History Film / CapricornOne

** The novelization [[spoiler: confirms that the recaptured astronauts were killed.]]

* 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]] [[ALessonLearnedTooWell about the dog's death]] starts talking about the man's mother "climbing up to the roof"...

A 1978 American thriller film written and directed by Creator/PeterHyams, [[InspiredBy inspired by]] the various [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories conspiracy theories]] surrounding the [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace Apollo 11 moon landing]].

* AndStarring: "[[FakeGuestStar special appearances]]" by Creator/KarenBlack (as Caulfield's fellow reporter Judy Drinkwater) and Creator/TellySavalas (as the crop duster Albain).

* AlwaysKnowAPilot: Caulfield hires cropduster Albain to search for astronaut Charles Brubaker. Albain immediately deduces that Caulfield is working a heist, and demands half the take as payment. Albain flies his biplane well enough to checkmate two helicopter gunships bent on eradicating all witnesses.

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]] (Creator/ElliottGould). But Elliot [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade is killed]], and he's been made an UnPerson. Then when Caulfield interviews Brubaker's wife Kay (Creator/BrendaVaccaro), her reaction to something strange that Brubaker said helps him realize that there's some sort of GovernmentConspiracy at work.

A 1978 American thriller film written and directed by Creator/PeterHyams and [[InspiredBy inspired by]] the [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories Moon landing conspiracy theories]].

Astronauts Charles Brubaker (Creator/JamesBrolin), Peter Willis (Creator/SamWaterston), and John Walker (UsefulNotes/OJSimpson) 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 (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]] (Creator/ElliottGould). 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 that Brubaker said helps him realize that there's some sort of GovernmentConspiracy at work.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/capricorn_one.png]]

A 1978 American thriller film written and directed by Creator/PeterHyams, [[InspiredBy inspired by]] the [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories Moon landing conspiracy theories]].

* VicePresidentWho: Instead of the President, the Vice President attends the historic launch. Doctor Kelloway notes this and regards it as a sleight by the White House, a symbolic vote of no confidence in Kelloway's leadership at NASA.[[note]]However, Vice President Spiro Agnew ''was'' the highest-ranking member of the Nixon administration at the definitely-not-fake Apollo 11 launch.[[/note]]

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]] (Creator/ElliottGould). 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.

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

* VicePresidentWho: Instead of the President, the Vice President attends the historic launch. Doctor Kelloway notes this and regards it as a sleight by the White House, a symbolic vote of no confidence in Kelloway's leadership at NASA.[[note]]However, Vice President Spiro Agnew ''was'' the highest-ranking member of the Nixon administration at the definitely-not-fake Apollo 11 launch, so this may be a case of CriticalResearchFailure.[[/note]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: How Kelloway sells himself. He argues that if the Mars launch is canceled, not just the program but NASA itself could be disbanded which would be a massive blow to American progress and morale and even goes so far as to claim it could lead to losing the Cold War. The other astronauts call him out on how he's really just afraid of losing his own job but he defends his actions as "for the good of the country."

* DaEditor: Caulfield's assignment editor is an unusually [[GenreSavvy self-aware]] one.

* {{Novelization}}: ''Two''. One by Creator/RonGoulart, and one by Bernard L. Ross.

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]] (Creator/ElliottGould). 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.

* DeconstructiveParody: A [[StealthParody subtle]] one of ConspiracyThriller{{s}}. The IntrepidReporter trying to blow the conspiracy out of the water is actually a quack journalist who's finally managed to get lucky and find a lead on a conspiracy that ''wasn't'' bullshit. The conspiracy itself is set in motion to cover up an easily avoidable mistake just so the guys in charge won't get egg on their face, and the conspiracy itself is subject to repeated setbacks and is ''constantly'' teetering on the edge of being exposed. Their MurderIsTheBestSolution approach to these setbacks also causes more problems for them in the long run; [[IHaveYourWife threatening the astronauts's families]] makes them more suspicious and leads to them breaking out after they realize they're almost certainly about to be killed, and killing and {{Unperson}}ing Whittier just gets Caulfield on their tail when he's understandably confused that his friend's apartment now mysteriously has a new tenant.

