Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) on Netflix
EUROSEC's Sun Probe detects a planet on the far side of the Sun, invisible from Earth. NASA's Glenn Ross and EUROSEC's John Kane are chosen for the flight.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.3/104,433 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes40%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Sun Probe, a EUROSEC spacecraft, detects a planet orbiting at Earth's own distance but always beyond the Sun, invisible from home. EUROSEC director Jason Webb presses for a Western mission before rival powers get there, and NASA representative David Poulson is persuaded. The crew is NASA's Colonel Glenn Ross and EUROSEC's astrophysicist Dr John Kane. They train at EUROSEC's Space Centre in Portugal and launch aboard Phoenix, where machines keep their organs working while they sleep through the trip. Three weeks on they wake and find no clear signs of life, so they take the lander Dove down toward the surface. A thunderstorm damages Dove during the descent and it crashes in a mountain range, leaving Kane badly injured.
Cast
- Franco De Rosaas Paulo Landi (as Franco Derosa)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To make a mirror Earth look real, the crew used a process called "flop-over" to reverse the film negatives. This saved the production time and money on reversed props and sets and on road closures for cars driving on the "wrong" side.
- For a videoconference scene, the crew cut screen-sized gaps in a wall and placed the actors behind them, adding silver paper to reflect studio lights and simulate high-resolution monitors, because color TV was too expensive at the time.
- The 6 ft scale model of the Phoenix spacecraft unexpectedly caught fire during filming and had to be completely rebuilt.
- A full-sized Dove module prop built in Slough could not be used because an agreement between Pinewood Studios and the National Association of Theatrical Television and Kine Employees required all Pinewood film props to be made in-house; the prop was destroyed and the replacement was considered inferior.
- Director Robert Parrish refused to film scenes he said he would only delete, and when reminded of his contractual obligations he loudly told the cast and crew they would shoot those scenes next.
- Cinematographer John Read resigned from the production and from Century 21 after refusing to reshoot scenes of the Phoenix model filmed with a hand-held camera, stating that Parrish's instructions took precedence over Gerry Anderson's.
- Ian Hendry was visibly intoxicated while filming the Dove crash sequence, yet Anderson recalled that it looked exactly as it was supposed to on screen.
- Roy Thinnes smoked about two packets of cigarettes a day during production for continuity, and in September 1969 The Age reported he would demand a non-smoking clause for his next film.
