Capricorn One needs a Remake

The sun shines on the launchpad in Floridia, an enormous Nova rocket dominates the cloudless sky. The vice president, and the wives of the three men about to be sent into space watch from an elevated platform draped in elegant black cloth and patriotic bunting. The Vice President and the joint chiefs quip about the President's absence. "Something more important to do," one says.

T-minus three minus.

Miles away in Houston, dozens hunch over computer consoles in a smoke filled mission control. They go through final checks: Liquid oxygen levels? Check. Landing Module powerdown -- enable. Each person at each console tasked for a particular duty, flight surgeon, navigation, life support. Many wipe nervous sweat from their faces, drag on their cigarettes.

T-minus two minutes.

They conduct the three men perched atop a controlled bomb. They act out the launch sequence as they have many times before. They've practiced in simulators, in their imaginations, even their dreams. But today is the day, the Command Module hatch is sealed behind them. They're confident, ready, they've practiced for years. Mars, they're going to Mars.

T-minus one minute.

The captain goes over his memorized checklist too focused to be nervous. Then, a shadow passes over his face. A man in a black suit is standing outside the module, opening the hatch. Is he insane? We're about to launch! They're going to retract the platform any minute! The man looks down at the three astronauts, and says calmly, urgently, "Come with me, there's a problem."

Launch.

And the rocket is empty, but only a few know it.

The film Capicorn One is a conspiracy film about the greatest forgery of humankind's history, the faking of the Mars landing. Three years after the conclusion of the Apollo Program, this film popularized and scandalized the next logical step in space exploration. In the film, the three astronauts are whisked away to a secret base to fake radio transmissions and landing footage. They are holed up in the American desert for months until a planned off-course landing, where they will be picked up as if the mission actually happened.

Why would anyone take part in this fabrication? This is the central question behind Capricorn One. Failures and mistakes in the Space Program move the White House to cut funding. Taxpayer popularity, however, keeps NASA afloat. The President makes an ultimatum, the mission to Mars must be flawless, or the entire program is canceled. Everything appeared flawless until just a few weeks prior to launch. A critical flaw in the life support systems was discovered, and would have resulted in the deaths of the astronauts three weeks after liftoff. Instead of canceling the mission, instead of blaming the company that built the equipment, or accepting the personal embarrassment of such a blunder, they powers that be (who they are is kept murky in the film) resort to an elaborate stage production. They aren't afraid to use threats or murder to convince the three men to do their "patriotic duty".

The first half of the film is a breakneck run into conspiracy and fabrication, however, it is still set in the late 1970s. We were last on the moon in 1975, and we haven't been back since. Now in 2008 we're staring down a number of changes to the only space program I've known in my lifetime. In 2010, the Space Stuttle program will be officially ended. In it's place, the new Ares rocket will power us in our attempt to set foot on another planet.

I hate to say it, but I think Capricorn One needs a remake.

Personally, I hate remakes. I hate it when Hollywood thinks it better to remake a British or Japanese television series or movie instead of simply publishing the original. They did it first, the rest are just imitators -- be original! Hollywood, unfortunately, has not been original for a while. One only needs to flip through the barrage of television remakes one can see on the average American television to know that. Rarely mine leaves the Discovery Channel, History Channel, or the Sci-fi Channel, when it is on at all.

Despite this, I am suggesting a remake of this film. Why? The first half of the film hits the ground running, but the last half is more or less a survival story as we watch the astronauts hunted down in the desert. Toward the end it felt as if the film were rushing, trying to meet the ending before all its loose plot threads were tied.

Much of the fabrication was also glossed over. Radio transmissions were really remixed recordings from practice sessions. Only the first step on Mars and a conversation between the astronauts and their wives were actually filmed. Everything else was chalked up to time delay and a lack of technology. Imagine what they could do now. I almost shudder to think what realities were are capable of constructing. Indeed, we could probably fake ladings on the Moon, Mars, pictures of Hitler from Central America, and the Second Coming (as done in The Accidental Time Machine) all rather convincingly.

A modern remake of Capricorn One could be a dark conspiracy epic not unlike the recent Borne films. I can imagine a sweeping scope over many levels both in NASA and the Executive Branch. A large interconnected cast with multiple concurrent plots can keep people on edge over the estimated year or more the mission would take. I would love to see this as a trilogy of films overturning every possible plot avenue.

Sadly, I'm probably not the one to make it. Hell, I'm probably not even the one to write it. That doesn't make it any less of a interesting idea.