Rocketship X-M: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Four men and one woman hold a hasty press conference before blasting off into space in the ''RXM'' (Rocketship Expedition Moon). But a miscalculation in the fuel mixture sends the RXM hurtling off at tremendous velocity, knocking the crew unconscious. Upon waking they discover they're near the planet Mars. Deciding they might as well explore that planet instead, the crew land to discover the remnants of an alien culture literally "bombed back to the Stone Age" after a nuclear war.

** Averted at the return attempt, however.

* [[Developing Doomed Characters]]: The press conference scene before the launch; takes less time than ''Destination Moon'', but ''they'' had [[Woody Woodpecker]].

* [[Dueling Movies]]: And not just at the box office -- contrast the anti-nuclear [[Aesop]] of this movie with the pro-nuclear theme of ''[[Destination Moon]]''.

** To the point that, as noted below, the ship only misses the moon because of a nasty letter sent to this movie's producers.

* [[Hollywood Science]]: Glaringly obvious when compared to its rival ''[[Destination Moon]]''. Rather than using advisors of the calibre of [[Robert A. Heinlein]] and Chesley Bonestell, scriptwriter Kurt Neumann took his information from a 1949 ''Life'' magazine article which itself contained several scientific errors.

* [[Interplanetary Voyage]]

* [[Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]]: To avoid being sued by George Pal this Moon expedition goes to Mars instead. What the hell -- it's only 50 million miles away! The journey from Earth orbit to Mars takes days instead of months {{spoiler|and they still have enough fuel, water, oxygen and food to make it ''most'' of the way back}}.

* [[Sound in Space]]: The obligatory meteor shower goes roaring past the rocketship.