per day. He also told me that Tom Wolfe said he was lucky to get two paragraphs for his book out of 40 pages of notes. If you have not seen the movie Asteroid City (A Wes Anderson movie), you must see it.
54:03 when Chuck Yeager ejected from the NF-104 and separated from his Ejection Seat, the bottom of the seat impacted with his head, breaking the glass visor of his helmet. The rush of Oxygen from his pressure suit ignited, setting the helmet liner and his head on fire; that was why he was gyrating in the air, trying to extinguish the flames from the helmet. Yeager suffered a head wound from the broken visor, and the blood from his wound burned, creating a layer of 'crust' which protected his face and left eye from more serious damage. The scab left over had to be scraped away every few days in order to minimize scarring his face permanently. His left eye was undamaged from the impact and fire.
"Jupiter" always gives me goosebumps...
horripilation gives me goosebumps.
I love the whole suite -- I think one moment of Mercury, about 1min30sec into the piece, might be some of the most beautiful music ever composed.
@@okchristina Jeremy Levy does a really cool big band arrangement called The Planets Reimagined.
@@okchristina Have you heard Simon Rattle's recording with the Berlin Philharmonic? It's fascinating.
ooooo I'll have to check that out!!
"Beemans (Gum) first became popular with pilots because of its stomach-soothing pepsin powder. This addition, coupled with the act of chewing gum, helped early pilots avoid motion sickness and nausea. Shortly after, Beemans became known as the “lucky” gum for pilots when the world-famous Chuck Yeager admitted to chewing a stick before each flight."
That wasn't the reason, the reason why they borrowed gum was so they had to come back and pay it back=couldn't die!
@@js0988 They can both be right!
@@js0988 Yeah, and when mounting the plane to break Crossfield's record Ridley didn't want to loan him a stick. "Here we go again". He knew if Yeager kept chasing the demon sooner or later Yeager wouldn't be coming back to pay him back. Yeager didn't even have the credit to borrow a stick of gum.
Pilots often chew gum to help keep the pressure equalized in their ears and sinuses. Being stuffed up during pressure changes can be painful and even dangerous.
2:22 The actor guy in the middle playing Col Jack Ridley is Levon Helm (the drummer from the rock band 'The Band'). "Take a load off Fanny". He also narrates the movie.
He narrates the movie in his UNMISTAKABLE Arkansas drawl. Once you've heard him speak, you will always be able to identify him - just like Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones, or Sam Elliott.
I absolutely love the relationship between John Glen and his wife. It is so cool that the actress who plays Mrs. Glenn is Emily and Zooey Dechanel's mother.
Nice reaction. Thank you for adding the musical info. I typically don't think much about that, so nice to know the source. A true story. Chuck Yeager was such a chill guy, that when Germany introduced jets in WWII and we still had only propeller planes, Yeager was asked what he did when he first saw a German jet. In typical Yeager, he said simply "I shot it down".
Music is my day job so my ear can't help but hear. I have to be careful to not let it steal the show from the actual movie! Yeager sure sounds like he was an interesting dude!
When I was a kid in the early 60s, a common saying was, "He blew up on the launching pad", meaning anyone who failed at what he was trying to do.
The early space program had three phases. The Mercury phase taught us how to go into orbit with one pilot. The Gemini phase taught us how to dock two crafts together with two pilots. And the Apollo phase tught us who to land on the moon. The Rigth stuff is only about the Mercury stage. But it was those men who set the standard and later several of them would go to the moon. My Dad worked at Kennedy Space Center from 1958-72 and knew many of them. His favorites were Alan Sheppard and John Glenn which makes this movie special to me.
The woman who owned the saloon, the Happy Bottom Riding Club, was herself an interesting character named Pancho Barnes. She was one of the first women to get a pilot's license. Look her up! She knew and raced against Amelia Earhart.
Chuck Yeager died in 2020, aged 97.
And he was still flying with the Aggressor Squadron at 90 part time.
OMG I will definitely look her up!!!
Great reaction! Now, how can we ever forget the "Shepards" prayer right before the launch. "Please Lord (God) don't let me f**k up." What a guy.
LOL
@okchristina Alan Shepard landed on the Moon in Feb. 1971!
The story I heard is that Bill Conti used classical pieces like The Planets as stand-ins for pieces to be composed for the soundtrack, but the director liked them so much that they decided to just use the originals rather than compositions inspired by them.
On the other hand, he was definitely 'inspired' by (read that as 'plagiarized') Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto for one of the main themes for the movie.
