Capricorn One

Capricorn One (1977) is Peter Hyams' conspiracy thriller you can watch online on iFILM. America's first crewed flight to Mars is ready to launch. Then, minutes before liftoff, the astronauts are quietly pulled off the capsule — the life-support system would never have kept them alive.

Rather than scrub the mission and lose its funding, NASA fakes the whole thing. Three astronauts (James Brolin, Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson) are flown to an abandoned desert base and ordered to act out a Mars landing on a studio set. The lie holds until the empty ship burns up on re-entry. Suddenly the men who know the truth are loose ends, and the cover-up turns lethal. A nosy reporter named Caulfield, played by Elliott Gould, starts pulling the one thread that unravels it.

Hyams tapped straight into a post-Watergate mood where audiences were ready to believe the government would stage anything — and decades on, this film still fuels moon-landing hoax talk. Jerry Goldsmith's propulsive score and a wild biplane-versus-helicopter chase keep it moving. Great pick if you like analog-era paranoia with real stunts and no CGI. Stream Capricorn One online on iFILM.