Five airmen remain with their bomber plane in the middle of the Libyan desert hoping to be rescued. They have crash-landed but something is odd about this scenario. Any time that they start to trek in a certain direction, they always end up at the crash site. It also seems that they have been at the location for 17 years with nothing else to do but play baseball. The day comes when their plane is spotted and Major Vince Edwards (Devlin) and Colonel William Shatner (Josef) are sent to identify the wreckage and produce a report. They take with them General Richard Basehart (Hamner), who was the sixth crew member who parachuted out and survived 17 years ago. When they arrive, they don't see any of the airmen and they start to put their report together. The airmen are definitely there, though! Edwards persists in unravelling the truth.
The inspiration for the setting of the story is the real-life incident involving the bomber plane 'Lady Be Good' which disappeared in 1943 and was spotted in the Libyan desert in 1958. Many details are retained for the film, eg, the intact wreckage and an urn of tea found at the crash site still being drinkable. As for the film, the story is excellently told as we follow two sides – the airmen who seem to be wandering in limbo and the investigators who are trying to piece together what happened. Can the truth be discovered and will the airmen's lives finally be redirected to wherever they need to go?
The acting is good – William Shatner has a few Captain Kirk moments but that is what you want to see - and the ending is memorably done. It's a film that stays with you and keeps you watching for the duration. It also gets you thinking as to what might happen after death. And just who is the sole survivor?
