| Apollo 13 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ron Howard |
| Screenplay by | William Broyles Jr. Al Reinert |
| Based on | |
| Produced by | Brian Grazer |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Dean Cundey |
| Edited by | Daniel P. Hanley Mike Hill |
| Music by | James Horner |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 140 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $52 million[1] |
| Box office | $355.2 million[2] |
Apollo 13 is a 1995 Americandocudrama film directed byRon Howard and starringTom Hanks,Kevin Bacon,Bill Paxton,Gary Sinise,Ed Harris andKathleen Quinlan. The screenplay byWilliam Broyles Jr. andAl Reinert dramatizes the aborted 1970Apollo 13 lunar mission and is an adaptation of the 1994 bookLost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, by astronautJim Lovell andJeffrey Kluger.
The film tells the story ofastronauts Lovell,Jack Swigert, andFred Haise aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 for the United States' fifth crewed mission to the Moon, which was intended to be the third to land. En route, an on-board explosion deprives their spacecraft of much of its oxygen supply and electrical power, which forcesNASA's flight controllers to abandon theMoon landing and improvise scientific and mechanical solutions to get the three astronauts to Earth safely. Howard went to great lengths to create a technically accurate movie, employing NASA's assistance in astronaut and flight-controller training for his cast and obtaining permission to film scenes aboard areduced-gravity aircraft for realistic depiction of theweightlessness experienced by the astronauts in space.
Released in theaters byUniversal Pictures in the United States on June 30, 1995,[3]Apollo 13 received critical acclaim and was nominated for nineAcademy Awards, includingBest Picture (winning forBest Film Editing andBest Sound).[4] The film also won theScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, as well as twoBritish Academy Film Awards. In total, the film grossed over $355 million worldwide during its theatrical releases and becoming thethird-highest-grossing film of 1995.It is listed inThe New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made (2004).[5] In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."[6]
On July 20, 1969, astronautJim Lovell hosts a party where guests watchNeil Armstrong's televised first steps on the Moon fromApollo 11. Lovell, who orbited the Moon onApollo 8, tells his wife Marilyn that he will return to the Moon to walk on its surface.
Three months later, as Lovell is conducting a VIP tour of NASA'sVehicle Assembly Building, his bossDeke Slayton informs him that his crew will flyApollo 13 instead of 14, swapping flights withAlan Shepard's crew. Lovell,Ken Mattingly, andFred Haise train for their mission. Days before launch in April 1970, Mattingly is exposed toGerman measles, and the flight surgeon demands his replacement with Mattingly's backup,Jack Swigert. Lovell resists breaking up his team, but relents when Slayton threatens to bump his crew to a later mission. As the launch date approaches, Marilyn has a nightmare about her husband dying in space, and tells Lovell she will not go toKennedy Space Center to see him off for an unprecedented fourth launch. She later changes her mind and surprises him.
On launch day, Flight DirectorGene Kranz in Houston'sMission Control Center gives thego for launch. As theSaturn V rocket climbs through the atmosphere, asecond stage engine cuts off prematurely, but the craft reaches its Earthparking orbit. After the third stage fires again to send Apollo 13 to the Moon, Swigert performs the maneuver to turn theCommand ModuleOdyssey around todock with theLunar ModuleAquarius and pull it away from the spent rocket.
Three days into the mission, by order of Mission Control, Swigert turns on theliquid oxygen stirring fans. An electrical short causes a tank to explode, emptying its contents into space and sending the craft tumbling. The other tank is soon found to be leaking.Consumables managerSy Liebergot convinces Kranz that shutting off two ofOdyssey's threefuel cells offers the best chance to stop the leak, but this does not work. With only one fuel cell, mission rules dictate the Moon landing be aborted. Lovell and Haise power upAquarius to use as a "lifeboat", while Swigert shuts downOdyssey to save its battery power for the return to Earth. Kranz charges his team with bringing the astronauts home, declaring "failure is not an option". Consumables managerJohn Aaron recruits Mattingly to help him improvise a procedure to restartOdyssey for the landing on Earth.
