Western Animation / Capture the Flag (2015)

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The movie resolves around Mike Goldwing, a plucky, determined 12-year old boy, who is the son and grandson of NASA astronauts. His grandfather Frank, a once revered, but now forgotten retired astronaut, lives his days isolated from his family after missing out on his big chance to fly to the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as a part of the Apollo XI mission. When an eccentric billionaire sets an evil plan to fly to the moon, steal the moon's vast mineral resources, and destroy the American flag planted by the Apollo XI team, Mike embarks on a magnificent adventure as a stowaway on the rocket. Accompanied by his grandfather, best friends Amy and Marty, and a clever chameleon, Mike blasts off to the moon to capture the flag and reunite his family.

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Capture the Flag contains examples of:

• Accidental Kiss: Between Mike and Amy on board the moonlander when racing to catch the last floating sweetie, due to Igor snatching it at the last moment.
  Frank: Just friends.
• Action Survivor: Both Mike and Amy are shown to be pretty athletic and resourceful when they have to escape Carson on the Moon. However, due to being children, they never try to confront him directly in a fight, instead evading his attacks and tricking him into destroying his own base while he chases them.
• Almost Out of Oxygen: When escaping Carson's moon base, Frank cracks his helmet and begins to lose oxygen rapidly. Hench why he is forced to go back to the moon lander and replace his oxygen and helmet, leaving Mike and Amy to take on Carson themselves. He barely makes it in time.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Mike's little sister, Tess.
• Anti-Villain: Steve Gigs works for Carson and accompanies him on the Moon. However, he doesn't do anything beyond helping him pilot the ship and mine the Helium-3. He's simply too much of an Extreme Doormat to stop his boss when the latter goes too far.
• Artistic License – Chemistry: In the film, Helium-3 is a glowing green liquid. In reality, it's a gas, and being an isotope of helium it's also colorless.
• Artistic License – Space: The US flag is depicted as completely intact when the Sun's rays are very likely to have removed all the color and patterns from it since the time it was planted.
• Bad Boss: Carson's reaction upon realizing he accidentally killed Bill Gags is to promote Gigs to Bill's position.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: When caught by NASA guards, Marty demands to speak to their boss. Seconds later, said boss, who turns out to be his dad, Jack, shows up.
• Big Bad: Richard Carson, who wants to colonize the Moon for its resources, and erase all history of the Moon landings.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: By proxy anyways, since the opening with Mike and his friends and family takes place on his father Scott's birthday, though it's downplayed as nothing too bad happens, with Mike failing to pull of a difficult move while parasailing, though when the Goldwings go out for dinner, Mike is disappointed that his grandfather Frank didn't show as hoped, with his mother Sam having promised to bring the family back together. However, as they eat dinner, they see the news of Richard Carson's plans of visiting the moon, which sets the plot into motion.
• Blatant Lies: When Carson produces his fake evidence to make people think the moon landing was a hoax, a guy at a bar claims he always knew it was a hoax. When Carson is exposed as a liar, the same guy says he always knew Carson was lying, having trusted NASA.
• Bookends: The movie's story begins and ends with the US flag being planted on the surface of the moon, with accompanying narration.
• Brick Joke: Mike convinces Amy to help him by suggesting she could become the first woman in the moon. The epilogue shows a magazine cover describing her as such.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: When Scott is contacting his father Frank as he is trapped with Mike and Amy in the rocket's command module, he loudly yells, "Frank, who's there?!", instead of calling him "Dad".
• Calling Your Attacks: Marty does this when fighting off the alligators in the swamp.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Amy laments how this happens to her when the rocket lift-off starts, but immediately expresses her joy at the consequences:
  “I break one rule in my whole life, and I end up in a rocket heading to the moon…..YES!!!!!”
• Capture the Flag: Exaggerated, since the flag that the heroes and villains compete to get is the one originally planted on the moon by the Apollo XI crew. On a smaller scale, in their first scene, Mike, Amy and Marty are participating in a Capture the Flag surfing competition against another team, but lose.
• Chekhov's Skill: The "moneybag" maneuver Mike attempts in the opening scene comes in handy during the climax, as does Igor's harness being able to transmit whatever Amy's phone picks up.
• Conveyor Belt o' Doom: After capturing Frank, Carson ties him to a large rock, place on a conveyor belt that will drop the rock in a smelting pit.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Richard Carson. His motto is "Nothing's a hitch, if it makes you filthy rich!" He showed no regrets about accidentally killing one of his employees during a weapons test, thinks nothing of killing an old man and two kids in order to stop them from reaching the moon, and fully intended to destroy any country that wouldn't buy the fuel he'd harvested from the moon.
  • Considering who Carson claims the motto came from, his father also was corrupt.
• Creative Closing Credits: The movie's credits sequence show painted stills of Mike, Amy and Frank being celebrated for their efforts with a Tickertape Parade. Highlights include Marty having his own balloon in the image of Igor, Amy appearing as the "first woman on the moon" on the cover of Tyme magazine, and Amy actually giving Mike a kiss on the cheek.
