The Right Stuff | MOVIE REACTION
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It's not that the movie maybe too long, it's that your attention span is incredibly short. That is odd to me!
@@rmora1 The TikTok generation.
That rocket plane that Yeager flew is in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum along with The Spirit of St. Louis (the first plane to fly across the Atlantic), a space capsule, a plane called the Voyager which was the first to fly around the world non-stop without refueling in the 1980s.
It wasn't quite like they portrayed in this movie. They didn't just pick the guy in bar in the Mojave Desert. It was a careful selection process to pick the pilot, and he didn't break the sound barrier on the first attempt, it took several flights, they encountered several problems along the way. Yeager wrote a book about his life and it details some of this. The Right Stuff was, IMO, a rather strange book by a rather strange author.
That altimeter at the 15 minute mark was really spiraling, he was falling very fast.
The creepy old guy at the bar Pancho’s is the real Chuck Yeager
"Yuh all want a shot a whiskey?""No...we'd like a Coke...in a CLEAN GLASS"...that said it all...
Creepy? C’mon anybody at that isolated place will be wary and skeptical of two obvious outsiders. That explains his behavior. They confirmed his suspicions when they wanted a Coke in a clean glass.
Creepy? Good grief
@@lesliesawyer3224 She said, "The creepy old guy", so pretty sure that is what he is referring to.
I was going to say the same thing. lol Yep Yeager himself.
RIP his funeral was a nightmare that made me late after getting my lunch. Downtown was shut down from the river to the hills between the Civic Center to the Capitol in Charleston WV. What was a surprise to me was the General was still flying in the Aggressor Squadron into his 90's
The reason they focused on Chuck Yeager is because the movie is called The Right Stuff. And he was probably America's best test pilot. He totally had The Right Stuff. But, unfortunately, NASA wanted all the astronauts to have a college degree. He didn't have one. Ironically enough, he trained most of the astronauts.
Right on. I find it interesting that the scene near the film's end with the Mercury astronauts being welcomed to Texas with glitz and glamour was interspliced with Yaeger's dangerous test flight, which had no press and almost no one watching. I have no doubt this was an intentional contrast. The test flight ended with the plane crashing but Yaeger surviving--and walking away from the wreck. Yaeger was not an astronaut, but he definitely had The Right Stuff.
Not only that, it was baby steps, the first logical step was breaking the sound barrier in a plane and Chuck Yeager did it, they learned so much from the failures
The truth is, German engineers and technicians were critical to the early successes of the American space program. Chief among them was Werner Von Braun. As Germany was losing the war, most of the German rocket program preferred to surrender to Allied armies. The Soviets claimed fewer.
And, they were not antagonistic toward the astronauts. They valued their input, and the astronauts would be just as integral to the spacecraft's development. But then... there's a lot of misrepresentation that happens in this film, sadly.
This movie does Gus Grissom dirty. He didn’t panic and the hatch really did just blow.
Wally Schirra proved it during his Mercury flight (Sigma 7). He triggered the ejection mechanism, and it has to be jammed so hard that it leaves a visible bruise, and Grissom had no such bruise anywhere on his body.
I remember there was a lot of controversy about the Grissom recovery at the time and I think the movie reflected that, even though it was a bum rap.
@@xbubblehead Controversy or not, nobody in NASA believed for a second it was Grissom's fault. The Press or the Public could have been a different story, but nobody in NASA ever scapegoated him or even directly accused him.
Carpenter, on the other hand,... he WAS scapegoated and blamed, but for a different issue entirely. One we never saw in the film.
@@k1productions87 I don't think the book or the movie unfairly painted the picture of what was going on at the time. Although it's been quite a while since I visited either, I think neither took a stand on what actually happened during the recovery but rather addressed only the public reaction, but my memory may not be completely accurate.
@@xbubblehead its clear Gus didn't believe he did anything, but when the investigator says "Explosive hatches have been on jet fighters for ten years. The damned things have been rung inside out. Subjected to trial by heat, by water, by shaking, pounding. We even dropped them from a height of one hundred feet onto concrete. And not one of them has ever "just blown"" it pretty much put a period on the discussion, as the movie made zero effort to refute that statement or vindicate Gus.
Chuck Yeager ‘s contribution to this film and the story was he broke the sound barrier which opened the door to the possibilities that space travel is feasible. Without him being the true pioneer who knows how the future would have turned out. We owe Brigadier General Chuck Yeager EVERYTHING!
And he didn’t just take that F-104 for a spin because he was feeling left out. It was a scheduled test flight, and it was a plane specially modified to test the control systems needed to control a spacecraft in orbit.
Holly shit, that's cool. Thank for the info.