** Whitter's death is never shown, but the call Kelloway makes immediately after realizing HeKnowsTooMuch and the fact that he just ''vanishes'' and is UnPerson{{ed}} a day later makes it very clear what happened to him.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: Brubaker makes possibly the subtlest one in film history by getting the previous year's family holiday mixed up. This is just enough to draw attention to it, and Caulfield spots that it has happened from the expression on Mrs. Brukbaker's face, but when he finds out what it is, he at first thinks nothing of it and then leaves. Later, he comes back and finds out the key point -- on the previous year's holiday, they had visited a film set.

* {{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 Houston (which had a population of over a million and a half at the time) so the astute reporter finds Whittier still listed as living there.

* VicePresidentWho: Instead of the President, the Vice President attends the historic launch. Doctor Kelloway notes this and regards it as a sleight by the White House, a symbolic vote of no confidence in Kelloway's leadership at NASA.[[note]]However, Vice President Spiro Agnew ''was'' the highest-ranking member of the Nixon administration at the definitely-not-fake Apollo 11 launch, so this may be a case of DidNotDoTheResearch.[[/note]]

* VicePresidentWho: Instead of the President, the Vice President attends the historic launch. Doctor Kelloway notes this and regards it as a sleight by the White House, a symbolic vote of no confidence in Kelloway's leadership at NASA.

* RealityEnsues: When the capsule burns up on re-entry the astronauts are quickly whisked away on a business jet to another location. Upon landing, they're locked in a room, from which they escape. They hijack the jet and take off...only to find it's out of fuel, because they ''just landed''.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Dr. Kelloway is initially quite ashamed of having to pull off such a massive deceit to America to preserve the reputation of NASA, and is borderline ''devastated'' while informing the astronauts he'd been good friends with fo years that [[IHaveYourWife they'll kill their families if they don't comply]]. But his remorse doesn't last long, and he quickly goes about executing anyone who knows too much without a second thought or slightest bit of empathy.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Dr. Kalloway is initially quite ashamed of having to pull off such a massive deceit to America to preserve the reputation of NASA, and it clearly pains him to inform the astronauts that [[IHaveYourWife they'll kill their families if they don't comply]]. But his remorse doesn't last long, as he goes about executing anyone who knows too much without a second thought or slightest bit of empathy.

** Whitter's death is never shown, but the call Kelloway makes immediately after realizing HeKnowsTooMuch and the fact he's UnPerson{{ed}} a day later makes it very clear what happened to him.

* DeconstructiveParody: A [[StealthParody subtle]] one of ConspiracyThriller{{s}}. The InvestigativeReporter trying to blow the conspiracy out of the water is actually a quack journalist who's finally managed to get lucky and find a lead on a conspiracy that ''wasn't'' bullshit. The conspiracy itself is set in motion to cover up an easily avoidable mistake just so the guys in charge won't get egg on their face, and the conspiracy itself is subject to repeated setbacks and is ''constantly'' teetering on the edge of being exposed. Their MurderIsTheBestSolution approach to these setbacks also causes more problems for them in the long run; [[IHaveYourWife threatening the astronauts's families]] makes them more suspicious and leads to them breaking out after they realize they're almost certainly about to be killed, and killing and {{Unperson}}{{ing}} Whittier just gets Caulfield on their tail when he's understandably confused that his friend's apartment now mysteriously has a new tenant.

* BlackComedyPetDeath: Invoked, in which one of the astronauts running through the desert to avoid getting killed by a GovernmentConspiracy improvises a joke to cheer himself up about a man who encounters a friend after a long time of not seeing and the friend telling the joke's protagonist that his pet cat died horribly. The joke's protagonist tells the friend that it would have been better to tell a tale about how the cat went up on the rooftop and died a comedic death... [[ALessonLearnedTooWell which is the very same tale the man then says when he speaks about the protagonist's mother committing suicide]].

* OhCrap: Near the end of the film, Caulfield manages to find the BlackSite 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.

* RealityEnsues: When the capsule burns up on re-entry the astronauts are quickly whisked away on a business jet to another location. Upon landing, they're locked in a room, from which they escape. They hijack the jet and take off...only to find it's out of fuel, because they *just landed*.

* SurvivalMantra: One of the escaping astronauts keeps reciting jokes to himself as he struggles through a harsh desert. When he gets to the punchline, he reaches the top of the mountain he was climbing...and finds the two helicopters there waiting for him.

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]].