Directed by: Peter Hyams
Starring: James Brolin, Elliott Gould, Sam Waterston, Brenda Vaccaro
Revealing mistake: Just after the helicopters crash during the chase with the crop duster keep a close eye and one of the helos is still in the shots flying.
Revealing mistake: When the Lear jet is getting ready to make the emergency landing in the desert, James Brolin calls for full flaps. As we see the jet land, we can see that the flaps are indeed down. When the dust clears we see that the jet has made a wheels up landing since they lost the left gear on take off. However, the flaps are up.
Plot hole: Further to the comments about the Lunar Lander being useless as a Mars Lander - who is going to believe that three men spent eighteen months crammed into a tiny Lunar Command Module? Not only would they go out of their minds, where would they store the tonnes of water and food they would need in that tiny capsule? How could the Service Module carry enough oxygen or have enough battery power to make the trip?
Walter Loughlin: You're not crazy, I'm crazy. I'm crazy for listening and I'm crazy for saying what I'm about to say. I'll give you twenty four hours to come up with something. Not forty eight. I saw the movie too, it was twenty four.
Trivia: When Hal Holbrook talks to the press after the heat shield separation we see a model Saturn V in the background. An extra stage has been inserted above the S-II second stage and the mission payload appears to have been augmented too.
Question: Okay, so the three astronauts are on the run but only James Brolin makes good his escape. What happened to the other two? They're shown as being caught, but what happened after? Anybody know?
Chosen answer: It's never stated in the film, however, as the astronauts have been declared officially dead and therefore cannot ever be allowed to contact anybody, they were most likely executed as soon as they were captured.
Answer: How were they able to fire their flares, then?
Answer: O.J. Simpson would have had time to shoot his flare to show he was caught. With Waterson harder to believe, he had climbed the side of the mountain and was just coming to the top with the planes coming into view. Either he would have been dropped and died on way down, not getting the chance to shoot the flare, or he was grabbed from the edge. Unlikely to have time also to shoot the flare before being intercepted.
It's likely he would have had time. He was no threat and not going anywhere, so the helicopter pilots would have been in no rush to grab him. They were just sat patiently waiting for him. By the time they'd got out and reached him, he'd have plenty of time to grab and release his flare.
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Suggested correction: You're assuming they travelled from Earth to Mars in the lander alone. The astronauts didn't do this when they went to the moon. The Lunar Lander was attached to the command module during the 3-day journey. When the astronauts reached the moon, they detached the lander from the command module and landed on the surface. It is reasonable to believe the astronauts for Capricorn One did the same thing, except on a much bigger ship for a journey that lasted over a year. We just never saw it.
Mike Lynch
The posting did not refer to the Lunar Lander, it referred to the tiny Lunar Command Module, the only part of the Saturn V that returned to Earth. From 44:00 to 48:08 of the film we see a live broadcast, supposedly from Martian orbit, showing all three astronauts crammed into a Lunar Command Module. The posting is absolutely correct.
This is another Deus ex Machina explanation for a blatant film mistake. The astronauts launched into orbit in a standard Saturn V rocket which could not possibly carry anything like a spacecraft large enough to make the trip to Mars. There is nothing in the film to suggest that there was a "much bigger ship" involved.
They are also shown seated in the tiny Apollo command module, supposedly transmitting messages from orbit around Mars. The posting is absolutely correct.
You're assuming the astronauts were launched in a standard Saturn V rocket, but with all the resources needed for a journey to Mars that took 18 months round trip, NASA would have to send them on a larger rocket to accommodate the required oxygen, water, food, spare parts, supplies, etc. needed to bring them back safely.
Mike Lynch
Did you watch the film? From 1:54 to 2:25 we see an establishing shot of a perfectly ordinary Saturn V rocket on the launch pad. From 6:05 to 6:43 we see all three astronauts strapped into the tiny, Lunar Command Module. As has already been pointed out from 44:00 to 48:08 we see a live broadcast, supposedly from Martian orbit, showing all three astronauts crammed into a Lunar Command Module. There is absolutely no mention of a larger spacecraft and none is ever shown.