NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.
Based on the true story of the ill-fated 13th Apollo mission bound for the moon. Astronauts Lovell, Haise and Swigert were scheduled to fly Apollo 14, but are moved up to 13. It's 1970, and The US has already achieved their lunar landing goal, so there's little interest in this "routine" flight.. until that is, things go very wrong, and prospects of a safe return fade.Written by
Rob Hartill
Gene Kranz gives a list of instructions to his team at Mission Control, and finishes by saying, "Failure is not an option!" Gene Kranz didn't actually say that during the Apollo 13 mission, but he liked the line. It became the title of his 2000 autobiography. See more »
Goofs
In the film, Jim Lovell suggests using the cross hairs on the window of the CM and line it up with the terminator line of the earth as a procedure to navigate without the computer. This appears to be an idea "plucked out of the air" by Lovell, and Houston have to confer in order to see if it would work.
In reality this procedure was practiced by Lovell on Apollo 8 in preparation for just such a malfunction of the computer and Houston had full procedural guidelines in place.
The actual problem was that the explosion had created a cloud of sunlit debris that made it impossible to align the inertial guidance platform by sighting stars. The sun, earth and moon were not normally used for this because of their large sizes, but the debris cloud made them the only usable visual references. See more »
Quotes
Jack Swigert:
[about to turn power back on in the capsule]
Ken, there's an awful lot of condensation on these panels. What's the story of them shorting out?
Ken Mattingly:
Umm... We'll just have to take that one at a time, Jack.
Jack Swigert:
[to himself]
Like trying to drive a toaster through a car wash.
See more »
Alternate Versions
The film's IMAX 70mm release presented the film open-matte, at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, meaning there was more picture information visible in the top and bottom of the frame than in normal theaters, during its initial run and on earlier home video releases, before the 10th Anniversary DVD. See more »
APOLLO 13 (1995) ***1/2 Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan, Ed Harris, Loren Dean, Clint Howard. Exhilarating and absorbing true life account of the 1970 mishap of the American space program's Apollo 13 that nearly became a tragic catastrophe based on astronaut and team leader Jim Lovell's novel "Lost Moon". Hanks is excellent as Lovell, grace under pressure realized, as is the rest of the fine ensemble and perfect visual effects of space travel and ingenuity. Harris won a nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Mission control's chief. Noteworthy: that's director Ron Howard's real life mother as Lovell's mom and look sharp for Lovell himself at the film's conclusion. Oscar winner for Best Editing and Best Sound.
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APOLLO 13 (1995) ***1/2 Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan, Ed Harris, Loren Dean, Clint Howard. Exhilarating and absorbing true life account of the 1970 mishap of the American space program's Apollo 13 that nearly became a tragic catastrophe based on astronaut and team leader Jim Lovell's novel "Lost Moon". Hanks is excellent as Lovell, grace under pressure realized, as is the rest of the fine ensemble and perfect visual effects of space travel and ingenuity. Harris won a nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Mission control's chief. Noteworthy: that's director Ron Howard's real life mother as Lovell's mom and look sharp for Lovell himself at the film's conclusion. Oscar winner for Best Editing and Best Sound.