Source: Some information on this page may have been sourced as part of the 2023 Wikimedia Australia Partnership Projects grant, with the purpose of improving and expanding the use of Wikidata on our website. Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Read more about this project here.
The world waits for the first manned space flight to Mars. Before the countdown ends, the three astronauts become part of an elaborate hoax designed to fool the American public. A journalist (Elliot Gould) uncovers the plot and the astronauts are plunged into a battle of wits in order to survive. Hal Holbrook plays the director of NASA who engineers the hoax, while Sam Waterston, James Brolin and O.J. Simpson play the doomed spacemen. Closer to a thriller in genre than science fiction, the film’s ingenious plot concept does not compensate for its obvious flaws such as the complete character turnaround by Holbrook, who goes from a man acting on his beliefs, to an evil genius who will stop at nothing to carry out his plot.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Stream, rent or buy via
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
306558
Language
English
Audience classification
PG
Subject categories
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)