I've been hearing about the Tchaik -- I will have to go back and listen. There was at least one inspired-by piece in the soundtrack. It was Jupiter, but it wasn't. Kinda like what The Simpsons does. lol
@@okchristinaI listened to the entire Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and I didn't hear any resemblance to this score. I'm a musician so I don't know why people keep saying it sounds like it.
I'm still searching! Not quite finding it in the mix in there!
@@okchristinaCompare this scene from the movie (ruclips.net/video/ujeu-3C3sTg/видео.htmlsi=lSYq74itQ1FfJ8ue) with this recording of the concerto
(ruclips.net/video/cbJZeNlrYKg/видео.html&si=QYXkFTtdfHr9FibX) starting at about the 6:18 mark.
I remember seeing pictures of Glenn after he was recovered from his flight in 1962... this was just before I started kindergarten. Mercury finished when I was in first grade. None of this had the "live" TV hoopla that the later missions had. If you saw it, it was through newspaper stories, Life or National Geographic, or the five o'clock news and Walter Cronkite. Live coverage of space missions started with Gemini 4... not even Grissom's pioneering Gemini 2 mission was live on TV. I do remember seeing the later Gemini launches live, as they brought a large TV into class assemblies at school for these events. Movies that honor these times include First Man and Apollo 13 - both are very good, and deserve watching.
My school gathered to watch Challenger. oops
@@okchristina I was at work that day... saw it in the breakroom.
The strict nurse was played by Jane Dornacker. She was killed in a helicopter crash in 1986 while doing a traffic report for a radio station while live-on-air. The helicopter crashed in the Hudson River and the audio of the crash is still available online.
Huge THANKS TO CELESTE MCALLISTER for picking this gem.
This was a wonderful watchalong with you, Christina.
So many great things can be said, but I remember even back then how great, if not just rare it was, for showing the wive's side of things. One of the cool things has been watching so many of these actors grow through the years, heck, decades! Even if one 'got to' bump into one another in another movie together (Ed and Scott in Absolute Power), or seeing Ed in another nasa role...
There have been some overlapping of actors, yes. I get them confused a bit, but still all good. Thank you for watching and always thankful for these excellent requests! (Hooray Celeste!)
This movie has a fantastic score which includes many great classical pieces. You're the perfect person to appreciate it!
Yep, and Bill Conti won the Oscar for best original score.
It was a pleasant surprise!! So much fun!
8.30 "Looks like the Millenium Falcon"
And that's precisly where they got the inspiration. 😉
I knew it!
Wanted to point that out so bad but you beat me to the punch. 😂
17:05 "Is that other guy from The Simpsons?"
No, it's Derek Smalls, the Bass player for Spinal Tap...
LOL
The other government recruiter, along with Jeff Goldblum, was Harry Shearer, who is the voice of Homer Simpson, and, yes, played Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap. LOL.
@@BigTroyT
Dan Castelanetta is the voice for Homer Simpson (among others), not Harry Shearer. Mr. Shearer _does_ provide voices in that show though.
@@Ernwaldo Ack, you are correct. Doh!
@@BigTroyT No biggie. Just setting the record straight. I like Harry Shearer and *Spinal Tap* also. All good; enjoy!
Great choice enjoyed watching this with you. Jane Dornacker who played Nurse Murch was a very interesting woman. Songwriter for The Tubes, musician, standup comedian, actress and a news reporter in NYC. Died in a news helicopter crash in New York in 1986.
Interesting for sure!
John Glenn was later elected US Senator from Ohio and served for 20+ years. He also became the oldest (at the time) Space Shuttle astronaut while he was a Senator.
Alan Shepard was later an Apollo astronaut, and walked on the moon. First American in space AND walking on the moon, like the bookends of the early space program.
Remarkable lives.
heroes
Alien alumni Veronica Cartwright, Lambert in Alien, plays Betty Grissom , Lance Henriksen is Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3..
Oh yeah, that's right!
The scene when Yager reaches the edge of space makes me cry everytime.
Pancho Barnes was an aviation legend in her own right. She needs a movie of her own.
she got one in '88 - but was a made-for-tv-movie, and highly sanitized.
I agree!!!!!!
That's the problem - any REAL movie of her life would be lucky to squeak in as a hard-R rating - but damn, that would be a glorious movie indeed. She was a pioneer, and fearless.
When I was in High School I wrote a letter to General Chuck Yeager (Retired) and received an autographed photo. I'm 56 now and it is one of my most prized possessions.
That is amazing! What a guy he was!