As the crew watches the Moon pass beneath them, Lovell laments his lost dream of walking on its surface, then turns his crew's attention to the business of getting home. WithAquarius running on minimal electrical power and rationed water supply, the crew suffers from freezing conditions, and Haise develops aurinary tract infection. Swigert suspects Mission Control is concealing the fact they are doomed; Haise angrily blames Swigert's inexperience for the accident; but Lovell quashes the argument. AsAquarius'scarbon dioxide filters run out, concentration of the gas approaches a dangerous level. Ground control improvises a"Rube Goldberg" device to make theCommand Module'sincompatible filter cartridges work in the Lunar Module. WithAquarius's navigation systems shut down, the crew makes a vital course correction manually by steering the Lunar Module and controlling its engine.
Mattingly and Aaron struggle to find a way to power up the Command Module systems without drawing too much power, and finally read the procedure to Swigert, who restartsOdyssey by drawing the extra power fromAquarius. When the crew jettisons theService Module, they are surprised by the extent of the damage, raising the possibility that theablative heat shield was compromised. As they releaseAquarius and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, no one is sure thatOdyssey's heat shield is intact. The tense period of radio silence due toionization blackout is longer than normal, but the astronauts report all is well, and the world watchesOdysseysplash down and celebrates their return.
As helicopters bring the crew aboard theUSSIwo Jima for a hero's welcome, Lovell's voice-over describes the cause of the explosion, and the subsequent careers of Haise, Swigert, Mattingly, Kranz, and himself. He wonders if and when mankind will return to the Moon.
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Apollo 13 crew:
Other astronauts:
NASA ground personnel:
Civilians:
Cameos:
The movie rights toJim Lovell's bookLost Moon were being shopped to potential buyers before it was written.[7] He stated that his first reaction was thatKevin Costner would be a good choice to play him.[7][9]
The original screenplay byWilliam Broyles Jr. andAl Reinert was written with Costner in mind because of his facial similarities with Lovell. By the timeRon Howard acquired the director's position,Tom Hanks had expressed interest in doing a film based onApollo 13. When Hanks' representative informed him that a script was being passed around he had it sent to him, and Costner's name never came up in serious discussion.[7] Hanks was ultimately cast as Lovell because of his knowledge of Apollo and space history.[12]
Because of his interest in aviation,John Travolta asked Howard for the role of Lovell, but was politely turned down.[13]John Cusack was offered the role of Fred Haise but turned it down, and the role went toBill Paxton.Brad Pitt was offered the role of Jack Swigert, but also turned it down in favor ofSeven, so the role went toKevin Bacon.[13][14] Howard invitedGary Sinise to read for any of the characters, and Sinise chose Ken Mattingly.[7]
After Hanks had been cast and construction of the spacecraft sets had begun,John Sayles rewrote the script. While planning the film, Howard decided that every shot would be original and that no mission footage would be used.[15] The spacecraft interiors were constructed by theKansas Cosmosphere and Space Center's Space Works, which also restored the Apollo 13 Command Module. Two individual Lunar Modules and two Command Modules were constructed for filming. Composed of some original Apollo materials, they were built so that different sections were removable, which allowed filming to take place inside them. Space Works also built modified Command and Lunar Modules for filming inside aBoeing KC-135reduced-gravity aircraft, and the pressure suits worn by the actors, which are exact reproductions of those worn by the Apollo astronauts, right down to the detail of being airtight. When suited up with their helmets locked in place, the actors were cooled by and breathed air pumped into the suits, as in actual Apollo suits.[16]
TheChristopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center consisted of two control rooms on the second and third floors of Building 30 at theJohnson Space Center inHouston, Texas.NASA offered the use of the control room for filming, but Howard declined, opting instead to make his own replica.[9][15] Production designer Michael Corenblith and set decorator Merideth Boswell were in charge of the construction of the Mission Control set at Universal Studios. It was equipped with giant rear-screen projection capabilities, and a complex set of computers with individual video feeds to all the flight controller stations. The actors playing the flight controllers could communicate with each other on a private audio loop.[16] The Mission Control room built for the film was on the ground floor.[15] One NASA employee, a consultant for the film, said the set was so realistic that he would leave at the end of the day and look for the elevator before he remembered he was not in Mission Control.[9] The recovery shipUSSIwo Jima had been scrapped by the time the film was made, so her sister ship,New Orleans, was used instead.[15]
To prepare for their roles in the film, Hanks, Paxton, and Bacon all attended theU.S. Space Camp inHuntsville, Alabama. While there, astronauts Jim Lovell andDavid Scott, commander ofApollo 15, did actual training exercises with the actors inside a simulatedCommand Module andLunar Module. The actors were also taught about each of the 500 buttons, toggles, and switches used to operate the spacecraft. The actors then traveled toJohnson Space Center in Houston where they flew in the KC-135 to simulate weightlessness in outer space.
