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We have traveled to the bottom of the sea and released the Sphere sphere! Sphere wasn't a classic but it was interesting enough… and you could certainly see the Wing Commander movie intro in its opening titles. For Halloween, we've voted to dress up as astronauts… and watch The Right Stuff (1983), a true classic. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along. Please note that the movie will begin one hour early (at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific) to accommodate the run time.
Our Wing Commander connection for this one is a cutscene from Wing Commander Prophecy. Prophecy selects a landing cutscene where Rachel reacts to your mission depending on your performance. Missions can be immaculate, A, B, C, D or F with F representing a total failure. This is one of the 'A' options where Rachel tells you you've got 'the right stuff'.
So what is the 'right stuff'? It's a term adopted in the 1950s to refer to an inexplicable quality that separates successful fighter pilots from people who are innately unable to thrive in the job. It was first used in the Korean War but it was quickly adopted by the test pilots of the 1950s and 1960s. Tom Wolfe popularized it when he wrote the original book of The Right Stuff, using it to speak to his thesis that men like Chuck Yeager and the Mercury astronauts had something extraordinary in them. Here's how it's described in the book:
A young man might go into military flight training believing that he was entering some sort of technical school in which he was simply going to acquire a certain set of skills. Instead, he found himself all at once enclosed in a fraternity. And in this fraternity, even though it was military, men were not rated by their outward rank as ensigns, lieutenants, commanders, or whatever. No, herein the world was divided into those who had it and those who did not. This quality, this it, was never named, however, nor was it talked about in anyway. As to just what this ineffable quality was… well, it obviously involved bravery. But it was not bravery in the simple sense of being willing to risk your life. The idea seemed to be that any fool could do that, if that was all that was required, just as any fool could throw away his life in the process. No, the idea here (in the all-enclosing fraternity) seemed to be that a man should have the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness, to pull it back in the last yawning moment—and then to go up again the next day, and the next day, and every next day, even if the series should prove infinite—and, ultimately, in its best expression, do so in a cause that means something to thousands, to a people, a nation, to humanity, to God. Nor was there a test to show whether or not a pilot had this righteous quality. There was, instead, a seemingly infinite series of tests. A career in flying was like climbing one of those ancient Babylonian pyramids made up of a dizzy progression of steps and ledges, a ziggurat, a pyramid extraordinarily high and steep; and the idea was to prove at every foot of the way up that pyramid that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff and could move higher and higher and even—ultimately, God willing, one day —that you might be able to join that special few at the very top, that elite who had the capacity to bring tears to men's eyes, the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself. None of this was to be mentioned, and yet it was acted out in a way that a young man could not fail to understand. When a new flight (i.e., a class) of trainees arrived at Pensacola, they were brought into an auditorium for a little lecture. An officer would tell them: "Take a look at the man on either side of you. "Quite a few actually swiveled their heads this way and that, in the interest of appearing diligent. Then the officer would say: "One of the three of you is not going to make it!"—meaning, not get his wings. That was the opening theme, the motif of primary training. We already know that one-third of you do not have the right stuff—it only remains to find out who.Incidentally, Action Stations heavily cribs Ensign Tolwyn's argument to Senator More from this same chapter and general idea!
"Sir, I am in training so I can one day fly a Wildcat. The good Lord willing, I'll make the grade. And when I get my wings, sir, I want to point out one thing."
He paused as if willing to let More interject, but then forged ahead.
"There is a one in three chance, sir, that within five years I'll be dead. The reason, sir, is that the fleet board begged your committee for the additional ten million for a Wildcat upgrade. The engines are outdated, stress flaws are becoming increasingly common. In short they're already five years past their design limits. The Wildcat is thirty years old and its replacement, thanks to cutbacks, won't be fully on-line for at least five more years. Therefore we are in a bind, sir. Since neither the upgrade facility for the Wildcat nor the main factory for its replacement went to your district, you turned on the plan and have locked it in committee for three and a half years, sir.
"Respectfully, sir, on behalf of my comrades who graduated today and will fly with me, we do hope that you get your political deal, sir, and that you force the Senate to build the facilities on your world, where I understand that several of your family members own the land the proposed facilities were to be built on. Your district will profit, and, sir, I will be able to look forward to living past the age of twenty-six."Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
The Right Stuff is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on Blu-ray in 2017 and remains in print around the world. The Internet Archive doesn't have a recent copy, although you CAN view it like we did in the 1980s: on a pair of VHS tapes (tape A & tape B)! If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.
How do we watch the movie together?
It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 9 PM EST. Please note that this is one hour earlier than usual to allow for the film's lengthy run time. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!
How can I help pick future movie club movies?
The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.
