Gorky Film Studio
Moscow Sea
Please forgive me,
dear viewers,
for appearing
a little prematurely.
But as long as it has happened,
I consider it my duty
to warn you about something.
You've certainly seen before
the words on the screen
informing you
that any resemblance
to real persons and
actual events is coincidental
and has not been the author's idea.
On my part, I want
to bring to your notice
that all the characters
of our film
are presented under their
actual names
and the events
you'll be witnessing
have actually taken place
in the summer of the next year.
No, it is not a slip of the tongue.
Actually, this is about all
I can tell you now.
Oh yes, I forgot to introduce myself.
In our film,
I'm performing special duties.
I am, so to speak, A.S.A. -
Acting Specially As.
MOSCOW - CASSIOPEIA
Written by
A. ZAK, I. KUZNETSOV
Directed by
Richard VIKTOROV
Director of Photography
Andrei KIRILLOV
Production Designer
Konstantin ZAGORSKY
Music by
V. CHERNYSHOV
English Subtitles by
T. Kameneva
Starring:
Innokenty SMOKTUNOVSKY
as A.S.A.
Vasili MERKURYEV
as Blagovidov
Lev DUROV
as Academician Filatov
Yuri MEDVEDEV
as Academician Ogon-Duganovsky
Pyotr MERKURYEV
as Academician Kurochkin
Misha YERSHOV as Sereda
Sasha GRIGORYEV as Kozelkov
Volodya SAVIN as Kopanygin
Volodya BASOV as Lobanov
Olya BITYUKOVA as Kuteishchikova
Nadya OVCHAROVA as Sorokina
Ira POPOVA as Panfyorova
And so, the Alpha star
in the constellation Cassiopeia,
also known as Schedar,
distant 71.42 parsecs,
that is 22 by 10 raised to 14th
kilometers,
has been chosen as the target
of our flight,
because
within the last eighteen months
the Karakan observatory
has detected over 2,000
modulated radio signals
at a wavelength of 21 centimeters.
This gives us grounds to assume
that there is intelligent life
on one of the planets
of the Schedar system.
The system of Schedar,
Alpha Cassiopeia.
Since modulated
radio signals
can be sent
by a highly-organized civilization,
I believe that this flight will give
the earthman a first in the history
of mankind opportunity to shake
hands with an intelligent creature
from another celestial system.
But the way is long in terms of
time and distance.
Given the speed nearing that of light,
the crew's flight both ways
will take about 52 years.
Therefore, it would be reasonable
to form the ship's crew
of persons no older than 14 or 15,
which will work for
the success of the expedition,
because its members
will reach Alpha Cassiopeia
in the prime of their life
and creative abilities,
that is, at the age of 40.
What prime of life?
40 is just ancient.
Well, he knows better.
Tolya Yamshchikov.
- Where's the tape-recorder?
- Lob hasn't come yet.
We're going to blow it without
a solemn march at the end.
We are.
I've got a tape-recorder,
a solemn march to crown the report.
Is this your work?
It was an experiment, launching
a rocket. I'll never do it again.
And what if you'd blown all
the windows out?
The academicians are in there.
I'm not letting you in.
- But I need to.
- And we don't need to.
In view of the foregoing,
I'm presenting a project to defend
"A Flight to Alpha Cassiopeia
on the spaceship "Dawn",
which is a Russian acronym of
"annihilator relativistic
nuclear starship".
I think that's all.
Any questions, please?
All right, your questions, please.
Go ahead, don't be shy.
Give it back.
A note?
Please.
Would you fly?
This will be for a lifetime.
With him, I would fly.
With whom would you fly?
Would you fly?
This will be for a lifetime.
With him, I would fly.
Who wrote this?
I got a question.
Go ahead.
How many bison
were there in America
when the first Europeans
arrived there?
The bison?
You may not answer,
you don't know that.
America was inhabited by
millions of bison. Where are they?
- They became extinct.
- People exterminated them.
Where's Przewalski's horse,
Steller's sea cow?