• Creepy Souvenir: Carson carries a ring with a diamond forged out of the ashes of his late father. He even talks to it as if the ring were still a living human.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Frank left his family after being prevented from going into space by catching chicken pox from his son, Scott. Scott believed he did this because his father resented him for ruining his big chance. Frank eventually confesses that he did resent Scott for it, but was disgusted at himself for feeling that way, and he left to spare Scott from those feelings.
• Daddy Issues: Scott Goldwing has this with his father Frank. Richard Carson has an even more extreme version, having melted down his father's ashes into a glass orb that he wears on a ring (and even talks to occasion).
• Engineered Public Confession: Mike and Amy trick Carson into revealing his true plans, and transmit it to every television in the world.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Well, at least Marty does. When Mike states his intends to hide in the rocket and asks his friends to help him, Marty, after first pointing out how crazy the whole plan is, reacts with “What the heck, it’s better than studying for math!”.
• Extreme Doormat: Steve Gigs is shown to be very unnerved by his boss' willingness to harm children, but is too subservient to do anything else than weakly complain.
• Fat Best Friend: Marty to Mike.
• Fate Worse than Death: Carson is ultimately left drifting in space after his lunar refinery blows up. That is, until his oxygen runs out...
• Foreshadowing: Prior to his Robotic Reveal, Gigs comments that he never had a family.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Marty. He even manages to make an improvised communication system by hooking up his cell phone to the old NASA computers, and the various tools he installed in Igor's backpack help safe the day.
• Generation Xerox: For the Goldwings, it's lampshaded by their son Michael after his father Scott injures his leg during a test flight, preventing him from going to the moon, not unlike what happened to his grandfather Franklin for similar reasons. Mike worries that history will repeat itself if his father decides to leave, very much like how his father Frank left, after he couldn't go to the Moon, with Scott resenting him for it. Fortunately, after Mike comes up with the idea to go to the moon, he's able to subvert this trope, along with his grandfather Frank, thus breaking the "Goldwing curse".
  • Played much straighter with Richard Carson, and his father and grandfather. Both of them were involved in harvesting energy, with his grandfather having found oil, and his father having dealt with nuclear power. The current Carson plans on going to the moon, something his father failed to achieve, in order to harvest a brand new energy source from the moon, of which there is an infinite supply, Helium-3.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Marty has the classic white boxers with red hearts. Naturally, they get exposed when he gets stuck on a fence.
• Grumpy Old Man: Mike’s grandfather, though he does get better over the course of the adventure.
• I Gave My Word: Carson, surprisingly. After Mike and Amy meet him in his Helium-3 mine, he demands the moon flag in return for Frank, but Mike wants his grandfather first. Carson decides to drop him into a smelting pit, tied to a rock of Helium-3, forcing Mike to give up the flag. In response, Carson then has Gigs free Frank, taking him off the conveyor belt and untying him from the rock. However, after the three are reunited, it's subverted when Carson orders Gigs to kill them, which luckily goes nowhere.
• It's the Journey That Counts: While Mike, Amy and Frank's trip to the moon has a primary objective that they manage to succeed in, the journey, both physical and metaphorical, they go on is just as important, for the effects it has. Mike and his grandfather are able to break the Goldwing curse, as Scott calls it, out of fear that no Goldwing will ever set foot on the moon. Frank becomes more open to his family again, after having left them because he failed to go to the moon, hearing how Sam wanted to get the family back together. Frank also takes the time to reveal why he left; before he was scheduled to go to the moon, Scott returned home with chickenpox, which he contracted, and Scott resented him for blaming him, but Frank felt sorry for doing so, and left for being a failure; when the two reunite, they reconcile tearfully, having gotten over the past.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: When Marty gets stuck on the fence surrounding the launch site, he urges Amy and Mike to go on without him, to which they are quick to comply. When Igor also abandons him however, Marty freaks out.
• Little Stowaway: Mike and Amy, though in Amy's case it was unintentional since she was only supposed to help Mike get inside the rocket, then leave again before liftoff. She gets trapped inside along with Mike and Frank when Carson's mook starts up the launch sequence.
• Malicious Misnaming: The 'director' of Carson's fake moon-landing is a janitor whose name tag reads "Guillermo" but Carson dismissively calls him "Jose".
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Amy has numerous siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. Following the return from the moon, it takes two helicopters to transport them all to greet her, much to Marty's shock.
• Match Cut: Used at the beginning of the movie, when the scene rotates from the US flag on the moon to a waving flag in a buoy, with Mike, Marty and Amy playing the titular game while parasailing.
• Moon-Landing Hoax: An important part of the plot is that many people still believe the original moonlanding was faked. Carson uses this as a pretext for going to the moon, with the true intent of claiming ownership of it, harvesting a powerful energy source there.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: When trying to sneak onto the NASA launch site, the kids have to cross a swamp filled with alligators. Igor is the first to notice, and has to alert Marty about them, who then panickedly tells Mike and Amy.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The trailer makes no mention of Richard Carson and his plans to mine the moon for Helium-3, nor that this is the real reason NASA suddenly wants to go back to the moon.
  • Because of the above, the Trailer makes it look like Mike and Amy accidentally launch the rocket ahead of schedule. In reality, this was done by one of Carsons' mooks.
