Movies - Rocketship X-M

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	Movies - Rocketship X-M

Rocketship X-M (1950) was the second of the American science fiction feature films of the space adventure genre begun in the post-war era, in 1950. Because expensive special effects and production value delayed the release of Destination Moon, this black and white film was quickly shot so as to be able to make it to the cinemas first. Unlike Destination Moon, however, this one delivers an anti-nuclear message.

It was directed by Kurt Neumann and features Lloyd Bridges and Osa Massen. The film is also known as Expedition Moon, and originally as Rocketship XM-1. The film was also one of many B-movies mocked as episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Plot

Four men and a woman blast into space on mankind's first expedition to the Moon. Halfway to the moon, the engines shut down because of a problem in the fuel. Newton's laws are instantly violated as the ship comes to a dead stop. There are some tense moments (more or less) while the crew work on the problem. They solve it beyond their expectation and the ship tears off across the solar system on a new course. Incredibly, this takes them directly to Mars (about the same odds as hitting the left eye of a mosquito at a range of several miles), which causes Dr. Karl Eckstrom to "pause and observe respectfully while something infinitely greater assumes control".

On Mars, they find evidence of a once-powerful civilization, as evidenced by an art-deco wall-hanging of a face, and a backdrop of a building shaped rather like a dynamo. There has been a planetary nuclear war. They meet a descendant of the builders of the civilization: a blind and mute woman, who is pursued by other descendants: cave-men, whom they fight off and escape (with 2 dead and 1 wounded). The return voyage is only a partial success: the ship makes it back to Earth but hasn't enough fuel for a landing. They crash. There is an epilogue in which the anti-nuke moral of the film is restated. The last members of the expedition are stated to have crashed into the Earth and died.

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