Here's an interesting premise:Just suppose the Soviet Union had gotten real close to putting a man on the moon before the USA. Suppose they were almost ready to launch and the US, still a year away from the Apollo launch decides to sent one astronaut ahead in a tricked-out Gemini/moon lander hybrid to live alone until the Apollo mission shows up to relieve him. All it would take would be a shelter sent up in advance, gung-ho, and good timing. But suppose Moscow jumped the gun by launching first, forcing an unprepared NASA to make the go/no go decision.
This whole scenario is the plot of Countdown, which stared James Caan and Robert Duvall as rival astronauts for the Pilgrim space mission. Only one of them can go and mission control chooses Caan because he's a scientist and the white house wants a civilian up there first. Naturally, this leads to a lot of tension because Duvall, an air force officer, who feels it should be him.
I don't think this received a lot of play when it was first released. After Apollo 11 got there, the whole plot seemed dated. But Countdown did play on late night TV a lot in the 70's.
It has a number of good scenes. In one of them, Caan is nearly killed when a hose in his environmental suit fails in a vacuum chamber on Earth. Duvall refuses to stop the simulation, arguing "Who'll be there for him on the moon?"
A good and over-looked movie from the space race.
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