First on the Moon

Around 2000, a group of journalists investigates a highly secret document and uncovers a sensational story. The evidence suggests that before World War II, in 1938, the USSR built the first rocket and planned to send an orbiter to the Moon and back. The film implies that Soviet crewed lunar program cosmonauts were the first to reach this milestone.

The story follows the selection and training of a small group of cosmonauts, with Captain Ivan Sergeyevich Kharlamov emerging as the clear front-runner. Trainers push him forward as the most promising candidate, while peers prepare for the impossible mission. The section establishes Kharlamov as a larger-than-life figure within the program.

Kharlamov is helped into a space suit and loaded into the capsule. The rocket lifts off toward the Moon, but contact is lost soon after. The moment marks a dramatic turning point that leaves the mission's fate shrouded in mystery.

The remainder of the film follows the search for what happened next, as the 1930s Soviet space program seems to dissolve without explanation. The investigation hints at political upheaval and purges that erased records and questions surrounding the mission. The story frames an in-depth inquiry into the vanished program and those associated with it.

The NKVD appears to probe the case, and several men connected to the program are shown in hiding. Kharlamov himself is suspected, and the truth is portrayed as buried under political fear and secrecy. The film leaves the outcome unresolved, emphasizing a systemic cover-up rather than a neat conclusion.

The capsule is believed to have returned to Earth and landed in Chile. Kharlamov then undertakes a covert journey toward the Russian Far East, traveling via Polynesia and China to avoid capture. His wife appears to shield his whereabouts during interrogations, keeping him out of sight.

Kharlamov is later found on the Mongolian steppes following the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, having suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. He is brought to a sanatorium in Chita for psychiatric treatment. The sequence suggests a life spent in hiding rather than as a celebrated hero.

After undergoing psychiatric treatment, Kharlamov disappears, and his wife eventually remarries. The narrative implies a fragmented life where the mission’s participants vanish and the historical record remains incomplete. The fate of the lunar mission remains a mystery.

The end shows the only footage of the mission itself after launch, presented as a film found at the Chilean landing site and now housed in the Antofagasta Natural Museum. A brief clip shows Kharlamov piloting the vehicle toward a final approach to the Moon. Another panorama depicts a lunar landscape with the lander resting on the surface, presumably captured during a lunar EVA.

The footage is followed by a short montage of the other cosmonauts walking through a hangar with the 1930s space program director, and the credits roll. The scenes are presented as stills on the movie’s cover, leaving the audience with enduring questions about what really happened.