FILM · 1978 · USA
Capricorn One
58 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (58)
- #001
Frank Tallman, one of the stunt pilots who flew the red biplane, claimed this film was the most dangerous he had ever flown in. He died in an accident shortly after filming ended.
- #002
Despite being portrayed as the villain, NASA provided technical assistance, including a mock spacecraft, sets, vehicles and front-screen projection expertise.
- #003
Capricorn One director Peter Hyams admitted in an interview for the 2016 ESPN documentary O. J.: Made in America that the studio gave him the authority to choose O. J. Simpson for the role of John Walker. Hyams said: "I thought there were valuable African-American actors who had paid their dues as actors and shown their abilities. My first choice was either Robert Hooks or Bernie Casey, so my reaction wasn't very enthusiastic. I had seen The Towering Inferno (1974). I thought [Simpson's acting ability] wouldn't scare Daniel Day-Lewis. O. J. was a very tall celebrity and someone who hadn't shown the skills needed to play the role. My aim was to see if I could get this man to work for what I wanted. He was a thirsty and dreamy man. Instead, I put devices on him that made it hard for him to move and talk, and that made him look like he was in a desperate situation. You know, what can I say, he was a very charming, great guy. He tried very hard and it was clear he saw a future for himself in cinema."
- #004
It was the most successful independently produced film at the 1978 box office.
- #005
The runaway car scene was so successful that it was used in other films and TV series as well.
- #006
Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score for Capricorn One (1978) as well as for Star Trek: Insurrection (1998). If you listen to the Insurrection score for about 3:30-3:45 minutes, you will hear Capricorn One's different theme.
- #007
Peter Hyams, who wrote and directed Capricorn One, also directed Outland, a "Bat Durston" (a Western reworked in space) film starring Sean Connery against Peter Boyle. The sinister company Con Amalgamate in that film is also the sinister company in Capricorn One, because it supplies the life support system whose failure causes the mission to be faked.
- #008
The snake that Charles Brubaker eats was stuffed with raw fish.
- #009
Telly Savalas plays a pilot but in real life was afraid of flying.
- #010
The film's writer-director Peter Hyams had previously responded to the Apollo 11 Moon landing as follows: "There was a really important event with almost no witnesses. And the only verification we had... came from a TV camera."
- #011
In the film's original release, when Brubaker (James Brolin) opens the emergency supply kit after landing the Learjet, it contains cigarette packs. He asks the other two if they want one and both decline. This exchange was removed from all later releases for obvious reasons, including that it suggested the government condoned smoking. During the world wars, all ration kits contained cigarettes.
- #012
Director Peter Hyams first wrote the screenplay in 1969, right after the first Moon landing and about nine years before the film reached theaters. Hyams could not find any backing or interest in the project. However, in 1972, after the Republicans' Watergate political scandal, Hyams sold the screenplay and began developing the film. He approached producer Paul Lazarus. Peter Hyams and Lazarus held a meeting with Lew Grade, head of the production company ITC Entertainment, which had recently moved into film production with The Return of the Pink Panther (1975). Grade agreed to make the film after only five minutes. The budget was $4.8 million. It took several more years to produce the film and get it into principal photography, and the film finally reached theaters in 1978.
- #013
The space rocket footage in the film belonged to the Saturn V Apollo-era rocket. The other space hardware used was also Apollo-era hardware, including the Command Module (space capsule) and the Lunar Module (landing vehicle).
- #014
Elliott Gould, who plays Robert Caulfield, was married to Barbra Streisand from 1963 to 1971. James Brolin, who plays Charles Brubaker, married Streisand in 1998.
- #015
One of the photographs in Brubaker's house is the famous "Blue Marble" photo taken by the Apollo 17 crew on 7 December 1972 on their way to the Moon (Apollo Image Atlas AS17-148-22727).
- #016
Two different authors wrote novelizations of the film. Ron Goulart's version was published in the US and Bernard Ross's (alias Ken Follett) version was published in the UK. The main difference between the two is that the character Caulfield is somewhat expanded in Ross's version.
- #017
Actor Telly Savalas's scenes as Albain were shot in a single day.
- #018
The film's story was inspired by conspiracy theories about the Apollo Moon landing.
- #019
The fake and staged Mars landing scenes were later reused in productions filmed afterwards: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon (2001) and Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? (2001).
- #020
The film that Loughlin mistakenly remembers as starring Alan Hale Jr., and which Caulfield corrects him about while citing James Stewart, is Call Northside 777 (1948), seen and referenced by Caulfield and Loughlin.
- #021
When the OH-6 Cayuse helicopters fire at the biplane, the "guns" are actually just light boxes flashing white light. No smoke comes from the firing of real ammunition.
- #022
The final helicopter-crop-duster sequence was used in episodes of both The Fall Guy (1981) and The A-Team (1983) television series. In the latter, the helicopter crew is shown surviving without crashing over the cliff edge.
- #023
The film's cast includes six Oscar nominees: Karen Black, Sam Waterston, Brenda Vaccaro, Hal Holbrook, Elliott Gould and Telly Savalas.
- #024
When Peter Hyams wrote and directed Capricorn One (1978), his inspiration came from accusations that the Apollo Project's Moon landings were a hoax. These were discredited because, among other reasons, the technology needed to fake the Moon landings did not actually exist at the time.
- #025
In 2001, the film was nominated by the American Film Institute for its "AFI's 100 Years… 100 Thrills" Top 100 list.
- #026
The helicopters are Hughes OH6 "Cayuse" aircraft.
