9 Facts About "RocketMan" That'll Fill Your Space Suit With Gas
It's been over 20 years since Harland Wiliams's RocketMan graced the world with its creation. For those of you who don't know what the movie is about, first off I feel sorry for you, and second you are severely missing out.
Williams played Fred Z. Randall, a goofy astronaut who, through a series of ridiculous events, finds himself going to Mars. The other astronauts hate him, and there's also a monkey on the spaceship because why not?
Every week my brother and I would BEG my parents to let us get RocketMan from Blockbuster, and every week they reluctantly obliged. Even though I've seen the movie hundreds of times, I still didn't know some of these things!
1. PC Policies
At one point in the film, the commander tells Randall to "have fun!" Randall responds with "Fun is my Chinese neighbor's middle name!" Disney was pretty hesitant to include this line in the movie, worried that Chinese audience members would be offended by the joke. However, a lot of Chinese fans expressed their love for the joke and found it hilarious.
2. The Name Game
The original title for the movie was Space Cadet, using a play on words to indicate that he was an astronaut...but also an idiot. The name was later changed to the same as the iconic Elton John song. The song also appeared in the movie.
3. Wasted Work
The president is often seen in the movie, but every shot is a close-up. While it would have been easier to just have a basic backdrop for these scenes, the crew actually built an extensive Oval Office replica that you practically never see.
4. Rating Wars
While RocketMan is rated PG, the film had to cut 42 seconds in order to keep it that way in the UK. At the beginning of the film, young Fred climbs into his washing machine in order to simulate being in space. He puts the machine on spin and goes for a ride. Authorities were worried that kids would attempt to mimic Fred's choices, so they made Disney cut most of the scene from the movie.
5. Method Acting
In order to appear like authentic astronauts, Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, and William Sadler all attended Space Camp in Alabama where they rode simulators and completed other training activities.
Even though the film seemed perfect to us as kids, there were some pretty glaring errors we didn't notice.
6. Disappearing Glass
When Fred and Bill are walking on the surface of Mars and Fred begins to fart, you can see that neither actor has glass in their helmet. However, later in the scene, the glass is clearly visible.
7. What Gravity?
When the crew goes into space, they obviously lose gravity and begin to float. As Randall is looking around, he whips his head to the right and knocks his earpiece out. Instead of floating like everything else.
8. Tight Fit
When Fred arrives at work, his parking space is sandwiched between two other cars. Fred can't get out on either side of his vehicle, so he opts to go through the sunroof. However, Fred then walks into work rolling one of his car tires with him. If there wasn't enough space to get out of the door, then there certainly not enough space to access a tire and take it off.
9. Almost Isolated
Fred is put through a series of tests before he can be cleared to go into space. One of those tests is an isolation chamber, where they test potential astronauts's mental stability. Fred begins singing "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" over and over and over again. The sound echoes into the other astronaut's chamber, but in reality, isolation chambers are so insulated you cannot hear noise. That being said, it lead to one of the funniest scenes in the whole movie, so we're not complaining.