FLY ME TO THE MOON

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens in the 60s at the height of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Russians put a man in space, the United States was rushing to the moon. The Apollo 1 mission resulted in an explosion that killed three crew members.

Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) works for NASA as the director of the upcoming Apollo 11 launch. Meanwhile, Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) is a marketing specialist coming into a meeting while posing as a pregnant woman to convince the heads of a car company to sell Mustangs and market them towards women, in addition to the male demographic they are already trying to reach. Kelly works with her assistant Ruby Martin (Anna Garcia) and demanding commercial director Lance Vespertine (Jim Rash).

Kelly goes to a bar where she is met by Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), who claims to work for President Nixon. He told the car guys that Kelly isn’t really pregnant, causing them to terminate their account with her company. Moe presents his offer to Kelly to work at NASA to help improve their public image before the launch.

Kelly brings a reluctant Ruby to D.C. to start work. After settling into their rooms, Kelly goes to a diner, where she ends up meeting Cole after he catches her book lighting on fire. He puts it out and engages in banter with Kelly. Before leaving, Cole tells her that she is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.

The ladies begin their jobs, with Kelly and Cole awkwardly reuniting when he realizes she is now in charge. Kelly and Ruby are shown their crappy offices. Cole and Deputy Launch Director Henry Smalls (Ray Romano) aren’t thrilled when they see that Kelly hired an actor to play Smalls on a news broadcast. Cole confronts Kelly over this, but she reminds him that he told her that his team doesn’t do interviews. When Cole and Smalls complain to Moe over Kelly’s work, but he tells them that she is getting the results they want, so they have to deal with her.

Kelly comes up with ads tying the moon landing with big companies like Tang and Fruit of the Loom, while Cole and his team continue prepping. Despite the extensive campaigns, the news seems more focused on the Vietnam War. Kelly and Cole later bond on the boardwalk, but he rejects her idea to bring a camera on the launch to get a picture of the Earth from the moon. Kelly later talks to Smalls about how Cole used to be a pilot but had to back out of the program because a doctor found something in his heart. He tells her that Cole is found gardening, and Kelly goes to see that he is paying tribute to the victims of the Apollo 1 launch.

Later on, Cole and Smalls welcome Senator Hopp (Gene Jones) for a tour of the facility and for him to donate for the space program, but Hopp isn’t entirely onboard until Kelly comes in and charms him by pretending to have been inspired by him years earlier. The crew then sets their sights on yes votes from other elected officials. Kelly and Cole win over Senator Cook (Colin Jost) before meeting with Senator Hedges (Victor Garber), who agrees on the condition that Cole gives an interview for some people Hedges owes a favor to.

The crew later celebrates their votes, while Cole shows Kelly the plane he used to fly. Kelly discusses with Cole how she used to go door-to-door across the country selling goods with her mother, which is how she developed her knack for conning people.

Kelly goes back to her motel room to find Moe there with a new proposal. He presents her with “Project Artemis”, a plan to shoot a fake version of the moon landing as backup in case the Apollo mission goes sour. If they are discovered, it could mean jail time or execution for treason for Kelly and anybody else involved. She reluctantly agrees to it.

Kelly recruits Ruby and Lance to help with the task. Lance quickly begins with his prima donna ways while Kelly tries hard to ensure nobody else at NASA finds out about this. Kelly later joins Cole as he does the requested interview with Chuck Meadows (Peter Jacobson). While it starts off pleasant enough, Cole loses it on Chuck when he brings up the Apollo 1 tragedy, implicitly putting blame on him for supposedly not reading reports on the shuttle before it launched. Kelly later chastises Cole for this, but he defends himself by saying he would never say anything untruthful about those men.

A day or two later, Cole invites Kelly to fly with him in his plane to Louisiana to speak to Senator Vanning (Joe Chrest) and his wife Jolene (Stephanie Kurtzuba) for dinner. While Vanning is not initially onboard with the space program, Cole appeals to his Christianity and convinces him to sign on. After their success, Cole and Kelly fly home where they share their first kiss.

The crew celebrates their yes votes, though Kelly and Ruby start to feel visibly guilty over the secret they are keeping. Kelly later finds Moe at the office, where she tries to quit the project on him. Moe reminds her that if she were to ever spill the beans on Project Artemis, he would expose her. Moe also states that, even if the Apollo launch goes off without a hitch, they still plan to broadcast the filmed version anyway. Kelly considers leaving until she looks through a sketchbook given to her by Ruby, featuring detailed drawings of the people they worked with, including a picture of Kelly with Cole.

Right before the launch, Kelly decides to come clean to Cole about the whole thing, as well as the fact that her name is not even Kelly Jones. He is understandably upset about it, but he agrees to help Kelly make things right or the world will end up seeing the fake landing, and he tells Kelly he never wants to see her again after they are done. With help from some younger employees, Kelly steals a TV as part of her plan. The crew on the soundstage for the fake landing gets ready for a live broadcast, while the Apollo 11 makes a successful launch. The employees fix the LEM camera that Moe cut off, and everybody gets ready for the big show.

The astronauts touch down on the moon, while the fake ones do the same. On the fake set, a black cat that has been running around NASA runs onto the set while Moe is present. He sees that the cat is not present on the broadcast, cluing him in that Kelly and company are using the actual landing footage. When Cole realizes this, he excitedly cheers to himself. The crew celebrates their success, and Moe earnestly thanks Kelly for saving his ass. The astronauts later make their safe return back to Earth.

Cole reunites and reconciles with Kelly, who says her real name is Winnie. He commends her for pulling everything off, and they resume their relationship with a kiss.

At the height of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s, marketing specialist/con artist Kelly Jones is hired by Moe Berkus, who works for Richard Nixon, to revamp NASA's image in time for their upcoming Apollo 11 moon landing. Although Kelly's methods initially irk the guys at NASA, she forms a bond and later romance with launch director Cole Davis, who suffers from guilt over the Apollo 1 shuttle explosion tragedy that killed three men.

Moe tasks Kelly with filming a fake moon landing, "Project Artemis", in case something goes wrong with the Apollo 11 launch. With help from her assistant Ruby and diva director Lance, Kelly secretly tries to pull things off. When she and Ruby start to feel guilty over the con, Kelly tries to back out, but Moe threatens to expose her involvement and also tells her they are going to use the fake footage regardless of whether or not the real launch is a success.

Kelly comes clean to Cole, who is upset but helps Kelly get the job done. They succeed in broadcasting the actual moon landing, since the fake one would have been exposed after a black cat runs onto the soundstage and causes a commotion. The mission is a success, and Moe thanks Kelly for his help, while she resumes her relationship with Cole.