Also: if there's a reason a lot of this score sounds like Holst's "The Planets" suite, it's because in large part it was directly lifted -- or inspired by -- it. The director, when meeting with Bill Conti (same person who did other legendary soundtracks like 'Rocky' and 'The Karate Kid') gave him Holst's "The Planets" and said something to the effect of "make it sound like this." After awhile of working on it, Conti pretty much was forced to make the soundtrack largely identical to "The Planets", so you'll see a lot of... um... references to it throughout the film. Still, one of my favorite movie scores.
During Gordon Cooper's Mercury mission, they lost the flight computer. He had to bring it in manually.
His pulse and respiration never budged. He was dead calm the whole time. And he put her down less than 20 miles from the target.
He may have been a cocky a--hole, but Gordo was definitely a pilot.
Amazing
I absolutely love the little comic sequences--the Alan Shepard enema scene is gold.
Great movie. Casting director nailed it. Awesome score. The book was equally good. Chuck Yeager has a small part as the bar hand.
20 years later NASA offered Yeager a seat on a Space Shuttle flight...he said he wanted to 'fly' it and not be a passenger...NASA declined and he never went into space.
The 'firefly' explanation....there were several explanations & the best one was tiny ice crystals were breaking loose from the spacecraft's 'rough' skin (humid Florida--some morning dew took a ride into space and froze.
...and incredibly, ocean explorers found Grissom's capsule sitting on the ocean bottom in the 90s. It was in amazing shape and after a 'clean-up/preservation' it's in a museum in his home state or goes on tour (an examination also proved he didn't 'blow the hatch').
I was in 4th grade when Allen Shepard was launched into space. A mother brought a TV to the classroom so we could watch the flight. It was on most of the day because of the delays.
I saw Chuck Yeager in person when he spoke at the National Air and Space Museum. He was the best public speaker I ever experienced and whey I went in line to get him to autograph my copy of his autobiography I looked into his steely blue eyes and felt a jolt right down to my toes! As Tom Wolfe called him, "the most righteous possessors of the right stuff," indeed.
Wow!
One of my favorite books! By the way, he is not the "grim reaper" he's the "friend of widows and orphans. The book explains that one of the legacies of Chuck Yeager is his cool-under-pressure West Virginia drawl that pilots still imitate today....uhhhhh ladies and gentlemen... from the flight deck... etc ... that was taken up by most pilots and still used today wanting to imitate Chuck's no-stress-no matter what is happening flyinging genius. Read the book... it give much more insight to the Super-Seven and the shoulders on those whom they rose from 1957- now.🚀
The special effects man never divulged how he got the wonderful look of the Earth, moon, and sky in the space sequences.
They weren't allowed to divulge it because it was the same guy NASA used to fake the moon landings. (😂)
Thanks, you educated me on "The Planets" by Gustav Holtz. I had listened to that tune lots of times when watching this movie (and more frequently in recent years on Forza Horizon 4's classical radio station), and had thought that tune originated with the movie. But you've now taught me its correct origin. 😄
The 'fireflies" really did fly around Glenn's capsule as well as Scott Capenter's. No one knows for sure what they were but it is theorized that they were crystalized ice that was on the exterior of the capsules.
Yes, it was ice flaking off the capsule at daybreak, it was seen by other Mercury and Gemini astronauts.
It was urine from a waste dump. Apollo 13 showed it as well
Was so happy when you recognized The Planets by Gustav Holst! Great movie with wonderful performances, and it does tell an important story worthy of being remembered.
One of my favorite pieces. My favorite moment is about 1min30sec into Mercury.
Jerry Pournelle was an old friend of mine. He was a contractor during the early space program. He told a story where an astronaut was in a capsule simulator calling out readouts when someone got a handful of gravel and threw it at the hull of the capsule. All of the physical readouts pegged the top of the dials, and went back to normal as the astronaut calmly completed the exercise. He wasn’t calm, nor pleased, when he got out. He had fun stories from that stage of his life.
Fantastic. Wish we could hear more!
The feat performed by Gordo Cooper mentioned at the end was that he had to angle his capsule for re-entry using only his eyes and his watch because of a total electrical failure in his capsule. Not only did he splash down safely but he landed in sight of the carrier that was to pick him up or, as he put it, "Right on the old bazzoo!"
I was two years shy of my 6th birthday when John Glen orbited the Earth. You may not believe me, but I remember it being talked about on my kitchen Radio in Brooklyn, NY, with blow-by-blow detail. You see, my 15-yr old brother had passed due to a tragic accident just five months earlier, so that period of my life was sealed in my memory. I wanted to e an Astronaut more than anything, so just 12-yrs later I was admitted to the U.S. Air Force Academy. Unfortunately, I could not maintain the minimum GPA to make into my second year their.
