Review of Capricorn One (1977) by Rj M — 27 Feb 2009

Moments before the launch of NASA's first manned mission to Mars, the astronauts of Capricorn One are secretly taken out of their spacecraft, and whisked away to a secret airfield in the middle of nowhere.

Once there, they are told that their life support system on the ship was defective, and they would've died within 3 weeks. Instead of scrubbing the costly, and high profile mission, the decision is made to fake the entire thing.

The astronauts are forced to go along with it, under threats against their families. When a catastrophic accenident destroys the spacecraft on its return to Earth, it's decided the astronauts must die before they can reveal the truth.

What follows is a tense cat and mouse game where the astronauts attempt to get back to civilization before it's too late. James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and...gasp...OJ Simpson are the astronauts, Hal Holbrook is the dangerous head of NASA's space program, and Elliot Gould is an investgative reporter who suspects that things are not what they seem with this "historic" mission.

Great performances all around, and a tense script by writer/director Peter Hyams make for an exiciting trip that is obviously based on the legendary conspiracy theory that man never really landed on the moon.