Aahana Swrup
Greg Berlanti’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ is a romantic comedy film centered around NASA’s Apollo 11 mission as it unfolds in the late 1960s. The central protagonists are two NASA employees—however, where Cole Davis is dedicated to the integrity of the Apollo Program, Public Affairs’ new hire, Kelly Jones, has no qualms about bending the truth to their benefit. Consequently, when an Agent from the White House, Moe Berkus, receives orders to craft a sound stage to fake the moon landing—solely as a contingency plan and nothing more—Kelly inevitably ends up running the project.
Thus, Project Artemis comes into its secretive existence, compelling Kelly and Cole to wonder if a conspiracy will eventually win out against the truth. Given the confidential nature of the backup “moon landing” in the film, alongside its otherwise close-to-fact depiction of Apollo 11, fans are bound to grow intrigued by Project Artemis and its potential basis in reality. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Project Artemis References the Faked Moon Landing Conspiracies
‘Fly Me to the Moon’ walks a unique line between real life and fictionality. As the film employs the Apollo Program, it infuses details about the on-screen Apollo 11 mission with historical facts. Nevertheless, the same realistic influence dissipates as Project Artemis—cleverly named as an antithesis to the Apollo Program—enters the picture. In the film, the government plans to prepare a fake moonwalk soundstage as a failsafe method to forge a successful moon landing, putting the fictitious Kelly Jones in charge of the plan. In real life, NASA has never commissioned any projects to fake the moon landing. Therefore, Project Artemis remains confined to the film’s fictional premises, lacking a factual basis in reality.
Instead, Project Artemis seems to be inspired by various conspiracy theories based on the belief that the 1969 moon landing and its broadcast were fake. Even though multiple professionals have debunked this theory throughout the years, it continues to be one of the most well-known conspiracies of contemporary times. According to a 2019 survey, 10% of people appear to believe that the moon landings were faked. From scrutinization of the American flag’s curvature in the Moon’s atmosphere to unscientific analysis of shadows—the moon landing footage has been misconstrued to make several claims about its forged nature.
In fact, one such theory pitches that Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick filmed the supposedly fake moonwalk broadcast—an instance that ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ pokes fun at within its narrative. Therefore, within the film, Project Artemis imagines what could have happened had the US government actually called for the creation of a fake terrestrial moonwalk. Even so, rather than focusing on the same, the film shifts gears as Kelly and Cole decide to ensure only the true moon landing ever gets broadcast to the public.
Rose Gilroy, the film’s screenwriter who penned the narrative based on a story by Keenan Flynn and Bill Kirstein, expanded upon the intention behind the story. In a conversation with The New York Times, she said, “We wanted to build a story around the idea of these people coming together to ensure that the [moon landing] mission is real. Not in any of my research [into the conspiracy theories] did I ever come across one iota of a fact that made me question in any way the validity of this accomplishment.”
Artemis is Actually NASA’s Latest Lunar Exploration Program
As it exists in ‘Fly Me to the Moon,’ Project Artemis isn’t based on an actual historical event. However, a project with the same name does exist as a series of missions currently underway at NASA. The real-life Project Artemis isn’t a contingency of the Apollo Program and is actually focused on accomplishing another crewed moon landing—this time on the Moon’s South Pole, a place yet physically unexplored by humans. Furthermore, the program will bring another first for humanity by sending the first female astronaut and an astronaut of color to the Moon.
Through the Artemis Program, NASA aims to accomplish a number of achievements, including searching for the Moon’s water, utilizing the experience as a testbed for Mars, and further exploring the celestial body. As such, the real thing has no relation to the fictionalized conspiratorial program depicted in the film. Ultimately, the film’s portrayal of a secretive Project Artemis in 1969 holds no basis in reality.
Read More: Fly Me to the Moon: Are Satellite Motel and Wolfie’s Restaurant Real Places?
