Don't listen to the negative reviews

Absolutely the worst movie.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

In the 1970s the three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) cranked out dozens of movies made especially for television. Some were based on great classical works of literature, in a vain attempt to entice television viewers to the bookshelves. Others were based on historical events, usually slanted to represent the political viewpoints of the filmmakers rather than in an attempt at historical accuracy. Some were fun, some were dreary; only a relatively small percentage are still watchable."Sole Survivor" was one of the better television movies and you'd never know it was made for TV except for the cast (Vince Edwards from "Ben Casey"; William Shatner from "Star Trek"; Richard Basehart from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"). It was based on the discovery of a World War II plane in the Libyan desert, and its primary conceit is that when people die their ghosts remain fairly close to where their bodies are.This lets the movie operate on two levels: the ghosts, first to appear, who have been stranded in the desert and want to be reburied near their loved ones in the good ol' USA; and the researchers who are trying to discover why the plane went down. The latter group includes a former crew member (Basehart) who is now a general.Since the ghosts are played by real people who are obviously tangible (though they looked like they stepped out of "Hogan's Heroes" and probably used some of the same costumes) it takes few minutes to adjust to the split-level effect of ghosts vs. humans. Eventually, one settles into the movie's ambience.Basehart is typically good, acting like it's Shakespeare. Shatner is typically lousy; but the important thing about these sorts of movies is seeing familiar faces (probably people under contract) to help viewers recognize characters without actually learning their names. Vince Edwards falls somewhere in between; his show is not so well remembered these days and so modern viewers might not be declined to cut him the slack they do Shatner. SPOILERS: The movie doesn't really have a heavy. The suspense comes from whether the crew's skeletons will be uncovered and transported home after a quarter-century of endless, ghostly baseball. All the living characters are nuanced: Vince Edwards is the good guy wrestling with new discoveries; Basehart is the troubled baddie who has a distinguished life and career--and secrets he wants to keep hidden. Shatner is the bureaucrat who just wants to get the investigation over with and get out of the stinking desert, and whose decision may ruin the whole show.For the rest, Patrick Wayne (John's son) has what's probably the best role of his career. When I watch this movie I wonder what his father thought about it. Up and comers vary. Brad David is an eager kid and does pretty well. Lou Antonio does his patented "no one understands me" moping, but that's probably what they hired him for. The rest do just fine.Overall, above average for what it is. But, being about two groups of guys in a desert with nothing else nearby, it's very talky.

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?

Lately I've been listening to an audio book called "Great Military Blunders of the 20th Century" and during the huge section on WWII a brief chapter came up describing the fate of "Lady be Good." As I got to talking with my wife about the incident, I realized there had to be a connection with the haunting TV movie I'd seen decades ago. I still remember watching it on the B&W TV in my family's basement - with no one else around & believe me it stuck with me. I didn't see any comments on one of the conversations of the ghost crew when one of the members is amazed & fairly disappointed/upset that the Brooklyn Dodgers are no longer in Brooklyn but out in LA. That little bit stuck with me over the years, maybe because I'm from the NYC area. Today all that pathos, pain, relief & a whole bunch of emotions that the young guys felt as they suddenly started their journey to their final resting place, came flooding back as if I'd just watched the movie. Though Learmedia has the film for a whopping 27 dollars and change, I AM absolutely going to buy this film. Now that I think about it, the ideas about death in this film, clearly influenced my own writing in a book - a novel - I am about to release called "The Rest is Silence" ," where the person telling the story, the main character's first wife, has died & is trying to work out/figure out the confusion and anger she feels toward her husband. As others have pointed out, they just don't make them like this anymore. In fact, but for the exception of this film, TV movie or not, and a few like it, maybe they never did. For years I'd mixed this one up with Flight of the Phoenix. Now I realize, except for the desert, they have very little in common. Thanks!

Its strange to read some of the comments above, we all seem to have the same story about this movie, the fact that we all saw it so long ago, for me over 20 years, and searched for the title and finally finding the movie, and enjoying it all over again...its strange how a film can touch so many people in the same way. I have seen thousands of movies in the past but have never had a film touch me and make me search so long to see it again. I actually sat with my children to watch the movie, and they seem to enjoy it, but who knows they be the next travellers on the quest.... I'm just glad that I have finally come to the end of the journey, and was able to purchase a copy of this film from Ebay...thank god for Ebay and the Internet, Or who knows how long the journey would have lasted....