Fly Me to the Moon

image for Fly Me to the Moon

Short takes

Not suitable under 13; parental guidance to 14 (language, violence)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Fly Me to the Moon
  • a review of Fly Me to the Moon completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 11 July 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 Not suitable due to language and violence.
Children aged 13–14 Parental guidance recommended due to language.
Children aged 15 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Fly Me to the Moon
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Coarse language
Length: 132 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Since the horrific and deadly events of Apollo 1, NASA was plagued by a series of unsuccessful missions as astronauts and engineers valiantly fought what often appeared to be a losing battle in the space race with the Soviet Union. Consequently, the American people, caught up in the Vietnam War and disillusioned with the president, began to lose faith in the Apollo 11 mission. Despite explosions, fires, and all manner of equipment falling apart, launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) is determined to do everything possible to get his guys to the moon. Everything, that is, except follow the objectives of Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johanssen) the new marketing manager that Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), a representative of the president, has hired to promote NASA and get the funding they need to make the lunar landing a reality. While Cole continues to run systems checks and reduce the weight of every possible component, Kelly hires actors to impersonate the staff on TV and she has the astronauts promoting everything from watches and underwear to sports cars and breakfast cereal. Things look pretty good for NASA until Moe blackmails Kelly, insisting that she film a top-secret alternative landing in case NASA fails. Kelly reluctantly agrees but when Moe sabotages the cameras on the rocket and insists that they use their filmset instead, Kelly turns to Cole for help, realising as she does so that she may lose everything she has ever worked for. It is not long before she learns that some risks are always worth taking.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

War: Space race; Betrayal: Scamming and dishonesty; Corporate Greed: Politics.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Three astronauts are burned to death in a cockpit. Their screams can be heard over the headsets as flames engulf them.
  • Cole is blasted off his feet and knocked to the ground when a large hydrogen tank explodes behind him. He is singed but otherwise unharmed.
  • Fire blasts out the window of a testing facility.
  • Cole gets angry, reacts aggressively and nearly attacks a reporter on set.
  • Two actors crash into each other on set and get caught up in a bunch of cables.
  • A series of images are shown depicting Russians landing on the moon first and training lasers back at the earth.
  • Kelly tells Cole about the time her mother shot and killed a man who pulled a gun on them.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • None noted.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Omega watches
  • Holiday Inn Hotels
  • Life Magazine
  • TAB soft drinks
  • Tang
  • Corvette Cars
  • Peter Pan Peanut Butter
  • Kellogg’s Cereal
  • Froot of the Loom underwear
  • Nestle
  • TWA airlines
  • Hoover Vacuums
  • Heinz
  • Ford Mustang
  • Lincoln Continental
  • Virginia Slims cigarettes
  • Camaro
  • Sony.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Kelly tells Cole that she does not want “to stop, drop and roll” with him.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Cole and Kelly kiss.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Many characters smoke at different stages throughout the film.
  • A group of young people party and drink by a hotel pool.
  • Characters drink wine to celebrate.
  • One character offers others scotch in shot glasses, which everyone drinks.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Shit
  • Ass
  • Asshole
  • Jesus!
  • Hell
  • Bullshit
  • Fuck it up
  • God damn it!
  • Bitch and son of a bitch.

In a nutshell

Fly Me to the Moon is a comedy drama featuring stellar performances from an all-star cast. With powerful messages about persistence and redemption, the film provides an interesting glimpse into a dramatic period in US history. The film is best suited to teens and older audiences.

The main messages from this movie are that the truth will always be the truth, even if no one believes it; that there are solutions to every problem, you may just need to look at things from another perspective; and that sometimes there is nothing more important than being a part of something real.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Courage
  • Ingenuity
  • Creativity
  • Determination
  • Teamwork
  • Honesty.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Dishonesty and pretending to be someone or something that you are not.
  • Using or blackmailing others for personal gain.
  • Shady advertising tactics.
  • Governmental cover-ups.