Capricorn one biplane chase scene6/5/2023 ![]() Capricorn One (1978) available free on YouTube via Flick Vault, Pluto TV, Amazon Buy The picture boasts a strong cast that includes Jodie Foster, an elaborately coiffured Matthew McConaughey, John Hurt, James Woods, and Angela Bassett. ![]() When eventually plans for an advanced machine are also sent by the Vegans, two options appear to the world’s panjandrums: either it’s a novel form of interplanetary exploration or a world-destroying device sent from Vega to obliterate newly emerging intelligences capable of radio contact. Contact is a rather serious affair with plenty of ethical, scientific, and moral conundrums, but is quite absorbing – if you are in the mood for a dialogue-heavy drama, that is. Robert Zemeckis’ (Forrest Gump) adaptation of Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel Contact posits a non-traditional mode of space travel. When the SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) programme picks up images of the 1936 Berlin Olympics embedded in a signal from the distant Vega system, Earth’s scientists and political leaders have to figure out the best way to respond. Mission to Mars/Red Planet (2000) Amazon Rent/Buy When the team discover that the ‘communications’ satellite is in fact loaded with nuclear weapons, their task takes on additional urgency.Īs long as you don’t expect too much, Space Cowboys passes the time amiably, as the chemistry between the quartet of oldsters works pretty well. James Cromwell stars as baddish guy NASA project manager Bob Gerson: he played a more heroic role as warp drive inventor Zefram Cochrane in 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact. With Space Cowboys, Eastwood combined humour with drama in a yarn about over-the-hill former astronauts recruited to prevent an oldSoviet-era communications satellite from crashing to Earth. Clint (as Colonel Frank Corvin) heads up a team of old-timers numbering screen veterans Donald Sutherland, James Garner, and comparative youngster Tommy Lee Jones. With the exception of his two movies with Clyde the orangutan (Every Which Way but Loose, 1978 and Any Which Way You Can, 1980), Clint Eastwood usually confines his limited talent for comedy to the odd sardonic remark or a raised eyebrow. I have included one comedy-drama movie of (relatively) recent vintage to demonstrate the range available. Understandably, the rigours of space flight are rarely the subject for full blown comedy movies (although there are numerous TV series that do), but older pictures such as Dark Star (1974), Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) and Galaxy Quest (1999) continue to deliver on the laughter front. ![]() I have tried to avoid the obvious choices: Gravity, Interstellar, Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Passengers and Apollo 13 – all worthy of a watch – and introduce you to lesser known titles. ![]() Unless one or both of the pesky duo steal a march on the Brothers Bezos before July 20 th that is. ![]() No doubt part of the fun for Jeff will be tweaking the noses of fellow space rival billionaires Elon Musk and Richard Branson. As Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark prepare themselves to fulfil many a little boys dream and become real life astronauts on rocket-ship New Shepard, here’s a look at space flight in the movies. ![]()
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