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X-15 (1961)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
22 December 1961 (USA)
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Tagline:
The Rocket Ship That Challenged Outer Space! more
Plot Keywords:
User Comments:
Good "Space Race" Nostalgia
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Cast
(Credited cast)| David McLean | ... | Matt Powell | |
| Charles Bronson | ... | Lt. Col. Lee Brandon | |
| Ralph Taeger | ... | Maj. Ernest Wilde | |
| Brad Dexter | ... | Maj. Anthony Rinaldi | |
| Kenneth Tobey | ... | Col. Craig Brewster | |
| James Gregory | ... | Tom Deparma | |
| Mary Tyler Moore | ... | Pamela Stewart | |
| Patricia Owens | ... | Margaret Brandon | |
| Lisabeth Hush | ... | Diane Wilde | |
| Stanley Livingston | ... | Mike Brandon | |
| Lauren Gilbert | ... | Col. Jessup | |
| Phil Dean | ... | Maj. McCully | |
| Chuck Stanford | ... | Lt. Cmdr. Joe Lacrosse | |
| Patty McDonald | ... | Susan Brandon | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Ric Applewhite | ... | Engineer | |
| Robert Dornan | ... | Test Engineer | |
| Ed Fleming | ... | Himself (newscaster) | |
| Lee Giroux | ... | Himself | |
| Darlene Hendricks | ... | Nurse | |
| Grant Holcomb | ... | Himself | |
| Lew Irwin | ... | Himself | |
| Barbara Kelley | ... | Secretary | |
| Jerry Lawrence | ... | Operator | |
| Mike MacKane | ... | B-52 Pilot | |
| Richard Norris | ... | Operator | |
| Pat Renella | ... | Engineer | |
| James Stewart | ... | Narrator (voice) | |
| Frank Watkins | ... | Security Policeman | |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
107 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
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Filming Locations:
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Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Richard Donner's directorial debut.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Radio Flyer (1992)
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (10 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for X-15 (1961)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| Why Not An 'X-15 ' Soundtrack? | ronaldwvaughan |
| Out of sight | churchr-1 |
| Rocketship X-15 | Arlenefc |
| Premonition | eviltimes |
| B-52 Distortion | bernie-122 |
| F100 crash | blaksab73 |
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | IMDb Drama section |
| IMDb USA section | Add this title to MyMovies |

Baby Boomers like me often wonder why manned space exploration seems so far behind the expectations of the 1960's. Instead of seeing humans walk on Mars, we're left with an all-but-useless space station serviced by 40-year-old Russian capsules and dangerously obsolescent American shuttles.
X-15 offers a glimpse of how things might have turned out. It's hard to believe there actually was an alternative to such dead-ends programs as Project Apollo, Skylab, and the Space Shuttle. The legendary rocketeer Werner Von Braun thought that America should enter space in stages: i.e., build a reusable orbiter, construct a large, permanent space station, and then use that platform to construct inexpensive, reusable vehicles for further exploration. Unfortunately, President John Kennedy's Race to the Moon made such a logical course of action impossible. X-15 shows, in part, how the U.S. Air Force wanted to fulfill Von Braun's vision.
The film is, for the most part, historically and technologically accurate. Few remember how exciting the X-15 rocket plane was as it left Earth's atmosphere years before the "tin cans" of Project Mercury. Despite negative claims from NASA (which coveted the millions of space research dollars going to the Air Force) a follow-up of the X-15, the X-20 Dyna Soar, might have orbited the Earth by the mid-1960's. Interestingly, the film includes cameo appearances of actual network TV correspondents who were convinced the X-15 would help America establish a permanent presence in space. A combination of factors: the urgency of Kennedy's race to the moon; the economic demands of the Viet Nam War; and reasonable fears of militarizing space killed off the Air Force's more-logical approach to earth orbit.
The film's dramatic climax, which depicts an X-15 actually orbiting the Earth, is a clear case of cinematic license. (The real X-15 was capable of sub-orbital flights only.) Nevertheless, a larger, two-man version, the X-15B, was designed by North American Rockwell, and there are many that still believe it could have achieved low earth orbit.
It's clear that director Richard Donner was given unprecedented access to the Air Force's facilities at Edwards Air Force Base/Dryden Research Center. The battle for funding with NASA was a make-or-break challenge, and the USAF clearly recognized the value of the mass media, and of providing a heroic and practical image of its X-15 program to American filmgoers. Although the film X-15 might be criticized on a number of artistic levels, it nevertheless stands as a valuable bit of early-1960's nostalgia that offers a rare glimpse into a forgotten chapter of space exploration.