From the Earth to the Moon 1958 Set just after the American civil war, businessman and inventor Victor Barbicane invents a new source of power called Power X He plans to use it to power rockets, and to show its potential he plans to send a projectile to the moon Joining him for the trip are his assistant Ben Sharpe, Barbicanes arch rival Stuyvesant Nicholl, and Nicholls daughter Virginia Nicholl believes that Power X goes against the will of God and sabotages the projectile so that they cannot return to earth, setting up a suspenseful finale as they battle to repair the projectile