The reason Yeager's face was messed up was because when he separated from the ejection seat the bottom of the seat (with the rocket motor) hit his helmet, breaking his visor and cutting his scalp. A molten piece from the seat ignited the visor seal; since Yeager's suit was pressurized, the escape of oxygen set the seal on fire. That's when he was struggling as he fell through the air.
Every Mercury astronaut had a characteristic injury when they "blew the hatch". Gus did not have that injury and it was later reasoned that the static electricity from the chopper blew the hatch when they first touched the capsule. Knew a marine who served in Vietnam who got a two inch burn around his hand grabbing a tether during an equipment delivery from a Huey.
Creepy old guy was Yeager himself LOL! He did a cameo for the movie.
18:44 yup.
@KM-et8wc I'm so glad I'm not the only one who knew this. Shouldn't be surprised but most people don't even know who Yeager was which is a shame.
Yes. The best pilot that ever was!
@sirjohn. You’re goddamned right…
@joeb918 If not the best definitely in the top 2!
When I was a kid I wanted to be Chuck Yeager in the worst way... I was obsessed with airplanes and spaceships (I still am to some degree)... I remember so many years of reading all I could, turning a computer into a flight sim, attempting to build my own plane in the backyard. Unfortunately my first "flight" was not entirely successful. On flying there's a quote from sci/fi comedy writer Douglas Adams that I love, "flying," he says, "is throwing yourself down at the ground and missing." Well, let's just say I nailed the first part of that. It's a wonder I lived past 10 years old with some of crazy stuff I used to do.
I think every kid that grew up watching this movie wanted to be Chuck Yeager tbh, I'm still obsessed with rocketry because of movies like this
When Yeager broke his ribs he had them taped up by a veterinarian so the flight doctors wouldn't find out.
Pancho Barnes - the woman running the diner - is an aviation legend in her own right. You should read up on her.
There is so much that the movie just glosses over.
The movie didn't really make it clear that the woman who ran the bar was Pancho Barnes, who at one time held the women's world air speed record and was quite a hot shot when she was young. That's why she is accepted by the pilots.
Dud you ever read The Happy Bottom Riding Club? It's a biography of Pancho and an absolutely fantastic book. She was a bad ass.
@@stephenmcdonald8474 I did read about her, and that may be it.
Maybe you heard the anecdote - half the pilots argued that Pancho was one of the ugliest women who ever lived. The other half insisted, no, she was THE ugliest woman who ever lived. With genuine respect of course.
There is a 12 part HBO series called "From the Earth to the Moon", produced by Tom Hanks, that originally aired in 1998 that is mostly about Project Apollo, the American moon landing project. It is well worth watching.
One of the episodes of the series covers the Apollo 1 fire that killed the three astronauts mentioned at the end of the movie. Only one of those astronauts, Gus Grissom, was one of the original seven. Ed White and Roger Chaffee were part of the second and third groups of NASA astronauts selected for the Gemini and Apollo flights.
Love that miniseries. One of the best ever made imo.
Would add that The Right Stuff also serves as good prequel to the movie Apollo 13 also staring Tom Hanks
There are three islands named after Chaffee, White and Grissom just offshore from Long Beach, California in the Los Angeles area. The first one is just by the marine by Rainbow Lagoon Park and the Pacific Aquarium, and they go south south eastish from there.
Chuck Yeager's crash at the end is VERY under represented. He didn't just walk away with a few scratches. He actually suffered severe burns to his head and neck when the ejection seat hit his helmet and ignited the oxygen in his pressure suit.
John Glen entered politics and became a 4 term senator, the most prestigious chamber of the U.S. Congress. In 1998 John Glen returned to space again in the shuttle Discovery to set a record as the oldest man ever to go to space. He was the last survivor of the original 7 American astronauts.
Annie Glenn went to speech therapists and eventually overcame her stammer.
Gordo was the greatest pilot anyone ever saw.. His electric systems failed, had to fly by wire on reentry.. He used a piece of chalk and his capsule window to work out his reentry angle.. Then splashed down 3.5 miles from the rescue carrier..
Chuck Yeager was "Chill" personified!
I grew up during the second phase, the Apollo phase of the space program and every mission was a major event. I've watched this movie so many times I could probably recite the entire dialogue as it unfolds.
Wonderful reaction. The film doesn't mention the Gordon Cooper actually controlled his disabled capsule manually from orbit to a splashdown only 6km from the recovery ship.
There is so very much the film doesn't mention. They even leave out three of the seven completely. I don't think Wally Schirra has more than four lines the entire film
Eh, Shirra was an ace.. His mission was about as perfect as it could be.. Carpenter was nearly booted from the program on the chopper back to carrier, he messed it up so bad… And Deke never made it into space, I don’t believe?.. Medical issues..
@@jacobjones5269 Deke made it to space 16 years later on the last Apollo to ever fly in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
Before then, he spent his entire career from Mid-Mercury to the end of Apollo as essentially the astronauts' boss. You could make an entire movie on his story alone.
