I dont know *HOW* I forgot this one.. It is, after all, my all time favourite SF movie:
Capricorn One.
Fuck yeah!
Mars landings faked, Watergate-esque conspiracies.... Absolutely singing 70's dialogue (I love the bits with either Elliot Gould or Hal Holbrook...) It's a fascinating character study into political evil. Just about the best movie about the dangers of government research ever made.
I love it, all the way down to O.J dying in the desert, and the roaring biplane chase with Telly Savales.
If you watch it expecting a Star Wars, you will be disappointed.. But as a study in political evil, it makes The Parallax View and The Manchurian Candidate look like bad episodes of The X Files.
Did I mention it had a score by Jerry Goldsmith?
Did I also mention that the reason that everything falls apart is because The Heat Shields Fail (exactly as happened on Columbia)?
Fuck Yeah!