SpaceCamp
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Space Camp is a 1986 movie based on a book by Patrick Bailey and Larry B. Williams and inspired by the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. The film stars Kate Capshaw, Lea Thompson and Tate Donovan. Its screenplay was written by Clifford Green (as W. W. Wicket) and Casey T. Mitchell.
The movie's release was untimely, coming out at about the same time as the Challenger accident of January 28th, 1986.
Synopsis
The movie revolves around four teenagers and a 12-year-old boy named Max who have gone to space camp for three weeks during summer to learn about the NASA space program and mimic astronaut training. There they meet Andie, a camp instructor and NASA astronaut who is frustrated that she has not yet been assigned to a space shuttle mission.
Things start to unravel when Max saves a sentient robot named Jinx. To return the favor, Jinx decides to send Max into space after hearing Max say during a moment of frustration that he wanted to be in space.
Jinx secretly enters NASA's computer room the night before the teens and Andie were to sit in a shuttle orbiter (Atlantis, to be exact) as it test-fired its engines (without launching). Jinx asks the computer how the launch could be forced. The computer responds that inducing a "thermal curtain failure", essentially igniting one of the solid rocket boosters, would cause NASA to have to ignite both boosters and launch the shuttle to avoid disaster. While the teens and Andie are aboard the shuttle for its engine test, Jinx forces the computer to falsely signal a thermal curtain failure. Andie finally convinces Launch Control to launch. Shortly after reaching space, voice contact is lost because the shuttle's long-range radio was not flight ready. Andie thinks they can wait until a landing window opens, but finds later that there's not enough oxygen aboard to make it home to Edwards Air Force Base or the Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, Tish begins using a telemetry switch to send a distress signal to NASA, but no one on the ground notices.
Andie takes the shuttle higher to "Space Station Daedalus" (see International Space Station) to obtain more oxygen, and after docking begins a spacewalk. While on her spacewalk, Andie is injured trying to transfer oxygen into the shuttle. The teenagers are able to get Andie back inside the shuttle, but the time it took them to do so has caused them to miss their re-entry window and they again risk running out of oxygen. Rudy and Kathryn together remember that the shuttle once landed at White Sands, New Mexico, and Tish uses Morse code to signal NASA to let them try for a landing there. Jinx, wanting to help Max, rolls into NASA's control room, fights for attention, and the slow-to-realize Zack figures out that the robot is reading Morse code off the unattended console. Zack figures out the code, "White Sands", and begins preparations for the landing. Because Andie injured her ribs and arm, Kathryn has to fly the shuttle through re-entry and landing. After struggling to stabilize the shuttle, Kathryn finally succeeds and lands the shuttle safely.
Characters and cast
- Kevin Donaldson (Tate Donovan). Kevin made it clear from the start that he didn't want to be at Space Camp and looked down on people who did — he admitted the only reason he attended was because his father bought him a Jeep. Donaldson was originally assigned to a different team of campers, but he wanted to get to know Kathryn so he stole another camper's tag and joined her group.
- Kathryn Fairly (Lea Thompson). Kathryn was a private pilot and wanted to be the first woman shuttle commander (at the time the movie aired, there were no women shuttle pilots or commanders — the first woman shuttle pilot and commander is astronaut Eileen M. Collins). She idolized camp counselor Andie Bergstrom, a real astronaut. Kathryn arrived at the camp by piloting her own biplane.
- Rudy Tyler (Larry B. Scott). Rudy was the clumsy "odd man out" of the group, and sometimes acted as comic relief. He said he wanted to be the fourth black astronaut and have the first outer space fast food franchise.
- Tish Ambrose (Kelly Preston). Tish, a typical teenager (and semi-Valley Girl), saw camp as a way to be away from her parents. She came across as a ditzy blonde, but in fact had a photographic memory.
- Max Graham (Joaquin Phoenix, credited as Leaf Phoenix (Joaquin had changed his name to Leaf, but later changed it back to Joaquin)). Max was an eager 12-year-old space enthusiast who bonded with the robot Jinx. He had been to Junior Camp twice in a row, and was supposed to be in Junior Camp again, but snuck into the camp for older kids instead. Andie, knowing Max from earlier years, let him stay.
- Andie Bergstrom (Kate Capshaw). Andie was a camp instructor and astronaut who had dreamed of going into space since she was a child. She had become frustrated with waiting to be assigned to a mission and was growing tired of chaperoning children at the camp.
- Zach Bergstrom (Tom Skerritt) was the camp director and Andie's husband.
- Jinx, was a sentient robot, and Max's friend.
U.S. SpaceCamp
Although the real NASA space camp is in Huntsville, Alabama, Jinx' ability to reach the same computer complex twice, once the night before launch and on launch day itself, implies that the movie's space camp is within robot-rolling distance of the Kennedy Space Center. Indeed, a Space Camp did open at KSC in 1987, but it did not exist at the time the movie was released.
External links
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