History Film / CapricornOne

* Determinator. [[spoiler: Brubaker, as the last man standing.]] The novelization shows in even more detail just how resourceful and badass he really is.

* CuttingCorners: Sometimes it doesn't pays to go for the lowest bidder on a space exploration mission, [[CrookedContractor especially when they are so crooked]] that they give you back a faulty life-support system [[spoiler:and re-entry heat shield]].

Elliot Whitter (Robert Walden), one of the technicians at mission control, notices something strange -- that the television signals are being transmitted ahead of the telemetry -- and tells his reporter friend [[IntrepidReporter Robert Caulfield]] (Elliott Gould). But Elliot [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade is killed]], and he's been made an {{Unperson}}. Then when Caulfield interviews Brubaker's wife Kay (Brenda Vaccaro), her reaction to something strange Brubaker said helps him realize there's some sort of GovernmentConspiracy at work.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Whittier disappears when he notices that the video feed is coming ahead of the telemetry.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Whittier disappears when he notices that the video feed is coming ahead of the telemetry.

* IntrepidReporter: Caulfield wants to be one of these (and gets his chance in the end). However, his history of trying to find hot scoops lend to a long list of embarrassments which prevent his editor from taking him seriously.

Astronauts Charles Brubaker (Creator/JamesBrolin), Peter Willis (Creator/SamWaterston), and John Walker (O.J. Simpson) are the crew for the first manned mission to UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}, [[TitleDrop Capricorn One]]. Except they're not. A poorly made life-support system that would have killed the astronauts three weeks into their trip means they'll have to fake it, as [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Congress can't afford another screw-up]]. The spacecraft is launched empty, and the crew are taken to a remote Air Force base, where they [[IHaveYourWife are forced]] to act out the Mars landing in a studio for the benefit of television cameras.

Then, when the empty spacecraft burns up on re-entry due to a defective heat shield -- so NASA says -- the astronauts realize they [[HeKnowsTooMuch know too much]] and decide to make a run for it.

!!Tropes featured in the movie:

''Capricorn One'' is a 1978 American action thriller film written and directed by [[Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact Peter]] [[Film/{{Outland}} Hyams]], [[InspiredBy inspired by]] the [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories Moon landing conspiracy theories]].

Then, when the empty spacecraft burns up on reentry due to a defective heat shield -- so NASA says -- the astronauts realize they [[HeKnowsTooMuch know too much]] and decide to make a run for it.

''Capricorn One'' is a 1978 American thriller film written and directed by [[Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact Peter]] [[Film/{{Outland}} Hyams]], [[InspiredBy inspired by]] the [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories Moon landing conspiracy theories]].

''Capricorn One'' is a [[TheSeventies 1978 film]] directed by [[Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact Peter]] [[Film/{{Outland}} Hyams]], [[InspiredBy inspired by]] the [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories Moon landing conspiracy theories]].

''Capricorn One'' is a [[TheSeventies 1978 film]] directed by [[Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact Peter]] [[Film/{{Outland}} Hyams]], [[InspiredBy inspired by]] the [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories Moon landing conspiracy theories]]. Astronauts Charles Brubaker, Peter Willis, and John Walker are the crew for the first manned mission to UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}, [[TitleDrop Capricorn One]]. Except they're not. A poorly made life-support system that would have killed the astronauts three weeks into their trip means they'll have to fake it, as [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Congress can't afford another screw-up]]. The spacecraft is launched empty, and the crew are taken to a remote Air Force base, where they [[IHaveYourWife are forced]] to act out the Mars landing in a studio for the benefit of television cameras.

Elliot Whitter, one of the technicians at mission control, notices something strange -- that the television signals are being transmitted ahead of the telemetry -- and tells his reporter friend [[IntrepidReporter Robert Caulfield]]. But Elliot [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade is killed]], and he's been made an {{Unperson}}. Then when Caulfield interviews Brubaker's wife, her reaction to something strange Brubaker said helps him realize there's some sort of GovernmentConspiracy at work.

* UnusualEuphemism: Willis' attempt to reassure himself as he's climbing up the side of a cliff [[spoiler:and then runs into the choppers that had landed at the top and he's captured and maybe killed]] is a BlackComedy joke involving this, in which a man gets told with BrutalHonesty that his dog had died and so he asks the man who told him about the dog why not make up some story about the dog climbing up to the roof and then falling off, after which he asks how his mother is doing... and [[DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm the one who told him]] [[ALessonLeantTooWell about the dog's death]] starts talking about the man's mother "climbing up to the roof"...

* UnusualEuphemism: Willis' attempt to reassure himself as he's climbing up the side of a cliff [[spoiler:and then runs into the choppers that had landed at the top and he's captured and maybe killed]] are a BlackComedy joke involving this, in which a man gets told with BrutalHonesty that his dog had died and so he asks the man who told him about the dog why not make up some story about the dog climbing up to the roof and then falling off, after which he asks how his mother is doing... and [[DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm the one who told him about the dog's death]] starts talking about the man's mother "climbing up to the roof"...

%% * GovernmentConspiracy

* OhCrap: Near the end of the film, Caulfield manages to find the black site where the landing was filmed. After finding a necklace from Brubaker's wife buried in the fake Martian sand, he quickly breaks into a run to find him.

* StealthParody: Of Moon landing hoax theories -- the film quietly showcases how incredibly unlikely it is that the truth of "astronauts never left the Earth" would remain secret even with the best cover-up in the business.

* {{Unperson}}: The bad guys try to remove all traces of NASA technician Elliot Whittier. They move someone else into his apartment and she pulls out rent receipts to "prove" she has lived there for years. However, they are unable to change every phone book in the city, so the astute reporter finds Whittier still listed as living there.

''Capricorn One'' is a [[TheSeventies 1978 film]] directed by [[Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact Peter]] [[Film/{{Outland}} Hyams]], [[InspiredBy inspired by]] the [[ConspiracyTheories Moon landing conspiracy theories]]. Astronauts Charles Brubaker, Peter Willis, and John Walker are the crew for the first manned mission to UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}, [[TitleDrop Capricorn One]]. Except they're not. A poorly made life-support system that would have killed the astronauts three weeks into their trip means they'll have to fake it, as [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Congress can't afford another screw-up]]. The spacecraft is launched empty, and the crew are taken to a remote Air Force base, where they [[IHaveYourWife are forced]] to act out the Mars landing in a studio for the benefit of television cameras.

* YouHave48Hours: Caulfield is on the verge of being pulled away from the scoop of the century by his editor. Bargaining for time, he argues that "''the assignment editor is supposed to say "you've got 48 hours, kids, and you'd better come up with something good or it's going to be your neck!" That's what he's supposed to say, I saw it in a movie.''" The editor then gives him 24 hours, "Not forty eight. I saw the movie too; it was twenty four."

* OhCrap: Near the end of the film, Caulfield manages to find the black site where the landing was filmed. After seeing a brand new mission patch on the ground, he quickly breaks into a run to find the remaining astronaut.

%% * HeKnowsTooMuch

* SurvivalMantra: One of the escaping astronauts keeps reciting jokes to himself as he struggles through a harsh desert.