Review of "The Right Stuff"
"The Right Stuff" begins in a small town in New Mexico in 1947, where Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) flies the rocket-powered Bell X-1 and becomes the first person to break Mach 1, the speed of sound. He goes on to break more speed records, reaching Mach 2.3 in 1953, all the while "chasing the demon". By 1957, America gets pulled into the space race once the Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Now the government is desperately looking for men with "the right stuff" to become the world's first men in space, or "astronauts". Dr. Wehrner von Braun, the infamous former Nazi who invented the V-2 rocket used against London in World War II, now works for the U.S. Government and is put in charge of NASA.
The government recruits as many test pilots as it can find. Chuck Yeagar and several others refuse to participate, but 50 or so end up voluteering to test for the Mercury program. The tests are grueling. By 1959, the seven are finally chosen. Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn) becomes the first American astronaut, though the Russians beat him into space by a few weeks. Gus Grissom (Fred Ward) goes up next, but he nearly drowns upon re-entry. John Glenn (Ed Harris) goes up next, completing three orbits. His mission turns out to be the most challenging, due to the loosening of the heat shield, but he makes it back safely and receives a huge welcoming ticker-tape parade in New York City upon his return. Scott Carpenter and Walter Schirra go up next, though their flights are not shown in the movie. (Deke Slayton's flight was cancelled due to a cold.)
Shortly after NASA's ground control headquarters are moved to Houston, Gordo Cooper (Dennis Quaid) becomes the last Mercury astronaut, completing 22 orbits, more than anyone else, and thus becoming in his famous words "The best pilot anyone had ever seen." Meanwhile, Chuck Yeagar performs an extremely dangerous stunt in an attempt to break the Russian altitude record for piloting an airplane. He misses the mark by a bit, then his plane goes out of control and plunges toward the ground in what seems like certain death for Yeagar, but he manages to jettison himself and survive, though he catches fire on the way down.
Related Tags: sputnik, nasa, the right stuff, mercury program, sam shepard, tom wolfe, chuck yeager, space race
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