I saw it in a reasonably full theater that one week it was released and bought it both on VHS and DVD. I’m still slightly annoyed that it’s so short.
Apart from it not being available on DVD for over a decade, I think it gets lost in the shuffle because it was such a tough time for the community. The short Season 7, the wait for the Sci-Fi pickup, Trace’s departure (and replacement as the lead Mad by Mary Jo, which was very unpopular until Season 8 actually aired), the different feel of Season 8, etc etc etc, I suspect a lot of the longest-time fans think of it as a relic of the “dark times” so it doesn’t get discussed. And since newer fans couldn’t see it at all, it slipped through the cracks.
I applaud Jonah for shouting its praises. It deserves to be seen and celebrated.
Oh man… I remember seeing it advertised in my local paper but the closest theater it was shown in was over an hour away (I did not drive yet, so it was not something I could get to easily). I figured I’d just wait for it to get closer, as lots of movies passed our suburb on first run but would swing by eventually… and then like a week or so later… nothing. No one even acknowledged that it was even real… I felt gaslit by the whole world pretending that the movie didn’t exist at all… it was not until a few years later when I was in college and a friend of mine brought his VHS for movie night that I finally felt redeemed that it WAS REAL! And I finally got to see it! Albeit on an 11 inch CRT with built-in VCR…
Hanger 18 was on Creature Features. I watched it not that long ago, however I don’t remember a thing about it. Some of these movies are incredibly dull without riffs, even if the MST version was good. I might not of finished it or fell asleep. If my mum is watching I won’t force her to sit through something. Usually I must know how it ends.
To the point where he would name TWO of his comedy albums after MST3K: The Movie / This Island Earth lines: “Hello, Mr. Magic Plane Person, Hello” and “This is Crazy Mixed-Up Plumbing” !
Rifftrax did Hangar 18. Although it’s the two British guys, not the usual trio riffing it. The movie does really plod along. And it makes so sense.
Two astronauts, revered as national heroes, see something streak by in space. NASA gets the order to hush it up. So, instead of telling the astronauts that the matter is classified and not to ask or talk about it (or even bringing them in on things and gaining from their knowledge), they decide to… pull an elaborate frame job, fake the data, and send assassins after the pair.
But ultimately they find the secret of Hangar 18 and the plot slows down even more. It’s been a few years. I barely remember the ending. I think it just self-destructs? The hangar, too.
That’s one of the most vexing things about this: the movie wasn’t shown in very many theaters, but where it WAS shown, it had an UNREAL per-screen average, easily higher than anything else that came out that weekend. And that’s with no advertising dollars tossed behind it.
To think of what that movie could have done with more screens and an advertising budget that wasn’t in the negative.
I took a day off from work so it was a weekday matinee, because way more trains running in and out of Philly on weekdays, so that’s probably the reason I was in a mostly empty theater about a week after release day.
It doesn’t self destruct. The bad guy (Robert Vaughn, I think?) has the hangar blown up to both get rid of the evidence and kill off everyone at NASA who knew about it.
So I THINK (but cannot be 100% positive because my memory for these sorts of things is not the best) that the movie is probably the first taste of MST3K I ever had. It’s certainly among the most memorable from the classic era for me. I didn’t see it in theaters, and HOW exactly I came to be watching it is currently beyond my capacity to remember, but I’m like… around 85% certain that it’s the first time I’d seen anything MST3K-related. At first I thought it was silly… but it grew on me, and by the point Mike deadpanned the line “sure, let’s sneak away under cover of afternoon in the biggest car in the county” I was pretty hooked. It was at that point I believe I started watching the actual show (this was at some point in the later part of the '90s, so it was already on Sci-Fi at that point I believe) and I got my first taste of the actual show. I’ve since become a mega-fan and currently own every single episode that’s ever been released on DVD (the 12 or so episodes Shout! can’t get the rights for and the KTMA episodes are the only exceptions, but thankfully with the exception of K03 I was able to get those digitally thanks to @deanadolphin’s video archive). I’ve also watched them all in order (mostly during the pandemic when I was working a week on, week off schedule). I own a DVD copy and am getting a blu-ray copy. Long story short; I love the movie, pretty sure it’s what introduced me to MST3K in the first place, and I’d be down for a community viewing if we can figure out how to sync up our viewing platform capabilities.
True. I just mean that elaborate, inexplicable conspiracies by an unaccountable government were particularly de rigueur at that time.
Just looked them up, and I’m stunned that its sister in spirit, Capricorn One, actually came out first. In my memory the order was reversed. Probably all part of the conspiracy, though.
Hmm. Whatever could have happened in the late 60s and into the 70s to cause people to distrust the government and suspect elaborate (and incompetent) conspiracies?
Kid: “I love sugar!”
Devil: “I have the perfect cereal for you!”
Kid: “Yeah?”
Devil: “It’s 100% sugar!”
Kid: “YAY!” (gobbles cereal greedily)
Devil: “Also, it tears your mouth to shreds!”
Kid: (still eating)
Devil: “Hey, I said it tears your mouth to shreds!”
Kid: (still eating, bleeding from mouth)
Devil: (backs away slowly)
