Secret files have been uncovered that reveal the British had a manned space program in the 1950s, and this film unveils the truth: the First Man In Space drank tea, not vodka or Tang. A British astronaut cooped up in a Mercury-style capsule faces a catastrophic malfunction and needs to make an emergency landing. The only way that can be done is for Mission Control to figure out when and where to fire his retro-rockets. The radio keeps fading in and out, messages get garbled, and you hear different voices talking to him, some of which sound suspiciously like Russians trying to convince him to take their advice. So is he going to land near a British ship in the ocean, or on the Russian steppes? There are some glaringly incorrect historical references, which could have been avoided with a little more time invested in background research. And there are the usual technical glitches that come with trying to simulate the lack of gravity, or the time delay in radio communications, but even big-budget flicks sometimes don't even try to appear authentic in that vein. Look at it this way: an "alternative ending" on the DVD could have Sandra Bullock come knocking on his door asking for help in getting back to Earth from HER doomed spacecraft.....
