History Recap / TintinExplorersOnTheMoon

* ExactWords: Haddock, not trusting Wolff, orders Thomson to keep an eye on him and inform him of anything he might be doing in their back. Thomson does just that- but fails to actually ''prevent'' Wolff from doing anything funny.

* ExactWords: Haddock, not trusting Wolff, orders Thomson to keep an eye on him informs him of anything he might be doing in their back. Thomson does just that- but fails to actually ''prevent'' Wolff from doing anything funny.

* ExactWords:Haddock, not trusting Wolff, orders Thomson to keep an eye on him informs him of anything he might be doing in their back. Thomson does just that- but fails to actually ''prevent'' Wolff from doing anything funny.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: The book portrays the Moon landing as producing exactly the same amount and direction of pressure they all suffered in the takeoff, that is, vertical and downwards. Going without mentioning that an inverse acceleration should intuitively produce pressure in the opposite direction (''upwards''), a free descent gently decelerated by the main engine acting as a retrorocket would generate infinitely less vertical acceleration than a takeoff, unless they wanted to get propelled to the space again instead of performing a landing.

After the events of ''[[Recap/TintinDestinationMoon Destination Moon]]'' Tintin, Haddock, Snowy, Professor Calculus and his assistant Frank Wolff are currently en route to the Moon in Calculus' rocket. Shortly into the trip however, a serious predicament arises: Thomson and Thompson are found inside the rocket, having decided to "guard it" having thought the time of the launch was at 1:34 PM instead of 1:34 AM -- the oxygen supply was designed for four people (plus Snowy), not six.

After the events of ''[[Recap/TintinDestinationMoon Destination Moon]]'' Tintin, Haddock, Snowy, Professor Calculus and his assistant Frank Wolff are currently en route to the Moon in Calculus' rocket. Shortly into the trip however, a serious predicament arises: Thomson and Thompson are found inside the rocket, having decided to "guard it" having thought the time of the launch was at 1:34 AM instead of 1:34 PM -- the oxygen supply was designed for four people (plus Snowy), not six.

* DarkerAndEdgier:
** While people have been killed in a number of ''Tintin'' stories, this is the first to cover the topic of suicide, excluding Mitsuhirato's suicide near the end of ''The Blue Lotus''.
** The vast majority of characters who die during the series are [[SparedByTheAdaptation spared by]] the Nelvana animated adaptation. Neither Jorgen nor Wolff is afforded that treatment in the adaptation of this story, making it seem much darker than the rest of the series.

* KnightOfCerebus: The story is fairly light hearted for a Tintin album, until Jorgen appears. Unlike other villains in the series, he is played completely seriously.

* VillainHasAPoint: While Jorgen's [[MurderIsTheBestSolution actions]] are firmly villainous, his reasoning proves entirely correct; with three more passengers than planned, plus the various delays encountered, the characters are running out of oxygen, and it's pretty clear that despite Tintin's best effort, they cannot hope to survive in the current situation. In the end, only after Jorgen's AccidentalMurder and Wolff's HeroicSacrifice do they manage to survive the trip, and even then they only barely make it.

%%* [[ThrownOutTheAirlock Threw Himself Out The Airlock]]: Wolff.
* TragicVillain: Frank Wolff was the first character in the Tintin universe who wasn't particularly good, but not particulary bad either. He sides with Colonel Jorgen to sabotage the flight, but is more or less manipulated by him. When Jorgen wants to shoot everybody Wolff protests and interferes, killing Jorgen accidentally with his own gun. Wolff is forgiven by Tintin, but later feels remorse and decides to commit suicide by throwing himself out of the rocket so that the others can safely travel home again.

%%ColdEquation

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Discovering there were two accidental stowaways [[spoiler:and a not so accidental third]] (which is by itself a jarring circumstance) would have been enough to abort a real life space mission and force them to return to Earth. In this particular case, with their fictitious spaceship being a nuclear-powered SSTO, the decision would have been even more reasonable given that the logistic expenses of a brief return and a second takeoff would have been minimal, if any. But that, of course, would have removed all the drama from the story.

* AlcoholInducedIdiocy[=/=]ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Under the influence of whiskey, Haddock attempts to go back to Earth by ''going on an unassisted spacewalk'', without metal boots also. Fortunately, Tintin rescues him back into the rocket, before (as Calculus described it) asteroid Adonis gets a new satellite named Haddock.
* AlmostOutOfOxygen / ColdEquation: The biggest problem during the book, beginning with the discovery that the Thompsons accidentally found themselves on board during liftoff... and even that doesn't cover the extent of the stowaways on board. It's solved in part by the decision to stay on the Moon for a shorter time, and partly by the HeroicSacrifice of TheMole.

* [[ThrownOutTheAirlock Threw Himself Out The Airlock]]: Wolff.

* TragicVillain: Frank Wolff was the first character in the Tintin universe who wasn't particularly good, but not particulary bad either. He sides with Colonel Jorgen to sabotage the flight, but is more or less manipulated by him. When Jorgen wants to shoot everybody Wolff protests and interferes, killing Jorgen accidentally with his own gun. Wolff is forgiven by Tintin, but later feels remorse and decides to commit suicide by throwing himself out of the rocket so that the others can safely travel home again.
* [[YourTelevisionHatesYou Your Radio Hates You]]: The gang listens to Radio-Klow while working to repair the ship... and as soon as it comes on, the announcer says they'll be playing Schubert's "The Gravedigger".

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy and ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Creator/{{Herge}} was well aware that the space suits would require helmets much like the astronauts we see today, but then the readers wouldn't be able to tell who was Haddock and who was Tintin. So, for their convenience he made the helmets more fish bowl shaped.

* InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace: Herge knew the bubble-top space helmets were inaccurate, but used them for this trope.

* AlcoholInducedIdiocy[=/=]ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Under the influence of whiskey, Haddock attempts to go back to Earth by ''going on an unassisted spacewalk''. Fortunately, Tintin rescues him back into the rocket, before (as Calculus described it) asteroid Adonis gets a new satellite named Haddock.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy and ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Creator/{{Herge}} was well aware that the space suits would require helmets much like the astronauts we see today, but then the readers wouldn't be able to tell who was Haddock and who was Tintin? So, for their convenience he made the helmets more fish bowl shaped.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Debatable example when Tintin finds ice in a crevasse--for a long time it was thought there was no ice on the moon, but more recently this has been called into question again.
** Still, any ice on the moon could only exist buried underground and intimately mixed with rock; open ice in a cave, as depicted in the book, is impossible.

* DarkerAndEdgier: While people have been killed in a number of ''Tintin'' stories, this is the first to cover the topic of suicide, excluding Mitsuhirato's suicide near the end of ''The Blue Lotus''.

* DrivenToSuicide: Frank Wolff leaves the rocket so that the others have enough oxygen to survive the trip back home.
* HeroicSacrifice: Wolff.