I still can't seem to figure out who knew about the cover-up. I get the impression that the Congressman (Hollis) did not, but that the President may have. Or maybe none of them did and it was simply Hal Holbrook's character's plan.
shareI disagree completely on both men. The President clearly did not know about the plot. Holbrook's tirade about how the VP went to the launch was a comment on how the President's commitment to the program is wavering. The hoax has been launched because if the failure of the life support system were exposed, then the President would likely pull the plug on the program.
By contrast, I get the distinct impression Congressman Peaker is in on the cover-up and may in fact be one of the bigger people Holbrook refers to when he says its out of his hands now. Peaker's reaction at the ending to Brubaker's arrival has more of an "Oh sxxx!" quality than "Oh my God." It wouldn't surprise me if there was a cut scene making it clear that Peaker was in on it but that Hyams excised it for simplicity's sake in making Kelloway the chief villain.
I'd say the President is definately not part of it. If for no other reason (and there are other reasons) than that he NEEDS to be kept out of it, as it is a shady, borderline illegal operation, and the President can have no hand in such matters. He needs to have plausible deniability. So he most likely knows nothing.
Hollis is too much of a good guy to be part of this. He WANTS the program to work, and would probably not have taken part in a hoax to fake the results.
Kelloway was the link between the "people out there...FORCES out there" that have a lot to lose, and the astronauts needed to make the lies believable.
As in so many other aspects of society, it probably comes down to money, and money alone. There are in all likelyhood corporations that have a great many million dollars invested in the space program in general, and in the Mars-mission in particular, and these corporations will lose everything if the space program is scrapped. These are most likely the "forces" that Kelloway is talking about. I seriously doubt a great many people inside NASA were in on this, instead investors a'plenty outside NASA were the ones making this happen.
Peaker doesn't come off as much of a good guy to me. Yes, he's big about the program, but he comes off more like the local Congressman looking out for the interests of his District, which depend on the space program, and not because he's some idealist. He can easily be part of those "Forces" that would tell Kelloway to get the astronauts in line or else. Peaker would have a lot to lose in terms of his re-election and his political power if he saw jobs fleeing his district because the program folded up.
shareOk, yeah. I get that... Perhaps "good guy" was kind of off.
But he does genuinly seem surprised and disheartened when the heat shield seperation-news hits... I guess he could be part of it, but I always liked all the sharp, ironic and smart-assy replies he gave the VP at the launch....so to keep my experience of the movie intact, I'll count him out. :)