Apollo 13 (film)

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Apollo 13
Apollo 13 Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Ron Howard
Produced by	Brian Grazer
Written by	Novel: (Lost Moon) Jim Lovell Jeffrey Kluger Screenplay: William Broyles Jr. Al Reinert
Starring	Tom Hanks Kevin Bacon Bill Paxton Gary Sinise Ed Harris Kathleen Quinlan
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Dean Cundey
Editing by	Daniel P. Hanley Mike Hill
Distributed by	Universal Pictures Imagine Entertainment
Release date(s)	June 30, 1995
Running time	140 minutes (IMAX 116 minutes)
Language	English
Budget	$62 million USD
Gross revenue	$355,237,933 (worldwide)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Apollo 13 is a 1995 film dramatizing the event of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970. The movie was adapted by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert from the book Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. It was directed by Ron Howard.

The film was modified and re-released as an IMAX film in 2002. The IMAX film cuts approximately 24 minutes and some minor language from the original version.

In 2005, a 10th anniversary DVD of the film was released; this version included both the theatrical version and the IMAX version, along with several extras.^[1]

1 Plot
2 Critical reaction
3 Technical accuracy
4 Featured cast
5 Awards and nominations
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

The film opens with a flashback of the Apollo 1 fire incident, accompanied by a narration by Walter Cronkite. As Cronkite’s monologue ends, the film moves on to July 20, 1969 where veteran astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is on his way home to a party for the Apollo 11 moon landing. After witnessing Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the moon, an inebriated Lovell stares up at the moon and tells his wife, Marilyn (Kathleen Quinlan), of his wish for a moon landing of his own.

A few months later, Jim, who's expecting to fly Apollo 14, is giving a VIP tour of NASA’s towering Vehicle Assembly Building while Apollo 13’s massive Saturn V rocket is being assembled. As the Congressmen among the VIPs question the possibility of any further moon landings after beating the Soviet Union to the moon, he is informed by Deke Slayton (Chris Ellis) that he and his crew have been bumped up to be prime crew of Apollo 13. After informing his family of his new flight assignment, Lovell and his crew, Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) begin training for Apollo 13's mission instead of 14's. As the launch date approaches, Marilyn’s fears for her husband’s fourth space mission manifest in her unwillingness to go to the Launch.

At Cape Kennedy, two days before Launch, Lovell is informed that Mattingly may be at risk for German measles. Despite his efforts to overrule the flight surgeon’s recommendations, Lovell makes the decision to bump Mattingly off the flight and replace him with the backup Command Module Pilot, Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon), to the chagrin of Haise and Mattingly. The night before launch, Haise says his goodbye to his family; bachelor Swigert is seen off by at least one person who calls out "Jack" off screen. Also in attendance, to Lovell’s surprise, is Marilyn, coming to see “a hell of a show.”

The next morning Lovell, Haise and Swigert are suited up for the launch. Meanwhile, in Houston's Mission Control Center, Apollo 13 flight director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) prepares the members of Mission Control for the flight. After the crew has been secured into the spacecraft, the mission is given a "go" for launch. The film then moves into a dramatic launch sequence as the astronauts are launched into orbit. The middle engine on the Saturn V's S-II stage cuts off prematurely during its intended burn, which causes brief concern, but the astronauts eventually make it to orbit without any more problems. After performing translunar injection (TLI), the burn that sends the Apollo 13 CSM/LM to the moon, Swigert maneuvers the Apollo Command Module Odyssey to dock with the Lunar Module Aquarius.

On the third day of the mission, the crew broadcasts a television program to Earth from their spacecraft. Unbeknownst to them, the major networks have refused to air it due to the perceived lack of interest in spaceflight as the public has come to view it as "routine". After the broadcast, the crew runs through an in-flight “housekeeping” checklist. After Swigert is asked to stir their cryogenic oxygen tanks, an explosion in the Service Module rocks the spacecraft, the crew and Mission Control shocked to find that the oxygen tanks aboard the "Odyssey" are leaking, which prompts Mission Control to abort the moon landing, and the crew gets to work shutting down the Odyssey and powering up the Aquarius to act as a lifeboat so the crew can get home.

