The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks
It’s been 51 years since a human set foot on the moon. That doesn’t seem so long ago, but it does mean less than 10% of the world’s population is likely to have a living memory of the event. If things go to plan, however, in less than 2 years they, and everyone else in the world, will have a chance to see it happen again. Artemis, a new international space program, has targeted December 2025 as the next time a human will set foot on the Moon.
But… why go back? In case ‘human curiosity’ isn’t a convincing enough answer, Lightroom has just launched Moonwalkers, an awe-inspiring look back at the Apollo program that leverages their state of the art facility to help you experience key moments of moonwalk history as if you were there. You’ll feel like you’re one of the 40,00 people who sat in the sweltering heat at Rice Stadium in Texas in 1962, listening to John F. Kennedy’s famous speech. When the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket takes off, the rumble of the jets is so loud that the benches in the venue vibrate. Later in the show you’ll experience the vast isolation of space when the projection makes it appear that you’re sitting on the moon all alone, looking back at that little blue dot we call home.
You won’t believe it, but none of the imagery is CGI. The production leans heavily on NASA’s archives of 35,000 photos and 10 hours of film footage that were taken on the moon. The original Hasselblad photographs have been defrosted from cold storage and scanned using modern technology with results that are simply mind blowingly crisp and detailed. Their infinite clarity is unreal, which Hanks explains is due to the lack of air and atmosphere. Scale is also impossible to deduce since there are no familiar reference elements like trees or street signs. In one image, what looks to be a small depression in the sand is actually 1 mile wide and deeper than the Empire State Building.
That’s one of the many astounding facts that at times take over the show. Despite Hanks’ involvement — he’s credited as creator, co-writer and executive producer — there’s very little Hollywood razzmatazz. This is not a marketing or PR exercise for Artemis but a passion project made by scientists and space buffs. Which means I had to sit through a somewhat boring segment about the composition of lunar rocks, and an unnecessarily extended attempt to dramatise the danger of the very first moon landing when by now everyone on the planet knows they safely made it. Heck, it’s the title of the show!
Thankfully those moments are limited and made bearable by the astounding imagery, but the show works best when it turns personal. Interviews with the astronauts both old and new are woven throughout, along with some of Hanks’ childhood anecdotes, like the time he tried to breathe underwater using a garden hose so that he could pretend he was conducting a space walk. That made me chuckle, as did the story of Charles Duke leaving a photo of his family on the moon.
I also found the interviews with the Artemis astronauts truly inspirational. These are the people actively training to go back to the lunar surface, but I was surprised that their interviews were so short and relegated to audio clips. Then again, the space program was never about the individuals in the ships even though their historical and celebrity status becomes cemented as soon as they step foot on an extraterrestrial surface. But celebrity is not why they do it, and that’s not what the space program is about. It’s about the “we” that is humanity. Human beings. Human kind.
Speaking of celebrity, Hanks never appears on screen either, but he doesn’t have to. Hanks is to space what Attenborough is to wildlife. There’s a childlike passion, awe and fascination with the way he narrates the stories, and it’s clear that the spirit of the space race still burns bright inside him. Moonwalkers inspired me to watch Apollo 13, the movie where Hanks portrays astronaut Jim Lovell who, due to an explosion on the ship, never made it to the moon but did safely make it home. The last line in the film is spoken by Hanks, as Lovell, saying: “I look up at the moon and wonder, when will we be going back, and who will that be?”
Now we know.
Plan your visit
‘The Moonwalkers’ runs until 13 Oct
Tickets from £25 adult / £15 student or child
Visit lightroom.uk and follow @_lightroomldn on Instagram for more info about the venue.
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