The dancer was Sally Rand, famous burlesque actress and exotic dancer. She was an actress washed out by the talkies (had a lisp), who rose to fame at the 1933 World's Fair and performed with those huge ostrich fans (and usually a body-suit) for decades (LOTs of state fairs, conventions etc). skirting just on the "it's art" side of things. She really did perform at the BBQ for the Space Center (she was around 60 at the time). The book has some details, and she was featured on a biography program on one of the education channels
Edward's AFB was built near "Pancho" (one of her youthful adventures had her in Mexico during the Revolution) Barne's Dude Ranchand cafe/restaurant as a training center during WWII. It was a place where pilots rubbed elbows with Hollywood types (Barnes had founded the film stunt pilot's union during her flying days).
Thankyou for this delightful reaction. A few more 'astronaut' movies to consider
From the Earth to the Moon is a twelve-part 1998 HBO television miniseries that goes extremely well alongside The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, and Hidden Figures.
Farther afield, the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey and the lesser known sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
Fun fact that didn't make the film with Yeager's hot dogging. In Charleston WV there is a Bridge he claimed for himself by flying a loop under and over it. The first time created a stir with calls to the airport also with his name today. After during the Charleston Sternwheel Regattas he did reenact it a few times. The Bridge is the start of the WV Turnpike. He is a WV native and local hero that is one of the few in the military to have a Base/Airport or a Bridge named for them while they were still alive. He also was still flying with the Aggressor Squadron in his later years past normal mandated retirement age in his 80's. Also while you seem to have edited him out he did cameo in the film as the old man in the bar with the cowboy hat plus served as a primary consultant for the film. I also was stuck at work an extra 2-3 hours because the streets were locked down for his memorial service. From the Elk River (Civic Center) to the State Capitol all streets were shut down between the Kanawha River to 4 blocks back. I got back with lunch as they were sealing off Quarrier, Virginia, Piedmont Streets and the Kanawha Blvd. Lee and Washington Streets was already closed. The closures were twice what has been done for POTUS visits and longer. I live under the Yeager flight path outside Charleston and next to him in status was the astronaut (shuttle pilot) and former governor candidate John McBride (Also a distant cousin, 5th 0r 6th depending on branch)
"Is that a man?"
"You're damn right that's a man!"
Yeager was the GOAT.
OG
John Glenn's wife was played by Emily and Zoe Deschanel's mom, Mary Jo, and she has turned my head ever since I saw this in the theater in 1983.
@@nmt2k2 Mary Jo also played Astronaut David Bowman’s (2001 A Space Odyssey) wife in the sequel 2010 The Year We Make Contact
She has those same blue eyes!
I was 10 years old in February, 1962 and had to be in Florida with my family to deal my grandfather's estate.. I begged my dad to take me up the coast to Cape Canaveral to see John Glenn's launch but he said there would be too many people and it would be too crowded. I watched the launch on tv and ran outside when they mentioned that there is a vapor trail from the rocket. The image of the vapor trail I saw up in the Florida sky is burnt into my memory. Your reaction to this movie is wonderful, including your mentions of so many of your personal observations revealing your knowledge of the early years of the space program.
Lol....the only person other than me that I've heard publicly admit to liking "Space Camp".
Would love to see a follow-up reunion movie. Joaquin Phoenix is too valuable now in Hollywood to risk something so cheesy.
I love that movie. It is hilarious and thrilling. It was released around the time of Challenger. Not good timing. Maybe Phoenix can hop on and make sure that it isn't a cheesy reunion??
@@okchristinaI was obsessed with Space Camp as a kid watched it all the time on HBO 😂
Pancho Barnes was played by the renowned actress Kim Stanley once dubbed "the female Brando."
It's always been curious to me how 2 of the actors in this have the same names as the astronauts. Alan Shepard the first American astronaut, and Sam Shepard playing Chuck Yeager the first man to break the sound barrier. Scott Glenn playing Alan Shepard ,and John Glenn the first American in orbit.
I met John Glenn at an air, and science convention when I was 7. I didn't know who he was but I knew what a space capsule was. He was with it at the convention. They had blocked off the back portion off the capsule interior so all you could see through the window was the control panel. I didn't understand that. I asked how he could fit. He didn't understand. He said everybody is surprised how small the capsule was. I said I meant how could he fit between the plate, and the control panel. Then he understood. He said the plate was put in so nobody could see to the back. I asked why was that. We had all come to see it. He said it was because the back of the interior was secret. I said I wouldn't tell anyone if he let me see. But he said he couldn't open it. I didn't believe him, and left resenting him. 7 year olds, right?