@@k1productions87
I had forgotten about that, thanks for the reminder..
@@jacobjones5269 If you ever get the chance, watch the HBO Miniseries "From The Earth to The Moon"
11:30 The bar owner, Poncho, was a highly accomplished test pilot in her own right. She was greatly respected by the pilots who knew here, but she did not tolerate fools.
Also, she swore like a man. This was very unusual in her era.
Chuck Yeagers story was that it wasn't just the guys that went into space that contributed to the success of the American space program. He and the other test pilots in the program pushed the technology and skills that they needed to the utmost level achievable at that time and succeeded at something that few have ever matched.
I wished there was a movie made about that.
@@johnnyskinwalker4095
A film about Chuck Yeagers life would be a great one! Could not put his book about his life story down. From a little farm boy to lying about his age to go to war then become a pilot become an Ace and then get shot down,survive the war then ending up the greatest test pilot ever! All without a stinkin' college degree!
@@angelohernandez6060 Oh that would be even better!
There is nothing random about Chuck Yeager; he is the main character. In the Tom Wolfe book, from which the movie was based, Yeager embodied "the Right Stuff". The Right Stuff are all those qualities that make up the perfect pilot.
The importance of Yeager to all the astronauts is shown when Gordo(the big ego guy) tells the press that hes only seen one pilot who had all the right stuff, and that was Yeager, who the press didnt know, so Gordo then says he's the best pilot that he's ever seen .
One of the main themes of the Tom Wolfe book is that much of the space program was built around image , exaggeration and public relations. And the true qualities that made them great had nothing to do with all that hype. The true greatness was in the courage and indomitable spirit of the lone test pilot facing death alone. That is why Yeager is central to the book and the movie.
Poor Gus Grissum died before the Apollo 1 mission when there was a fire that burnt alive all three astronauts during tests of the capsule's systems. The other two astronauts were not part of the original team of astronauts that were portrayed in this film.
The ending of this movie really doesn’t show how fantastic a pilot Gordo was. Once he got into space practically everything in his capsule failed. He had to calculate his re-entry by staring out the window and looking at his wristwatch.
Tall guy? Jeff Goldblum? He was in Jurassic park. I guess the follow up to this has to be Apollo13.
The follow up to this would be First Man.
@@kyleburnett4795 I'd say the min-series "From Earth to the Moon". It covers the whole Apollo program.
My father met Chuck Yeager My father was a civil service employee at Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro North Carolina. While he was working at the steam heating plant Chuck Yeager drove up and wanted a tour of the plant. Daddy took him on a tour. At the time they were using coal to heat the boilers.Daddy mentioned that there was coal dust but Chuck Yeager didn't mind. At the time Chuck Yeager was commander of the 4th Fighter Group
I grew up during this time. From the beginning, the American space program was always open to public viewing. Every launch from Mercury onward was broadcast live. If you want to follow this up, take a look at the HBO series, "From the Earth to the Moon" produced by Tom Hanks.
Yes please. That is my absolute favorite miniseries
You might not of caught one of the jokes. When the publicity guy wants to change "Gus" Grissom's name (because it doesn't sound like a proper name for an astronaut), he soon changes his mind, when he finds out that Grissom's real name is "Ivan". At that time the name "Ivan" was a stereotypical Russian sounding name.
Ivan’s the colloquial term for all Russians, the the threat itself..
Yeager was in the movie to show that it was NOT the best pilots that were accepted into the astronaut program, it was the best pilots THAT FIT THE PROFILE. Yeager was the best pilot, pretty much everybody familiar with the test pilot program would acknowledge that fact, with Scott Crossfield coming in second, but he didn't "fit the profile" that they were looking for. Yeager was a natural born pilot, an instinctive stick and rudder man and they wanted college graduates with aeronautical or engineering degrees that could not only fly, but who could explain mathematically what was going on with the space craft while it was in flight. Also, Gus Grisson was the only one of the first seven to die in an accident in the space program, the three that were referred to were Grisson, and two men who joined the program later, Ed White, the first American to walk in space outside the space craft, and Rodger Chaffee, a Gemini pilot with two missions already under his belt. They were testing out the Apollo craft that was the precursor of the one that went to the moon.
You’re mistaken. Chaffee never made it to space. His involvement in Project Gemini missions was on the ground as CAPCOM, capsule communications. And I wouldn’t place Crossfield and several others in an inferior position to Yeager as a test pilot. Yeager didn’t get the popular recognition that the astronauts did at the time, but he still got more of that than did some others who were better test pilots. Yeager did have a successful military career, he did have excellent intuitive flying skills, and he did have a good, practical mechanical sensitivity for systems that he basically understood, but he also, because of his lack of formal engineering education, had real limitations on his ability to contribute to advanced programs that demanded more than an intuitive sense of flying and mechanical engineering. Although it’s not shown in this movie, nor does it appear in Yeager’s self-glorifying autobiography, Yeager’s limitations as a test pilot were directly responsible for his failure to adequately control the NF-104, leading to the crash shown in the movie and injuries much more severe than were shown.
