I saw this movie for the first time in 10+ years (when I was a kid), and it was a much different experience. It's still a great movie, but what's with the ending? Was Cooper the main character all along, because the ending sure made it seem like that. I guess it could be the style of the humor used in the movie, but that was such a narcissistic way to end it.
shareThe ending just plays up the style of the characters and the fact that they were the best and were always trying to one up each other. For me it fits great.
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Totally agree. One of the all time great movie endings. If you're not on your feet cheering, you're not human.
sharesuch an amazing ending, definitely one of the top 5 best endings ever. its hard to explain why, but it just is.
shareNever once have I even clapped at the end of a movie, because....well....it's a MOVIE, not a stage play. Unless you're at the premier, the people that made it aren't likely to be there. I've never understood applause after a movie.
shareWhat the hell do the film makers being there have to do with anything? It's about being moved, exhilarated, moved by a film.
shareSo you're telling me if you would have seen this movie for the first time in your living room you'd have stood up and given it a round of applause? Whatever. rme
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
I didn't like the ending either. It kind of left the impression the whole program had been an ego trip for the astronauts. Plus it was very abrupt; you kind of get the feeling they just said, "holy crap, this movie has gone on long enough, we better get it over with."
IMO it should have ended with an epilogue scene showing Grissom's funeral in 1967; Alan Shepard hitting a golf ball on the moon in 1971; and Deke Slayton stepping out of the Apollo command module following splashdown of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.
And of course the deluxe DVD re-release, showing Glenn floating in space in the space shuttle in 1998.
These guys had "big balls". They were the generation after the "greatest generation" that conquered the Nazis and the Japs and set the world free. JFK gave them the next ultimatum, to conquer space, and they did it. Since that time we, America, has been floundering in petty bickering. 9/11 was a wake up call. Few, like Pat Tilden, took that call to heart. Unfortunately, many have taken advantage of the tragedy of 9/11 to self serve their own petty points of view to further divide our great country. Stepping off the soap box....
shareI agree.. I was born in 1984 but I love reading about the space program back then these guys were serious they let nothing get in the way.. i wish I was able to see all this stuff happen back then.
shareA symbolic "handing of the baton" -- the planes competed against the rockets, and with Yeager's near-fatal attempt to reach space, it became official -- we'd go in rockets. One program ended, another moved forward.
Cooper was also the opening narrator, so they used it as a framing device. They set him up as something of an "everyman astronaut," he stood for the entire program.
Plus, his flight was the end of the Mercury Program. The program would advance, become more technical, more scientific -- in a sense, the "hotshots" were also passing the baton to the cooler scientist-astronauts, so it was "The last time an American flew alone in space." OIt began with a man, flying slone, breaking the sound barrier, and ended with the last time a man flew alone.
It was a good ending, a tight ending that provided unity.
Don't talk to trolls; it only encourages them
"Cooper was also the opening narrator, so they used it as a framing device. They set him up as something of an "everyman astronaut," he stood for the entire program."
FWIW, Jack Ridley (played by Levon Helm) was the opening narrator. :-)
Now if that bastard so much as twitches, I'm gonna blow him right to Mars.
Jack did all the narration. And that was another little bit of artistic licence used by Kaufman. Poor ol' Jack was killed in an aircraft crash in Japan in 1957. He never saw any of the Mercury Program and wasn't there to give Chuck his gum prior to the NF104 flight. But it was a nice touch.
shareTo be honest, while the ending for this film isn't bad, I always thought it could have been better and I agree with what Jaystarstar says about it. While it makes sense to end with the launch of Faith 7, there's nothing leading up to the final scene: it just cuts straight from Yeager's crash to that. And the final narration is a bit strange: as well as acting like it was Gordo Cooper's story, rather than that of a whole bunch of men, it tells us Grissom's fate but no-one else's (which might have been confusing to some people as "astronauts White and Chaffee", as well as Project Apollo, are not mentioned anywhere else in the film).
shareI would say because of the year this came out that most of the audience would have been alive and aware of the other astronauts involved in the Apollo 1 fire.
shareThe last time a man flew alone? Tell that to the CSM pilots. Not only were they alone, but they were aloooong way from home. Some, if not all of the CSM pilots flew solo longer than the any of Mercury pilots.
shareSome of them were part of the generation. Yeager flew P-51s and was shot down over France. He had 10.5 kills. Most of the others flew the first US jets (F-86 Sabrejet) in West Germany and over Korea).
Let's not forget that the petty bickering to which you refer involved the greatest generation. Unfortunately, they weren't immune to the political bickering.
The greatest generation isn't very involved in the petty bickering of today, which he appeared to be referencing. Most are dead today.
Those would have definitely been cool things to show at the end as the credits are rolling.....clips from the real events.
"Well my name is Jim, but most people call me.....Jim."
I don't even know where to begin picking this apart. It ended with the end of the Mercury program, which is what the film was about. It shouldn't have ended with Deke or Shepard because that was Apollo. The ending was perfect, absolutely perfect. Awe inspiring, funny and moving. The incredible score, Levon Helm's great voice and narration combine for one of the best movie endings ever.
shareThe incredible score, Levon Helm's great voice and narration combine for the best movie endings ever.agree... 100%.
