Capricorn One

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Capricorn One

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Peter Hyams
Produced by Paul N. Lazarus III
Written by Peter Hyams
Starring Elliott Gould
James Brolin
Brenda Vaccaro
Sam Waterston
O. J. Simpson
Hal Holbrook
Karen Black
Telly Savalas
David Huddleston
David Doyle
James Karen
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography Bill Butler
Editing by James Mitchell
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) June 2, 1978 (USA)
Running time 123 min.
Language English
Budget $5,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Capricorn One is a 1978 thriller movie about a Mars landing hoax. It was written and directed by Peter Hyams and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company for Warner Bros.

Although thematically Capricorn One is a typical 1970s government-conspiracy thriller with similarities to Hyams's subsequent film Outland, the story was inspired by allegations that the Apollo Moon landings were a hoax.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

The setting is the late 1970s, and the first manned mission to Mars is on the pad ready to launch. NASA authorities (Holbrook) realize that a faulty life support system has doomed any chance of a successful flight, so for political and financial purposes they decide to fake the landing rather than scrub the mission.

Minutes before launch, the bewildered crew (Brolin, Waterston, and Simpson) are removed from the capsule and flown to an old abandoned United States Army Air Corps base deep within the desert. The televised launch proceeds on schedule, but the public is unaware that the spacecraft (Capricorn One) is unmanned.

At the remote base, the astronauts are informed they will fake the television footage from Mars and it is their patriotic duty to participate. Initially they refuse, but authorities imply their careers and the lives of their families are at stake if they do not cooperate.

The astronauts remain in captivity for a period of several months and are filmed "landing on Mars" within a studio located at the base. The conspiracy is known to only a select few NASA officials, but alert technician Elliot Whittier (Walden) stumbles across something absurdly impossible. The television transmissions are arriving ahead of the spacecraft telemetry. He speaks to a journalist friend Robert Caulfield (Gould) about his concerns.

When Whittier mysteriously disappears, Caulfield becomes suspicious and begins investigating the Mars mission, resulting in several attempts upon his life. Meanwhile back at the abandoned military base, the astronauts begin to realize that if the conspiracy is to remain intact, they will eventually have to be eliminated. The astronauts' suspicions become reality when their empty capsule burns in space during reentry. The captive astronauts immediately stage a daring escape and attempt to evade military forces in order to expose the conspiracy. Stranded in the desert, they try to make their way back to civilization while being pursued by a pair of helicopters.

In the end, Colonel Brubaker (Brolin) is the only crew member to avoid capture. Caulfield's investigation leads him to the desert, where he finds the military base and the set, and with the help of a cropduster pilot (Savalas), he manages to rescue Brubaker. The film ends with Caulfield and Brubaker arriving at the astronauts' memorial service, exposing the conspiracy in dramatic fashion.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The cast is headed by Barbra Streisand's ex-husband Elliott Gould and her future husband James Brolin.
  • The helicopters in the film were OH-6 Cayuse.
  • In the Friends episode "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt", Joey's grandmother refers to Capricorn One. Elliot Gould, who stars in Capricorn One, also appears in Friends as Jack Gellar, Ross and Monica's father.[citation needed]
  • Both Capricorn One and Outland (also by Hyams) feature a nefarious corporation called "Con Amalgamate".
  • Capricorn One's footage was later reused in the TV shows The A-Team (in the episode "The Battle of Bel-Air") and in Airwolf (in the episodes "Bite of the Jackal", "Echoes from the Past" and "Santini's Millions"). Capricorn One stunt pilot David Jones later flew the Airwolf helicopter as one of the stunt pilots for the show,[citation needed] and the location of the OH-6 chase scene would also appear in the Airwolf pilot episode "Shadow of the Hawke".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Colette Bancroft. "Lunar lunacy", St. Petersburg Times, 2002-09-29. Retrieved on 2007-05-13. 

[edit] External links