Each member of the cast performed extensive research for the project to provide an authentic story. Technical adviser Scott[17] was impressed with their efforts, stating that each actor was determined to make every scene technically correct, word for word.[7]
In Los Angeles, Ed Harris and all the actors portrayingflight controllers enrolled in a Flight Controller School led byGerry Griffin, an Apollo 13 flight director, and flight controller Jerry Bostick. The actors studied audiotapes from the mission, reviewed hundreds of pages of NASA transcripts, and attended a crash course inphysics.[15][16]
Reportedly, Pete Conrad expressed interest in appearing in the film.[9]
For actors, being able to actually shoot in zero gravity as opposed to being in incredibly painful and uncomfortable harnesses for special effects shots was all the difference between what would have been a horrible moviemaking experience as opposed to the completely glorious one that it actually was.
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Principal photography forApollo 13 started in August 1994.[18]Howard anticipated difficulty in portrayingweightlessness in a realistic manner. He discussed this withSteven Spielberg, who suggested filming aboard the KC-135 airplane, which can be flown in such a way as to create about 23 seconds of weightlessness, a method NASA has always used to train its astronauts for space flight. Howard obtained NASA's permission and assistance[19] to obtain three hours and 54 minutes of filming time in 612 zero-g maneuvers.[15][16] Filming in this environment was a time and cost saver because the stage recreation and computer graphics would have been expensive.[20] The final three weeks of filming took place in the stages on theUniversal Studios Lot inUniversal City, California, where two life-size replicas of both the command module and the lunar module were built for simultaneous shooting on different soundstages.[21] Air-cooling units lowered the temperatures inside each soundstage to around 38 °F (3 °C), to simulate the conditions necessary for condensation and the visibility of the actors' breath inside the spacecraft.[16] Filming wrapped on February 25, 1995. The final scene to be filmed was the splashdown sequence at the film's conclusion, which was shot on a large, artificial lake on the Universal lot.[22]
While filming in a 25-second burst of weightlessness was "charged and frenetic", the cast and crew only suffered from bumps and bruises, and most injuries occurred when they bumped on non-padded items. The cast and crew ofApollo 13 describe the weightlessness experience as being in a "vomit comet" and "roller coaster ride", but the motion sickness afflicted only a few members.[20]
During filming of the low-temperature scenes in the Universal stages, signs that explained frostbite symptoms were posted on the stages' walls, and the crew worked in parkas.[21]
Thevisual effects supervisor wasRobert Legato.To avoid awkward visible switches to stock news footage in a live action film, he decided to produce theSaturn V launchsequence using miniature models and digitalimage stitching to create apanoramic background.[23] On Howard's request to "shoot it likeMartin Scorsese would shoot it", Legato studied Scorsese'sscenes ofpool games fromThe Color of Money, and copied his technique of creating a sense of rhythm by repeating two or three frames between eachcut (just enough to be undetectable) for the engine ignition sequence. Legato says this scene inspiredJames Horner's soundtrack music for the launch.[23] The long-range shot of the vehicle in flight was filmed using a $25 1:144 scale modelRevell kit, with the camera realistically shaking, and it was digitized and re-filmed off of a high resolution monitor through a black filter, slightly overexposed to keep it from "looking like a video game".[23]
The exhaust of theattitude control thrusters was generated withcomputer-generated imagery (CGI). This was also attempted to show the astronaut's urine dump into space, but wasn't high enough resolution to look right, so droplets sprayed from anEvian bottle were photographed instead.[23]
The producers wanted to use CGI to render the splashdown, but Legato adamantly insisted this would not look realistic. Real parachutes were used with a prop capsule tossed out of a helicopter.[23]
During weightless filming, all of the dialogue had been rendered unusable by the loudness of the plane. This required Hanks, Bacon and Paxton to attendADR sessions, where they redubbed all of the lines for the weightless scenes.[24]
The score toApollo 13 was composed and conducted byJames Horner and performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony. Thesoundtrack was released in 1995 byMCA Records and has seven tracks of score, eight period songs used in the film, and seven tracks of dialogue by the actors at a total running time of nearly seventy-eight minutes. The music also features solos by vocalistAnnie Lennox and Tim Morrison on the trumpet. The score was a critical success and garnered Horner anAcademy Award nomination forBest Original Score.
