Pontiac Moon
Encyclopedia
Pontiac Moon is a 1994
1994 in film
1994 was a significant year in film.The top grosser worldwide was The Lion King, which to date stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated film of all time...

 adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....

 directed by Peter Medak
Peter Medak
Peter Medak is a Hungarian-born film director of British and American films.-Early life:He was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Jewish family, but in 1956 fled his native country for England due to the Hungarian Revolution...

, and produced by Robert Schaffel and Youssef Vahabzadeh.

The film stars Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...

 as Washington Bellamy, a "pigheaded" science teacher in a small California town, and Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...

 as his wife Katherine. Danson was also one of 3 executive producers of the film, along with Jeffrey D. Brown (co-writer) and Robert Benedetti.

Plot

The film takes place in the summer of 1969, when NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 astronauts successfully landed on the moon for the first time, in the Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...

 spacecraft. Katherine, suffering from panic attacks
Panic attack
Panic attacks are periods of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of relatively brief duration. Panic attacks usually begin abruptly, reach a peak within 10 minutes, and subside over the next several hours...

 caused by an automobile accident which resulted in the loss of their unborn child, refuses to leave the house, while Washington is a man of adventure who enjoys travel and experiencing life. As a result of the conflict between the two, eleven-year-old son Andy (Ryan Todd) has never traveled in a car, nor has he ever left town.

Washington, who also maintains a ragtag collection of automobiles of various vintages, decides to travel with Andy to the Craters of the Moon National Park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

, arriving at the very moment the Apollo 11 crew lands on the moon. They make the trip in Washington's 1949 Pontiac Eight convertible
Convertible
A convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away having windows which wind-down inside the doors, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle...

 nicknamed "the Chief", and make some enemies, new friends, and learn the meaning of family. The Pontiac's mileage, when arriving at its destination, will be exactly the distance in miles from the Earth to the moon.

When Katherine finds out where her husband and son are going, she faces her fears (she hasn't been out the house for seven years), and follows them in one of Washington's cars, an Amphicar
Amphicar
The Amphicar is an amphibious automobile, the first such vehicle mass-produced for sale to the public starting in 1961. The German vehicle was designed by Hanns Trippel and manufactured by the Quandt Group at Lübeck and at Berlin-Borsigwalde. Its name is a portmanteau of "amphibious" and "car". The...

. She learns the importance of living as she follows the Pontiac to Craters Of The Moon. On the way, the Pontiac's engine dies, and Washington arranges for a mechanic to install a replacement engine, only to leave the premises without paying for the engine because he didn't have enough money to pay. At the moment of the Apollo 11 landing, the Pontiac crashes into a crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...

 at Craters of The Moon, with Andy at the wheel. Katherine arrives, and they escape a police chase
Car chase
A car chase is the vehicular pursuit of a suspect by law enforcement officers. Car chases are often captured on film and broadcast due to the availability of video footage recorded by police cars and police and media helicopters participating in the chase...

 by driving the Amphicar into a lake to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and safety.

The adventure brings the Bellamy family together, and they are now ready to begin a more normal life.

Trivia

The Pontiac's odometer
Odometer
An odometer or odograph is an instrument that indicates distance traveled by a vehicle, such as a bicycle or automobile. The device may be electronic, mechanical, or a combination of the two. The word derives from the Greek words hodós and métron...

 shows its total mileage, including hundreds of thousands in miles. However, cars in 1949 had 5-digit odometers, so the real car would have "turned over" twice and showed 38,000 miles, not 238,000 miles. The car also features Hydra-Matic Drive
Hydramatic
Hydramatic was an automatic transmission developed by both General Motors' Cadillac and Oldsmobile divisions. Introduced in 1939 for the 1940 model year vehicles, the Hydramatic was the first fully automatic mass-produced transmission developed for passenger automobile use.-History:During the...

, a popular option for Pontiac
Pontiac
Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...

s since its introduction in 1948.

Amphicar
Amphicar
The Amphicar is an amphibious automobile, the first such vehicle mass-produced for sale to the public starting in 1961. The German vehicle was designed by Hanns Trippel and manufactured by the Quandt Group at Lübeck and at Berlin-Borsigwalde. Its name is a portmanteau of "amphibious" and "car". The...

s did indeed travel on both land and in water, having dual propellers, sealed waterproof body, and even a 6-gallon per minute bilge pump
Bilge pump
A bilge pump is a water pump used to remove bilge water. Since fuel can be present in the bilge, electric bilge pumps are designed to not cause sparks. Electric bilge pumps are often fitted with float switches which turn on the pump when the bilge fills to a set level. Since bilge pumps can fail,...

 built in.
The cars were built in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and import
Import
The term import is derived from the conceptual meaning as to bring in the goods and services into the port of a country. The buyer of such goods and services is referred to an "importer" who is based in the country of import whereas the overseas based seller is referred to as an "exporter". Thus...

ed into the US from 1963 until 1967, after which the car's British Triumph
Triumph Motor Company
The Triumph Motor Company was a British car and motor manufacturing company. The Triumph marque is owned currently by BMW. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann of Nuremberg initiated S. Bettmann & Co and started importing bicycles from Europe and selling them with his own...

 engine didn't meet US standards for exhaust emissions
Exhaust gas
Exhaust gas or flue gas is emitted as a result of the combustion of fuels such as natural gas, gasoline/petrol, diesel fuel, fuel oil or coal. According to the type of engine, it is discharged into the atmosphere through an exhaust pipe, flue gas stack or propelling nozzle.It often disperses...

for the 1968 model year. 1968 was the last year of Amphicar production.

Danson and Steenburgen are married in real life, having tied the knot in 1995.

External links

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