MovieChat Forums > Capricorn One (1978) Discussion > The biggest flaw in this film

The biggest flaw in this film


Numerous implausible aspects of this film have already been discussed, mainly focusing on the difficulty of pulling off such an elaborate conspiracy with so many people involved. But the biggest and most obvious flaw, in my view, is the central premise. Kelloway (Holbrook) insists that having to cancel the launch due to a design flaw in the life support system would've been sufficient excuse for Congress to terminate funding for the Mars program. Is there an even more compelling excuse one can dream up? Sure, and that would be having three astronauts die because of a different technical flaw! I can buy Kelloway's rationale for faking the Mars landing, but killing off the astronauts makes zero sense given his primary motivation to keep the federal funding flowing!

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[deleted]

I see what you mean, but the film doesn't really tell us one way or the other. It made more sense to me that the conspirators didn't want to leave to chance whether one of the astronauts would spill the beans because of a guilty conscience or resentment. It seems like it would have been an awful risk allowing them to live given that they were dead set against the idea and only agreed to it under threat of their families lives. That threat only held sway because their families were all together on a plane at the time that Kelloway first made his pitch. Once the astronauts were returned back to their home lives the conspirators would be at their mercy, unless their plan was to threaten them into silence for the rest of their lives (and if that was their plan it certainly wasn't a good one).

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They should have had NASA racing against the clock to beat a Russian mission to Mars. That would have given the conspiracy even more believability and urgency.

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most of the film was not thought out, but having them run in cemetery was so unbelieveabe ruined whole film

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I am still trying to find something believable in this movie. Entertaining tho.

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I think that was actually the most believable part. They needed to blow the lid open on the whole thing. So, they went where they know there are going to be cameras broadcasting to the entire world all at once. Nobody could possibly say they faked That footage.

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yea if they where not in the desert just a few minutes ago

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Kojak turned on the plane's afterburners, crossed several states and landed at the cemetery's airport! Honestly, don't you know anything about aviation?

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Flatbush International Airport is a major travel hub.

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