Hangar 18

"Hanger 18" is from Sunn Classic Pictures....a now-defunct studio that brought us some quirky, paranoid films such as "The Outer Space Connection" (a documentary that claimed ancient civilizations were in constant contact with aliens who, apparently, made their cool structures) and "In Search for Noah's Ark". I expected very, very little from a Sunn film...that's for sure. However, the longer I watched the film, the more I realized it wasn't bad at all. Paranoid...yes...bad....no.

The film begins with footage of the space shuttle that looks dated today...but was amazing stuff for 1980. Consider this...years before the creation of Pixar, the film shows a lot of high tech CGI effects of the shuttle. I didn't have any idea how Sunn could afford this. It was only in the end credits where the studio thanked both NASA and Rockwell International....and it's likely they got the footage from them, as studios of the day simply didn't have the money or HUGE computers needed for such graphics. Regardless, it was pretty good footage.

While on a routine mission to deploy a satellite, the satellite accidentally collides with a UFO...and the UFO crashes to the Earth. This portion and the scientific study of the ship...all this was very well done and interesting. But there's another plot...one which seemed too influenced by Watergate...where some presidential aids take control of how to tell...or NOT tell the public. This portion, while interesting in its own way, kept the film from being better...that is until the nice twist ending.

Overall, a solid sci-fi film masquerading as yet another lousy Sunn film. Well worth seeing and highly original.

Ok, no, this isn't one of the greatest movies of all time by any means, but it does have some very interesting theories and suggestions, ala the "X-Files". If you were between 10-14 during the late 70's and early 80's, you'll remember the movies that dealt with such mysteries as Bigfoot, Noah's Ark, and (didn't this one just scare the be-jesus out of you!) Nostradomas, narrated by Orsen Welles. I think the movie is entertaining, even though it is "dated" by today's standards. I also don't think it's a strech to say this could have been the very birth of the X-Files as we now know it.

This film was made in my hometown of Big Spring, Texas....my father is in the movie as an extra..he is one of the guys in the hanger around the ship ..look for the white dude with an afro...lol..I was going to get to be in the movie but they decided to scrap that scene for a night crash instead. If you visit the hanger on the old air base it still has the 18 on it. I love the movie. Its pretty good for being such a low budget film but its cool. The ship was sold to one of the rich people in town back then for his kid to have to have fun in. I always remember my parents telling me about Robert Vaughn, they told me that he thought he was this big time actor from Hollywood and he thought he was the coolest thing walking the earth. The other actors and a lot of the higher up towns people would have parties all get together...it was interesting.

Some parts of the film were done in Midland, Texas and Odessa, Texas...so when watching the film its like looking in my back yard.

Following a disaster on a routine shuttle mission where a satellite explosion results in a crashed UFO and a dead astronaut, Gordon Cain (Robert Vaughn) an adviser for the White House arranges to keep a lid on the UFO by relocating it and creating a cover story blaming the two surviving astronauts Price and Bancroft (James Hampton and Gary Collins respectively). Both Price and Bancroft are determined to clear their names and unravel the conspiracy of what they encountered on their mission.

Released in 1980, the film was one of many films to be produced and released by now defunct Utah based film company Sunn Classic Pictures. Sunn's slate consisted of family friendly dramas as well as sensationalist "documentaries" such as The Mysterious Monsters, In Search of Noah's Ark, and Beyond and Back just to name a few. Hangar 18 is clearly inspired by the success of both Close Encounters as well as the various paranoid thrillers of the 70s, but it doesn't tackle them particularly well as much like Sunn's documentaries, it pretends these very silly and unbelievable events are real with complete seriousness.

From the get go the movie makes a terrible impression with an opening Shuttle sequence that has serviceable enough special effects given its low budget, but it's two leads whose credits include serving as a TV host and a supporting role on F Troop make them completely unbelievable for playing astronauts. Their body type in combination with their manner of speaking just feels completely at odds with the characters they're playing and you never find yourself believing who they are. The movie also has a rather flimsy pretext for why this is happening in the first place and the central "cover-up" is built on flimsy logic that doesn't account for preventable outcomes like the two Astronauts wanting to clear their names after being falsely accused. The UFO is also rather disappointing as its size is inconsistent, it's got a flimsy plastic look that looks like stacked storage bins on a disc, and the aliens in side are hairless pale white creatures that are unimaginative and unmemorable.

There's a few decent moments to be had, Robert Vaughn is good as antagonist Gordon Cain, playing a man who's not afraid to get his hands dirty and knows which strings to pull. Darren McGavin is also quite good playing the deputy director of NASA who analyzes the ship as it's stored in the titular Hangar 18, and while the visuals are underwhelming, there is a good sense of mystery and build up that is engaging during the segments inside the hangar. Unfortunately the rest of the movie outside the Hangar is very stock and lacking in engagement as we see Price and Bancroft stumble around Arizona and Texas engaging in a much less interesting investigation than McGavin's in the Hangar.

There's an interesting enough hook to Hangar 18 in showing the workings of how the government would address a UFO crash landing in the United States, and the investigative elements are reasonably okay when focused on Darren McGavin, but the other part of the movie where Price and Bancroft impotently stumble around trying to clear their name and special effects that are both cheap and unimaginative make the movie feel like an ABC movie of the week rather than something to be shown in a theater. It's a solid enough time killer, but you're not missing anything not seeking it out.

The standard Government cover-up of UFO. If we knew about it too soon it would sway the presidential elections. Part of the containment is to discredit two astronauts Steve Bancroft, Lew Price (Gary Collins, James Hampton) who witnessed the object. If they cannot be discredited, they need to be contained. If not contained, then? What is worse is that it seems that Lew has a real flair for adventure.

Standard conspiracy and obligatory auto chase. They tried to toss in Great Primed theory after it was figured out that people built it and left debris and work records. It sort of puts a damper on the story. Oh no, what about the missing link and where next?

The fun thing is looking at all the old technology of the eighties (some of it was old then). A side benefit is a rather good picture of Big Spring, Texas, where the movie was made. The movie is a good vehicle for TV actors of the time. Putting this film in a time frame the movie "Capricorn One" was made three years earlier. You need to watch this for cultural literacy, but it has lost the original flair and suspense of the time it was made.