The Dark Web sounds like a terrifying place. At the bare minimum, you might find people selling Netflix passwords. Dig a little bit deeper, and you could stumble on all sorts of conspiracy theories pertaining to the full gamut of topics. A popular conspiracy theory that has floated in the ether has involved the moon landing. It has people debating back and forth about whether or not NASA actually sent astronauts to the surface of the moon in 1969. The moon landing has been dissected in documentaries, sci-fi thrillers, and will be a major part of the upcoming Scarlett Johansson comedy Fly Me To The Moon. Just don’t expect Johansson herself to share in the guilty fun of throwing wil conspiracies around.
In the upcoming Fly Me To The Moon, the Black Widow star plays a public relations expert hired by NASA to stage the moon landing. NASA officials don’t plan on deceiving the general public. In fact, Channing Tatum’s character leads the mission, and believes that his team of scientists can pull the mission off. But Johansson’s scheme is insurance, because it can’t look like NASA has failed at this stage of the Space Race.
In speaking with Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum ahead of the July 12 release of Fly Me To The Moon, I asked the actress if she went down rabbit holes while exploring the moon landing conspiracy theories as research for the movie, she gave me a very pragmatic and on-brand answer. Said Johansson:
I actually didn’t. I'm so not that … I'm not a conspiracy theorist at all. I so am not that person. I, like, believe in science. I'm like, ‘Of course we went to the moon. Because science tells us so!’ I'm so pragmatic in that way. But my producing partner, Jonathan, definitely went down the dark web of conspiracy theories, and knows all about that stuff. And yeah, I can't use his computer anymore.
Watching Fly Me To The Moon, it’s clear that someone spent a lot of time researching the major talking points of the moon-landing conspiracy theories, particularly the ones that claim that The Shining director Stanley Kubrick participated in a staged moon landing… then confessed to it via imagery in his Stephen King adaptation!
Half of Fly Me To The Moon plays around with this (ridiculous?) idea, with the hilarious Community standout Jim Rash playing a Kubrick surrogate hired by Johansson to “film” the moon landing. That’s easily my favorite part of the movie, though plenty more will likely dial in to the rom-com vibes shared between Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. We need more movies like that, especially this summer, and through the rest of 2024. Look for Fly Me To The Moon when it lands in theaters on July 12.
