"Operation Ganymed" is sci-fi for thinkers, those with imagination, and those who enjoy looking beyond the obvious. Returning Russian and American crew finds their hook up for re-entry strangely absent. After four years in space they seem to have been forgotten. After landing somewhere in Mexico, they must try and survive on Earth. Their challenge is not an easy one. Everything appears as desolate and deserted as the planet Jupiter which they have just returned from. Gradually, individual dynamics and desperation, overcomes discipline. Flashbacks in the form of hallucinations unfolds a tragic story of exploration, and a savage hopelessness prevails. Despite marginal special effects, the story is excellent. - MERK

I agree that the special effects in this movie are really sub-standard compared to what was possible in 1977 (it was a low-budget movie), but the story itself is interesting and pretty clear and there is never a doubt that the 5 (and not "about 4" - did you really watch this movie???) survivors make it back to earth and are stranded in Mexico (more precise: at the deserted Baja California coast). The water is a problem for these survivors because they carry a small portable filter with which they can produce drinkable water from salt water (that's why they stay at the coast at the beginning) but not enough for all of them. What makes this movie interesting imho is the fact that they managed to survive the tough two years return voyage only by strict self-discipline whilst being in the small space capsule, but as soon after they have reached the earth orbit, all the suppressed group dynamics and character differences are starting to show and lead to the group's breakup. Don, the scientist, who is the physically and mentally weakest of those who survived, is, on the other hand, the most flexible of all and he is the only one who can adapt to their new situation.

Although this t.v. movie was made around the same time as Star Wars, it has nothing of a space opera. Rainer Erler is more interested in the inner space of his characters. Five astronauts return to earth after more than four years on a catastrophically failed mission to Ganymede during which 21 of their team perished. When no one answers their calls, they perform an emergency landing in the ocean and finally get to a rocky desert coast that looks much like a strange planet. While they did find some evidence of life on Ganymede, they have a hard time doing so on Earth, until they surmise that the human race must have destroyed itself in a nuclear war. Their despair over the apparent utter futility of all that they have endured leads them to madness, murder and cannibalism.Some of the effects shots betray the movie's low budget (in terms of money as well as time, it seems), e.g. when in a supposedly zero gravity scene you can see that one of the characters is actually hanging from the ceiling in his seat because his hair is standing up straight. Other scenes seem to have been shot in a real zero gravity environment.Apart from looking cheap in some and dated in all places, this movie has many defects, not the least of which is the utterly unsuitable score. I still give it a high mark because it succeeds in creating an apocalyptic atmosphere and depicting people's emotional reactions to it better than many other movies I have seen.An intriguing presence in the movie is a beautiful girl that keeps appearing to one of the characters in his daydreams or hallucinations. She is played by Vicky Roskilly, an actress who seems to have made this one movie only and then disappeared from the face of the earth, at least as far as any traces of her on the internet are concerned. I hope she is alive and well.

I always looked at this as a sort of Vietnam parable. The astronauts (before they return to Earth) have nothing but high hopes and delusions of grandeur. They dream of a warm reception and massive parades for the conquering heroes. However, nothing is further from the truth, as the Astronauts return to a world where they are not only forgotten, but unwelcome. The bleak atmosphere of this movie is truly astonishing. I love the scenes where the astronauts wander around in the desert while the main character Don has frequent flashbacks to spacecamp and an extended sequence on the surface of Ganymede where two of his fellow explorers die tragic deaths. While the cinematography and editing are pretty crude, there are some pretty good ideas and tricks used by this extremely low budget movie. Although the acting does get over the top at times, it's never too silly to keep from enjoying the seriousness of the movie, which in the end is more of a thinker than a downer. I love the ending in that it raises some really good questions while the movie could have ended at any point earlier on.Watch as a curiosity item, at least to see Jurgen Prochnow in a very pre-Das Boot supporting role.