*Spoiler/plot- 1961, The courageous Air Force pilots of the secret rocket plane, X-15 program are determined to take the rocket plane 100 miles above the Earth into the edge of Space. The same craft's engines will be pushed to reach the new speed of four times the speed of sound, a never before feat. They wish to prove American air supremacy in the Cold War space-race and prove that space travel can be next to accomplish. These pilots have a lot at stake and their terrified wives they've left behind.*Special Stars- David Mclean, Charles Bronson, James Gregory, Mary Tyler Moore.*Theme- Yankee courage and ingenuity gets any job done.*Trivia/location/goofs- See Mary Tyler Moore in a non-starring minor supporting role. Many continuity film goofs due to archive research film being cut into the shooting scenes of this film. Air Force vet, TV host and Orange County Congressman, Robert Dornan has an unaccredited Air Force blockhouse technician part.*Emotion- A sadly hopelessly forgettable film of these dramatic historic flight victories in the early days of sound barrier flight leading to the moon shots. If you're a fan of such flight history, watch another film and not this one. This one is terribly boring and predicable. The real story drama could have been done better. This is almost a training film for how not to make an interesting film on a great script topic.

Unfortunately, what could have been a good movie is turned into a major disappointment by a decision to take all the aerial photography done in 4:3 format and stretch it to fit the 2.35:1 format used for the rest of the movie. This makes the aircraft look strange and unreal. It ruins the experience.This should have been a "must see" movie for aviation buffs since it shows an important period in the development of aviation. But stretching the film to fit a widescreen format makes the scenes of the X-15, the B-52 mother-ship and the F-104 and F-100 chase planes look distorted and unrealistic. It is a real waste and a shame that the film producers were more concerned with using a widescreen than with a usable presentation.

As a teenager I don't see myself falling into the average 6 voting. Even though the 60s is not my decade, I still love this movie. It should be appreciated for the simply its existence. Besides the Right Stuff, we don't really see much of them depict the space race so specifically. Starring MTM and Bronson is better than random actors anyways. At least we see how fine MTM use to be.Inviting popular movie stars showed how important this project is. The power of how much people cares during that decade is amazing compare to the significance of it today. Usually, how much public cares indicates how well the technological advancement is going to turn out.Unfortunately that enthusastism is long gone... You won't see another movie over space exploration anymore.

OK, so X-15 isn't the best of Hollywood, but it IS the 2nd best X-Planes movie ever (second to Right Stuff, but better than Space Cowboys).Call it a docu-drama, call it campy, call it naive, whatever. This is a great Saturday afternoon movie. It's a blast to see MTM and Charlie Bronson together. Those of us with a fascination with historic aircraft love the authentic footage. Hey, the movie even got a mention in Milt Thompson's Book "At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program".So, do your best to find a copy, forget Soviet comparisons, check your mind at the door and enjoy X-15!