An audience is treated to a Saturn V launch in The Moonwalkers at the Kennedy Center. (credit: J. Foust)

Review: The Moonwalkers and a Kennedy Center space festival

by Jeff Foust
Monday, March 31, 2025

Even more than 50 years after Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt lifted off from the Moon, the appetite for Apollo nostalgia is unsated. There continues to be films, books, and more about the original race to the Moon even as a new one shapes up involving the United States and China, one that promises to finally return humans to the lunar surface late this decade, perhaps.

One of the most recent entries in this genre is The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks, a production that is part documentary and part immersive experience. It premiered in London in late 2023 and it started a limited run last week at the Kennedy Center in Washington, which bills the run as its “US Premiere.” In fact, The Moonwalkers started showing earlier this year at Space Center Houston; it is also continuing its original run in London.

Running just under one hour, The Moonwalkers is, as the title suggests, an account of the Apollo program in general and the landings in particular. And as the subtitle suggests, Tom Hanks plays a central, if unseen, role as narrator, discussing the Apollo missions and incorporating his own memories as a 13-year-old in July 1969, recalling the Apollo 11 landing.

What sets it apart from countless other accounts of Apollo is the visual presentation. Rather than a single screen, imagery is projected on all four sides of a large rectangular room, as well as on the floor. The audience can sit on benches or plush chairs scattered around the room, or simply on the floor. (The situation is different in Houston, where The Moonwalkers is shown in a more conventional theater with stadium-style seating, requiring some adaptations to both the film and the theater.) While the “front” screen is the center of attention, audience members are reminded to turn around to catch what is going on on the sides and even behind them.

The story of Apollo is a familiar one, but this depiction still dazzles, thanks to that display of footage restored by Andy Saunders of Apollo Remastered fame. It includes an original score and some sound effects: in a scene where the Saturn V lifts off, I could feel vibrations through my shoes. The result may not be as immersive as a virtual reality experience, but you also don’t need to wear a cumbersome helmet.

So many depictions of Apollo have a degree of poignancy, particularly as the years since the end of the program have stretched into decades with no other humans on the Moon. That is ameliorated here somewhat by including comments from the four astronauts set to fly around the Moon next year on Artemis 2; a reminder that we are (hopefully, maybe) finally returning to the Moon.

This experience is not cheap: for a screening early Saturday afternoon I paid $29 plus fees. Ticket prices range from $20 on a late Wednesday afternoon to $35 on a Friday night, although there may be discounted rush tickets available close to each screening. (In Houston, the film is included in the price of admission.)

The Moonwalkers is one of the centerpieces of the Kennedy Center’s “EARTH to SPACE Festival: Arts Breaking the Sky,” running through April 20. The festival includes events ranging from panel discussions to dance performances. That included, on Saturday, one panel on NASA’s lunar Gateway and another, sponsored by the Embassy of Monaco, that featured former NASA administrator Bill Nelson and former astronauts Bob Cabana and Michael Lopez-Alegria, among others. (Monaco is home to Venturi, an automotive company that is lending its expertise in batteries and tires to lunar rover developer Astrolab, which had a prototype of its FLEX lunar rover on display that weekend as well.)

It’s not obvious that recent changes in the oversight of the Kennedy Center by the Trump Administration have had any impact on the festival. In fact, one scene of The Moonwalkers, emphasizing the effort that went into Apollo, highlights on the side screens individuals involved or at least tangentially associated with the program, overwhelmingly women and people of color.

Outside the center, on a small plot of land wedged between the main Kennedy Center building, the Potomac River, and Interstate 66, are large inflatable globes of the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Stand in the right spot, and you can see an existing statue of John F. Kennedy appearing to be walking towards the Moon.

A status of JFK with a large inflatable Moon in the background on the grounds of the Kennedy Center. (credit: J. Foust)

Jeff Foust (jeff@thespacereview.com) is the editor and publisher of The Space Review, and a senior staff writer with SpaceNews. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site. Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone.

Note: we are now moderating comments. There will be a delay in posting comments and no guarantee that all submitted comments will be posted.

Home