"Hangar 18" is a completely off-the-rails tale of a pair of astronauts, framed by the government, as the negligent killers of the third man of their crew. You see, while launching a satellite from the space shuttle, a UFO appeared, which the satellite crashed into, killing their fellow crew member. The UFO crashes to Earth and the military, in a Roswell-like cover-up, retrieve the UFO and take it to Hangar 18.

To prevent public panic just before the upcoming presidential election, the White House attempts to hide the UFO to ensure the President's reelection. Meanwhile, the fugitive astronauts race to find the UFO and clear their names of guilt.

This movie is even crazier than it sounds. Not only is the UFO closely studied, the aliens within the UFO are recovered and found to be the "creators" of humans! This is "Chariots of the Gods" type of stuff!

A stellar cast of second-tier TV stars are featured here, including Gary Collins, Robert Vaughn, Darren McGavin, and the chubbiest astronaut ever, played by James Hampton.

Shockingly, people are dying left and right in this thing and I'm talking main characters, too! The conclusion is a stunner and caught me totally off guard. The ending alone makes this worth watching. The whole movie is tacky, corny fun.

When a couple of astronauts are convinced that they have been in a fatal collision with an UFO whilst launching a top secret military satellite in space, they are shunned by their peers and their government. Thing is, they were right - and when White House Chief of Staff "Cain" (a shockingly wooden Robert Vaughn) is informed that the spaceship has landed in Arizona, he orders it all hushed up as there is an election looming. Not to be deterred, and somewhat irked by their treatment, our two intrepid explorers - "Price" (James Hampton) and "Bancroft" (Gary Collins) engage in lots of "Dukes of Hazard' style car chases before tracking down the missing ship. Meantime, a team of scientists led by "Forbes" (Darren McGavin) have discovered that the ship had occupants - if you have ever seen the head-bust of Mentuemhat in Cairo then you will know what I mean - and it appears that these folks had designs on Earth's defence and power supply facilities - could there be an invasion imminent? The production is basic - lots of cannibalised bakelite kitchen utensils, cylon-style sound effects and blinking lights, and the dialogue is all a bit naff - but at least it does try to illustrate the politics of the discovery being far more important than any scientific benefit. I didn't hate it, but I can't in all honesty recommend it.