Capricorn One (1978) Written and Directed by Peter Hyams
The mission was a sham. The murders were real.. .
Moments before the launch of Capricorn One, the first manned mission to mars, the three would be Martian tourist (James Brolin, Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson) are pulled from the capsule resulting in the craft taking off and flying the journey to the red planet solo. They are told that there was a major problem with one of the ships problems that was found months earlier and that had they left, they would have died. The mission was not scrubbed because of the dangerous political position NASA was in, a blow like this to the program might have resulted in loss of all funding for manned space flight, so the heads of NASA have decided to fake the rest of the mission. If the astronauts refuse to cooperate at this point in time, not only will they strike a huge blow in the nation's morale, but as insurance, the people behind the cover-up assure them that their families will be killed. The rest of the plot unfolds as you would probably expect. There is a snoopy reporter (Elliott Gould) with a nose for wild stories that are never true who of course stumbles onto the conspiracy. Complications arise for the dark government forces when the capsule is destroyed on re-entry. They had planned on just placing the astronauts back in the capsule before the recovery ship shows up, but now since the public thinks that the astronauts are dead, it becomes necessary to get rid of them for real. So Gould races to prove his theory and the astronauts flee the hidden army base they have been staying at in the desert (where else are hidden army bases located?) and the government is chasing them all. Now two really redeeming items that this movie has going for it is Telly Savalas and those black helicopters from Conspiracy Theory. Telly Savalas you say? Yes, Telly Savalas. He plays Albain the owner/operator of a crop dusting company located out in the stretch of desert the astronauts are out in. Gould hires him to fly around to look for them. Also looking for them are two evil black military super helicopters (you can't tell they are super by looking at them, you just have to know) who give the 2nd the 3rd best performances (after Telly of course) in the movie. There is an airplane vs. evil helicopter chase sequence that is stupendous.