Capricorn One

At NASA's Mission Control the first manned space flight manned space flight to Mars is about to blast off. Bit as its three astronauts (James Brolin, O.J Simpson and Sam Waterston) await their historic journey a mysterious man enters the craft and insists they leave. He explains that the spacecraft is dangerously flawed. The mission, however, must be seen to go ahead, otherwise the Government will stop funding the space programme. In a television studio the astronauts are coerced, through threats and bribery, to make broadcasts as if they were on the Red Planet.

Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould), a journalist becomes interested in the Mars mission when a technician friend becomes suspicious and sets out to investigate.