The biggest qualification for Mercury, beyond test pilot experience, was advanced Engineering degrees. They weren't just going up to fly, they had to fully evaluate their craft in every nitty gritty detail. Not only that, but they were also integral to its development. The movie does a disservice to not only the astronauts but the engineers as well. They never refused to work with the astronauts, in fact they valued the astronauts' input every step of the way. It would also be the astronauts themselves who would develop the cockpit layout, work out the specifics of communications, tracking and recovery, all the important steps needed to make the flights successful. This is the very reason their engineering background was so necessary.
Yeager, unfortunately, never actually attended college, so he did not have a degree of any kind, much less engineering. All that being said... the move does Yeager a disservice as well. They act as if he was just plunked up one day to fly it, and happened to do it well. Absolutely not. He too was intimately involved with his program, along with Jack Ridley. They literally flew dozens of flights before finally breaking the Sound Barrier. Also, from what I understand, there were three X-1's built, and only one had crashed, and the cause was completely unrelated to "the barrier".
Yeager did go on and complete an engineering degree after WW2. He would not have promoted past Captain or made it through Flight Test schooling if he hadn't. For the record, he also flew 120 combat missions in Vietnam before retiring a Brigadier General.
Yeager was at the top of the pyramid, until that pyramid became irrelevant.. That’s why he’s in the movie, and that’s the whole premise of the book..
The American space program “race to the moon” was divided into three phases: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. The Mercury missions were single-manned and the subject of this film. They were basically the Guinea pigs. Gemini missions were two men at a time, and the Apollo missions were three men eventually leading to the actual moon landing during the Apollo 11 mission. Each mission from Mercury to Apollo would highlight and test a specific aspect of space travel.
Chuck Yeager was a hero of mine when I was a child after I learned about him breaking the sound barrier. His autobiography is amazing. When I grew up and met my future wife, I found out her father served in Chuck Yeager's squadron in WWII, and he attended their reunions. I never got to meet Chuck, but I had several conversations with my father-in-law about their experiences in the war. I did meet one of their fellow aces Bud Anderson.
When you were wondering if John Glenn survived his flight, it reminded me of when I watched this film in the theater. At the time, John Glenn was running for U.S. president. When that same sequence was on screen, a woman in front of me asked her friend if Glenn had survived. Yeah. So, that happened.
Glenn served several terms as a Senator from Ohio.
@@Caseytify and flew in the Space Shuttle, decades later. He set a record for being the oldest Human Being to orbit the Earth, a record that still stands to this day.
Actually, Scott Wilson (Herschel from TWD) wasn't playing one of the 7 Mercury astronauts, but actually Scott Crossfield. He was the pilot that broke Chuck Yeagar's initial "sound barrier" record.
@ 18:44 "That Creepy Old Guy."
That Creepy Old Guy Is Retired General Chuck Yeager Who Was The First Man To Break The Speed Of Sound , On October 14, 1947 Seen Just A Few Scenes Before In This Excellent Movie! 😎😎🤓🙂☺️
I Am Posting 📫 This 👇🏻 At 12:17 a.m. , Saturday Morning 🌛🌉🌃🌌 , June 8 , 2024.
The movie helped remind the public who Chuck Yeager was. Following the movie he received numerous endorsement deals for AC Delco batteries and other types of tools, cars, stuff that would advertise during football games. They WERE at a mental hospital. That was the cover for astronaut evaluations and not at a military hospital.
As crazy as it sounds, they really did consider stock car racers, circus acrobats, etc. to be astronauts.
Chuck Yaeger was the "Eighth Astronaut."
Good one, Larissa! I haven't seen this movie in ages. I enjoyed rewatching it with you. Thanks for sharing it. 🙂
Great reaction to a really good movie, Larissa! It’s important to remember that it was made in ‘83, so the screenwriters knew that most viewers knew a lot about the first seven American astronauts. Gus Grissom was actually the only astronaut from this group to die in the accident mentioned at the end. The other two were Ed White and Roger Chaffee-they were from later groups astronauts recruited by NASA. This was Apollo 1, where frayed wiring resulted in a fire in the 100% oxygen atmosphere in the spacecraft during a test on the ground. It did not happen in space.
Yeager started out in the Army Air corps and became an Ace in the P51 mustang. The airport in Charleston WV is named for him and the Bridge in Charleston with his name, he claimed by flying loops around it. Growing up the Charleston Regattas sometimes had Yeager repeating the loop in a jet.
If you listen to the sound effects that follow the press hordes, they added the audio of locusts.
