How It All Goes Down
The Gun Club is bored. With the Civil War over, these illustrious cannon-makers have nothing to do with their time, and they're kind of freaking out.
Luckily, President Barbicane—head of the club—comes to the rescue. He suggests that they build a giant cannon, so powerful that it can launch a shot straight to the moon. This news is met with wild celebrations from both the Gun Club and the public at large.
But excitement is the easy part; now they have to figure out how to actually get it done. After speaking to experts at the Cambridge Observatory, the Gun Club decides to launch the shot the following December from a spot near the equator. That only gives them two options within the U.S.—Florida and Texas. After a fierce competition, Florida wins out.
The Gun Club relocates to Tampa to begin production, and things are going swell. Out of the blue, Barbicane receives a telegram from a Frenchman named Michel Ardan who wants to take a ride inside their moon-bound cannonball. The kid's got guts, we'll give him that. After altering the design to meet Ardan's requests, Barbicane agrees and the wild celebrations start anew.
This time, though, the party is cut short by a man named Captain Nicholl. Nicholl and Barbicane have been rivals since the Civil War, and Nicholl is fed up, so he challenges Barbicane to a duel. Luckily, Ardan arrives in the nick of time and averts the situation with an enticing counter-proposal: that the three of them travel to the moon together.
With their plans finally set in stone, and December fast approaching, the Gun Club prepares for launch. The cannon fires successfully, but it inadvertently triggers a series of harsh weather patterns that make it impossible to track the capsule. When the sky finally clears up, they discover that the capsule has missed its mark—it's now orbiting the moon. And no one knows what will happen next... including us.