  • The trailer makes it look like Marty panics as soon as Mike and Amy follow up on his request to leave him on the fence (see I Will Only Slow You Down above). In reality, he's fine with this. It's the fact that his pet lizard Igor also abandons him that makes him panic.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Carson tries to sabotage NASA by making their rocket leave Earth before anyone boards it and the plan fails because Mike and Amy snuck in and Mike's grandfather went there to get them out. Had Carson not tried this, he'd have about ten more hours to get rid of the flag and anything else that might be used as evidence that the original moon landing wasn't a hoax.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: There is a late night show host named Jay Lemman, and Carson's two lackeys are called Steve Gigs and Bill Gags complete with the same physical appearances and trademark clothes as them. Also, the director of Carson's moon landing hoax is none than Stanley Kubrick himself who now cleans floors for Carson for failing him.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: During his Engineered Public Confession, Carson reveals that he intends to destroy any country that refuses to buy the fuel he's harvesting from the moon.
• Older Is Better: The 40-year old Saturn V rocket has no trouble keeping up with Carson's modern, high-tech spaceship.
• Plug 'n' Play Technology: Double Subverted: Marty wants to connect his smartphone with NASA's rather old computers to restore communication with Mike and Amy on the moon, but is told this can't be done due to the huge differences in technology. Being a Gadgeteer Genius, Marty promptly creates an adapter that allows him to do it anyway.
• Puppy Love: Between Mike and Amy. While at first they are in full She Is Not My Girlfriend-mode and their first kiss is accidental, she ends up kissing him willingly (on the cheek) at the end of their adventure, during the credits, and both look adorably awkward afterwards.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The main heroes. The president of the United States is understandably not happy that, instead of 3 trained astronauts, the mission is now in the hands of a retired former astronaut who never went to the moon and 2 kids.
• Rule of Three: The villain's name is Richard Carson the Third; he's the third Carson aiming to exploit an energy source to increase the family fortune (his grandfather found oil and his father worked with nuclear energy); and the energy source he seeks is called Helium-3.
• Running Gag: Tess asking every old man she sees in the retirement home and at NASA if he's her grandfather.
• Robotic Reveal: Carson's assistant, Gigs, is revealed to be a machine in The Stinger, built by the deceased Bill Gags.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: When his grandfather calls Amy Mike’s girlfriend, both of them firmly deny this is the case.
• Shout-Out: Carson's assistants, Bill Gags and Steve Gigs, are parodies of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. In the end, there's a magazine called Tyme.
• Space Is Noisy: Zig-Zagged. The film tends to play around with this, as most action sequences that would normally have sound, such as getting rid of the spider-laser device attached to the hull of the Saturn V, you can hear the various attempts to get rid of it, though a bit muted. After said fight, space goes back into eerily-quiet mode again.
  • Carson cackles (complete with echo) on the moon after capturing Frank, which is impossible for the above reason.
• Strong Family Resemblance: All three male members of the Goldwing family, Franklin, Scott and Michael are shown to have resembled each other when they were younger. Mike currently resembles how his father Scott looked when he was his age, but with a slightly different haircut, and Scott looks like a younger version of his father Frank, but lacking the grey Perma-Stubble he had.
• Surfer Dude: Mike is a kid example of the trope.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Carson says a similar expression, replacing "idiots" with "space chimps".
• Team Pet: Igor, a.k.a. Godzilla, Marty's pet lizard.
• Throwing the Distraction: Amy distracts the night guard at the retirement home with a rock so she and Mike can get inside. He ignores the first rock, but investigates the second one (which hits a lamp post), and when doing so discovers three residents secretly working on their own model rocket.
• Training Montage: Three of them simultaneously; we see the new NASA astronauts getting trained by the old Apollo crew, Carson and Gigs training for their trip to the moon, and Mike training for his trip to the moon.
• Trip to the Moon Plot: The whole plot of the movie is about the protagonists and the villains trying to reach the moon first.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Mike and his friends Marty and Amy.
• Vehicular Sabotage: Carson sends a henchman to sabotage the NASA rocket by making it launch ahead of schedule. When his grandpa tries to cancel the liftoff, Mike destroys the eject button of the rocket to prevent this.
• Villain in a White Suit: The antagonist, Carson, wears a typical rich Texan man white suited wardrobe including the cowboy hat.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: The whole plot is kicked off by Richard Carson announcing his plans to go to the moon and 'prove' the moonlanding was a hoax, combined with showing the world that he has the rocket to do so. This prompts the president of the United States to order NASA to immediately startup the moon landing program again (which was actually scheduled for 2022).
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Carson is terrified of Igor, whom he mistakes for an alien.
• Would Harm a Senior: If it means he'll succeed, Carson has no qualms capturing (and possibly hurting) the elderly Frank.
• Would Hurt a Child: Carson has no problems making attempts on Mike and Amy's lives in order to stop them from interfering with his scheme.
• You Did Everything You Could: When Mike feels depressed about how his attempts to make his family work failed, Amy points out that he successfully reunited his estranged father and grandfather after many years. Mike isn’t impressed and states that only made things a thousand times worse.