Fly Me To The Moon (2024) - Script Analysis

Original title: "Fly Me To The Moon"

Spanish title: "La Otra Cara de La Luna"

Release year: 2024.

Genre: Romantic comedy.

Director: Greg Berlanti.

Screenwriter: Rose Gilroy.

Based on a story by: Keenan Flynn and Bill Kirstein.

Producers: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Lia, Keenan Flynn, and Sarah Schechter.

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Jay Romano, Jim Rash, Anna García.

Synopsis: 1969. Marketing expert Kelly Jones disrupts the challenging task of Cole Davis, NASA's director of launches. However, the real problem emerges when the White House considers the "Apollo 11" mission to land a man on the Moon too important to fail.

Theme: lies and truths.

To better understand this narrative, we must first recognize how the protagonist Kelly Jones/Winnie complicates her character arc by influencing the co-protagonist Cole Davis.

For this analysis, I would like to explore the narrative through the characters. To do so, we will use Dan Harmon's "Story Circle."

Dan Harmon's "Story Circle"

• Kelly Jones/Winnie

You: Kelly Jones is a meddlesome and extroverted marketing agent; she is the best. She works in the advertising elite, specializing in sports cars, specifically Mustangs. She is a workaholic whose personality revolves around sales. She gets what she wants through lies, deceit, and manipulation.

Need: Kelly has a good life, but the arrival of Moe Berkus, a secret service agent and the right-hand man of the President of the United States disrupts her plan in progress. He exposes some of her deceptions, complicating her current work position, and offers her a chance to sell something much bigger and better for American society: the Moon.

Go: Kelly accepts and travels to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to NASA's launch center, where she must work with launch director Cole Davis, who opposes the proposal. Once there, she finds that NASA is run entirely by young adults, and its organization and funding are declining.

Search: Kelly integrates into NASA and explains to Cole that the only way to fund the project is to get help through collaborations with private brands, reaching those who can invest in the project: senators and their state funds. Kelly convinces Cole, taking advantage of his infatuation with her, and launches her marketing and advertising strategies, turning astronauts into superstars, and selling the American people the dream of the Moon.

Find: Kelly needs Cole's presence as the launch director, and together they convince the senators to invest in NASA, promising to broadcast the moon landing live. Notably, Cole seals the deal with one of the senators by discussing his motivation and persuading the man in the suit to express his truth. Thus, the "Apollo 11" mission secures the necessary funding and support. But Moe Berkus needs a contingency plan in case the mission fails, so he and Kelly execute a recreation of the moon landing on a film set, even keeping it secret from Cole.

Take: Kelly debates her actions, feeling guilty about lying to Cole and staging a fake version of humanity's greatest achievement. She decides to flee, but Moe intercepts her at the airport. He forgives her past sins, thanks her, and reveals that the contingency plan is now Plan A, as the mission cannot afford to fail. He disconnected the lunar module camera, synchronizing only the real audio with the broadcast image from the set.

Return: reflecting on her experience, friends, colleagues, and especially Cole, Kelly decides to return to prevent the American people and the world from immortalizing humanity's greatest achievement with a false image.

Change: after the launch, Kelly opens her heart to Cole. For the first time, she tells her truth: her real name is Winnie, and her mother was a professional con artist. She was an accomplice in her mother's web of deceit, from which she learned everything she practices today, but legally. She realizes that her ambition was prioritized over others, and having seen the result of neglecting others' interests, she understands that lying or deceiving is not the only way to get what she wants. The truth is also a way.

However, this plot is solidified by having a co-protagonist who counteracts the impact and strength of the protagonist, and together they help each other grow in their character arcs.

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• Cole Davis

You: Cole Davis is a reserved, focused man who adheres to the ethical codes of a good citizen. He has been the launch director at NASA since the first Apollo mission and is a former Air Force pilot who couldn't pursue a career as an astronaut due to health reasons.

Need: Cole is in charge of the Apollo 11 mission, which would make the United States the victor of the space race against Russia and fulfill humanity's (and his) dream of landing on the Moon, achieving a historic milestone.

Go: Moe Berkus forces Cole to work with Kelly Jones, whom he falls for at first sight. Cole doesn't want to sell the Moon mission dishonestly. However, relying solely on state funds, he must accept Kelly's proposal to garner public attention and political interest.

Search: Cole faces a new NASA that now resembles a Hollywood studio, not only due to the publicity but also because the astronauts seem like stars. Cole is essential to the mission and must persuade politicians, leading him and Kelly to visit every senator in the country to secure Apollo 11 funding.

Find: after numerous meetings with senators, they managed to convince enough of them to secure the space mission's financing.

Take: Kelly informs Cole that the mission's success is crucial for the nation. To prevent failure, Kelly and Moe planned to fake the moon landing regardless of what happens in space. Cole becomes furious with Kelly, with whom he had started a budding relationship.

Return: Cole returns to his difficult situation as launch director, feeling like a failure again due to previous missions. However, confident in the mission's success, he devises a complex plan with Kelly and others to deceive Moe and broadcast the real moon landing, no matter what. The mission concludes successfully.

Change: Cole, initially averse to lies and deceit, had to create an elaborate ruse to achieve his goal: broadcasting the real moon landing.

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Although the character of Cole Davis has less depth, it is enough to establish a connection with Kelly, from whom he draws inspiration, and together they drive the plot forward.

Now, let's move on to outline the plot itself, and we'll do it based on the traditional three-act structure:

• First Act:

Introduction: 1969. Kelly Jones, the top sports car advertiser in New York City, USA. Cole Davis, the launch director at NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida. She manipulates others to get what she wants through lies and deceit. He has a mission to complete, a milestone to achieve, working meritocratically to exorcise the ghosts of "Apollo 1" and previous failed missions.

Inciting Incident: Moe Berkus, an agent of the United States Secret Service, forces Kelly and Cole to collaborate to accomplish the "Apollo 11" mission to defeat Russia in the space race.

First Plot Point: Despite their ethical differences in work and personal motivation, both commit to working together, knowing that without the other, "Apollo 11" couldn't be realized.

• Second Act:

Rising Action: While Cole takes responsibility for the mission's safety and correct execution, Kelly secures collaborations and contributions from the private sector to publicize NASA and its stars, the astronauts, to gain the support of senators, the only ones who can finance the project with their state funds. However, despite Cole's discomfort with this, he cannot remain unnoticed and must face his role in the mission to convince politicians to invest. Successfully, the mission gets underway with the promise of being filmed and broadcast live on television.

Midpoint: Moe Berkus needs a contingency plan, so, with Kelly and behind Cole's back, they create a fictitious moon landing representation to broadcast if the mission fails to reach the Moon.

Second Plot Point: After finishing her work, Kelly escapes from NASA, not only for lying to Cole but also with concern about the ethical consequences this could bring if things go wrong. However, Moe intercepts her. Given the mission's international importance, it cannot fail, so Moe has disconnected the lunar module's camera, and what will be broadcast on television is the fake moon landing. In disagreement, Kelly returns to NASA to tell Cole the whole truth.

• Third Act:

Climax: Kelly, Cole and their team reconnect the camera to the lunar module and execute their plan: deceive Moe, making him believe that what is seen on television is the fake moon landing, when in fact, it is the transmission from space.

Resolution: After having landed on the Moon, the transmission starts to fail, as do the problems on the film set. But when a cat gets into the shot, the deception is revealed, and Moe is surprised, not only by the elaborate plan but also by the historic feat achieved.

Finale: The United States wins the space race. Kelly and Cole start a romantic relationship, having learned from each other that deception is not the solution to getting what one wants, but that the truth is also the driving force.

Opinion:

If this romantic comedy had come out in the '70s or '90s, it would have been more successful than it is now. Beyond that small comment, I think it has certain plot holes that facilitate the progression of the story and, in my opinion, could have simply made it a drama. Why? Because the romantic relationship between Cole and Kelly, while interesting, doesn't quite captivate or ignite because there is a much more complex and interesting plot that takes the spotlight. It could have taken the theme much more seriously given the worldwide importance of that "false" first moon landing. On the other hand, the proposal to contrast advertising and nationalism, both deeply rooted in American idiosyncrasy, is incredibly engaging.

Despite everything, it's a good, highly enjoyable, funny, and interesting movie.