Where was capricorn one filmed
Haldemann.’Ĭapricorn One (artisan) Best Price: $2.51 Buy New $27.77 (as of 10:15 UTC - Details)ĭue to the nature of his work at CBS, Hyams had accessibility to vast amounts of NASA research, such as mission books and command module schematics from which to draw inspiration. That raised questions in my mind about how the story could be presented. Normally, all big stories have tons and tons of cameras for thorough coverage. Suppose you did a really good simulation?’ The NASA moon program was a story with only one camera. I remember while working at CBS one day, looking at the monitor and thinking, ‘Wait a minute! Everybody is looking at the simulation. ‘I was part of the generation that believed if it was on television, it was true. ‘I grew up with parents who believed if it was in newspapers, it was true,’ says Hyams. As Hyams watched, he began to notice just how real the simulations looked. While working there, Hyams witnessed the NASA-constructed simulations to be aired on network news, showing the world what was happening with the craft in space as it flew to its destination. The story developed years before, when Peter Hyams, then working at CBS’s Boston office, was helping to cover the Apollo moon shots. When Whitter disappears and Caulfield is nearly framed for drug possession, the reporter discovers the plot and saves Brubaker with the help of a crop dusting pilot (Telly Savalas) to return the last living member of the Capricorn One crew to the public as Kelloway, Brubaker’s wife and all the networks look on. Meanwhile, reporter Bob Caulfield (Elliot Gould) takes a tip from mission control technician Elliot Whitter, who says the transmissions that the astronauts are making back to Earth couldn’t possibly have come from deep space. Brubaker, Willis and Walker escape in the jet that brought them, but run out of gas and have to go their separate ways in the desert as NASA-hired assassins follow, killing Willis and Walker while Brubaker continues on his trek to find a populated area. To keep the secret, Kelloway and his associates have no other alternative than to kill the astronauts. As far as the rest of the planet knows, all aboard were killed. Their final decision is made for them when the Capricorn capsule malfunctions on its faked reentry as the world watches. With no other way to turn, Brubaker, Willis and Walker go along with the ruse, but finally can’t take the increasing guilt of the lie they are helping to perpetrate. To save the program, Kelloway has been working with a secret team to fake the mission.Īt first refusing to go along with the scheme, the astronauts are told that if they don’t, a bomb on the plane carrying their families will be set off. Scrapping the mission is out of the question, as it would be the last nail in the coffin for NASA, as interest in and continued funding of the space program had begun to take a nose-dive.
Once ensconced in the secret base, NASA director James Kelloway (Hal Holbrook) explains the bizarre situation: it was discovered in run-throughs that the Capricorn life-support systems would have failed, killing the astronauts. They listen as they are transported to a remote desert base they hear themselves from previous mission rehearsals give the pre-launch litany and hear as world news announces the launch of the world’s first manned mission to the red planet. Simpson) are set to be NASA’s best hope for sending a manned mission to Mars when, in the middle of the countdown, the three astronauts are removed from the capsule as the mission continues without them. Peter Willis (Sam Waterston) and Commander John Walker (O.J. In the story, Colonel Charles Brubaker (James Brolin), Lt. Born from post-Watergate angst and television’s increasing technological versatility, the film remains an effective thriller and adventure story, tightly-written and tautly directed by Peter Hyams, wherein the idea of government secrets to be kept at any cost is even more viable today than it was in 1978. Fifteen years before The X-Files made government conspiracy a way of life, there was Capricorn One.