Did Stanley Kubrick ever talk about the Moon landing?

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The only dalliance Stanley Kubrick had with science fiction as a filmmaker came in 1968 when he directed 2001: A Space Odyssey, which – befitting his reputation as one of cinema’s greatest-ever directors – instantly took its place among the pantheon of the genre’s finest efforts.

As far as one-and-done flirtations with subject material go, it was a doozy. However, whispers have raged for more than half a century that 2001 wasn’t Kubrick’s only foray into the vast and unknown reaches of space. The conspiracy theory continues to persist that he’d played a significant part in helping the United States fake the very first Moon landing the year after his Academy Award-winning epic’s release.

It was one of humanity’s most important moments and one that had been years in the making. The geopolitical tensions caused by the ‘Space Race’ ensured that every nation capable of travelling beyond the stars wanted to be the first to set foot on the giant hunk of floating space rock. Of course, America got there first, or did it?

Kubrick was famously shy and retiring when he wasn’t being a tyrant on set, which meant that any interviews he gave during his career were tied almost exclusively to his own work. As a result, he never felt the need to comment publicly on either the Moon landing or his alleged involvement in staging the elaborate hoax that fooled the world, which only served to increase suspicions that the whole thing was faked.

For what it’s worth, his daughter Vivian grew so irritated with the lingering conspiracies that she felt compelled to posthumously comment on her old man’s behalf in 2016, writing on social media that “the so-called ‘truths’ these malicious cranks persist on forwarding – that my father conspired with the US government to ‘fake the moon landings’ – is manifestly a grotesque lie.”

His widow Christiane also blasted the “made up, fraudulent, and untrue” stories that her husband had been recruited to fake the Moon landing after footage of what appeared to be Kubrick – but was actually an actor who’d been hired to play him in the fictional film Shooting Stanley Kubrick – was widely circulated that saw the filmmaker come clean and confess he was behind the camera. A lot of people bought it, but it was nowhere near legitimate.

The conspiracy even spawned a conspiracy of its own, with eagle-eyed viewers adamant that Kubrick was confessing to faking the Moon landings right in front of everyone’s eyes through a series of subtle visual cues hidden in his work, which were indicative of his mischievous sense of humour. The director never felt the need to speak publicly about the Moon landing in general or his supposed role in it, but it was clear he was fully aware of the speculation.

So, why do people think Stanley Kubrick faked the Moon landing?

In a conspiratorial sense, it made perfect sense that Kubrick would be accused of faking the Moon landing. After all, in the very recent past, he’d revolutionised special effects and crafted the most convincing space-set footage had ever seen in 2001.

According to those who buy into it, the auteur was approached in early 1968 to apply some of the techniques he’d developed for the movie to surreptitious plans to hoodwink the planet and convince everybody the United States had gotten there first.

As often tends to be the case with conspiracies, there was no tangible evidence to suggest Kubrick had spoken with the government, never mind collaborated with them, even if former NASA engineers were involved in 2001 as creative consultants to aid his desire for intergalactic authenticity.

Are there movies about Stanley Kubrick faking the Moon landing?

There are several movies that deal with Kubrick faking the Moon landings in different ways, and the fact most of them are comedically inclined suggests that not even the people who made them are capable of treating the subject matter with a straight face.

2022’s self-explanatory short Stanley Kubrick’s The Moon Landing is played almost entirely for laughs, while 2002’s Dark Side of the Moon billing itself as a mockumentary says all that needs to be said about which side of the fence the film falls on, even if some viewers didn’t get the joke and took it at face value as a cutting exposé.

2015’s British comedy caper Moonwalkers finds Ron Perlman’s CIA agent tasked to enlist Kubrick to direct the Moon landings only for Rupert Grint’s scheming talent agent and Robert Sheehan’s imposter to pull the wool over the fed’s eyes and pose as the renowned director, and even though the Barry Lyndon and Full Metal Jacket creator isn’t directly acknowledged, found footage thriller Operation Avalanche telling a story about two agents who accidentally uncover the ‘truth’ of the Moon landings clearly drew its inspirations from the theory that just won’t go away.

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