Operation Avalanche Page #4

put men on the surface

of the moon.

How far off

can you see?

You've got to picture it

in black and white.

With the sun

behind us there.

We can even do a pan.

What do you think?

We don't know if you can hear,

ladies and gentlemen.

But, oh, the flight

is moving along

as it should be...

But our tape records

are being

thrown to the floor

by the roar of

this mighty rocket,

as it continues

to climb into the sky,

on its seven and a half

million pounds of thrust.

It's a beautiful sight,

an unbelievable sight...

So I didn't tell him

i made the whole thing up,

and then you

and brackett show up,

and then he punches me,

now he's acting like

we aren't friends.

What would you do?

Well,

i wouldn't have done that

in the first place.

Okay, yeah,

but pretend that

you're as stupid as me

and you have

done that.

God damn it,

look at this!

We weren't even close.

No kidding.

Here.

Okay...

Okay, who else has

seen this footage?

Everyone.

See, this is

what we need.

We need

the actual footage

of the moon.

How do we get

astronauts to act

in front of this?

You could start

by hiring a real director.

Or you could give up

this mission.

Yeah.

Hey, don, how are you?

It's Matt Johnson.

No, I'm calling

from Houston,

they got me out here

on operation zipper.

Listen, can...

I actually need a favor.

Do we have

a last known address

for Stanley kubrick

when we were doing

operation deep red?

I'm looking at some of his

movie effects and...

"No, of course I'd

like to say hello!"

Of course I'd like

to say hello.

And I'm

watching something.

Would you mind

giving me that?

Hi, could you give me

the phone number to

an address in New York?

Uh, actually, it's polaris

productions, incorporated.

23...

My name's Matt Johnson,

I'm a documentary filmmaker

working at NASA,

and I need to ask him

a few questions.

Is he there?

It's an emergency.

Of course not. No. And...

And that's not

what this is, ma'am.

Yes, hello, my name is

Michael kubrick.

I'm looking for my brother.

Well, I'm calling

from the United States

and I'm... and I'm really

trying to talk with him.

I've got some very bad news

about our father.

Can you give me

a phone number for that?

What time is it in england?

I'm looking for

a Mr. Stanley kubrick.

I'm a documentary filmmaker

from the United States.

This is not

a personal call.

I'm actually calling

from NASA and

I'm wondering if...

Oh, thank you.

Hello, Madeleine.

I'm not sure why I got

connected with you.

I'm calling from NASA.

I'm making

a documentary here

about the Apollo program.

Ah.

What are you guys

doing over there,

if you don't

mind me asking?

Stanley kubrick

is making a new movie

about the moon landing,

and I'm willing to bet

that we can use

the special effects

that he's doing there

to do this.

Okay, but...

We can't just walk

onto a film set.

He has two NASA scientists

advising him.

We're going to go and say

we're going to interview them.

Do you see

what's going on here?

Kubrick is getting NASA

to make sure

that his space movie

looks like real space.

And so we're going

to use his space movie

to make sure

the real space movie

looks like space!

Do you understand

how crazy that is?

Welcome to england!

It's not too loud?

No, well,

it'll be packed

inside the bag.

Not bad for...

For on the spot,

just figured it out!

Jared, wave!

Jared, big wave!

Yeah, that's her.

Madeleine!

You won't be able to bring

that camera inside.

You'll have to shut it off

as soon as we get in,

I'm afraid.

Is Mr...

The set's all live.

No problem.

Is Mr. kubrick inside?

He is,

but security

is very tight.

You'll be thrown off the set

if you try to approach him,

so please don't.

You got it.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Please wait right here.

Yeah, sure.

We'll stay right here.

It might be

better to just play it

as a medium shot

- in this situation.

- Mmm-hmm. Yeah.

Can you do it

with your head down?

What about out there?

- Well, that's not bad.

- Let's do that.

Right.

Check the gate, Doug.

I... I would never

normally do this,

but it's for a friend.

His name is

Matt Johnson.

Mmm-hmm.

Jared, tell me

you are getting this.

Oh, my god.

Excuse me?

How did you set this up?

Owen, it's called

front screen projection!

We got it!

Kubrick's technique,

how he's faking...

I wanna...

I wanna tell you.

Boles, hey.

It's called

front screen projection.

We figured out how to,

how to do it.

Yeah, okay, all right.

I'll, uh...

Do you want us

to fly right there, or...

Sure.

All right, it's called

front screen projection.

Stanley kubrick can fake

any environment he wants,

by projecting it through

a semi-transparent mirror

and then onto

a gigantic silver screen.

Then he films

the entire scene through

the same mirror,

at a 90-degree angle

to the projector.

What it winds up doing

is creating images

where you can't tell

where the stage stops

and the fake photographic

background begins.

You have an infinite

depth of field,

into environments

that exist completely

in two-dimensional space.

We can do the same thing

with the lunar surface

photography

that NASA is taking

on the Apollo missions.

Movie special effects

can be very convincing,

especially when you

don't know you're

watching a movie.

The plan is to rent

a film studio in Texas,

hire a crew,

and have them build

our own lunar lander.

We'll mix

this practical set piece,

with kubrick's projection

technique, and presto,

the illusion that man

is walking on the moon.

Now I know

you're probably thinking

this is too much exposure,

and that the risk

of bringing in outsiders

is too high,

but we already have

the perfect cover.

We're making

a documentary about

the moon landing.

And it's not a stretch to say

that we're building sets

to conduct interviews,

shoot b-roll footage.

We could even say

it's for simulations.

Hell, most of

the major networks

are doing this already.

The only people

who need to know

what's actually happening

are the astronauts,

who you should select

based on their

willingness to cooperate,

and James webb,

who's either going

to have to work with us,

or get out of the way.

And that's the easy part.

We also need to convince

everybody at NASA.

The good news is

the only people who are

in contact with the rocket

are all in one room

in Houston,

inside mission control.

If we can convince

mission control

that what they're

doing is real,

everybody else

will follow.

How do we do that?

Well, mission control

actually monitors

everything,

from the heart rates

of the astronauts,

to the exact location

of the lunar module

as it descends

to the moon.

And they're getting

all this information

through radio,

directly from the ship.

The good news

is that they've run

so many tests

with this exact mission

that they actually have

telemetric data of

successful lunar landings,

stored on guidance systems

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