The tall orderly, Gonzales, is played by Anthony Munoz. He was an American Footbal player. Played for the Cincinnati Bengals and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The woman who owned the bar at the beginning was a real character herself. Check out Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes. She was a pilot who broke Amelia Earhart's speed record. Plus a lot more.
When Navy pilots hit the deck, they're at full throttle, just in case they miss a cable and have to fly off to try again.
For the death of Gus Grissom - he was the only Mercury astronaut who had died before the film was made. Possibly they included the other two (who were not mentioned previously in the film) for completeness about the fire.
Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier, and that's where it all began for astronauts really...he was a great guy...When I this in the theater in 1983, you should have heard the auduence cheer [it was deafening] when he came walking though the smoke, his face all black from the fire, like nothing happened, "big deal."
The extremely tall orderly in the hospital testing scenes is Anthony Muñoz, who was a professional football player for my favorite team, the Cincinnati Bengals. He is still to this day considered one of the best offensive tackles to ever play the game.
The flight at the end of the film where Yeager had to eject was a rocket-assisted NF-104 and he managed to make it high enough that the air was too thin for his control surfaces to be effective but still too thick for his steering thrusters to work. In the end he got rather more than a few scratches. When his seat separated the rocket motor that fired it out of the plane smashed into his faceplate and the oxygen in his helmet caught fire. He was fairly badly burned, and he gave up flight record attempts afterward.
The 2 men who died with Gus Grissom in 1967 were not members of the original 7 Mercury Astronauts. They were Ed White and Roger Chaffee.
Ed White was from the second class of astronauts (dubbed the "New Nine") and was the first American to walk in Space on Gemini IV
Roger Chaffee flew U2 spy planes over Cuba during the Missile Crisis, and joined NASA in the third group of 14.
13 years later Ed Harris plays the Houston Control manager for the true life story of Apollo 13, [1995] starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon Gary Sinese. Driected by Ron Howard. Ed also played country songer Patsy Cline's husband in the biograghical Sweet Dreams [1985] starring Jessica Lange.
The guy offering the drink is the real General Charles E. Yeager from WV and died just a few years ago in his late 90's
The real Chuck Yaeger plays an old man in the diner at the beginning
He wears a hat and shakes Barbara Hershey's hand
You call him "creepy old guy"
13:30 The old man shaking her hand, that is the real Chuck Yeager.
I was 7 when this came out and I remember my parents taking me to see it in the theater.
However, it was mostly over my head and about the only part that stuck with me was the test launch sequence (particularly the launch where only the top popped off).
"Creepy old guy" face palm...It's the real Chuck Yeager.
The large guy playing the part of the clinic orderly, Gonzales, is Anthony Munoz. Anthony played with the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals, from 1980 to 1992.
Tony played 11 times in the Pro-Bowl over a 13 year career. Perhaps the best Offensive Lineman in NFL history. I've met him twice and at my height of 6'3" he made me feel small.
@@mojomegaman He is a big sucker.
I read the book before the movie came out. The film follows it pretty well. I was a kid in the early 60's when the Space Race started. You had to be around then to see it all as it happened. I got my Private Pilot single engine land license in the early 70's. I don't fly anymore as I'm Old now and my medical condition isn't so good. I still follow most every space launch to this day..
Here's a FUN FACT:
Sam Shepard (Chuck Yeager) and Fred Ward (Gus Grissom) worked together onscreen in a film playing a lot lately on cable tv... 'Thunderheart'.
It's star?
Val "Iceman" Kilmer. 😎
It's one of my favorite epics. Two others are Lawrence of Arabia ('62) and Gandhi ('82).
I’ll never forget taking my older sister to see Lawrence in 70mm.. As we were leaving she said wait a minute, I gotta get this sand outta my shoes..
lol..
Required after this is the TV show "from the earth to the moon", and "Apollo 13", Tom Hanks is involved in both of those btw.
Mary Jo Deschanel (who plays Annie Glenn) is the mother of Zooey amd Emily Deschanel.
Been waiting for SOMEONE to react to this! Thanks!
Popcorn in Bed did a reaction to this as well.
All seven of the original astronauts eventually flew in space. Deke Slayton was grounded for a long time because he had an irregular heartbeat, but eventually flew in the Apollo-Soyuz “handshake in space” mission, the first joint American/Soviet space flight.
Alan Shepard is the only one of the original 7 to walk on the moon.
I'd love to see Deke's story get its own movie. If necessary, you could even pair Deke's story with that of Alexei Leonov. Both starting at the very beginning, bot intimately involved with the program, both suffering losses along the way, and both becoming buddies and symbolically ending the space race with a handshake in orbit.
I swear, this movie writes itself.