I wanted to go to the convention so much but my mom said she didn't have the money for bus fare to take all 8 of us. Her, and 7 children. I collected pop bottles for the deposit to pay the bus fare. Going to the convention on the bus I found out the convention was just 6 blocks from where we got on the bus. Next day I convinced my 6 year old brother to play hooky with me, and hop a freight train to go to the convention by ourselves. We wandered around it all day. The following week the troop of Boy Scouts led a merit badge eligible hike of several Cub Scout troops to the convention center. Since I had already been there all day before I knew a lot about the science stuff that was there. I told the kids all about it the whole time we were there. Our scout master was so impressed he recommended me for 5 merit badges. I never got any because we were too poor to buy them. I never wanted to be a boy scout in the first place. It was a 10 mile bus ride to get there every Friday night when Star Trek was on. I played hooky from that too. Years later found out the assistant troop leader was a pedo.
The X-1 was painted orange so that it could be seen easily in flight. I was also shaped like a 50 caliber bullet because 50 caliber bullets were known to travel faster than sound.
9:12 you can trace so many film scores back to The Planets. It’s kind of hilarious. And of course some just use it directly!
I'm *SO* disappointed in RUclips for hiding this from me for 8 days. I genuinely let out an audible squeak when I saw this pop up on my home page! Despite a few artistic liberties taken, this is among my favorite movies and such a great tale about the early days of the space race. If you want to learn more about what happened next, be sure to check out the HBO miniseries 'From the Earth to the Moon' (a Tom Hanks/Ron Howard project)... it's fantastic.
Thanks so much for hitting this one -- I'm bummed more reactors don't catch it!
Yes, From the Earth to the Moon' is great.
Re Sam Shepard, who played Chuck Yeager: Shepard was a fascinating person. He was a terrific actor: charismatic, intelligent, strikingly handsome. But here’s the odd thing: Being a movie star was just his day job. He only did it to pay the rent. He was also a genius writer, a director, a musician (he collaborated with Bob Dylan), and mainly a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. Over 60 plays. Many rank him alongside Eugene O'Neill as America's greatest playwright. Astonishing. Nobody should be trusted with so much talent. It's just not fair.
Ironically, Shepard was afraid of flying. He had guts though: to prepare for this role, he pushed through his fear and went on an airplane. But a commercial flight wasn't enough. He wanted to see what it was REALLY like, so he had the real Chuck Yeager take him flying in a military jet.
The sound barrier is an actual physical phenomenon. Sound is a pressure wave that moves at the speed of sound. If you move as fast as the speed of sound, you catch up to, or stay with all of the pressure waves ahead of you, which add up to a much higher pressure. The same phenomenon that creates the sonic boom. That pressure wall wrecked havoc on the aerodynamics of the airplane. Once plane remains stable and gets past the sound pressure wave, the plane stays ahead of the sound and flies more stabley.
Sound works by the sound waves moving away from an object. The sound can’t outrun a supersonic airplane, so the sound waves start to get combined into one large wave like the bow wake of a boat. A sound wave builds at the nose of the aircraft and another at the tail which is why you usually hear two sonic booms. Most of the problems with supersonic flight were solved by the use of swept-wings, which keep the wings out of the pressure wave, and all-flying tails that don’t require elevators.
Dennis Quaid grew up in Houston and the NASA astronauts were his childhood heroes. When the shooting on the movie was finished he asked if he could keep his space suit. They said no.
Well, he tried. lol
I truly enjoyed watching you react to this excellent film. There was something about your combination of personality and understanding of the time and the events that really made it fun. I loved that you recognized Holtz's "Jupiter the Jollity." I concur with those who've recommended "From Earth To The Moon" - the HBO mini-series produced by Ron Hward, Tom Hanks & Brian Grazer after they shot Apollo 13. It's brilliant. I'm sure somebody has revealed the older man who glares at the guys bad-mouthing Yeager was the actual Chuck Yeager. Also, back in the 70's, my band used to chew Beeman's gum when we played. It's help keep time, chewing with the beat. I always loved the pepsin flavor, but part of it was due to this movie. I have a ridiculous collection of NASA stuff, including a "First Step on the Moon" figure purchase from a gentleman who worked for NASA down the hall from Wernher von Braun, so these films are near to my heart.
