Mars or bust: all systems are far from go

Press, 25 September 1978, Page 12

Mars or bust: all systems are far from go

Keep your head down and your knees up. There is a : conspiracy, and you’re ini deep trouble if you find out! ■ about it. I’ Woe betide the man who (discovers that the first manined mission to Mars was a Take. His chances of survival are not good. Elliott Gould and three astronauts learn these lessons (quickly in “Capricorn One,” (now at the Regent. It is a (chase film a cut above most (others, mainly because of its (acrobatic sequences and plot twists. : The film starts with an interesting idea and runs with! lit. Even when astronauts' took their televised walks on! the moon, there were many! earthbound sceptics who thought it was all a ruse, alii taking place in some tele-1 vision studio. Astronauts are plucked from ■ a Mars rocket just before! it blasts off, then taken to a| desert hiding place where re-1 plicas of the Martian surface!

and their space capsule havei been set up f television. I There is a good reason for, ■this, they are told. Private 1 (contractors out for a big pro-.

1 fit had delivered a life-1 support system on the cheap. It would have let them live (for three weeks, and no more, j It was too late to get an-i (other, and Congress was( making noises about howl imuch the space programme’ (was costing. A fault now (could be its doom, and the (Spaceflight Mafia couldn’t alllow that. I A success was required, |even if a fake one. Public 1 interest had to be maintained!

>l— “When Apollo 17 landed lon the moon, people com■.plained because ‘I Love Lucy : re-runs .were pre-empted." •Ithe luckless astronauts art told bv their boss. Now lies must be told to keep something alive that shouldn't die. Both the astronauts and their families are under death threats if they don’t go along. It takes a smart-talking television reporter, cracking wise and threatened himself at every turn. Everything gets more implausible by the minute, but it’s all in good •(fun.

AT THE CINEMA

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