This was my first favorite movie when it came out when I was 13, and it remains one of my favorites. But the part about Gus Grissom's mission is simply wrong. In reality, he was perfectly calm in the Mercury spacecraft when the movie shows him acting agitated, and the NASA engineers later proved he was not at fault. He flew as the commander of the first flight of NASA's second spacecraft (Gemini) and was training to be the commander of the first flight of the third (Apollo) when he, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives in the Apollo One fire.
It was one of my favorites when I was even younger than that. Possibly 6 or 7, around the same time I saw Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (honestly, for my money, the best introduction to Trek one could possibly have) for the first time, and it captured my soul. I have been a space nut ever since.
Granted, looking back, I can see all the things that The Right Stuff got wrong (some jump out at me much harder than others), but I still enjoy it overall. From The Earth to The Moon does a much better job, but still leaves room for improvement as well.
I would love to see, finally, a complete anthology of early spaceflight get made. Leaving nobody out, and not glossing over (or outright rewriting) history in the process. And if it needs to be animated instead of live action (be it traditional style or 3D CGI), so be it. You could show a whole lot more, much more affordably that way. Hell, depending on the animation style, you could even get everyone to look just like their real life counterparts as well. But its just a thought
@@k1productions87 Have you ever seen the BBC docudrama "Space Race" from 2005? It covers from the end of WW2 until the late 1960s, focusing on Wernher von Braun and Sergei Korolev. They did a good job on a fairly low budget. I've watched the 4 parts on the website Dailymotion.
Yeager’s presence in the story represents a few things. First, he represents the numerous, excellent test pilots who were, for a variety of seemingly arbitrary reasons (for Yeager, it was his lack of an engineering degree), not qualified to be in the space program. As we see the Mercury program proceeding, we also see Yeager still out there doing the work, known only by his colleagues. It is implied that Cooper was about to say that Yeager was the best pilot he ever saw, before he instead said that he, himself was.
Second, he embodies the spirit, the raison d'etre of all test pilots; pushing the envelope. As we the astronauts achieving more and more in space, pushing the bounds of physics, to go where no man has gone before, we also return to Yeager, continuing to push those boundaries; pushing the envelope. I believe the real Yeager also narrated at the beginning and end of the movie.
Only one of these astronauts would die later on; Gus Grissom. The other two weren’t part of the Mercury program and thus weren’t in this movie.
Grissom, Schirra and Shepard were the only ones from the Mercury program to move on to the Gemini program and then to the Apollo program, which took us to the moon. It was on Apollo 1, in 1967 that Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee would die in a fire on board, during a test.
There is some irony in Gus being the one to advocate for explosive bolts on the spacecraft because one of the reasons he would later be killed was that the hatch for the Apollo 1 capsule was bolted closed from the outside and they couldn’t escape.
If you watch Apollo 13, they will touch briefly on the Apollo 1 accident in the opening of the movie. You are now familiar with one of those astronauts.
Ed Harris is, incidentally, also in Apollo 13, but as infamous flight director, Gene Kranz.
The testing they went through in the early program was insane. They were literally making up brand new tests just to see what they could put the body through, and how much it could endure.
I think the astronauts said it best in some interviews:
INTERVIEWER: "Which test did you like least?"
JOHN GLENN: "its rather difficult to pick one, because if you realize just how many openings there are in the Human body, and how far you could go in any one of them.... now you answer which one would be toughest for you"
WALLY SCHIRRA: "We were well patients being looked at by sick doctors"
Woohoo!!!! It's my favorite movie of all time!!! Thank you for reacting. It is a great book as well!
One of my favourite movies, the first & last chapters of movie are 2 of the best to be put on film! The NF-104 flight by Yeager was only the second time he needed to bail out of an airplane!
That actor you are trying to figure out who he is…those 2 guys that come to the bar and are trying to recruit the pilots is Jeff Goldblum.
The big guy that plays Gonzales is none other than Anthony Muñoz, the best offensive tackle in NFL history imo. 😊
The scene set in Australia is filmed in America. They flew Aborigines from here to the USA for that scene
I was born the morning Gordon Cooper launched! My mom almost named me Gordon! (Still a little bummed that she didn’t!!). Love this movie!
Though his first name was actually Leroy :P
While being one of my favorite movies, it really takes a lot of artistic license in it's depiction of historical events. Especially with Chuck Yeager. He didn't just jump in the X-1 and fly it the day after he volunteered as shown in the movie....he and Ridley and a big team of engineers took months of training and several test flights and analysis before the one that broke the sound barrier. This is also the case for the F-104 crash at the end of the movie. Only thing accurate about that is that it WAS Yeagers fault it crashed.
This and MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET are my all-time favorite movies. When I first saw it I was also distracted when the kept going back to Yeager but on subsequent viewings Yeager became my favorite character and eventually my hero. I think the point of going back to his was that, despite the seven being picked to "ride the rocket" Yeager was still the best. And, yes, he was the bartender who came up to the recruiter and asked if they wanted a drink of whiskey.
