I recently watched Capricorn One for about the fortieth time and something occurred to me that I hadn’t thought of before: I had believed the astronauts were going to be somehow sneaked onto the capsule after splashdown (implausible) but the capsule burning up during re-entry changed all that and started the manhunt. Is there anything in the film that hints that Hal Holbrook intended for the capsule to burn, or, worse yet, that he may have programmed the capsule, at launch, to fail? Did he plan to murder the astronauts from the start (would certainly make for better headlines — Brave space explorers meet tragic end in the homestretch)?
Nothing I saw in the movie indicated that as a possibility.
I feel the capsule burning up was unexpected but a convenient excuse, he probably intended on killing them all after since there was no way to actually keep their silence the moment they landed on Earth especially if they were willing to disappear a NASA technician for just asking questions.
It would have been easier to fake a parachute failure and have them all “die” in the descent.
I like the way you think. 
And yes, I realize any speculation over a Peter Hyams script is silly; subtlety is not his strong suit. It’s a fun, cartoon-type movie.
Pardon my obtuseness (obtusosity? 
).
Which “that”?
Nothing suggests they intended to sneak the astronauts back into the capsule, or nothing suggests the accident was real, or nothing suggests the accident was a deliberate setup?
I have no opinion myself, so I’m not disagreeing with whatever your opinion is; I just can’t tell what you mean.
I’ll have to admit that it’s been decades since I’ve seen “Capricorn One”, but let’s face it - if NASA as portrayed in this movie was so devious yet incompetent that they couldn’t fix the life support system so that the astronauts wouldn’t die, would it be that hard to believe that another contractor screwed up when they built the heat shield? I’m leaning towards lucky (for NASA, not for Willis and Walker) accident.
I have always thought that it was intended that they die heroically during reentry. But that most of the people in on the fake didn’t know. It makes more sense for the coverup to think that way.
However if that were true, they would be ready to kill them immediately and not allow them a chance to escape. So there’s evidence it was, as Bob Ross would say, a “happy accident”.
As an aside, the fact they didn’t just kill technician Elliot Whitter in a car accident, or fall, or something, but instead chose to “vanish” him, shows either the conspirators were stupid, or the writers were. Making it look like he never existed is a fine 70s paranoid movie plan, but totally non logical as a real world move. How long is this new woman supposed to live in Elliot’s apartment? What do Elliot’s coworkers think when they are told the guy sitting next to them yesterday never existed? What about his other friends and family?
Ill-informed WAG on the writers’ mindset …
NASA is not the CIA? They just aren’t into killing. Dammit Jim; I’m an engineer, not an assassin!
So they disappear Whitter and (somehow) expect the astronauts to go along with disappearing too after the failed reentry.
It’s only when the astronauts decide not to go along that NASA tries its hand at killing and proves to be a bumbler.
My guess it that they would allow the astronauts to land, be heroically seen being fished from the waters, maybe allow them a few press photos, and then arrange a tragic accident on the way back, as they said before maybe the airplane carrying them all explodes. That way the accident isn’t the fault of NASA which still wants the good PR of a “successful” space mission. Them blowing up the reentry pod makes no sense if the entire point of them faking it was to give the public/President confidence in NASA’s mission.
Not disagreeing…
But they way the filmmakers used the two choppers was pretty cool. It was like they were two sentient beings. They’d turn to look at each other, as if the helis, not the pilots, were communicating.
Any job offering that involved my potential death being “beneficial” to my employers would raise a big red flag in my mind. I think I’d pass on that one. LOL
Well, he had two black attack helicopters at his command, crewed, fueled, and ready to go at a moment’s notice, so it’s safe to assume he was entirely playing nice.
On the other hand, how many people mist have been on on the conspiracy already? There must have been people who built the fake Mars set, pilots who spirited the astronauts away from the launch site, communications and video techs, HR, catering, etc. What’s the risk of letting three more people in on the secret?
Shit, he was such a terrific guy.
Never mind all that space-technology tot: are we supposed to believe that the Black Hats managed, in the space of five minutes that Elliot Gould was away from his car, to rig virtually every mechanical system to fail on command? Brakes, steering, ignition, transmission…rigging all that would take an hour…MINIMUM. It takes nearly five minutes just change the tires at a Formula One pitstop.