On Earth, backup commander John Young recruits a depressed Mattingly to help prepare procedures to restart the "Odyssey" once the crew is near Earth. Meanwhile, the Apollo 13 crew shuts down the Odyssey, powers up the Aquarius and orients the spacecraft so they pass around the dark side of the moon, while a melancholy Lovell daydreams of his first steps on the Lunar surface.

After regaining contact with the space craft, the team at Mission Control has to deal with more problems. To conserve power, the crew must shut down the Aquarius and remain in the freezing cold in order to make it home. Swigert suspects that Mission Control hasn't given the crew a re-entry plan because they have made some kind of mistake that can't be fixed and they don't want the crew to find out that they're doomed. In a fit of rage, Haise chastises Swigert’s relative inexperience as the cause for the accident, after which a full blown argument ensues, but is quickly quelled by Lovell. Then Houston radios in with another problem: they must deal with the heavy carbon dioxide being created by the three men in the two-man Aquarius. The men in Houston put together a crude but effective method to remove the poisonous gas, creating a "mailbox" device that cleans the atmosphere in the "Aquarius" and the crew once again averts danger.

As the spacecraft approaches Earth, the crew is forced to make a risky course correction by burning the Lunar Module's descent engine in order to prevent from skipping off earth's atmosphere. Despite Haise's fever and freezing conditions inside the cabin, the crew succeeds in righting their wayward spacecraft. With the Earth approaching, Mattingly's team struggles to find a way to power up the Command Module with what little power is left on the crippled spacecraft. After Mattingly gets a small, but ingenious idea, the power-up procedures are finalized and Mattingly instructs Swigert on reviving the Odyssey.

After witnessing the damage suffered by the scarred Service Module, the crew strap in for their descent into the atmosphere. With one final goodbye to the Aquarius, the lunar module that saved their lives is jettisoned. Then, the Odyssey re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, and after over four minutes of radio ionization blackout – three minutes is normal – the crew reports that they have made it alive and well. Celebration rushes through Mission Control and in the homes of the astronauts' families. In an emotional scene, Kranz simply sits down as everyone applauds around him, looking overwhelmed and fighting back tears. After splashing down, the crew is plucked out of the water and lands on the USS Iwo Jima to a heroes' welcome. The film then concludes with a slow-motion sequence with monologue by Hanks (as Lovell) about the events that would follow their return from space. Actor Hanks shakes hands with the real Jim Lovell, acting as the captain of the Iwo Jima. The sequence ends with "I look up at the moon and wonder: 'When will we be going back, and who will that be?'"

[edit] Critical reaction

Jim Lovell fantasizes about his lost moon landing

The film was widely praised as a compelling dramatization of a dramatic true engineering event during the Space Race. The film also depicted the teamwork involved in coping with an unprecedented catastrophe in space travel with calm reasoning and ingenuity of the NASA engineers. The determination of dozens of characters on the ground to bring the astronauts home safely is perhaps best summed up when Kranz says, "We've never lost an American in space and we're sure as hell not going to lose one on my watch. Failure is not an option." Kranz didn't actually say "Failure is not an option!" during the Apollo 13 mission, but this line from the movie inspired the title of his autobiography.

Many critics decried the scene in which Marilyn Lovell dropped her ring into the shower drain as an unrealistic, fictional addition.^{[citation needed]} However, according to Lovell, this actually did occur.^[2] The Lovells refer to the incident in an interview on the DVD version of the film,^[3] and Jim Lovell mentioned it in his book, Lost Moon. In reality, Marilyn was able to recover the ring after it went down the drain.

[edit] Technical accuracy

The film is notable for its technical accuracy; principals reported that the film is reasonably faithful to the facts of the mission but adds some tension between the astronauts for dramatic effect.