The bar with the pool is real. It's the El Rancho Hotel in Millbrae California. My hometown. Unfortunately soon to be torn down for condos.
The tall guy is Jeff Goldblum, he was in Jurrasic Park.
The only real problem I had with this was they made it seem Gus was panicky and blew the hatch. However, even at the time they were able to prove that the hatch HAD just blown.
The button to blow the hatch, which was meant to be done after the helicopter had the capsule secured left a distinctive mark on the hand of 5 of the 6 Mercury astronaut who flew and used the button to blow the hatch open. Gus was the only one who didn't have that mark.
Ironically, proving that the hatch could just blow on it's own may have played a role in Gus's death.
Because the hatch could just blow, NASA stated that the Apollo capsule would not have an explosive hatch. So when the Apollo one capsule caught fire overpressure inside the capsule made it imposable to open. And so they could not evacuate the crew in time to save their lives.
Later Apollo capsules included an explosive hatch.
Also, there was a fatal accident when making the movie. In the scene where Yeager ejects from the out of control NF-104, the stuntman seen skydiving, his chute never opened.
Barbara Hershey was cast only a few days before they started shooting.
The actor who played Herschel on The Walking Dead is plays astronaut Scott Crossfield
In the early 1980's, General Yeager flew a Piper Cheyenne, or perhaps it was an Apache, I don't remember. In any case he stopped in Cleveland Ohio for fuel where a friend of mine was ground crew. I do remember my friend accidentally spilled avgas over his left wing, super embarrassing.
This movie did Gus Grissom wrong. He was far from being the "squirming hatch blower" and if he had not died in the Apollo 1 fire, he was the favorite to be the first on the moon.
He also named his Gemini III spacecraft "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". And despite getting horribly seasick after splashdown, he made damned sure that hatch would not open until they were safe on the carrier.
When Chuck Yeager lifts off in the long, pointy-nosed airplane with the short wings (an F-104 Starfigthter), he is trying to break a zoom-climb record set by the Soviets. In the real-life flight, his Starfighter had a rocket booster that lit when the air became too thin for the jet engines to run.
I live in Cocoa Beach and I go to the 1st Christian church of Cocoa Beach. Inside the front doorway, there is 2 small flags, one American and one Christian, these flags rode with Gordon Cooper on his historic flight. We watch SpaceX Falcon nine rockets all the time now from our front yard.
The tall guy looks familiar because its Jeff Goldblum whom you may have seen in Jurassic Park, Independence Day or The Fly.
Speaking of The Simpsons, the short guy is the voice of many Simpsons Characters such as Principle Skinner...
If you want to see some real footage of what re-entry looks like, just yesterday SpaceX’s Starship launched and you can watch, from live cameras on board, what re-entry looks like. This was the 4th unmanned test flight. The ship made it back to a ‘soft’ landing in the India Ocean, but you can watch as the heat of re-entry found some weak spots in the heat shielding and melts away parts of the spacecraft!
Pancho Barnes was a tough as nails, take no shit, woman who was infamous for punching the shit out of pilots who got out of line in her bar. Also one of the great aviators of her time. She loved the boys, but did not suffer fools.
Also, the old guy in the bar that offers them a drink of whiskey is the real Chuck Yeager.
44:30 Gus should not had had an issue, but he had removed his helmet and that allowed water to flood into his pressure suit and making him sink.
The helicopter crew didn't see how much he was struggling.
@29:25 That actor's name is Jeff Goldblum. He was not well known when this was made but was later in tons of stuff: The Fly, Independence Day, Silverado, Jurassic Park, etc....
@37:00 No that fact is at least partially accurate. Lots of former German scientists were involved in the Gemini and Apollo programs. Werner Von Braun was a lead designer and was formerly involved at the top in Nazi Germany's V2 rocket programs (albeit unwillingly according to him). His grave is located less than a mile from my home in Alexandria, Virginia. It's very non-descript and unassuming and occasionally someone will put a little toy rocket on his headstone. NASA later distanced himself from Von Braun when it came out that some of Werner's work in Germany was supported by forced labor from concentration camps. He acknowledged this but claimed he had no way to refuse this when the Nazi's provided it (where he wouldn't end up shot or in prison).
@38:00 That pilot is Chuck Yeager who was a legendary pilot but never entered the astronaut program. I believe he retired at the rank of General. I think the movie implies that while astronauts are represented as the "best of the best" of pilot, Yeager was actually the real best of the best, just never an astronaut.
Not just the Apollo Program, see Operation Paperclip for more details on this.
Basically America wanted to take all the top German scientific taken before the Russians did, in large part because of the Cold War.
John Glenn was an Senator from OH for a while.
19:14 I actually worked with a guy named Jose Jimenez. I once told him about this comedic sequence and he had never heard of this movie.
