Stowaway to the Moon (1975)

Excellent but underrated film

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

"Stowaway to the Moon" was broadcast 5 1/2 years after the first lunar landing in 1969 (only two years after the last), and no doubt symbolized the fascination with space in the hearts of young viewers. Based on a 1973 novel by William R. Shelton, and apparently quite faithful to its fictitious source, about 11 year old E.J. Mackernutt (Michael Link) successfully sneaking past NASA security at Cape Kennedy to hide in the trash compartment of the Camelot rocket due to take off in a few hours. Inspired by the fishing and honey making expertise of old Jacob Avril (John Carradine), whose home adjoins the launch site, the already incisive boy uses his knowledge and acumen to assist the trio of astronauts once they're on their way to the moon for rock samples. As one might expect, unexpected mishaps always play out to a satisfactory conclusion, predictable yet never less than entertaining. The passage of time can't help but make this well played adventure a bit naïve, kind of a child's version of the 1950 "Destination Moon," itself passe after just two decades. The presence of top billed Lloyd Bridges, from the rival production that beat the original moon film to theaters in 1950, "Rocketship X-M" (forced to use Mars as their destination), is a welcome bonus, fretting over things at Houston while an 11 year old boy earns plaudits out in space. The rushed climax makes everything look like it may have been a dream all along, but for viewers of any age it's a relic of a bygone era when the familiar lunar stock footage was still relatively new, with real life astronaut Charles 'Pete' Conrad doing the commentary.

Stowaway to the Moon is a film I can recall from my childhood when I was also a dedicated real-life space flight follower, and can recall the final moon flights fairly well. Anybody else ever have the Science Club booklet, Apoloo-to-the-Mooon Map with those paste-down stickers, and/or maybe even the model kit of Apollo Eleven on the Mooon? Anywyay, I doubt today's kids would be interested, non-digital, you see.Anyhow, I only saw this film once on a rare television showing since the 1970s, but the handful of reviews here sums it pretty well. I suspect the movie was meant to be entertaining as much as anything else, and perhaps the rushed ending was due to the low made-for-TV film budgets as much as anything else. It was good to see Lloyd Bridges and John Carradine, of course as well as real-life moonwalker Cahrles Conrad in a small role. I wish somebody would bring this out on disc for nostalgia's sake.

Wow. I was just talking with friends about movies that I remember watching on television when I was young and this gem came to mind.The main character is an avid fan of the moon program and comes up with a plan to get up close and personal with a rocket on it's way to the moon. He manages to stay on board during the launch and that's when the fun begins. Yes, it's simplistic in that it ignores some of the basic physics of space flight but I'm sure the core audience of this movie - young fans of the Apollo missions - really didn't notice.If I remember it right they discover him on the way to the moon and he ends up saving the day as the pilot of the command module comes down with the flu and the kid looks after him and helps him recover while the other astronauts continue with their mission of landing on the moon. The return trip back to Earth gets rough as the kid almost freezes but does survive as they make it back to Earth. He ends up becoming somewhat of a hero at the end.Yes, it pushed the boundaries of realism but, hey, the Appolo program was still going when this came out so it was easy to overlook the small details.9 out of 10.

Lloyd Bridges and John Carradine are the only big name actors in this TV movie, but the remainder of the cast do fairly well. This is a film about a NASA Moon mission, with a boy who stows away in the trash compartment. While moderately simplistic, it does a good job of showing what an actual mission was all about. Michael Link stars as the title character. Do not expect massive FX, tho there is some good footage from the Apollo missions. Astronaut Charles Conrad provides some nice insight as a news reporter. Shown on Fox Movie Channel on June 5th... it might be repeated. 7.