The most important event in our nation's history...what if it never really happened?

The mission was a sham. The murders were real.

Would you be shocked to find out that the greatest moment of our recent history may not have happened at all?


Astronauts Charles Brubaker, John Walker, and Peter Willis (James Brolin, O.J. Simpson, and Sam Waterston, respectively) are hailed as heroes when they become the first men to be rocketed to Mars. Actually the space travelers are as phony as their mission controller, Dr. James Kelloway (Hal Holbrook); to avert a failure that might cost the space program its funding, the Mars-bound vessel has been sent up without a crew, while the helmeted astronauts sit on a movie soundstage, pretending to be in outer space for the benefit of the TV cameras. Unfortunately the Mars ship crashes on arrival, making the astronaut trio thoroughly expendable. Investigative reporter Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould), who's smelled a rat all along, races against time to prevent NASA from "terminating" the hapless astronauts in order to cover up the conspiracy


Peter Hyams began thinking about a film of a space hoax while working on broadcasts of the Apollo missions for CBS. Hyams became a successful television writer and director and began writing the script for Capricorn One in the mid-1970s, but Peeper's failure jeopardized his career. Hyams and his friend, producer Paul Lazarus, were able to obtain the support of Lew Grade, head of production company ITC Entertainment, who agreed to a $4.8 million budget.[3]
To stay within the budget, NASA's cooperation was needed. Lazarus had a good relationship with the space agency from Futureworld. The filmmakers were thus able to obtain government equipment as props despite the negative portrayal of the space agency, including a prototype lunar module. The film was originally scheduled to debut in February 1978, but good preview screenings and delays in Superman caused it to move to June. Capricorn One became the year's most-successful independent film

Release Date: June 2, 1978


Distrib: Warner Brothers