There's an element of narcissism to all of these guys, even the ones who tried not to seem that way. Anyone who could have the gall to believe they could do these things, with that technology, at that time and somehow not have to fear or worry about death has to somehow believe they are just too extra special, better than any other man out there. And that narcissism and gall is a big part of what "the right stuff" is that actually made them capable of these feats. You don't have to like it, or like them for it, but without that ridiculous self confidence they could never have the nerve to have been great test pilots, fighter pilots and eventually astronauts. It's pretty much a summation of the theme of the whole movie.
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When I was a boy, I had Chuck Yeager's picture on my wall and models Glamorous Glennis (and the X-15) hanging from my bedroom ceiling (Yeager never flew the X-15, he preferred the X-1 and its later variants). For me this film was about test pilots and I think it's why the film refers back to them as the astronauts advance. The film never mentions it but Yeager was flying for the USAF while Crossfiled (the civilian) the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). NACA was established in 1915: "...It shall be the duty of the advisory committee for aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution...." Growing up when I did there was never a clear distinction where the USAF and the NACA, which evolved into NASA, program began. Before there was Mercury there was the X-1, X-1A, D58-II, and the X-15 (Neil Armstrong and Shuttle Pilot Joe Engle along With Crossfield, Joe Walker all flew this to the edge of space). Yaeger, Crossfield, and Slick Goodlin were real people who really did lead the way to space at Muroc (Edwards) Air Force Base. So was Capt. Ridley (Ridley, ya got any Beeman's?) who was a great test pilot in his own right and killed in a 1957 freak plane crash. The training center at Edwards in named after Ridley.
Only three of the original Mercury 7 were USAF test pilots but the test pilot program at Muroc/Edwards Air Force Base became the Aerospace Research Pilots School (ARPS) in part because the rigors of being a test pilot corresponded best to the rigors of space flight. There's no question that each of the Mercury 7 were great pilots. Copper orbited the Earth 22 times and logged more time in space than all five previous Mercury astronauts combined. He traveled 546,167 miles at 17,547 mph at a maximum of 7.6 Gs but then NASA knew a human could withstand this pressure because of X-15 flights, which attained speeds of Mach 6.72 and also simulated conditions in Mercury capsule by attaining maximum elevations of more than 50 miles, crossing into the edge of space (Walker exceeded 80 miles in August 1963). Cooper achieved an altitude of 160 miles and he really was the first American astronaut to sleep not only in orbit but on the launch pad during a countdown.
For the most part Yeager (and Crossfield) were correct: The Astronauts were spam in a can. But Yeager was also correct; The Mercury astronauts sat in a capsule at the top of a huge stick of dynamite: They had balls of solid rock even if they didn't get to do much flying. This I think clearly demonstrates why the USAF/NACA test flight program evolved into NASA and ARPS. Mercury probably not have developed without NACA and the USAF test pilot program. I suppose because of my age I related more to the X-1 and the X-15 then any of the Mercury space vehicles BUT this is not to denigrate the bravery and the importance of the other services in the Mercury program. Politically, the Navy and Marines had to be represented and it Mercury was fortunate to have such an incredible selection of men. It is extraordinary that Yeager and Crossfield didn't even qualify for the Mercury program (lack of college degree,lack of security clearance) yet arguably both were the premier American test pilots of the early jet era.
Why do some consider the ending troublesome? The movie was about (in large measure) the Mercury Program. It ended with the last flight (the end) of the Mercury Program. That was Cooper's flight. Grissom's death was mentioned because it was a mission related accident and occurred only four years later. It would have been rude and uncaring not to mention White and Chaffee as well. The Yeager sequence served to reinforce the character of the test pilot:
Ambulance Driver: Sir, over there. Is that a man?
Ridley: (looking at a charred and injured Yeager trudging towards him): Yeah you're damn right it is!
The driver was unsure if he saw a man or something else (like a coyote). Ridley answered a different question.
I was a bit surprised that the movie ended at the point it did. What happened next was that Cooper's spacecraft had a power failure and he had to do the reentry procedures manually, proving himself a very capable astronaut:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Cooper#.22Spam_in_a_can.22
('Spam in a can')
I think they should have dramatised this.
My thoughts exactly.
Still a great film though.
Politically, the Navy and Marines had to be represented...Sorry this is so late in the game, but your comment lept out at me... today. there's been a number of 'conspiracy' theories about how the services should be represented and by how many. I tend to think each group of astronauts has been selected on its merits. And by luck or circumstance, the USN has been well represented...
For me, the real ending was Yeager's NF-104 scene. Cooper's launch was merely an epilogue.
I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him.share
Coopers electrical system had failed in his capsule, he took manual control and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere as a pilot, just like all the astronauts wanted to do.. He managed to splashdown closer than any of other astronauts to the target of the aircraft carrier.. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.
shareCompletely agree with bsthorrortownusa... Cooper really proved the need for great pilots to pioneer the U.S. into space with his feat aboard Faith 7. The story did not end with his launch.
I do love the ending, BTW. It just could have been better with a better homage to the great pilots and their dialogue earlier in the film with the German scientists.
"THAT... is a spacecraft, SIR. We do not refer to it as a CAPSULE...
Spacecraft."
"...Ja."
Love to hate them, but where would we be without narcissists?
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