1.Not paying attention even for 10 seconds can result in the kidnapping of your friend.
2. It's pretty easy to hang on to a crop duster
3. If your son left your crop-dusting business to become a lawyer then he's probably a pervert
4. If you're told twice that Console 36 is faulty then that's one too many.
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10. The best way to maximize your energy, oxygen, and concentration while scaling a dangerous cliff with your bare hands is to tell yourself a cat joke.
11. If O.J. Simpson's acting was any more wooden, he'd be sweating sawdust.
This is the main reason all further *manned missions to mars* were abruptly scrapped after the fake apollo moon landing.
After all once the Soviets had setup their space radar stuff it was no longer possible to scam people with fake moon landings anymore.
15. After your finished faking the Mars Landing, don't bother locking up or guarding the abandoned base where it took place. I mean, it's not like some reporter is just going to walk in.
16. However, you SHOULD lock up an abandoned gas station, but leave a crowbar next to the door in case you forget your keys.
17. Due to budget cuts, the government only has two helicopters to be used for capturing escaped patsies of conspiracies.
18. Also due to budget cuts, there are no money for radios in said helicopters. Therefore, pilots will have to fly together and face each so that they can communicate via sign language.
19. When uncovering a conspiracy, don't bother to take pictures of the scene. Just take something from the site that may or may not have any significance.
20. Caulfield and Brubaker would be able to get past the Secret Service presumably guarding the cemetery and then drive to the memorial service with the president, vice president, and other dignataries. (The scene might have been funnier if they let the Telly Savalas character prance with them through the gravestones.)
21. If you get lost at a night in a windstorm in the desert and pass out or fall asleep, you'll wake up near a paved road and in front of an unfortunately-closed gas station.
22. An escaped astronaut who is being hunted by killers will have an operator call his home instead of the police or the media.
23. A "survival" kit on a jet will have exactly three flares and three cans of water to accomodate three the escaped astronauts.
24. The helicopter pilots will be nice enough to let you shoot off a flare to warn your two friends before killing or capturning you.
25. Caulfield probably went to the same lousy journalism school where Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) in "The Parallax Reporter" (1974) graduated from. Both journalists are held low regard by their bosses and have in the past pursued phony, sensationalistic stories.
>18. Also due to budget cuts, there are no money for radios in said helicopters. Therefore, pilots will have to fly together and face each so that they can communicate via sign language. <
Actually this is more or less accurate. The helicopters would be on what is known as a "black op". That is a top secret or beyond mission that "does not exist nor will it ever exist".
Part of the opsec(operational security) would be 100% radio silence. Even with 2010 technology the most secure encrypted communications will send something into the ether which is detectable at some level. Someone with proper knowledge and training can detect what goes out and depending on what they know make use of the data and possibly locate and track the mission.
Therefore the pilots would be using hand signals and visual communications which would not require radio communication.
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26. Schlumpy newspaper reporters can also be excellent (i.e. physics defying) stunt drivers when needed.
27. It is possible to not only survive a 100 mph crash from a drawbridge into water, pre-airbag, but also swim to shore without a mark to show for it.
28. Being let out of jail about an hour after being arrested by Federal Agents for cocaine possession is the "norm".
share29. After being shot at by helicopters while clinging to the wing of a cropduster, you immediately get in a Nissan Z-car and drive from West Texas to Virginia (Arlington National Cemetery) without changing your filthy, tattered NASA jumpsuit or otherwise cleaning up in any way.
share30. When escaping in a jet with no fuel, always fly towards the desert rather than following the freeway at the other end of the runway.
shareyou immediately get in a Nissan Z-car and drive from West Texas to Virginia (Arlington National Cemetery)
IMDBers ought to give these "Things I learned after watching..." threads a rest. Or better yet pension them off to a retirement home for elderly jokes.
They were never very funny to begin with, but now that they have proliferated like rabbits they've become IMDB's version of the "Knock knock" gag: everybody's doing them and they're starting to sound alike as well as lame.
"they're starting to sound alike as well as lame."
Thought: This might say more about the movies than us.
<grins, ducks & runs...>
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46 That when Hal Holbrook says put everybody you have to the west in your search, that of coarse means the same two helicopters you have been using the whole time.
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46 That when Hal Holbrook says put everybody you have to the west in your search, that of coarse means the same two helicopters you have been using the whole time.
That when Hal Holbrook says put everybody you have to the west in your search, that of coarse means the same two helicopters you have been using the whole time.
Bam! Nice!
shareIMDBers should give "who cares" comments a rest. Or better yet pension them off to a retirement home for self important, "I'm so clever", windbag comments.
shareIf a paranoid burn-out of a reporter has cocaine in his apartment, it had to have been planted by the government.
share31. Gargle with mouthwash before drinking stale coffee late at night
32. After trying to kill a news reporter by sabotaging the brakes in his car, show him you really mean business by shooting a few bullets in his general direction when he visits a remote tourist attraction. Then high-tail it out of there; reporters are known to pursue and take revenge on the assassin squads who shoot at them.
33. Reporters and aerospace engineers in Texas generally talk like they are from the east coast or west coasts rather than the south.
34. After two obvious attempts on your life, of COURSE you should follow your usual routine, going back to your office, free of concern that other attempts might be made.
35. There is no more poignant piece of children's literature on this earth than "Fox in Sox".
36. When prancing through a cemetery in slow motion, be sure to coordinate the landings and launches with your prancing partner. Synchronous prancing makes for a more triumphant visual.
37. When an astronaut's wife leaves her house to address a massive throng of media encamped outside, generally only one reporter will have an actual question prepared.