Fantastic to see this reaction pop up!….so very few take the time to react to this film. There were liberties taken but the meat of the story is nonetheless a tremendous part of history. Those men were just cut from a different mold…the early days of flight, the boldness & sheer guts it took is inspiring.
Cultural and historical masterpiece.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻⚡🚀🍻🇿🇦
Enjoyed your reaction very much. Fun Fact: the ticker tape parade for John Glenn was shot in the Financial District of San Francisco because it was the closest place where tall buildings had windows that would open.
Sam Sheppard that plays Yeager is so sexy in this movie, he was also very talented, a playwriter as well as an actor. The guy playing Ridley (not sure of his rank) is Levon Helm of The Band fame.
Annie Glenn was portrayed by Mary Jo Deschanel, the mother of Emily Deschanel (Bones) and Zoey Deschanel (The New Girl). The Director Of Photography on this movie was multiple-award-winning and six-time Oscar-nominated Caleb Deschanel, Mary Jo's husband. She usually has parts in the movies that he films. Caleb was the cinematographer on The Black Stallion, The Natural, Hope Floats, Anna And The King, The Patriot, Jack Reacher, and many others.
Also, it's worth mentioning that this movie is based on the INCREDIBLY detailed book by Tom Wolfe, and is essentially a highlight reel of the book, showing the most interesting (to general audiences) 5% of the book. For anyone who is interested in the Space Program, this huge coffee-table book with hundreds of incredible pictures is definitely worth checking out. Wolfe spent years researching the book, and interviewed hundreds of people, including most of the "characters" in the movie, and while there is a bit of creative license in the movie, the vast majority of what you see is as close to what actually happened as you're ever going to get in a movie. Much of the dialog is taken directly from NASA transcripts and records. Wolfe was amazed that, despite all of the record-keeping, no one before him had ever made any effort to put this story together - the people involved knew parts of the story, but there was never an overall narrative of the beginnings of NASA, especially as it grew out of the ballistic missile and the test pilot programs. The whole test pilot program was really only known to those directly involved, because it was a secret when it happened and by the time it was declassified, most people didn't know why they should care. Had it not been for Wolfe getting the stories from so many people, most of this story - the early test-pilot part especially - would have all been lost to time.
Christina, 2016s HIDDEN FIGURES is another great film about the NASA women mathematicians and computer scientists that made the space race possible. It stars Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Costner, Jim parson and Glen Powell. You'll love it!
God bless, someone else finally watching The Right Stuff. Still love this film.
The bit set in outback Australia was not filmed here, but also filmed in the USA
Thanks for your fun reaction to this masterpiece! I also love your recognition of all the music!
Classical music is my day job ;) Thanks for watching!
@ 3:26 there is a three plane formation. But Air Force pilots enter battle in a two plus two four plane formation. The missing plane is recognizing the "missing man" who has perished. Much like at an Army funeral there is a horse without a rider.
Loved your reaction so much. This is one my favorite movies because it's like the story of my childhood. I was in 2nd grade when Shepard went into spac,e and the space program was a major part of my childhood.
Thanks so much! Go NASA!
The astronauts' capsules names were: Freedom 7 (Shepard), Liberty Bell 7 (Grissom), Friendship 7 (Glenn), Aurora 7 (Carpenter), Sigma 7 (Schirra), and Faith 7 (Cooper). Deke Slayton didn't go into space on the Mercury program because he was grounded because of a very minor heart defect in retaliation for the astronauts' defiance backing up John Glenn about LBJ coming into his house. Also grounded after their flights were Carpenter (for over shooting his splash down by 250 miles) and Shepard (dizzy spells)l.
@@vincentsaia6545 Shepard used an alias and with his own money went to a civilian doctor in Cali to have that condition fixed. He would eventually regain flight status and during Apollo landed on the Moon and actually drove a golf ball lol
I read the book before the movie came out. Lets just say the film maker took a lot of liberties with the movie. Chuck Yeager was the old guy in Panchos early in the movie. After the movie came out he did a bunch of TV commercials for AC.Delco auto parts. The Mercury program was the US first attempt to catch up and eventually surpass the Russian space program and going to the Moon. We got to see it all on TV back in the 60;s into the 70's.
Great film.
You're watching a film starring Scott Glenn, which includes the character of John Glenn, and there's a poster behind you of "The Hunt for Red October" with Scott Glenn.
I have no idea of that's significant, but it bears mentioning. 😁
I FINALLY placed him from October after the movie was over!!!!
