The story of the first man on the Moon — a very quiet man who lost his little girl, and who nearly died three times before he got there.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = D (a pilot) · 2 = F (the Moon) · 3 = B (a rocket) · 4 = E (to land)
5 = H (dangerous) · 6 = A (brave) · 7 = C (quiet) · 8 = G (an accident)
Damien Chazelle's First Man (2018). Ryan Gosling plays Neil Armstrong. Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
It is 1961. Neil Armstrong is a test pilot in America. He flies a very special plane, very high and very fast. The sky outside his window is black, because he is nearly in space. On this flight, something goes wrong. The plane does not come down correctly, and Neil must fly a long way to land safely.
At home there is a bigger problem. His little daughter Karen is two years old, and she is very ill. She has a tumour in her head. Neil is an engineer, so he writes everything in a notebook. He tries to find an answer. But there is no answer, and Karen dies.
Neil does not talk about it. He does not cry in front of people. The next day, he goes back to work. Soon he asks to join NASA and become an astronaut. His family move to a new town in Texas, near the space centre. Their new neighbours are other pilots and their wives. This is a dangerous job, and some of these friends will die.
1. What is Neil's job at the beginning of the film?
2. What happens to his daughter Karen, and what does Neil do after?
1. He is a test pilot. He flies a special plane very high, near space.
2. She is two years old and she is very ill with a tumour in her head. She dies. Neil does not talk about it. He goes back to work and then becomes an astronaut.
Neil's first mission in space is with one other astronaut. Their job is to join two spaceships together. They do it — it is the first time in history! Then something goes wrong. Their spaceship starts to turn round and round. It turns faster and faster. The two men cannot see well, and they nearly lose consciousness.
Neil turns off the whole control system and uses other, smaller engines to stop the spaceship. It works. But now they must come home immediately, and the mission is finished after only a few hours.
Later, in his training, Neil flies a strange machine near the ground. It is not a plane and not a rocket: it is a practice machine for landing on the Moon. The controls stop working. Neil jumps out with a parachute, and the machine falls and burns. Neil is not hurt. He goes back to his office the same day and works. At home, the night before he goes to the Moon, his wife Janet is angry. She makes him sit down and tell their two sons that he maybe will not come home.
1. What goes wrong on Neil's first space mission?
2. Why is Janet angry the night before the Moon flight?
1. After they join two spaceships together, their spaceship starts turning round and round, faster and faster. Neil stops it, but they must come home early.
2. Neil wants to leave without speaking to his sons. Janet makes him sit down and tell the boys that he maybe will not come back.
July 1969. The last part of the film is the landing. The small spaceship goes down to the Moon. The computer makes a noise: there is a problem. The people on Earth say, "Continue." Neil looks out of the little window and sees big rocks. It is not safe there. So he takes the controls himself and flies over the rocks to find a flat place. The fuel is nearly finished. Then — they land.
Neil walks on the Moon. The film is very quiet here. There is almost no music and almost no sound. We see the Moon, and we see the Earth, small and blue and far away. Then Neil walks alone to a hole in the ground, a small crater. In the film, he takes his daughter's bracelet out of his pocket and drops it into the hole.
He comes home. Everybody in the world wants to see him, but first he must stay in a special room, alone, for some weeks. At the end of the film, Neil and Janet look at each other through a window. They cannot touch. They say nothing. They put their hands on the glass.
1. Why does Neil fly the spaceship himself at the end?
2. What does he do at the small crater on the Moon?
1. The computer is taking them to a place with big rocks. It is not safe, so Neil flies over the rocks to find a flat place — with very little fuel left.
2. He drops his daughter Karen's bracelet into it. This is his goodbye to her.
In this film people speak very little. English is good at this too! When we answer a question, we do not repeat the big verb. We use only the small helping verb.
Write the missing helping verb. Then read the answer out loud.
1. "Do you like space films?" — "Yes, I ."
2. "Did Neil come home safely?" — "Yes, he ."
3. "Is the Moon far from the Earth?" — "Yes, it ."
1. do (the question uses Do)
2. did (the question uses Did)
3. is (the question uses Is)
Now write the negative short answer. Use the short form (n't).
1. "Does Neil talk a lot?" — "No, he ."
2. "Were the astronauts relaxed?" — "No, they ."
3. "Has Janet seen her husband?" — "No, she ."
1. doesn't (Does → doesn't)
2. weren't (Were → weren't)
3. hasn't (Has → hasn't)
Fill each gap. Two of them need So or Neither + a helping verb. Read it aloud when you finish.
A: "I'm excited about this film." B: " I."
A: "I don't like flying in planes." B: " I. It's scary!"
A: "Did you cry at the end?" B: "Yes, I . A little."
So am (I) · Neither do (I) · did
Remember: after a positive sentence use So, after a negative sentence use Neither — and the helping verb comes before I.
Almost all of the dangerous parts of this film really happened. But the saddest moment did not.
This is all true. In the Korean War, Neil Armstrong flew 78 missions. In 1951 his plane hit a metal cable, lost part of one wing, and he had to jump out. Later he flew a rocket plane called the X-15 seven times, and on one flight in 1962 he went too high and came down far from home. In space in 1966, his spaceship turned round and round about once every second; he stopped it and came home the same day. In 1968, a practice machine for Moon landings stopped working; he jumped out with a parachute about 60 metres above the ground, and the machine burned. He went back to his office the same day.
On 20 July 1969 the computer really did show problem numbers (1201 and 1202). A young engineer, Jack Garman, said it was safe to continue, and it was. Neil really did see big rocks and fly the spaceship himself to a flat place.
How much fuel was left? Nobody knows exactly. At the time, people in the control room thought they had only about 25 to 30 seconds. Later, scientists looked again and thought it was more like 45 to 50 seconds. Why the difference? Because the fuel was moving inside the tanks, so the machine could not measure it correctly. So we say "about 25 to 50 seconds" — and that is honest.
Karen Anne Armstrong was a real little girl. She was born on 13 April 1959 and she died on 28 January 1962, before her third birthday. She had a tumour in her brain. Her father almost never spoke about her. All of this is true, and the film is built on it.
But the bracelet is not true. Neil Armstrong's biographer wrote a list of the things Armstrong took to the Moon, and there was nothing for Karen. A NASA historian, Bill Barry, said clearly that the scene was made for the film. The walk to the small crater is real; the bracelet is invented. There was also an argument in 2018 because the film does not show the moment when the astronauts put the American flag on the Moon. But the flag is in the film — you can see it standing on the Moon in several shots. Armstrong's sons, Rick and Mark, said the film is not anti-American, and the actor Ryan Gosling said Armstrong did not see himself as a hero.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of First Man in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a test pilot and a very high plane → his little daughter dies → he becomes an astronaut → the spaceship turns round and round → he jumps out of a burning machine → he lands on the Moon with almost no fuel → the crater, and the window at the end.
Try to use these key words: pilot, Moon, rocket, land, dangerous, brave, quiet, accident. Then your partner asks you questions and you answer short: "Yes, he did." "No, she wasn't."
Neil is very quiet. He does not talk about his feelings. His wife Janet thinks this is bad for the family. Who do you agree with, Neil or Janet? Is it better to talk about a problem, or to be strong and quiet? Say why.
The film invented the bracelet on the Moon. Is that OK? Talk about films and true stories.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: