The Landing

In 1973 the United States' manned space program experienced an extraordinary tragedy - an event that, despite its place as one of the most disturbing episodes of the space race, was nevertheless all but ignored during the emerging Watergate scandal that ultimately claimed the presidency of President Nixon. Returning from a successful lunar landing mission, NASA's Apollo 18 suffered what appeared to be a computer error that forced command-module pilot Bo Cunningham to take manual control of the spacecraft to make an emergency landing in the remote Takla Makan desert of western China, far from the intended splashdown target in the Pacific Ocean. Thirty-six hours would pass before NASA located the spacecraft, and when U.S. officials finally arrived on site, they discovered two crew members, Ed Lovett and Al Borden, dead. Cunningham returned home a seemingly tragic hero, but investigators soon uncovered alarming evidence concerning the post-crash events - was malice and foul play involved? In The Landing, co-directors David and Mark Dodson offer a riveting examination into the notorious circumstances surrounding Apollo 18: Interviews with witnesses and participants, conducted on the 25th anniversary of the incident, reveal new layers of a mystery that continues to obsess investigators and which nearly destroyed an American institution. (Seattle International Film Festival)