The dialogue between ground control and the astronauts was taken verbatim from actual transcripts and recordings, with the notable exception of one of the taglines of the film, "Houston, we have a problem."^[4] (This quote was voted #50 on the list "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes".) The words uttered by Jack Swigert were "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here." Jim Lovell then repeated "Houston, we've had a problem." The script changed the quote deliberately, as Lovell's actual words suggested something happening in the past rather than the present.^[5]

Scenes involving weightlessness were filmed aboard NASA's "Vomit Comet", a KC-135 aircraft which is used to mimic microgravity for short periods by performing a series of parabolic dives. The spacecraft interiors were constructed by the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center's Space Works, who also restored the actual Apollo 13 Command Module.

The real Mission Control room is on the third floor of a building. The Mission Control room built for the movie was on a ground floor. One NASA employee who was a consultant for the film claimed that the set was so realistic that he would leave at the end of the day and look for the elevator before remembering he was not actually in Mission Control.

By the time the film was made, the USS Iwo Jima had been scrapped, so her sister ship, the USS New Orleans, was used instead.

A DVD commentary track, recorded by Mr. and Mrs. Lovell and included with both the original and 10th anniversary editions,^[1] mentions several inaccuracies included in the film, all done for reasons of artistic license:

In the film, Ken Mattingly plays a key role in solving a power consumption problem that Apollo 13 was faced with as it approached re-entry. Lovell points out repeatedly in his commentary that in this case Mattingly was a composite of several astronauts and engineers – including Charles Duke (whose rubella led to Mattingly's grounding) – all of whom played a role in solving that problem.^[3]
The Saturn V markings on the movie rocket were different than the actual Saturn vehicle for the mission, particularly on the S-IVB (third) stage, which appears as vertically striped, rather than a single solid band.
When Jack Swigert is getting ready to dock with the LM, a concerned NASA technician says, "If Swigert can't dock this thing, we don't have a mission." Lovell and Haise also seem worried. On the Anniversary Edition DVD, the real Jim Lovell says that if Swigert hadn't been able to dock with the LM, he or Haise could have done it. He also says that Swigert was a well-trained Command Module Pilot and that no one was really worried about whether he was up to the job, but he admitted that it made a nice sub-plot for the film.
A scene set the night before the launch, showing the astronauts' family members saying their goodbyes while separated by a road, a distance introduced to reduce the possibility of any last-minute transmission of disease, depicted a tradition not begun until the Space Shuttle program.^[3]
The final manual burn of the LM's engine, done to put Apollo 13 back on course, lasted 14 seconds, not 39, and was done with the engine pointed perpendicular to the Earth instead of towards the Earth as depicted in the film.^[3] The length of the burn given in the film may have been based on a conversation earlier in the flight, before plans were finalized.^[6]

Some other technical inaccuracies exist in the procedures shown in the movie:

During the climb to orbit the CAPCOM says "we see your BPC is clear thirteen" indicating that the Boost Protective Cover has been jettisoned. This does not actually happen until moments later when the Launch Escape System fires, taking the BPC with it.
The solid rockets on the S-II interstage are shown as firing some seconds after the S-IC stage was jettisoned, whereas in reality they fired a fraction of a second before the explosive bolts separated the two stages. To further complicate matters, the retro thrusters on the S-IC stage on Apollo 13's Saturn V may have fired early, partially explaining why the crew reported such a jolt when the stage shut down.
The movie shows Tom Hanks jettisoning the Launch escape system by pressing the 'LES MOTOR FIRE' button. In reality, that was purely an emergency measure in case the motor didn't fire in an abort. Normally the LES would be jettisoned automatically, or the crew could jettison it manually by flicking up one of the 'TWR JETT' switches. Pressing 'LES MOTOR FIRE' without blowing the explosive bolts first with the 'TWR JETT' switch would cause the abort motor to fire while it was still attached to the Saturn V, causing serious problems for the astronauts.
The launch sequence in the movie shows the engine lights on the control panel as lit when the engine is operating, and flashing when the engine shuts down. In reality, after launch the light would only be lit when an engine shut down, and were out otherwise; the general idea seems to have been that lights would only light up to indicate a problem, so it was immediately obvious to the crew.
During the actual mission an undetected effect (steam from the LM cooling system) caused the returning craft to be slightly off course, requiring a final corrective 'burn'.
As with most Hollywood depictions of a Saturn V liftoff, the five F-1 engines of the booster's first stage ignite when the countdown reaches zero. In reality, ignition routinely began (quite visibly and spectacularly) at around "T minus" 8.9 seconds, with "zero" marking the moment when the booster assembly was released and lifted off from the launchpad, beginning the flight and its "T plus" timed length.
At liftoff, the movie shows all nine swing arms connecting the Saturn V to the launch umbilical tower separating one by one. This includes the crew access arm, which the astronauts walked across to reach the spacecraft and which would have been swung away well before ignition. In real life, only five of the swing arms--the so-called in-flight arms--were still connected to the Saturn V at liftoff. They swung away simultaneously as the vehicle left the launch platform.

