APOLLO 13 (FILM)

'''Apollo 13''' is a 1995 film portrayal 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 from the original movie and cuts some minor language.
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]

Contents

Synopsis

Critical reaction

Technical accuracy

Trivia

Featured cast

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Synopsis

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 5 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, flight director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) prepares his men in 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. One of five engines cuts out, and Lovell remarks that they've probably had their glitch for the mission. After making the push towards 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. Despite the best efforts of the crew and the men on the ground, they realize that all chances of a moon landing are lost, the ''Odyssey'' is dying and now the diminutive ''Aquarius'' is the crew’s only hope to return home.
On Earth, backup commander John Young recruits a depressed Mattingly to help prepare procedures to help the spacecraft return home. After shutting down the ''Odyssey'', powering up the ''Aquarius'' and orienting their navigation computer, the spacecraft passes around the dark side of the moon in a rather dramatic sequence in which a melancholy Lovell daydreams of his first steps on the Lunar surface.
After regaining contact with and pushing back toward Earth, 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 reentry 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''. A crude but effective method is put together by the men at Houston and the crew once again averts danger.

As the spacecraft approaches Earth, they are forced to make a risky course correction by burning the ''Aquarius’s'' 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 LEM that saved their lives is jettisoned. Then, in a spectacular and tense sequence, the ''Odyssey'' re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, and after over 4 minutes of radio ionization blackout - 3 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, Gene Kranz just 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) as to 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?’”

Critical reaction

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 in a line from the film itself, when Gene 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."

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."^[2] (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.^[3]
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.
Flight controllers actually involved in the mission and portrayed on the screen note that the key figures in mission control as well as in space were 'bigger than life' and exaggerated in many ways. For example, actual Apollo 13 INCO Al Pennington noted that he considered the movie about 50% accurate. The real astronaut John Young noted that the fictional John Young had to be the bravest person in the movie because anybody who woke up Ken Mattingly after he had been on a drinking binge took his life into his own hands. Young was kidding since the actual Ken Mattingly was a teetotaler and was in mission control supporting the mission.
In addition, Lovell introduces Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton as someone who would better be able to answer questions about life in space. In reality, Slayton, even as one of the original Mercury 7, had not flown in space at the time.
A line of dialogue attributes Lovell's mission assignment to "Al Shepard's ear infection." In fact, the Mercury astronaut had recently returned from "grounded" status after surgery to correct the effects of Ménière's disease (which is not caused by an infection), and as Chief Astronaut he had recommended himself as mission commander; however, it was felt he needed more time to train. Shepard later commanded the Apollo 14 mission.
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, all of whom played a role in solving that problem.^[4]

★ Mattingly is shown watching the launch outside in a location that, based on the relative size of the rocket, would have put the character well within the range safety area of the Saturn rocket, and (if the rocket had exploded on the pad) could have placed him in danger.

★ 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.

★ The point where the center engine cut off during the ascent of Apollo 13 really did happen (according to Jim Lovell), what had happened was the that the vibration had gotten so strong that it tripped a switch to shut down the engine (rather than risk it exploding and destroying the spacecraft and all aboard)

★ Several scenes took dramatic license for cinematic purposes, including the conflict depicted between Jack Swigert and Fred Haise as well as the party held at the Lovell's home during the first moon landing.⁴

★ When Jack Swigert is getting ready to dock with the LEM, 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 LEM, 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.

★ In the film the Grumman representative is depicted as having serious reservations about using the LEM as a lifeboat. Lovell noted that the actual Grumman representative was not as reticent as depicted in the film.

★ A scene set the night before the launch, showing the astronaut's 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.⁴

★ The final manual burn of the LEM's engine, done to put Apollo 13 back in 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.⁴

★ As a joke, Grumman Aircraft Corporation (the makers of the Lunar Module) sent an invoice to North American Aviation (the makers of the command and service modules) for $412,421.24 for towing and other costs for hauling the Service and Command Modules back to earth. A copy of the actual invoice and other Apollo 13 items can be seen here: http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/as13tow.html
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.

★ The engineers are shown many times using their slide rules. In one particular scene, Gene asks the engineers to quickly come up with some solutions. When he asks for the results, one of the Engineers hands over a piece of paper. Camera close up reveals that the computations consists of a column of numbers which are added. Slide rules are not usually used for addition or subtraction.
The film contains a few anachronisms,^[5] including the use of NASA's "worm" logo (first used in 1975) and the appearance of The Beatles' ''Let It Be'' album a month before it was actually released.
One filming gaffe occurs during the explosion sequence. As Swigert tells Lovell that he cannot seal the tunnel hatch between the Command and Lunar Modules, he removes the hatch, showing a large production camera mounted squarely inside the tunnel.
Another gaffe occurs in 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 floor to his left is a plastic bottle of water, a product not yet available when the Apollo 13 flight occurred.

