Because of a supposed glitch in the computer navigation system, NASA looks for the original programmer of the software to understand why it seems to be broken.

Fred Z. Randall, the eccentric programmer who wrote the software, meets Paul Wick, the flight director of the Mars mission; William "Wild Bill" Overbeck, the commander of the Mars mission; and astronaut Gary Hackman, the computer specialist.

After a display of hard-headed stubbornness, Gary is hit in the head by a model of the Pilgrim 1 Mars lander, suffering a skull fracture.

Fred, Commander Overbeck, geologist Julie Ford, and Ulysses, a trained chimpanzee, board the Aries.

While on a video call with the president, Fred inadvertently humiliates Overbeck by leading the global population in singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."

The crew makes it to Mars after Overbeck chides Fred for being awake the whole time and using all the food—except food that the former despises (anchovy paste, creamed liver, and gefilte fish)—for painting.

He frantically searches for something and finally shoves the commemorative coin into the slot, allowing the lander to regain power.

The idea for what would become RocketMan came about from Craig Mazin, who was then an ad copywriter for Walt Disney Studios, and his writing partner Greg Erb.

[1] Mazin presented the idea to his boss Oren Aviv, senior vice president, and marketing/creative director of Buena Vista, with Aviv bringing on Jon Turteltaub as an executive producer who helped set up the film at Caravan Pictures after pitching it to producer and Caravan head Roger Birnbaum.

[2] The film was shot on location at the Lake Point Plaza in Sugar Land, Texas, in a recently constructed building for Fluor Corporation.

[1] [citation needed] The filmmakers spent nine weeks at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, shooting at the famous Rocket Park, the gargantuan Building 9 that houses all of the spacecraft mock-ups for the ongoing shuttle missions, and Building 32, which houses the world's largest thermal vacuum chamber and simulates all conditions of outer space (except zero gravity).

[5] The film dropped out of the top ten during its fourth weekend, coming in at eleventh place with a gross of $1,454,836.

[6] It would fail to regain a top ten spot at the box office through the remainder of its theatrical run.

[8] Despite other critics' reviews, Roger Ebert gave the film a positive three out of four stars, calling it "a wacky comedy in the Jerry Lewis-Jim Carrey mold".