"I am CONVINCED that they will get me back to Earth. ... just how far INTO IT.... THAT'S what I'm not convinced about"
well, surely they provided something to break your fall
"Oh yes, the state of Nevada!"
30:00 All of these guys are officers in various branches of US military. They have been trained in leadership and public speaking. This event is just a slightly different type of event.
Well, not exactly. Their training was in engineering and navigation and flight. John Glenn was really the only "public speaker" among them. Deke Slayton spoke of being particularly nervous during that interview, and far from smooth. Shepard was a bit more confident, but it was John Glenn who felt like he was cast for the role, as he took to it like a duck to water. So much so that the movie had to even take some of his lines away and give them to Cooper for some reason.
Though I wished they kept one moment from the real interview in the movie
INTERVIEWER: "Which test did you like least?"
JOHN GLENN: "Its rather difficult to pick one, because if you realize just how many openings there are on the Human body, and how far you can go in any one of 'em. (laughter erupts) Now.... you answer which one will be toughest for you!"
WALLY SCHIRRA: (as laughter continues) "You gave it away!"
I read 2 books by Chuck Yeager (and a ghostwriter), and have watched lots of documentaries about this subject - somewhere I learned that the Bell-X1 airplane was modeled after the 0.50 caliber Browning Machine Gun projectile. This shape was chosen for its inherent stability in flight. In this film, the Bell X1 does look like it was hard to fly. I don't know if that was just a choice of the director or what. Maybe someone out there knows the answer.
6 of the 7 Mercury Astronauts flew on that program. "Deke" Slayton was prevented from flying due to a heart problem, he became head of the Astronaut Program You see him in Apollo 13. He eventually got to fly on the Apollo/Soyuz Test Program. This was where the USA & USSR met & docked in orbit.
Deke's story would make a wonderful film in itself. Nick Searcy also does a wonderful job playing him in the HBO Miniseries "From The Earth to The Moon"
The windowed pool is real. It was very popular at hotels and resorts across the USA in those days. In the early 1980's, the U.S. Air Force sent me to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for some specialized computer training. I was lodged in the "Sheraton Flagship Hotel" (Now, the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel), and the pool had windows that were viewable from the Lounge/Bar. It was very comical watching folks get into the pool, not knowing that those windows were there! You saw everything, from naked swims, to outright sex in the pool.
@14:42 that's Scott Wilson (Herschel) He played Scott Crossfield, second test pilot assigned to fly X15's along with Chuck Yeager. BTW, the familiar looking black haired tall guy was Jeff Goldblum.
17:47 the short guy is Mr. Burns and Smithers from THE SIMPSONS
The 7 Mercury astronauts were intimately involved with development of the Mercury capsule at McDonnell Aircraft and the man-rated Atlas booster at General Dynamics, as well as development of the flight program with the Mercury Control flight personnel. The first few of flights were more devoted to enineering tests of the capsule, but as the flights progressed, more and more scientific experimentation was included so they werent just "sight-seeing" adventures for some ego maniacs. Project Mercury was mostly aimed at proving men could survive and work in space. The film doesn't accurately depict the actual facts, especially the highly predjudicial view of Gus Grissom's flight. Gus in fact was a very highly disciplined test pilot, and was entrusted with command of the first Gemini mission in 1965.
Thanks for reacting to this movie. I've been recommending it to people since TH-cam reactions began about 4 years ago but, of course, they knew better.
Yes. I've nagged everyone as well. Specially after "Top Gun Maverick". I think "Popcorn in Bed" is the only one that watched it... There was another guy but he took down the reaction.
@@sirjohnmara Interesting. Apparently, I did see Cassie do it and just forgot, but I have been pushing this movie for years. I've also been pushing "Stalag 17" and "Ghandi" with little success. I have also occasionally seen movies I recommended for years without success finally start being reacted to.
I’ve also recommended Stalag 17 to some reactors… though it’s a rather difficult movie to describe without it sounding off putting. “It’s sort of a comedy drama that takes place in a POW camp…”
I guess most people are like, “what’s funny about a POW camp?” Animal and Shapiro, that’s what… comedy gold those two.
@@joeb918 I like "Star Wars: A New Hope" and "Back to the Future" as much as the anyone, but I can only watch so many reactions to them.
@@sirjohnmara BrandoCritic. I actually sent him the disk.
It was confirmed when they found the capsule years after this film, it just blew, Grissom wasnt at fault.
A follow up to this movie would be First Man with Ryan Gosling. And then after that you have to watch Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks.
This movie is a mix of fact and fiction. The book is truer to the reality of the events and I highly recommend it.
From The Earth to The Moon is a far better account, I feel. Well... except for the Apollo 13 episode LOL
Woww you're one of the first reactors to dig this one up. Love this movie.