LIFE USA TODAY z WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019z 3D
How far will a city goto shed its reputation?In the fight for Reno’s future, the people
with the least have the most to lose.Season 2 ofThe City
podcast begins October 29.
Listen for free on applepodcasts.com/thecitySpoiler alert: This story contains de-
tails from the first three episodes of Ap-
ple TV Plus’ “For All Mankind.”
CULVER CITY, Calif. – Would you be-
lieve they put a comrade on the moon?
That’s the history-breaking premise
of “For All Mankind,” the Apple TV Plus
drama (now streaming) that imagines
what would have happened if the Soviet
Union beat the U.S. to a lunar landing.
That bit of alternate history creates a
geopolitical butterfly effect that’s more
uplifting than apocalyptic, the story di-
rection that more typically follows cre-
ative tampering with real-life events.
“This truly is an optimistic show,”
says executive producer Ronald D.
Moore (“Outlander,” “Battlestar Galacti-
ca”). “The premise is that by losing the
race for the moon, we actually won so
much more. The country and the world
are really put on a more positive path.”
Fiddling with what every fifth grader
knows requires a grounding in facts to
make the story believable, Moore says
from the “Mankind” Mission Control
set. “If you’re going to present the audi-
ence with something that is fundamen-
tally unreal and fantastical, the closer
you can make it to reality ... the (more
willing the) audience is ... to take the
fantastic leap with you.”
He’s standing in front of screens
showing pictures of the moon and tra-
jectory graphs on the show’s set earlier
this year, evidence of its attention to de-
tail. NASA notebooks and flight-plan
sheets are arranged at a bank of gray
consoles where mission personnel
monitor space flights, with empty Beer
Nuts bags and Coke cans offering proof
of human refueling efforts.
Joel Kinnaman, who plays fictional
astronaut Ed Baldwin, says “Mankind”
differs from his sci-fi projects, such as
“Robocop” and “Altered Carbon.”
“It doesn’t really feel like science fic-
tion because ... it’s still rooted in the sci-
ence of that time,” he says. “It just
shows you where we could have been if
we had not stopped the innovation and
if we hadn’t de-funded NASA.”
Let’s take a look at what “For All
Mankind” says happened, and what
really did – and how a change in the first
man on the moon leads to an intriguing
series of events:
“Mankind” premise: The Soviet
Union shocks the U.S. with a surprise
moon landing in June 1969, leading
America to reshape its space program,
eventually leading to changes in foreign
policy and domestic attitudes.
In reality, Americans Neil Armstrong
and “Buzz” Aldrin set foot on the moon
on July 20, 1969, with colleague Michael
Collins orbiting above. All three are de-
picted in “Mankind” but only as back-
ground characters.
Who’s who?Apollo 10 is piloted byfictional astronauts Baldwin (Kinna-
man) and Gordo Stevens (Michael Dor-
man), but it otherwise gets historical
details right, from the flight’s role as a
moon-landing dress rehearsal to the
command and lunar modules nick-
named Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Off
duty, they chug beers at Houston’s Out-
post Tavern, a real astronaut hangout in
the 1960s.
The characters are surrounded by
historical figures, including Wernher
von Braun (Colm Feore), the ex-Nazi sci-
entist behind both the German V-2 rock-
et and the Apollo launch vehicle; astro-
naut office head Deke Slayton (Chris
Bauer); Mission Control chief Gene
Krantz; and NASA administrator Thom-
as Paine.
To infinity ... and beyond:In “Man-kind,” the surprise Soviet landing leads
President Richard Nixon, seen in archi-
val footage, to escalate the U.S. space
program as the superpower rivalry
moves into space, with ambitious plans
for moon bases and flights to Mars and
beyond.
In reality, there’s long been talk of
manned flights to Mars, but it hasn’t had
anywhere near the intensity of the ’60s
space effort. The last moon landing was
in 1972.
Flight change:In “Mankind,” the su-
perpowers’ decision to amp up the Cold
War in space changes policy and budget
priorities. America gets out of the Viet-
nam war in the early 1970s, a few years
earlier than the real war’s conclusion in- The Soviet Union doesn’t invade
Afghanistan.
Teddy ready?The surprise Soviet
moon landing leads U.S. Sen. Edward
“Ted” Kennedy to return to Washington,
D.C., for related hearings, canceling his
plans to attend a party on Chappaquid-
dick Island. His rising profile and Ken-
nedy lineage could result in a huge re-
election challenge for Nixon in 1972.
Does that mean no Watergate?
In reality, Kennedy drove a car into a
pond on the Massachusetts island on
July 19, 1969, resulting in the death of
passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy
pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an
accident, and the resulting stigma re-
portedly influenced his decision not to
run for president in 1972. (Nixon was re-
elected in a landslide.)