The film contains a few anachronisms:^[7]

The use of NASA's "worm" logo (first used in 1975)
The appearance of The Beatles' Let It Be album a month before it was actually released.
In one scene, a character at NASA, talking to a fellow technician, points to a Mr. Coffee machine, and says, "[The spacecraft needs to operate on] barely enough [power] to run a coffee pot for nine hours." However, electric drip coffeemakers, such as Mr. Coffee, did not yet exist in 1970. (Mr. Coffee was not introduced until 1972.)^[8]
During the "failure is not an option" scene, prior to serving up the now-famous line, Ed Harris settles into an office chair for a very brief moment. On the table to his left is a plastic bottle of water, a product not yet available when the Apollo 13 flight occurred.

[edit] Featured cast

Actor	Role
Tom Hanks	Jim Lovell
Bill Paxton	Fred Haise
Kevin Bacon	Jack Swigert
Gary Sinise	Ken Mattingly
Ed Harris	Gene Kranz
Kathleen Quinlan	Marilyn Lovell
Mary Kate Schellhardt	Barbara Lovell
Emily Ann Lloyd	Susan Lovell
Miko Hughes	Jeffrey Lovell
Max Elliott Slade	James "Jay" Lovell
Jean Speegle Howard	Blanch Lovell
Tracy Reiner	Mary Haise
David Andrews	Pete Conrad
Michele Little	Jane Conrad
Chris Ellis	Deke Slayton
Joe Spano	NASA Administrator
Xander Berkeley	Henry Hurt
Marc McClure	Glynn Lunney
Ben Marley	John Young
Clint Howard	Sy Liebergot, EECOM White
Loren Dean	John Aaron, EECOM Arthur

[edit] Awards and nominations

1996 Academy Awards (Oscars)

Won - Best Film Editing — Mike Hill, Daniel Hanley
Won - Best Sound Mixing — Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, David MacMilan
Nominated - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role — Ed Harris
Nominated - Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role — Kathleen Quinlan
Nominated - Best Achievement in Art Direction — Michael Corenblith, Merideth Boswell
Nominated - Best Original Score — James Horner
Nominated - Best Picture — Brian Grazer
Nominated - Best Visual Effects — Robert Legato, Michael Kanfer, Leslie Ekker, Matt Sweeney
Nominated - Best Adapted Screenplay — William Broyles Jr., Al Reinert

1996 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)

Nominated - Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film

1996 Canadian Cinema Editors (Eddies)

Nominated - Best Edited Feature Film — Mike Hill, Daniel Hanley

1996 American Society of Cinematographers

Nominated - Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases — Dean Cundey

1996 BAFTA Film Awards

Won - Best Production Design — Michael Corenblith
Won - Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects — Robert Legato, Michael Kanfer, Matt Sweeney, Leslie Ekker
Nominated - Best Cinematography — Dean Cundey
Nominated - Best Editing — Mike Hill, Daniel Hanley
Nominated - Best Sound — David MacMillan, Rick Dior, Scott Millan, Steve Pederson

1996 Casting Society of America (Artios)