Fact Check-Video claiming to prove fakery of moon landings uses authentic footage interspersed with clips from fictional movie ‘Capricorn One’
A video circulating online which purports to show leaked footage of the moon landings has duped people into thinking the iconic moment was faked. Rather, the clip melds authentic footage of lunar landings with segments of the 1979 fictional movie ‘Capricorn One.’
The thriller and satirical film stars James Brolin, Sam Waterston and O.J. Simpson as three astronauts whose mission to Mars is cancelled due to safety concerns. As a result, a scheme ensues to fake the mission ( www.imdb.com/title/tt0077294/ ).
On social media, users have since circulated a video which has melded clips of behind-the-scenes footage of the movie with authentic footage of the moon landings. Text burned onto the video reads: “Wikileaks releases moon landing cut scenes filmed in Nevada desert” ( here ).
One user tweeted the clip on Dec. 6, gathering more than 1,000 likes at the time of writing ( here ).
The first slide of the clip corresponds to behind-the-scenes footage of ‘Capricorn One’ that was uploaded to YouTube ( here timestamp, 37:31) and in the film ( here timestamp , 19:49).
The seven-second mark of the video corresponds to timestamp 37:51.
At 12 seconds, the video uses authentic footage of the 1969 moon landings and corresponds to this clip of Buzz Aldrin descending the ladder ( here ).
The 40-second mark shows another authentic clip – this time, of Neil Armstrong ( here ).
At 43 seconds and 1:03, the clip returns to behind-the-scenes footage of Capricorn One (timestamp, 41:24 and 37:41) ( here ).
The two-minute mark corresponds to legitimate footage ( bit.ly/3sKfTzv ).
A longer version of the video has been viewed thousands of times on BitChute and Rumble ( here ), ( here ).
Other examples of the longer video can be seen ( here ), ( here ), ( here ), ( here ).
These videos also mesh legitimate footage with scenes from the movie ( here ).
One user said in the comments: “If they lied about this, WHAT ELSE?!” Another said: “Never was sold on it…always suspicious” ( here ).
0:38 seconds is authentic footage of Apollo 14 while 1:51 corresponds to Apollo 16 footage ( here ), ( here ).
5:45-seconds and 8:38-seconds corresponds to 41:24 and 39:42-seconds of behind-the-scenes of ‘Capricorn One’ respectively ( here ).
Reuters has previously addressed claims that the moon landing was faked ( here ), ( here ), ( here ).
VERDICT
False. A video circulating online does not show leaked footage of the lunar landing and is not proof that the moon landing was faked. The video is an amalgamation of clips from the moon landing meshed with footage from the 1979 movie ‘Capricorn One.’
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
