Capricorn One - Plot

Plot

At an unspecified time, Capricorn One—the first manned mission to Mars—is on the launch pad. Such NASA authorities as Dr. James Kelloway (Hal Holbrook) realize, too late, that a faulty life-support system supplied by a corrupt NASA contractor will kill the astronauts during the flight. As the manned space program needs a success to continue, they find themselves forced to falsify the landing rather than cancel the mission.

Minutes before launch, the bewildered crew of Air Force Colonel Charles Brubaker (James Brolin), Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Peter Willis (Sam Waterston), and Navy Commander John Walker (O. J. Simpson) are removed from Capricorn One and flown to an abandoned United States Army Air Corps desert base. The launch proceeds on schedule, but the public is unaware that the spacecraft is empty. At the base, the astronauts are informed they will help counterfeit the television footage during the flight to and from Mars, and that it is their patriotic duty to participate for the sake of national morale and prestige. Initially they refuse, but Kelloway, himself under extreme duress (from whom, what, or where is never clearly specified) to go through with the hoax, threatens their families if they do not cooperate, claiming a bomb will explode on a plane carrying the family members.

The astronauts remain in captivity during the flight and are filmed landing on Mars within a studio located at the base. They also appear in a live TV broadcast talking to their wives in a normal dialogue - despite the fact that radio signals take at least several minutes to reach Earth from their location in space. The conspiracy is known to only a few officials, until alert technician Elliot Whitter (Robert Walden) notices that ground control receives the crew's television transmissions before the spacecraft telemetry arrives. Whitter mysteriously disappears before he can finish sharing his concerns with journalist friend Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould). Caulfield discovers that all evidence of his friend's life has been erased and begins investigating the mission, surviving several attacks on himself and his reputation.

Upon returning to Earth, the empty spacecraft unexpectedly burns up due to a faulty heat shield during re-entry. The captive astronauts quickly realize that something has gone badly wrong with the re-entry process, and that officials can never release them because doing so would automatically expose the hoax. Knowing that the only logical solution for their captors is kill them during the cover-up process, they escape in a Learjet, which runs out of fuel soon after take-off. Forced to crash-land and stranded in the desert, they attempt to return to civilization while being pursued by a pair of "black helicopters" (figuratively speaking; actually painted olive drab in the film). Brubaker is the only one to avoid capture.

Caulfield's investigation leads him to the desert, where he finds the military base and the set. With the help of crop-dusting pilot Albain (Telly Savalas), he rescues Brubaker before the men in the helicopters can capture or kill him. The film ends with Caulfield and Brubaker arriving at the astronauts' memorial service, exposing the conspiracy in front of television cameras and scores of witnesses who are astonished at his arrival.