Minute 008: Where’s My Mountain?

Marilyn and Jim Lovell are in their backyard, in lounge chairs, after the Apollo XI Moonwalk party is over. Jim holds his thumb up, obscuring the distant Moon.

“Where’s my mountain?” asks Marilyn.

“Well, it -” begins Jim, “It’s right up by the — okay, you see where the shadow crosses — the white area there? That’s the Sea of Tranquility. And your mountain’s right there on the edge of that. Your mountain. Your mountain, Marilyn: Mount Marilyn.”

Marilyn looks up at the Moon. “I don’t see it,” she says, shaking her head.

Jim looks over at her. “Well, you’ve got to look harder,” he replies. “You – -look harder.” Jim rolls out of his chair and crawls into Marilyn’s chair. Marilyn starts laughing as he climbs on top of Marilyn.  The song “Cruisin'” by Smokey Robinson starts playing as the scene fades.

An aerial view of the Vehicle Assembly Building fills the scene.

TITLE: “VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING, CAPE KENNEDY, FLORIDA, OCTOBER 30, 1969”

Jim Lovell is narrating a tour.

“The astronaut,” he says, “is only the most visible member of a very large team, and all of us -”

IN THIS MINUTE:

Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks
Marilyn Lovell: Kathleen Quinlan