- #027
Jerry Goldsmith initially recorded his magnificent score in Munich with the Graunke Symphony Orchestra, but he did not like the sound. So he flew to London and recorded his score with the National Philharmonic Orchestra instead.
- #028
When the Cayuse helicopter falls into the canyon after being covered in smoke, it is clearly a different model from the ones filmed earlier. The helicopters in the earlier sequences are military green, while the crashing helicopter model is light blue.
- #029
The make and model of the biplane that dusts the old red crop was a Boeing-Stearman Model 75.
- #030
Peter Hyams later elaborated on the subject in a 2014 interview with the British film magazine Empire: Whenever there was a news report about a [space flight], they would go to a studio where there was a simulation of what was happening in St. Louis. I grew up in a generation where my parents basically believed that if it was in the newspaper, it was true. It turned out to be nonsense. My generation was raised to believe that television was real, and that was nonsense too. I was watching these simulations and wondered what would happen if someone made up the whole story.
- #031
Elliott Gould and Brenda Vaccaro appeared as the parents of main characters in Friends (1994) (Gould played Jack Geller and Vaccaro played Gloria Tribbiani) and in the episode The One Where Ross Can't Flirt (1999). Joey Tribbiani's grandmother mentions the film by name while claiming that Sam Waterston was in an episode of Law & Order (1990). Also, Telly Savalas was the godfather of Friends star Jennifer Aniston.
- #032
The role of Judy Drinkwater was initially offered to Candice Bergen, but she turned it down. The role was ultimately cast with Karen Black. Had she accepted, it would have been the first of her two films about space travel; the second was 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984).
- #033
NASA's cooperation was needed to stay within budget. Paul Lazarus had a good relationship with the space agency from Futureworld (1976). So the producers were able to obtain government equipment as props, including the Apollo Lunar Module prototype, despite the story's negative portrayal of the space agency.
- #034
It was included in the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 films nominated for the 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Films.
- #035
At the time of the film's release, NASA was in a gap period between live missions — the last crewed flight of the Soyuz project had taken place two years earlier (with the USSR) — and the new major undertaking of the Space Shuttle program, which had begun but was still four years away from its first crewed flight.
- #036
Actors Robert Walden, James Karen and Hal Holbrook had previously appeared the year before in another conspiracy-themed film, All the President's Men (1976).
- #037
Elliott Gould plays a character named Robert Caulfield in this film. In Narrow Margin (1990), written and directed by Peter Hyams, Gene Hackman also plays a character named Robert Caulfield.
- #038
Writer and director Peter Hyams initially wanted Donald Pleasence to play Albain, who was ultimately in the cast alongside Telly Savalas. Coincidentally, both Pleasence and Savalas played Blofeld in the James Bond 007 films.
- #039
The film is about a ship named Capricorn One on a mission to Mars. In astrology, each planet has its exaltation (essential dignity) in a sign, and Mars is exalted in Capricorn (at the 28th degree).
- #040
James Brolin plays the lead astronaut in the world's first attempt at a Mars mission. In Men in Black 3 (2012), Brolin's son Josh Brolin, as Young Agent K, takes part in the launch of the Apollo 11 rocket for the world's first journey to the Moon.
- #041
One of two late-1970s science fiction conspiracy films, the other being Hangar 18 (1980).
- #042
It is one of writer-director Peter Hyams's many space/science fiction/fantasy films. His science fiction/fantasy films are: Outland (1981), Timecop (1994), Capricorn One (1978), End of Days (1999), Stay Tuned (1992), 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) and The Relic (1997).
- #043
It is one of two films starring actors Elliott Gould and Telly Savalas. The films are Capricorn One (1978) and Escape to Athena (1979).
- #044
Elliott Gould's character interacts with a person who quotes and references films, just as Gould's character did in The Long Goodbye (1973).
- #045
Lew Grade announced the film as part of a list of 10 films he planned to make within the next 12 months in October 1975; among them were The Domino Principle (1977), Action - Clear the Fast Lanes and Juarez. The latter two were ultimately not made.
- #046
The presence of James Brolin and O. J. Simpson among the cast helped secure a pre-sale to NBC.
- #047
Actors Elliott Gould and Telly Savalas would later appear in The Muppet Movie (1979).
- #048
The film was shot and released about nine years after man first set foot on the Moon in 1969.
- #049
The theme music is strikingly similar to the music used years earlier in The Six Million Dollar Man (1974).
- #050
James B. Sikking and James Brolin appear in Von Ryan's Express (1965).
- #051
James B. Sikking and Barbara Bosson were regulars on Hill Street Blues (1981).
- #052
The film premiered in Japan on 10 December 1977 and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the distributor Toho-Towa. Its running time was 129 minutes, not 123.
- #053
Filming began in January 1977. Locations included Cinema Center Films in Studio City and Red Rock Canyon State Park.
- #054
Lee Bryant's debut as "Sharon Willis."
- #055
Virginia Kaiser's debut as "Mrs. Price."
- #056
The rear-view mirror in Judy Drinkwater's car is missing or present depending on the scene and camera angle.
- #057
The rear-view mirror in Caulfield's car is missing or present depending on the scene and camera angle.
- #058
Capricorn One (1978) is a thriller in which a reporter discovers that a purported crewed Mars landing is fake, the result of a conspiracy involving the government and the pressured crew. It was written and directed by Peter Hyams and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. The film stars Elliott Gould as the reporter and James Brolin, Sam Waterston and O. J. Simpson as the astronauts. Hal Holbrook plays a senior NASA official who works with government and corporate interests and helps make the mission fake. The musical score was created by Jerry Goldsmith.
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