Apollo 18 (2011)

Decades-old found footage from NASA's abandoned Apollo 18 mission, where two American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, reveals the reason the U.S. has never returned to the moon.

Director:

Gonzalo López-Gallego

Writer:

Brian Miller

Stars:

Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, Ryan Robbins

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Warren Christie	...	Ben Anderson
Lloyd Owen	...	Nate Walker
Ryan Robbins	...	John Grey
Michael Kopsa	...	Deputy Secretary of Defense (as Mike Kopsa)
Andrew Airlie	...	Mission Control
Kurt Max Runte	...	Lab Tech #1 (as Kurt Runte)
Jan Bos	...	Lab Tech #2
Kim Wylie	...	Laura Anderson
Noah Wylie	...	Ryan Anderson
Ali Liebert	...	Nate's Girlfriend
Erica Carroll	...	John's Fiancée

Storyline

Decades-old found footage from NASA's abandoned Apollo 18 mission, where two American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, reveals the reason the U.S. has never returned to the moon.

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Plot Keywords:

found footage | nasa | moon | astronaut | spaceship | 

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Taglines:

There's a reason we've never gone back to the moon.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some disturbing sequences, and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 September 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Apolo 18

Filming Locations:

Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$8,704,271 (USA) (2 September 2011)

Gross:

$17,683,670 (USA) (11 November 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dimension Films, Bekmambetov Projects Ltd. (BPL), Apollo 18 Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS (as Datasat Digital Sound) SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Not screened in advance for critics.

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Goofs

It would not have been possible for the Apollo spacecraft to land on the moon's south pole. Doing so would have required far more fuel, in order to move the vehicle into a polar orbit. The weight of that additional fuel would have required a rocket larger than the available Saturn 5 rocket.

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Quotes

Nate: Get it out. It's so cold. Get it out, Ben. Get it out, get it out! Damn it Ben get it out!

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Connections

References The Astronaut's Wife (1999)

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Soundtracks

"We Three Kings"
Arranged by Maxwell Knight
Courtesy of 5 Alarm Music

User Reviews

Faux space documentary better than predicted

Framed as leaked "found footage" from the era of space exploration in the 1970s, Apollo 18 is an attempt to out conspiracy the already rife conspiracy theories concerning the lunar landings. The trouble with framing something as being documentary style footage is you have to get the science right and be free from any loopholes that might break the audience out of the illusion. Apollo 18 falls short on this count. López-Gallego manages to recreate to a certain extent the lunar missions. Portrayed through the various cameras feeding live footage back to Earth we have a Big Brother style look into the doomed from the start space mission. The two man crew of the lunar lander also film themselves on 16mm cameras. Herein lies some of the flaws in the director's logic. We need to get into the character's perspective to relate. This is solely done through these 16mm cameras. They film themselves on the moon's surface as well as personal records in the module. The rest is all caught on remote cameras, the audience being allowed to see the threat before the crew do, privy to the danger the Department of Defence has exposed them to. The live footage makes sense to have been documented; however the 16mm film rolls do not make it out, they share the crews dire fate. How then are we seeing the actions of the crew amidst this found footage? It makes no sense pulling any reasonably astute watcher beyond the line of suspension of disbelief.

It seems clear López-Gallego wants us to care about the cast. We need to care for the conspiracy theory to resonate. The story very directly harks into the era of Watergate where the powers that be cannot be trusted. But his illusion of found footage does not stand up at all well. Does the story really fail on this account? No. It's actually fairly entertaining as it goes. The tension builds; the threat is revealed and played out. However the conspiracy theme and the documentary framing lend the film no real benefit and do not pay off. While there is reams of data on the films website to build the conspiracy it is not present enough on screen to sideline the notion we are victim to a none to subtle slight of hand.

What the film did do with the early footage was remind me why, as a child, I was so fascinated with space. It shows with sufficient realism what the actual Apollo astronauts did and how we as a planet reached for the stars. This is not history as it tries to suggest, but it is a reminder, to me at least, of how sad it is that we no longer pursue such epic destinations as the moon or beyond.