Capricorn One

Hours before the first crewed flight to Mars, it emerges that the life support system will fail. The programme is not cancelled; the three astronauts are taken to a studio and the landing footage is shot there. The film draws its tension not from the lie but from what sustaining it requires: if the capsule burns up on return, the astronauts must not be alive. The narrative builds an escape across the desert and runs a journalist's line in parallel. Peter Hyams wrote and directed, with Elliott Gould and James Brolin. O. J. Simpson is also in the cast. Before watching: over the years the film became a visual source for moon landing conspiracy theories and is often cited in that context. It makes no such claim itself; it is a work of fiction.