Talk about psychic convergence- just this morning I watched a video by legendary group The Band. In the comments, someone mentioned that Levon Helm (*the* singer on The Weight) was the narrator *and* played Jack Ridley in the movie (no clue)! And now I see a this reaction posted by you today! I was also "part" of the Atlanta, Georgia premiere of this movie in 1985 (don't ask.) Chuck Yeager was there. I still have the commemorative program from that event...
Wow!!
I didn't know until years later that it was Holtz's The Planets on the sound track.
No one ever reacts to this movie.
I don't know if it's ignorance or intimidation, but it's a mistake not to.
Great film. 89 out of 100
I agree!!!
it got an unprecedented 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Won 4 out of the 8 Oscars nominated. Popcorn In Bed did a reaction to this a year ago, but nobody else. I recommend it to all who did APOLLO 13.
I didn't know that.
I also would highly recommend reading the novel:
Space by James Michener
(I have read it several times)
The "fireflies" were determined to be frost crystals forming from the gases expelled by the reaction control system of the capsule. One theory claimed that the frost was from the urine dump but the Mercury capsule did not have the plumbing necessary for that to be the case.
I have loved this film since I saw it as a kid in the 1980s. Very few reactors do this one, and when someone does, I click really fast. Anyway, I am glad you enjoyed it.
- Director Phillip Kaufman was one of the generation of filmmakers that included Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and others of the film school grad crowd of the 1960s and 70s. In fact, Kaufman helped flesh out the story of Raiders of the Lost Ark with George Lucas. Some of his other excellent films:
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 remake) with Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy...the last scene is terrifying!!!
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being with Danel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, and Lena Olin
- Quills with Geoffrey Rush (as the Marquis de Sade) and Kate Winslet
- Rising Sun with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes is based on the Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park) best-seller.
- Caleb Deschanel is the Director of Photography for this film, and his wife, Mary Jo Deschanel, plays Annie Glenn, wife of John Glenn. This was one of the films the two made together (another I know of is The Patriot with Mel Gibson). At about this time, their daughters Emily and Zooey were very young. Emily was about 6 or 7 and would grow up to become an actress, best known for playing Dr. Temperance Brennan on the hit series Bones. Zooey was about 3 years old, and she would also become an actress and be in films like Almost Famous, Elf, and the television series The New Girl. Caleb was nominated for Best Cinematography.
- Playwright and actor Sam Shepherd was nominated Best Supporting Actor for playing Chuck Yeager. It was the only acting nomination the film had.
- Bill Conti won one of the film's four Oscars out of eight nominations. I love this score the most of all his scores, which is saying something. Bill Conti is almost as important in film and TV music for the 70s through the 90s as John Williams.
- In 2013, the Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry.
Wow thanks for all the stats and info --- love it!!
If you want to get a real feel for what these men had to do, at least from a technical standpoint, checkout the game Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator. You get to fly everything from Mercury to Apollo. It's ever so slightly "gamified" but only a little, so it's not quite as complex as the real thing, but pretty close. As someone who remembers the moon landings, it's really thrilling to be able to fly these simulations from "inside the spacecraft". Just FYI, docking is hard! LOL
Cool!
The Project Mercury program had missions from 1958-1963. These astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot. Next was Project Gemini which had 16 pilots, and made 10 flights in 1965 and 1966. Then came the Apollo program from 1968 to 1972. Project Apollo's goals included: landing Americans on the moon and returning them safely to Earth, carrying out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon, developing human capability to work in the lunar environment, establishing the technology to meet other national interests in space and achieving preeminence in space for the United States. Six missions landed on the Moon. Apollo missions 18, 19 and 20 were cancelled by President Nixon and any funding was diverted towards the Space Shuttle program (from 1981 to 2011), Space Station Sky Lab (which was experiencing complications) and other activities. The government was concerned about losing astronauts and safety issues.
It was certainly risky! Tragic with the shuttles. :(
When discussing DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, I like to cite the line from this film: “Our Germans are better than their Germans.” I’m glad we have this film to connect with HIDDEN FIGURES and APOLLO 13. Also, one of the original musical themes seems to derive from Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, which is ironic because Russians were on the opposite side of the space race.
Hmm I'll have to go back and listen for the Tchaik!
