Capricorn One (1978)

Director:

Peter Hyams

Writer:

Peter Hyams (written by)

Release Date:

2 June 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

The mission was a sham. The murders were real.

Plot:

A NASA Mars mission won't work, and its funding is endangered, so they decide to fake it just this once. But then they have to keep the secret...

Plot Keywords:

Joke | Desert | Astronaut | Escape | Chase

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Elliott Gould	...	Robert Caulfield
James Brolin	...	Col. Charles Brubaker
Brenda Vaccaro	...	Kay Brubaker
Sam Waterston	...	Lt. Col. Peter Willis
O.J. Simpson	...	Cmdr. John Walker
Hal Holbrook	...	Dr. James Kelloway
Karen Black	...	Judy Drinkwater
Telly Savalas	...	Albain
David Huddleston	...	Congressman Hollis Peaker
David Doyle	...	Walter Loughlin
Lee Bryant	...	Sharon Willis
Denise Nicholas	...	Betty Walker
Robert Walden	...	Elliot Whittier
James Sikking	...	Control Room man (as Jim Sikking)
Alan Fudge	...	Capsule communicator

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Netherlands:6 | USA:PG (certificate no. 25000) | Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) | Iceland:L | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Long Beach, California, USA

Company:

Associated General Films

Trivia:

Telly Savalas plays a pilot, but in real life he was afraid to fly.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the astronauts split up in the desert Col Brubaker (Brolin) says he's going West and tells John (Simpson) to go North, and Peter (Waterston) to go South. But actually John goes South and Peter goes North. This error is repeated later by Kelloway (Holbrook) when informed of John's death he tells the searchers to look West and South for Brubaker and Peter, instead of West and North.

Quotes:

Dr. James Kelloway: You think it's all a couple of looney scientists, it's not! It's bigger. There are people out there, *forces* out there, who have a lot to lose. They're grown ups. It's gotten too big, it's in the hands of grown ups!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001 (2007) (V)

An Underrated Action Movie with Intelligence

Would-be Mars astronaut Lt. Col. Peter Willis, played with sly wit by Sam Waterson, has the best line of the film: "Oh, the marvels of American science. Here we are, millions of miles from Earth, and we can still send out for pizza!" His line sums up not only the plot of the movie but the point of the movie.

In an ironic twist, this movie relates to what is going on right now on television news, and it was made almost 30 years ago! Capricorn One is not only about the lies behind what we see and what appear to be real through the media, it is about not always knowing the difference, not knowing that we, the public, are often presented with images that we often take for granted. We assume that TV news footage is accurate representations of the truth, when in reality, like movies, it may be sleight of hand. The images may have been manipulated to propagate a message that the broadcasters want to us hear that may be removed from our own interpretations. In short, viewer beware.

In Capricorn One, a fictional NASA is trying to create the impression that a legitimate mission to Mars is underway when in fact it is not. Three "astronauts" are hijacked by their own NASA employers and forced to make a bogus "appearance" on the planet Mars which is actually a sound stage in southern Texas. The reason? Because a "bona fide American screw-up" in which the company that contracted their life support systems delivered a defective product jeopardizes launching the mission as scheduled. Rather than scrubbing the mission which might lead to a cancellation of the entire space program, NASA launches a Watergate-like conspiracy to defraud both the public and the US government by staging a flight and landing on Mars much like a Hollywood movie. "...we have no more program. What's sixteen years? Your actual drop in the bucket," Hal Holbrook laments to the crew as he rationalizes the need for the hoax. He later states that America will lose its ideals if the space program gets canceled, therefore lying will help keep America good and strong.

At the launch, a congressman goes head-to-head with the vice-president. What is left unspoken is as telling as what is spoken.

Elliott Gould, a marginal reporter sometimes referred to as "Scoop Caulfield", begins to suspect something is amiss when a friend of his who works for NASA disappears from a pool game at a bar. He looks for him at his friend's apartment the next day and, to his dismay, a strange woman is living there and all the furniture has been changed. Even the magazines on the table have her name on them, not his friend's. His friend's identity appears to have been wiped out of existence. Later, a strange discourse between Brubaker, the head astronaut, and his wife during a televised communication between the astronauts and their wives further whets his thirsty curiosity.

The film then chronicles three intertwined stories: the astronauts and the hoax, Caulfield's investigation, and Brubaker's wife and children. Eventually, the three stories come together in a frenzy concerning what is truth and what isn't and who ultimately knows the truth.