Trivia

★ Many critics decried the scene in which Marilyn Lovell dropped her ring into the shower drain as an unrealistic, fictional addition. However, according to Lovell, this actually did occur.^[6] The Lovells refer to the incident in an interview on the DVD version of the film,⁴ 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; a twist in the anecdote both superior to the movie scene in its foreshadowing the outcome of the crisis, and too lengthy for the film.

★ The real Jim Lovell makes an appearance as the captain of the recovery carrier USS ''Iwo Jima''. Ron Howard wanted to make him an admiral, the commander of the carrier task force, but Lovell said that he had retired as a captain and wanted to play one in the film - even going so far as to wear his old US Navy uniform.⁴ Other space program cameos include Marilyn Lovell⁴ and Gene Kranz.

★ A comparison of the Walter Cronkite voiceovers used in the movie to the original CBS News broadcast of the mission reveals that several key moments were recreated. The original comments by Cronkite were not nearly as gloomy and foreboding as those heard in the film.

★ This is one of four Tom Hanks movies (along with ''Saving Private Ryan,'' ''Forrest Gump,'' and ''Cast Away'') where socks play a role in the plot: one of the items required to adapt the square filter into the circular receptacle is a sock.

★ According to the DVD director commentary, Ron Howard hosted special screenings for a few former NASA astronauts. After Buzz Aldrin, who was then working in public relations for NASA, saw the film he approached Howard and asked him about the footage of the launch. According to Howard, that exchange was as follows:
::Aldrin: Where’d you get that footage?
::Howard: We made it ourselves, Buzz.
::Aldrin: Oh. ''[pause]'' Can we use it?

★ In the beginning of the film, Jim is wearing a Le Tigre dark blue shirt. Later, when family and friends are gathered around the television awaiting Apollo 13's splashdown, you can see a man wearing the same shirt.

★ Gene 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.

★ Apollo 13 was parodied by ''Thanksgiving With the Kranzes'', a short subject satire of the major events of the movie. The film's plot revolves around the crew of the doomed mission cooking Thanksgiving dinner at Gene Kranz's house when disaster strikes yet again. Gene Kranz himself has seen and approves of the film.

★ In one scene, a character at NASA, talking to a reporter, points to a ''Mr. Coffee'' machine, and says, "The spacecraft is operating on less energy than it takes to run that coffee pot". However, electric drip coffeemakers, such as ''Mr. Coffee'', did not yet exist in 1970. (''Mr. Coffee'' would not be introduced until 1972. [1])

Featured cast

Actor	Role
David Andrews	Pete Conrad
Kevin Bacon	Jack Swigert
Xander Berkeley	Henry Hurt
Loren Dean	John Aaron, EECOM Arthur
Chris Ellis	Deke Slayton
Tom Hanks	Jim Lovell
Ed Harris	Gene Kranz
Clint Howard	Sy Liebergot, EECOM White
Jean Speegle Howard	Blanche Lovell
Rance Howard	Reverend
Max Elliott Slade	Jay Lovell
Miko Hughes	Jeffrey Lovell
Jim Lovell	''Iwo Jima'' Captain (uncredited)
Kathleen Quinlan	Marilyn Lovell
Emily Ann Lloyd	Susan Lovell
Bill Paxton	Fred Haise
Gary Sinise	Ken Mattingly

Awards and nominations

'1996 Academy Awards (Oscars)'

★ Won - Best Film Editing — Mike Hill, Daniel Hanley

★ Won - Best Sound Mixing — Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scot 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)'

★ Nominated - Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama — Jane Jenkins, Janet Hirshenson
'1996 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards'

★ Won - Best Picture
'1996 Directors Guild of America'

★ Won - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — Ron Howard, Carl Clifford, Aldric La'Auli Porter, Jane Paul
'1996 Golden Globe Awards'

★ Nominated - Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture — Ed Harris

★ Nominated - Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture — Kathleen Quinlan

★ Nominated - Best Director - Motion Picture — Ron Howard

★ Nominated - Best Motion Picture - Drama
'1996 Heartland Film Festival'

★ Won - Studio Crystal Heart Award — Jeffrey Kluger
'1996 Hugo Awards'

★ Nominated - Best Dramatic Presentation
'1996 MTV Movie Awards'

★ Nominated - Best Male Performance — Tom Hanks

★ Nominated - Best Movie
'1996 PGA Golden Laurel Awards'

★ Won - Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award — Brian Grazer, Todd Hallowell
'1996 Screen Actors Guild Awards'

★ Won - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role — Ed Harris

★ Won - Outstanding Performance by a Cast
'1996 Writers Guild of America Awards'

★ Nominated - Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium — William Broyles Jr., Al Reinert
'1996 Young Artist Awards'

★ Nominated - Best Family Feature - Drama
'2006 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers'

★ 12th place

References

1. http://www.apollo13dvd.com/
2. IMDb entry.
3. DVD commentary track.
4. Commentary track by Jim and Marilyn Lovell, from the 2005 Anniversary Edition DVD
5. IMDb.com entry
6. http://www.cinemablend.com/review.php?id=929

External links

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★ Apollo 13 - the Mission and the Movie

★ Movie stills