The familiar count backwards to zero leading to the launch of a rocket did not originate with missiles fired from Cape Canaveral. It began with an Austrian filmmaker recruiting a spaceflight pioneer to recommend ways to add drama and realism to a 1929 science-fiction movie about a fictitious trip to the Moon. German rocket enthusiasts soon began including countdowns to their rocket tests. It later continued in their work in the U.S. leading to the historic first actual lunar flight by humans.