Capricorn One | The

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A NASA Mars mission won't work, and its funding is endangered, so they decide to fake it just this once…

But then they have to keep the secret. Now what does that remind you of… coining the phrase, “A funny thing happened on the way to Mars”

When the first manned flight to Mars is deemed unsafe and scrubbed on the launch pad, anxious authorities must scramble to save face and retain their funding – and so an unthinkable plot to fake the mission is hatched.

Capricorn One is a 1978 thriller film in which a reporter discovers that a supposed Mars landing by a crewed mission to the planet has been faked via a conspiracy involving the government and—under duress—the crew themselves. It was written and directed by Peter Hyams and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. It stars Elliott Gould with James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and O.J. Simpson as the astronauts. The music score was created by Jerry Goldsmith.

The story of Capricorn One is a classic conspiracy theory premise which taps into many big issues in 1970s culture. Although it was made six years after the last Apollo mission, theories that the story paralleled what really happened with the moon landings have never gone away…