This book was PHENOMENAL! The Movie is true enough to it - as good as movies can get - and I recommend it to EVERY reactor who did APOLLO 13. It won 4 of the 8 Oscars it was nominated for. KUDOS for doing this, I just Subscribed and Liked! The old lady bartender was Florence 'Pancho' Barnes, a true pioneer pilot, Speed Racer, rival of Amelia Earhart (she broke Amelia's air speed record in her Type R Mystery Ship), WW2 Air Force flight instructor, organized the 1st Stunt Pilot Union (flying for Howard Hughes), owned and operated the Happy Bottom Riding Club on her ranch (a fly-in Dude Ranch for test pilots, which was closed in the '50s when Edwards AFB expanded and built a long runway across her property) was a 'surrogate mother' to notables like Gen. Chuck Yeager, Jimmy Doolittle, Buzz Aldrin, etc. and she deserved a Feature Film of her life, as the made-for-tv-movie in 1988 was 'highly sanitized'.
This is a Best Picture winner that is sadly underappreciated today, though there were a few liberties taken with the facts to make a better movie. The book that this is based on, The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, is a well-researched account of this period in test flights/space flight. The real life Chuck Yeager was in the movie, when Gordo Cooper walks in to the bar and asks for a Coke. He did not like the movie because the crash shown was not an authorized flight-it was a scheduled test flight. After he ejected and he separated from the seat, it spun around and the hot propellants hit him in the head and melted part of his helmet on his face. He was standing on the ground when the ambulance came to pick him up, but he spent some time recovering from his injuries.
I'd love to read that book!
This film was nominated for Best Picture in 1984 but did not win the award. Terms of Endearment won best picture that year.
Serious and historical. He broke the sound barrier with a broken rib ;-) Pilots would call that a DNIF. You can't fly if you have so much as a head cold. Did you see Hidden Figures? First Man? Navy vs MC ;-) John Glenn was such a Boy Scout ;-) Yeager's face was burned accidentally by the rocket fuel from his ejection seat.
Re music: you're right, of course, about Handel and Holst. Also, one of the recurring themes was stolen (and somewhat rewritten) from the orchestral interludes in the first movement of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. It's the heroic bit with the characteristic rhythm in the brass: eighth note -- sixteenth note triplet -- two eighth notes -- quarter note. Almost, but not quite, a polonaise. (I think it was T.S. Eliot who said a young poet imitates, but a mature poet steals. And if you're going to steal, steal good.)
Great! One of my favorite movie of all time!
If you're really interested in the test pilot section of the movie you need to read the book Yeager, Chuck's biography. When he asks Jack to borrow a stick of Beeman's (chewing gum); the borrow part means he'll be back to repay him. By the way the actual Chuck Yeager is in this movie; the older guy wearing a hat that works at Pancho's. VERY appropriate that they had him in the movie. As a young boy in the 60's the space race was the thing to follow. I remember the post office coming out with special stamps and going to get a block of stamps that when kept together showed a picture of different events, my favorite was always the 4 or 6 stamp block showing the first space walk.
The real Chuck Yaeger has a cameo as an old drunk in the bar
Great movie anf I really enjoyed the reaction. I must have watched this movie twenty times.
That's why Glenn made it as a politician.
You're one of the best reaction channels, imo. Thanks
Well, that just made my whole entire day :)
Lot of stuff composited in this movie but damn what a great film. Interesting stuff: The howling shriek of the X-1 while being fueled is accurate. It was liquid oxygen. And it was, actually, a rocket that flew and was landed. There was real thought that the X series of aircraft such as X-15 and X-20 would put a man in space before the Mercury program did. Test pilots being killed was really common, the funerals were not unusual.
The real Pancho Barnes was just as colorful as the character in this film, and she was an aviation pioneer herself. Her nickname was Pancho because she decided to kick around in Mexico during their Revolution of the late 1920s. Yeager was not just some war hero, he was top of the heap as far as test pilots after the war. He was quite proficient in combat as well and very accomplished, shooting down five aircraft on the same day, and ending up a double ace, and his exploits and that of his friend Bud Anderson should be a movie itself. Yeager's combat aircraft were named "Glamorous Glennis" in honor of his wife, Glennis. Yeager was quite remarkable. The woman who played Annie Glenn is Zooey Deschanel's Mom.The "Oh I hope not" was in reference to Alan Shepard's favorite comedy routine, which featured a Cowardly Astronaut. Today we'd call it racist but it was pretty funny. The Fireflies were particles of frost, illuminated by the sunlight.
EXCITE!!! Such a wonderful movie.
Much love to Ms. McAlister for recommending it.
(apologies if I butchered the spelling)
Yes -- many thanks!
Chuck Yeager was played by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard.
Interesting fact: Chuck Yeager out lived Sam Shepard.
@@robburns4176 We lost Shepard way too early.