Classic Horrors Club

There are two 1980 science-fiction films I remember seeing at the Esquire Theater in my home town of Enid, Oklahoma, that I absolutely did not like. In fact, I haven’t seen either one since. One was The Final Countdown, one of only a couple moviegoing experiences during which I fell asleep. The other was Hangar 18. I don’t remember why I found it so distasteful, but watching it recently, I truly enjoyed it.

From the opening credits, it appears documentary maker and distributor Sunn Classic Picture was trying to compete with the big boys: Star Wars, Close Encounters, and Superman. I would have been spoiled at the time and considered Hangar 18 to be a low budget rip-off. Now, with a few years of experience, I appreciate the effort. If there’s no nostalgia for the film, there is for seeing actors like Darren McGavin, Gary Collins, Robert Vaughn, and Joseph Campanella.

Collins and James Hampton play astronauts Steve Bancroft and Lew Price. While launching a satellite from the space shuttle… a space shuttle that in real life would not fly into action until a year later… it hits a UFO, which then lands in Bannon County, Arizona. I don’t say “crashes” because it halts its angled downward trajectory to then slowly float in a vertical line to the ground. However, the pilots are later found dead inside the craft.

When news of the incident is delivered to the President of the United States’s next-in-line, Gordon Cain (Vaughn), we learn that it’s two weeks until the election and they don’t need wild speculation and rumors. “Keep the lid on Hangar 18.” That’s where the ship has been taken at Wolf Air Force Base in West Texas. The problem is that a third astronaut was decapitated and left floating in space during the accident.

The solution is to pin the blame on the astronauts. That way, if they tell anyone what they experienced, they’ll be discredited. This gives Hanger 18 a solid conspiracy theory and a genuine investment in the fate of Bancroft and Price as they travel the country trying to find proof that will exonerate them. It isn’t easy. They’re followed every step of the way by snipers and drivers that want to run them off the road.

That’s only half the movie, though. Although it takes place during a relatively short time frame, the crack team of scientists learns compelling information about the aliens. I won’t spoil the revelations here, but let’s just say they take an everything but the kitchen sink approach and include various pieces of UFO theory and speculation in a package that I found interesting. It incorporates no less than the very meaning of the existence of mankind.

I remember not liking The Final Countdown because it was slow and boring, but there’s not a boring moment in Hangar 18. The good guys are likable, the bad guys are despicable. In the middle is McGavin’s Harry Forbes, a NASA employee chosen to lead the military operation. He’s unaware of the chaos outside the base, and would surely be conflicted if he were. It’s all good, silly fun. There’s action and decent special effects. I was pleasantly surprised.