(Photo by Think Film /Courtesy Everett Collection)

38 Moon Movies To Celebrate The Moon Landing

The moon and the Earth: Name a more iconic duo in the galaxy. They’ve been around for almost as long as each other, separated by a mere 30 million years. They rotate in synchronicity. And sometimes the moon blocks the Sun for some cool Earth shade. You don’t see Jupiter and Titan being such BFFs. And we hear Oberon and Uranus aren’t even on speaking terms.

And for as long as Earth’s greatest, overachieving inhabitants have gifted themselves the invention of cinema, we humans have sought to depict the moon on screen. 1902’s A Trip to the Moon created the movies’ first iconic single image, a rocket ship face-planted in a crater, mythologizing the moon as sphere of whimsy, wonder, and fantasy. After July 20, 1969, the moon was gifted a new definition, one of scientific achievement and human triumph.

On the 50th anniversary of the moon landing by a crew of three American astronauts with the full power of NASA behind them, Rotten Tomatoes pays tribute with every moon movie to ever sprout its own Tomatometer. These are narrative movies set on the moon (H.G. Wells’ First Men in the Moon, Airplane II: The Sequel), and about going to the moon (First Man, Apollo 13), and expansive documentaries (In the Shadow of the Moon, For All Mankind). They’re also movies about the moon landing itself, like The Dish and Moonwalkers. And we’re featuring movies where the moon is significantly visited (2001: A Space Odyssey, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me), or where the moon is thematically woven into the plot, such as A Walk on the Moon or Under the Same Moon.

Ready to make a spacewalk to Earth’s closest and oldest friend? Then hop in for our guide to 38 moon movies — we guarantee you’ll be over the proverbial celestial satellite! —Alex Vo