38. Always record the audio from spaceflight practice simulations, just in case it's needed later for some reason.
39. If you are contemplating blowing the whistle on a muti-billion dollar government plot, discuss your plans openly on the actual location of the hoax, with plenty of cameras and microphones around.
40. Nobody gives a crap about anything anymore.
Things I learned after watching Capricorn One41. The film was made and released in far less cynical time.
Doom--Just to be clear, I LOVE Capricorn One. I enjoy it more than much bigger movies of the period such as Star Wars or Close Encounters. The film has a genuine joy to it and was clearly a labor of love by the film makers. It includes some really sharp dialog, and the attention to detail with the launch and tracking by mission control feels authentic a full 30 years later.
One risk with "things I learned..." threads is it can be hard to distinguish cynical / hateful posts from affectionate tributes by true fans of a movie. My contributions here reflect my memories of the film, and I can only remember such details because I've seen it so many times--which wouldn't have happened if I didn't love the movie.
I gotcha. Thanks for clarifying - it's one of my favorites too. But you're right, sometimes it's hard to tell who's having fun and who's just bitching.
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dleigh80 wrote: One risk with "things I learned..." threads is it can be hard to distinguish cynical / hateful posts from affectionate tributes by true fans of a movie. My contributions here reflect my memories of the film, and I can only remember such details because I've seen it so many times--which wouldn't have happened if I didn't love the movie.
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Excellent point. If I ever start a 'things I learned' thread, I'll remember your words and include, in the opening post, a reminder that remarking on a movie's particularities doesn't have to be an act of contempt--it can be an act of affection.
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:D
(I can't help wondering if this movie is ever popped into the DVD player at Chez Streisand/Brolin...and if so, what must go through Babs' mind during the 'prancing in slow-mo through the cemetery' scene...)
Anyway, counting your three as #42-44:
45: When choosing a space program in which to become an astronaut, NEVER pick the one that gives the low bidder the contract to build the spacecraft's Life Support system.
46) Three well trained astronauts escaping in a jet never realize that jet planes have radios for contacting the rest of the world.
47) Or realize that escape jets have a very limited supply of fuel; even though it was the same jet that they were just flying on that was taking them to another location.
(Not sure which number we are on but...)
Only in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie can O.J. Take the moral highground.
Alan Swann From The Movies?
*** 33. Reporters and aerospace engineers in Texas generally talk like they are from the east coast or west coasts rather than the south.***
sorry, that one doesn't work ... NASA recruits the best and the brightest regardless of where they grew up ... they don't restrict themselves to Texas or the South for hiring their engineers ... if they did restrict themselves to that area, you'd have seen lots more duct tape on the lunar lander :P
and as far as reporters go, considering the 'reputation' the Elliot Gould character has, he probably has been bouncing around to many papers (or TV stations as he's technically is that tho i remembered him as a newspaper guy) ... he's probably been fired and worn out his welcome in plenty of cities near where he grew up or what-have-you and so would have decided, in true cinematic tradition, to try a new city where 'they don't know him' ... so that isn't really much of a point either ...
Evil government helicopters flying in formation need to turn and face each other in order to communicate.
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>Evil government helicopters flying in formation need to turn and face each other in order to communicate. <
If they're on a top secret or beyond mission.......... see my earlier post intangible103
If you want to pull off an elaborate manned-mission-to-Mars hoax, instead of making sure in advance that you will have the cooperation of the three people who are most crucial to the success of the plot, just wait until the last possible moment to bring them in on it, and hope that they go along with you.
If the feds want to make a low level NASA technician disappear, they will do it very discretely by kidnapping him from a crowded bar while he is playing pool with a friend rather than waiting until he is alone.
When a woman poses very basic, obvious questions (like "Why are you asking me these personal things about my dead husband?") to an inquisitive reporter she barely knows, that means she is remarkably bright and perceptive.
If the continued success of your massive mission-to-Mars hoax requires you to keep three astronauts captive, put them all together in a conference room with one locked door. Do not restrain them or put them under armed guard, or take any other measures to prevent their escape, because these are not the sort of people with the ingenuity to devise a way out.
Nice one.
Oh, and leave the jet nearby an open door...
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48. Part of what makes congressmen evil is that they ask for one too many pairs of complimentary NASA binoculars
49. A rattlesnake can be killed with a stone and a hand wrapped in a strip of a T-shirt
50. In order for a movie production company on a tight budget to film a plane landing without all of its landing gears, simply show the plane landing beyond the horizon.
51. All buttons used to mute or cut off radio communications will be marked in prominent text, "INTERRUPT".
52. When NASA tells you to "make it quick" when you talk to your spouse who is up in space, it is permissible to recite a poem that your son wrote for his class.
My history forum @http://www.westerncivforum.com
Part of the opsec(operational security) would be 100% radio silence.
If I remember those scenes it was unclear that he was communicating directly with the pilots. He was probably communicating with their superior. Even with radio silence they could arrange some sort of signal to acknowledge the neutralization of the targets.
share>>Evil government helicopters flying in formation need to turn and face each other in order to communicate. <
>If they're on a top secret or beyond mission.......... see my earlier post intangible103
A frequency can be chosen and a transmitter power level can be set such that there's a miniscule chance of being heard.
I don't know if that era's radios could be encrypted, but if so that'd be another thing to do to hide the purpose of the helicopters.
besides, helicopter pilots need both hands to fly - using the pitch and collective.
If all attempts to hide radio transmissions fail, it could be said that the helicopters were engaged in a jet pilot rescue simulation.
26. If you are a government hitman, sent to kill a reporter in a ghost town in the desert, bring only one bullet.