Apollo 13 (1995) on Netflix
PG19952h 20mAdventureDramaHistory
Astronaut Jim Lovell and crewmates Fred Haise and Jack Swigert are bound for the Moon aboard Apollo 13. An explosion cripples the spacecraft, and Mission Control races to bring them home.
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Trailer
Plot summary
On July 20, 1969, astronaut Jim Lovell watches the Apollo 11 moonwalk from his home and tells his wife Marilyn that he intends to walk on the Moon himself. Months later he learns that he and his crew, Fred Haise and Ken Mattingly, have been moved up to fly Apollo 13. Days before launch, the flight surgeon rules that Mattingly has been exposed to German measles, and Lovell must replace him with backup pilot Jack Swigert rather than give up the mission. The crew trains with Swigert and the Saturn V lifts off. Three days out, a routine stirring of the oxygen tanks sets off an explosion that drains the spacecraft's oxygen and power and ends any chance of a landing. In Houston, flight director Gene Kranz and his controllers begin working to bring the men home.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Apollo 13 (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ron Howard got NASA's permission and help to film weightlessness for Apollo 13, gaining 3 hours and 54 minutes of shooting time across 612 zero-g maneuvers.
- The Mission Control set was so convincing that a NASA consultant who worked on the film would leave at day's end and look for the elevator before remembering he was not in the real Mission Control.
- John Travolta asked Ron Howard for the role of Jim Lovell but was turned down; Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Tommy Lee Jones were also considered, and the part went to Tom Hanks.
- John Cusack, Patrick Swayze, Joe Pesci and Rick Moranis were all offered the role of Fred Haise but turned it down, so the part went to Bill Paxton.
- Brad Pitt turned down the role of Jack Swigert in favor of Seven, so the part went to Kevin Bacon; Tom Cruise, Charlie Sheen and Michael J. Fox were also considered.
- Jim Lovell appears in the film as Captain Leland Kirkemo of the recovery ship USS Iwo Jima; Howard wanted him to be an admiral, but Lovell, retired as a captain, chose to appear in his actual rank wearing his own Navy uniform.
- The film's tagline "Failure is not an option" was invented after screenwriters Al Reinert and Bill Broyles interviewed flight dynamics officer Jerry Bostick, who told them that in Mission Control failure was never one of the options.
- The film's "Houston, we have a problem" line differs from the actual transmission: Swigert said "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here," ground control asked him to repeat, and Jim Lovell then said "Houston, we've had a problem."