Equal rights in space?The Soviet
Union springs another surprise in
“Mankind,” putting the first woman on
the moon in 1969. That leads NASA to
rush to find a female astronaut, assem-
bling a field of candidates that includes
Stevens’ wife, Tracy (Sarah Jones).
Those candidates become role models
for a generation of girls, paving the way
for accelerated advances by women.
In reality, Soviet cosmonaut Valenti-
na Tereshkova was the first woman in
space in 1963, and no woman has been
to the moon. “Mankind” shines a light
on a real-life group more people should
know about: the Mercury 13, a group of
women who underwent the same
screening tests as the men selected as
Mercury astronauts in the 1950s.
‘For All Mankind’ sticks to science
Fact check shows series
gets a lot of things right
Bill Keveney
USA TODAY
Jodi Balfour, left, Sonya Walger, Sarah Jones, Krys Marshall and Cass Bugge play
astronaut trainees in “For All Mankind.”PHOTOS BY APPLE“For All Mankind” raises the possibility
of a married couple (Sarah Jones and
Michael Dorman) in space.Joel Kinnaman plays astronaut Ed
Baldwin in Apple TV+'s space race saga
“For All Mankind.”Damon wouldn’t overplay the larger-
than-life Texas persona of Carroll, who
died in 2012.
“Someone could almost take this role
too far and turn it into Foghorn Leg-
horn,” Mangold says. “I thought Matt
would go a little easier on the barbecue
sauce.”
For Damon, slipping back into the
Texas accent was as easy as pie, using
the same dialect coach he worked with
on films such as the Coen Brothers’ 2010
Western “True Grit” and 2000’s “All the
Pretty Horses.”
Working with Bale was a “dream,”
Damon says, praising the Oscar win-
ner’s multilayered portrayal of the hot-
tempered Miles. The only flare-up on
the set came as the two battled hilari-
ously onscreen in a middle-aged man
fight that involved the “Bourne” action
star slapping “Dark Knight” Bale repeat-
edly on the head with a loaf of Wonder
Bread as cans of Campbell’s Soup spill
out of a grocery bag.
“That Wonder Bread was definitely
injured,” Damon says. “We’ve spent so
many times in our career in rooms with
mattresses on the floor and stunt teams
trying to make us look like we know
what we’re doing. This was the oppo-
site. We had to look like what we are,
these middle-aged guys who tired out
pretty quickly, and show the silliness of
it.”
The fight was so ridiculous that even
when Bale grabbed a garbage can lid to
fend off Damon’s advances, the first
concern was about safety.
“I tried to punch him as he holds up
the trash lid, and I hurt my hand. And
Christian stops and says, ‘Are you OK?’
That was the spirit of the fight,” Damon
says.
The sometime action star was able to
tap into his inner Jason Bourne in the
instantly classic scene in which Carroll
takes Ford’s imperious CEO Henry Ford
II (Tracy Letts) out on the racetrack to
test one of the fastest race cars ever pro-
duced: the Ford GT40 MK II.
Knowing that he’d need to appear as
if traveling well over 100 mph was his
day job, Damon asked stunt coordinator
Rob Nagle to take him out for a hair-rais-
ing pre-shoot spin.
“I had to get all of that stuff out,” Da-
mon says. “You feel giddy when you do it
the first time. So after that, I was able to
look like this is no big deal.”
Damon looked cool at the wheel
(while Nagle actually drove from a com-
partment perched above the car) as it hit
high speeds and ended in a 720-degree
turn that prompted Letts’ Ford II to col-
lapse into tears, then uncontrollable
laughter.
“We called action and peeled out, and
you see us flying around,” Damon says.
“So that’s really what is happening. The
rest was 100% Tracy Letts.”
Damon is moving at high speed on
another dream project, a new screen-
writing collaboration with Ben Affleck
and Nicole Holofcener,his first with Af-
fleck since “Good Will Hunting” brought
the struggling Boston actors instant
fame and best screenplay Oscars in- “The Last Duel” focuses on the fi-
nal sanctioned medieval duel between
two knights, over a claim that one had
raped the other’s wife. Ridley Scott is di-
recting.
“Ben and I and Nicole wrote really
fast and gave Ridley like 60 pages. He
stopped everything and said, ‘This is the
next movie I’m doing,’ “ Damon says.
“Suddenly, we had a deadline.”
Damon knows there will be high ex-
pectations for the movie by the best-
friend superstars, especially since, he
jokes, “we’re batting 1,000, we’re one-
for-one together.”
But he’s focused now on “Ford v Fer-
rari,” which moves into awards season
with critical acclaim. Damon’s first or-
der of business after capturing Shelby
onscreen was cutting off his perm.
“There were thoughts on the hair at
home, but these were never thoughts of
keeping it,” Damon says. “The minute I
got clearance ... I had it chopped.”
Damon
Continued from Page 1D
Charles Wallace (at the wheel) and
Carroll Shelby with the Aston Martin
they would drive in the Grand Prix in
1954.JAMES P. KERLIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS