When the first manned flight to Mars is deemed unsafe and scrubbed on the launch pad, anxious authorities must scramble to save face and retain their funding - and so an unthinkable plot to fake the mission is hatched.
Charles Brubaker is the astronaut leading NASA's first manned mission to Mars. Seconds before the launch, the entire team is pulled from the capsule and the rocket leaves earth unmanned much to Brubaker's anger. The head of the programme explains that the life support system was faulty and that NASA can't afford the publicity of a scratched mission. The plan is to fake the Mars landing and keep the astronauts at a remote base until the mission is over, but then investigative journalist Robert Caulfield starts to suspect something.Written by
Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
When Dr. Kelloway is trying to convince the astronauts to take part in the faking of the mission, he says that during the Apollo 17 moon shot, "People were callin' up the network and bitchin' cuz reruns of I Love Lucy were canceled." However, the Apollo 17 flight took place in December 1972, while "I Love Lucy" reruns had left the CBS network's daytime schedule for general syndication in 1967, more than five years earlier. Furthermore, viewers generally complain to their local affiliates, not the networks directly, anyway. However, Kelloway may well be saying anything he can think of off the top of his head to convince the astronauts to go along with the deception, and figures none of them follows reruns of old television series enough to call him out. See more »
Quotes
Robert Caulfield:
Mr Albaine, how much do you charge to dust a field?
Albain:
Twenty five dollars.
Robert Caulfield:
I'd like to hire your plane.
Albain:
That'll be a hundred dollars.
Robert Caulfield:
You said you charged twenty five?
Albain:
Twenty five dollars to dust a field, but you ain't got no field because you ain't no farmer, which means you ain't poor and I think you're a pervert!
Robert Caulfield:
Okay, one hundred.
Albain:
One hundred and twenty five.
Robert Caulfield:
What?
Albain:
Because you said yes to a hundred too quick, which means you can afford a hundred and twenty five.
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I thought this was a very well done, and intelligent thriller. A group of astronauts are about to launch to space, they soon find out that they do not have enough funding, so they must fake the mission anyway, somebody issues a report that the shuttle crashed, and left the men dead, this means that the public has to think that these men are really dead. This is the kind of thriller than they dont make anymore, and its too bad. Also includes a huge cast of famillar faces: James Brolin(Westworld), Telly Savalas(TV's Kojak), Hal Holbrook(Men Of Honor), David Huddleston(The Big Lebowski), and many more star in this first rate thriller. *** out of ****.
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I thought this was a very well done, and intelligent thriller. A group of astronauts are about to launch to space, they soon find out that they do not have enough funding, so they must fake the mission anyway, somebody issues a report that the shuttle crashed, and left the men dead, this means that the public has to think that these men are really dead. This is the kind of thriller than they dont make anymore, and its too bad. Also includes a huge cast of famillar faces: James Brolin(Westworld), Telly Savalas(TV's Kojak), Hal Holbrook(Men Of Honor), David Huddleston(The Big Lebowski), and many more star in this first rate thriller. *** out of ****.