The First Men in the Moon is the name of an
H.G. Wells novel about two Edwardian-era Englishmen who utilise some
Applied Phlebotinum to fly to the moon for a bit of a jolly gadabout. Things don't quite go as planned. There have been two filmed adaptions - one in 1964, directed by Nathan Juran, and more recently by
Mark Gatiss.
In the 1964 film, the United Nations has launched a rocket flight to the Moon. A multi-national group of astronauts in the UN spacecraft land on the Moon, believing themselves to be the first lunar explorers. They discover a Union Jack Flag on the surface and a note naming Bedford and Cavor, claiming the Moon for Queen Victoria. This discovery drives the plot, as the UN and many journalists seek out these men to get them to recount their first mission to the moon in the 1800s. Only Bedford is still alive and tells the story.
The 2010 film sticks much more closely to the H. G. Wells original, with Professor Cavor and Bedford engaging in their flight to the moon alone.
The ending is significantly changed.Though not a full-on adaptation, the first volume of
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen also features Professor Cavor as a major supporting character, and a struggle to possess the
Cavorite that fuels his spaceship ends up
driving much of the plot.
This novel provides examples of:
- Anti Gravity: Cavorite blocks gravity. Put a sheet of it between yourself and the Earth and you're weightless — or, rather, you're now in the weak gravitational grip of the Moon.
- Bold Explorer: When James Cavor discovers a material that blocks gravity, he quickly decides to set off and explore the moon.
- Cool Starship: Cavor's polyhedral spaceship is not only the first spaceship; it's the first spaceship with curtains.
- Dawn Of An Era: Averted. Cavor desperately wants the voyage to be this trope, but events conspire to prevent this.
- Dilating Door: The Selenites' lunar iris is a physically huge example of one.
- Fungus Humongous
- For Science!: Cavor's entire motivation.
- Heavy Worlder: Inverted. Well, the Selenites are from the moon, where the gravity is lower, after all...
- Interplanetary Voyage
- Science Marches On: The depiction of the moon can be rather jarring, what with air and food...
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Despite Cavor mentioning that the moon is 250,000 miles away, they make the journey in an unspecified, but nonetheless shorter space of time than it would take...
- Speculative Fiction: well, it is H. G. Wells. Given how Science has marched on, the speculative part is quite emphatic.
- Starfish Aliens: The Selenites are a particularly strange breed - each is born to the life role they will have, the roles allocated by The Grand Lunar
- Starfish Language
- Thinking Tic: Cavor's tic of making odd noises while he's thinking is the whole reason he and Bedford even meet. Cavor has the habit of walking past the cottage Bedford lives in, while contemplating his experiments. He unconsciously sings as he walks, and the singing disturbs Bedford's attempts to write, to the point that he asks Cavor to either stop or to walk somewhere else.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Selenites are pretty vulnerable to a punch to the head. It's like hitting cinder toffee, apparently...
- Your Head Asplode: See Weaksauce Weakness above.
The 1964 adaptation provides examples of:
- Damsel in Distress: Kate, who does nothing but nearly get them killed.
- Just Eat Gilligan: Really Cavor, you should have shot Kate with the Elephant Gun the moment she handed it to you. She has done nothing but cause problems, particularly after she's on the sphere.
- Lightning Gun: The Selenites have a large crystal-tipped cannon that can fire lightning bolts. They use it to kill a huge caterpillar-like monster.
- Panty Shot: Kate falls victim to this when the pod leaves Earth's atmosphere. Of course, she's wearing white Victorian bloomers, but still...
- Space Suits Are SCUBA Gear: Actually, just diving gear. The Edwardian equivalent, diving suits, are used as space suits.
- Strawman News Media: Vapid, celebrity-obsessed subtype. Once the first reporter attempts to interview a United Nations official, the message spreads and soon dozens of reporters are present.
The 2010 adaptation provides examples of:
- Alternate History: It's just no-one believes Bedford.
- Artistic License - Physics: It's highly unlikely that a "gravity column" would flush a planet's atmosphere out into space...
- Brain in a Jar: The Grand Lunar's natural form seems to be this, only the "jar" is the inside of the moon itself.
- Cassandra Truth: The 2010 film is set in 1969, just prior to the "first" official moon landing. Bedford's been to the moon, and has kinematographic evidence. No-one believes him, and his films are regarded as fakes.
- Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: The Selenites invasion gets stopped remarkably easily physically speaking. Cavor simply has to kill them all to do it...
- Eldritch Abomination: The Grand Lunar becomes one of these once introduced to the concept of empire and conquest by Cavor.
- First Contact: It doesn't end well.
- Foreshadowing: Bedford's repeated use of the word "Imperial" as a suplerlative sets up the Selenites' plan to invade and conquer Earth.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Cavor destroys the moon's atmosphere to prevent an alien invasion, dying in the process.
- Humans Are Bastards: Cavor is afraid that humanity will fight over the moon, as they do the rest of the Earth. Ironically, his fear turns out to be justified, as the Selenites quickly adjust to the idea that being a bastard might be fun.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Cavor's reaction to teaching The Grand Lunar about conquest and empire.
- Rubber-Band History: At the beginning it looks like the science will be utterly outdated only to reveal at the end that Professor Cavor used a sheet of Cavorite to flush all the oxygen off the moon in a heroic sacrifice to save the Earth from a Selenite invasion, creating the deserted, airless moon discovered by Aldrin and Armstrong.
- Shout Out: Bedford has a dream sequence that is almost exactly identical to the fantasy cinema of George Melies, creator of A Trip To The Moon.
- Steampunk
- Technical Pacifist: Cavor becomes something of a Technical Pacifist when he kills every Selenite to keep the earth safe.
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