A cracking example of a low-budget concept done right, “Operation Avalanche” conjures up a huge national conspiracy on a fraction of the budget of a sci-fi blockbuster.
Oh, and it reveals how we faked the moon landings.
Created in the style of a documentary, the film opens with two bumbling CIA agents (Matt Johnson, who also directed, and Owen Williams) trying to justify their filmmaking unit. Their first idea is to go undercover at NASA, where they and their two cameramen will try to identify a Soviet spy while pretending to make a behind-the-scenes movie for the Apollo program.
There, they discover that NASA’s moon launch is seriously delayed — thus breaking the late President Kennedy’s pledge to get there by 1970. The USA will lose the space race to the USSR.
Johnson, who fancies himself a young Stanley Kubrick, goes to the higher-ups with a plan: Fake the landing. They’ll film the astronauts in a warehouse, surrounded by sand and a mock-up of the lunar lander, and sell it as the actual moon mission.
NASA goes for it. This is worked out in a clever way — initially funny, the movie turns creepy and suspenseful as it goes along.
Johnson and co-writer Josh Boles pick up on some of the conspiracy theories that surround the Apollo moon landings. Included is the rumor — people really talk about this stuff — that Kubrick, who was working on “2001: A Space Odyssey” at the time, directed the faked moon landings. (The documentary “Room 237” details the way some believe “The Shining” contains coded information that proves Kubrick’s complicity in the conspiracy.)
In “Operation Avalanche,” Johnson goes to visit the set of “2001” and picks up valuable photography tips. We even see Kubrick, blended into the action in “Forrest Gump” style.
In fact, this film does an impeccable job of re-creating the look of 60s-era film stock — costumes and props, too. Only the actors’ Canadian accents give the game away.
“Operation Avalanche” descends from its late-70s ancestor “Capricorn One,” an irresistible popcorn movie. In that film, NASA fakes a Mars voyage, stranding three hapless astronauts (including O.J. Simpson) in the wake of the high-stakes gamble.
It’s a scruffy but worthy addition to the tradition of paranoid thrillers, in which average citizens think they can play the rigged game, but soon find themselves woefully overmatched. You don’t have to believe in conspiracies to enjoy the movie versions.
“Operation Avalanche” 3 stars
An effective low-budget mockumentary about a CIA filmmaking crew that fakes the Apollo 11 moon landing. Initially funny, eventually creepy, this scruffy effort has a good feel for the era and a skillful way of tapping into conspiracy theories about the moonshot.
Rating: R, for language
Showing: Sundance Cinemas
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