| Director | Justin Dec, Robert Altman, William Conrad |
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In the late 1960s, after learning that the Russians will be launching a Moon landing mission in four weeks, NASA decides to activate the "Pilgrim Project". The project is a secret plan to send one astronaut to the Moon in a one-way rocket (depicted in the film as a Titan II), using a modified Project Gemini craft. He would stay on the Moon for a few months in a shelter pod launched and landed before him and wait for astronauts from an Apollo mission to arrive and retrieve him. The equipment is ready, but the Russians complicate matters by announcing they will be sending up a civilian. NASA and the White House insist that an American civilian be their first man on the Moon. Lee (James Caan), one of mission commander Chiz's (Robert Duvall) crew, is tapped. Chiz is outraged, but agrees to train Lee in the few days they have. Chiz pushes Lee's training hard, half to get him ready, half hoping he will drop out and Chiz can step in. Lee persists, driven by the same astronaut dream.
After a press leak about Pilgrim, the Russians launch a week early. Deflated at not being first, everyone carries on. The shelter pod is launched and landed successfully. Lee is launched on schedule. He encounters a power drain malfunction en route which tests his character and hinders radio contact. The Russians have also lost contact with their team. As Lee orbits the Moon, he does not see the beacon of the shelter. With only seconds left before he must abort and return to Earth, he lies about seeing it. Mission Control okays his retro burn and he lands, but radio contact is lost. Lee exits of the Gemini lander and walks around with one hour of oxygen in his suit. He finds the crashed Russian lander on its side, the three dead cosmonauts sprawled around the ship. Lee takes the Soviet flag from a dead cosmonaut and lays it on a nearby rock with his own American flag. With little air left and nowhere to go, Lee spins the toy mouse his son gave him. It points right, so he walks in that direction. A red glow on his arm catches his attention: it is the locator beacon atop the shelter. Lee is last seen walking towards the shelter (presumably) towards survival.