Trailer
Plot summary
In 1967, with the Cold War space race at its height, the CIA suspects a KGB mole inside NASA is sabotaging the Apollo program. Agents Matt, Owen, Andy and Jared propose entering NASA posing as documentary filmmakers for the Apollo 11 mission, with their cameras and bugs as the tools for finding the leak. They bug the phone of NASA administrator James Webb, and their superior Brackett then orders them to leave. To stop the Soviets from winning the space race, Matt devises Operation Avalanche: faking the Moon landing on film, beginning with a test shoot of Owen in an astronaut suit.
Cast
- Andrew Appelleas Andy Appelle
- Ray Jamesas CIA Director Brackett
- John Henry Robsonas Baby Simon
- Tom Boltonas Agent #1
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Operation Avalanche (2016)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To get permission to shoot at NASA, director Matt Johnson claimed he was making a student documentary on the Apollo program; the NASA personnel who appear in the film were real, and the story was built around their filmed conversations.
- In 2014, while in England for The Dirties's release, Matt Johnson and cinematographer Jared Raab skipped a Shepperton Studios tour to capture shots of the lot where 2001: A Space Odyssey was filmed, and were thrown out by Avengers: Age of Ultron staff who took them for paparazzi.
- To give the printed film an authentic worn appearance, sections were hung from a bicycle and ridden around, while other sections of film were stored in a bucket of dirt; the film was color graded twice, before and after printing.
- Stanley Kubrick's estate declined a request to use his likeness in Operation Avalanche, though archival footage of Kubrick appears in the film through newly-permissive fair use laws.
- The car chase was moved from a city street to an empty field because dressing a period-accurate street was too difficult; the vintage cars often broke down during filming, and the sequence was performed about seven times and captured in one take.
- Scenes were often shot in public spaces without permits, which the film's 1960s setting made highly difficult, and anachronistic visuals such as smartphones were digitally removed from the footage.
