Apollo 13

Name: Apollo 13
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 1995-06-30
Duration: 2 h 20 min
Rating: 7.7
Cast: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris

"Houston, we have a problem."

Apollo 13 (1995)

Timing: 2:20 (140 min)

7.7/10
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Everything about the movie

Video 20

Photo 114

Actors and characters

Video for the film Apollo 13 — Apollo 13 (1995) Theatrical Trailer [4K] [FTD-1328]

2:35

Photo 114

Release date

1995-06-30

Country

United States

Production

Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment

Genre

Drama, History

Budget

$62 000 000

Box office

$353 148 882

Website

Director

Ron Howard

Actors

Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan, David Andrews, Xander Berkeley, Christian Clemenson, Brett Cullen
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Brian Grazer, Todd Hallowell

Camera operator

Dean Cundey

Composer

James Horner

Artist

Michael Corenblith

Audition

Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins

Editing

Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill, Michelle Morrissey
Whole Team (318)

Short description

The true story of technical troubles that scuttle the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, risking the lives of astronaut Jim Lovell and his crew, with the failed journey turning into a thrilling saga of heroism. Drifting more than 200,000 miles from Earth, the astronauts work furiously with the ground crew to avert tragedy.

What's left behind the scenes

The film is based on the book “Lost Moon,” written by astronaut Jim Lovell in collaboration with Jeffrey Kluger. Like the book, the film tells the story of real events that occurred in April 1970.
Scenes on the spacecraft requiring weightlessness were filmed in actual zero-gravity conditions during flights on a parabolic trajectory laboratory aircraft (descent-ascent-descent, etc.). Two cramped cabins – exact replicas of the interior spaces of the Apollo spacecraft – were equipped on board the aircraft for filming.
After the film's release, Lovell stated that his character was portrayed very implausibly.
Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell himself appeared in a cameo role in the film. In the film's finale, he, as one of the officers on the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet, shakes hands with Tom Hanks, who is playing him.
The film depicts an episode of transferring equipment from the lunar module to the command module. Such an operation did indeed take place, but the reason for it is stated incorrectly. The film states that the spacecraft is following an incorrect trajectory because it is “too light.” In reality, the deviation from the ballistic trajectory was caused by the lunar module's electronics cooling system. Water leaking into the vacuum created an uncompensated reactive force. The command module was loaded with equipment for another reason – the landing program of the 'Odyssey' onboard computer contained a specific weight, including 45 kilograms of lunar rocks.
Actor Ed Harris, who played Gene Kranz, the Flight Director in the film "Gravity" (2013), voiced the Flight Director.
The film is based on the book "Lost Moon," written by astronaut Jim Lovell and co-authored by Jeffrey Kluger. Like the book, the movie tells the story of real events that took place in April 1970.
Actor Ed Harris, who played Flight Director Gene Kranz, provided the voice for the Flight Director in the movie "Gravity" (2013).
Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell himself appeared in a cameo role in the film. In the finale, appearing as one of the officers on the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet, he shakes hands with Tom Hanks, who is playing him.
Of the nine swing arms attached to the spacecraft, three lower arms and one upper arm are retracted long before launch. The remaining five arms move away from the rocket simultaneously just before liftoff. The film showed eight arms retracting from the rocket one by one immediately before launch.
In the scene showing the final trajectory correction of the spacecraft, the orientation is depicted incorrectly. In reality, the ship's axis was pointed not toward Earth, but perpendicular to it. The correction itself lasted 14 seconds, not 39.
During the departure from low Earth orbit, while the S-IVB third-stage engine is firing, the film shows the rocket-spacecraft assembly pointed with its longitudinal axis toward the Moon. In reality, the launch takes place from a point in Earth orbit opposite the Moon, and the rocket's axis is perpendicular to the spacecraft-Moon line (meaning the astronauts could not see the Moon at the moment of launch, as it was obscured by Earth).
As the spacecraft approaches the Moon and disappears behind the lunar limb, causing a loss of radio contact with Earth, the film shows the Sun also disappearing behind the lunar horizon. This would only be possible if the Moon had been in its full phase that day. However, the Moon was actually in the 'waxing gibbous' phase (9 days after the new moon, or approximately 2 days after the first quarter). The landing time was chosen specifically to ensure a low Sun angle over the horizon in the landing area near the Fra Mauro crater.