7/22/2023 0 Comments Capricorn one movie lengthThey split up on foot to increase their chances of finding help and exposing the plot. They escape in a small jet which quickly runs out of fuel, forcing a crash-landing in the desert. The astronauts realize officials will need to kill them to keep the hoax a secret. Upon returning to Earth, the empty spacecraft burns up during atmospheric reentry due to a faulty heat shield, which would have killed the astronauts had they been on board. As Caulfield investigates, several attempts are made on his life. Whitter suddenly vanishes, and when Caulfield goes to Whitter's apartment the next day, he discovers someone else living there and that all evidence of Whitter's recent life has been erased. Whitter partially shares his concerns with a TV journalist friend, Robert Caulfield. Whitter reports this to his supervisors, including Kelloway, but is told it is due to a faulty workstation. At the command center, only a few officials know about the conspiracy until an alert technician, Elliot Whitter, notices that ground control receives the crew's televised transmissions before the spacecraft telemetry arrives. The astronauts remain captive during the flight and appear to be filmed after landing on Mars, although they are actually inside of a makeshift TV studio at the base. Kelloway threatens their families to force their cooperation. Another failed space mission would result in NASA's funding being cut and private contractors losing millions in profits. He says they must help counterfeit the televised footage during the flight to and from Mars. The launch proceeds on schedule, with the public unaware the spacecraft is empty.Īt the base, NASA official Kelloway informs the astronauts that a faulty life-support system would have killed them in-flight. Bewildered, they are flown to an abandoned military base in the desert. Just before liftoff, astronauts Charles Brubaker, Peter Willis, and John Walker are suddenly removed from the spacecraft. The music score was created by Jerry Goldsmith.Ĭapricorn One-the first crewed mission to Mars-is on the launch pad. Hal Holbrook plays a senior NASA official who goes along with governmental and corporate interests and helps to fake the mission. It stars Elliott Gould as the reporter, and James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and O. It was written and directed by Peter Hyams and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. In a strange way, it’s well worth a remake.Capricorn One is a 1978 British-produced American thriller film in which a reporter discovers that a supposed Mars landing by a crewed mission to the planet has been faked via a conspiracy involving the government and-under duress-the crew themselves. He needn’t have worried, the set-up is strong enough, a truly original focus for a thriller - for a while the astronauts are unaware they haven’t gone to Mars! Employing composer Jerry Goldsmith, who delivers one of his most stirring scores helps no end, as does a hilarious cameo from Telly Savalas as a crop-dusting pilot who Gould ropes into his rescue mission. Simpson, who gets to drink from a dead snake, tells you just what era this film harkens from.ĭirector Peter Hyams, a hack himself who veers between the outright crap and expertly handled B-movies like this, plays around with some loopy helicopter shots in search of a resonant style. That they are played by James Brolin, Sam Waterston and O.J. The second half is pure chase movie, a race against time as the trio of heroic spaceman escape their desert prison and are gradually hunted down. As he pieces together the factual anomalies, tipped off by his soon-to-die insider buddy Robert Walden, and dodges various attempts on his life (the most immediate form of verification) the film spins into life. It is he, one of the seventies great unrecognised joys, who gives the film its ironic fizz, as if it is almost parodying the seriousness of the eras moody suspicions. Get over that and it’s a whole lot of fun watching Hal Halbrook’s - who played supergrass Deep Throat in All The President’s Men - wicked scheming unravel thanks to the gutsy work of Elliot Gould’s tatty hack. Shadowy political trickery is one thing, fabricating an entire NASA mission is near impossible to credit. Certainly, you have to forgive the whacking great lumps of far-fetchedness. An excellent, if forgotten, late seventies conspiracy thriller which takes the existent fable of the faked moon landing and runs with it.
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