Scientists frequently help filmmakers envision cinematic stories about space travel and planetary colonization. Frau im Mond [Woman in the Moon] (1929) proved to the public that space travel was possible despite many glaring scientific inaccuracies. Destination Moon (1950) not only showed that space travel was feasible, but that the rewards were worth the time, risk, and resources that space travel required. Unlike earlier films, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) did not need to establish the necessity of space travel. Instead, the film contextualized space travel’s cultural and social potential. Space proponents in the 1970s through the 1990s had to change their cinematic storytelling tactics to convince the public that space travel could solve problems on Earth including environmental issues as in Silent Running (1972) and preventing the threat of near-Earth objects as in Armageddon (1998) and Deep Impact (1998). Space travel films of the twenty-first century needed to include entirely different justifications that reflected rapidly changing political, social, and economic contexts. Space travel stories in recent films including Tomorrowland (2015), Interstellar (2014), and The Martian (2015) are not tied to specific scientific achievements or solving problems. In these films space travel demonstrates the technological heights that humans are capable of, beyond mere survival. Ultimately, the essay argues that the cost of bringing in scientific assistance for space travel films is making sure that space missions are portrayed as essential for human progress.