Apollo 13 was released on June 30, 1995, in North America[25] and on September 22, 1995, in theUnited Kingdom.[26]
In September 2002 and for its 30th anniversary in September 2025, the film was re-released inIMAX. It is the first film to be digitally remastered usingIMAX DMR technology.[27][28]
Apollo 13 was released onVHS on November 21, 1995, and onLaserDisc the following week.[29] On September 9, 1997, the film debuted on aTHX certified widescreen VHS release.[30]
A 10th-anniversaryDVD of the film was released in 2005; it included both the original theatrical version and theIMAX version, along with several extras.[31] The IMAX version has a 1.66:1aspect ratio.[32]
In 2006,Apollo 13 was released onHD DVD and on April 13, 2010, it was released onBlu-ray as the 15th-anniversary edition on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 accident.[33] The film was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on October 17, 2017.[34]
Apollo 13 earned $25,353,380 from 2,347 theaters during its opening weekend, which made up 14.7% of the total US gross.[2] Upon its opening, it was ranked number one at the box office, beatingPocahontas. Additionally, it surpassedForrest Gump for having the largest opening weekend for aTom Hanks film. Within five days,Apollo 13 generated $38.5 million, becoming the second-highest five-day opening of all time, behindTerminator 2: Judgment Day.[35] The weekend of the film's opening earned $154 million from ticket sales, surpassing the previous record held by the combinedThanksgiving 1992 openings ofAladdin,The Bodyguard andHome Alone 2: Lost in New York.[36] It would continue to stay in the number one spot for four weeks until it was dethroned byWaterworld.[37] Earning $355,237,933,Apollo 13 was thethird-highest-grossing film of 1995, behindDie Hard with a Vengeance andToy Story (which also starred Hanks).[38]
On September 19, 2025,Apollo 13 began a 30th anniversary re-release inIMAX screenings.[39][40] As of September 21, 2025, the 2025 re-release has made $627,155 from screenings in 200 IMAX theaters.[41]
| Source | Gross (US$) | % Total | All-time rank (unadjusted) |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | $173,837,933[2] | 48.9% | 229[2] |
| Foreign | $181,400,000[2] | 51.1% | N/A |
| Worldwide | $355,237,933[2] | 100.0% | 282[2] |
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 150 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "In recreating the troubled space mission,Apollo 13 pulls no punches: it's a masterfully told drama from director Ron Howard, bolstered by an ensemble of solid performances."[42]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[43] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[44]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times praised the film in his review, saying: "This is a powerful story, one of the year's best films, told with great clarity and remarkable technical detail, and acted without pumped-up histrionics."[45]Richard Corliss ofTime highly praised the film, saying: "From lift-off to splashdown,Apollo 13 gives one hell of a ride."[46] Edward Guthmann ofSan Francisco Chronicle gave a mixed review and wrote: "I just wish thatApollo 13 worked better as a movie, and that Howard's threshold for corn, mush and twinkly sentiment weren't so darn wide."[47]Peter Travers ofRolling Stone praised the film and wrote: "Howard lays off the manipulation to tell the true story of the near-fatal 1970 Apollo 13 mission in painstaking and lively detail. It's easily Howard's best film."[48]
Janet Maslin made the film anNYT Critics' Pick, calling it an "absolutely thrilling" film that "unfolds with perfect immediacy, drawing viewers into the nail-biting suspense of a spellbinding true story." According to Maslin, "likeQuiz Show,Apollo 13 beautifully evokes recent history in ways that resonate strongly today. Cleverly nostalgic in its visual style (Rita Ryack's costumes are especially right), it harks back to movie making without phony heroics and to the strong spirit of community that enveloped the astronauts and their families. Amazingly, this film manages to seem refreshingly honest while still conforming to the three-act dramatic format of a standard Hollywood hit. It is far and away the best thing Mr. Howard has done (andFar and Away was one of the other kind)."[49]
The academic critic Raymond Malewitz focuses on the DIY aspects of the "mailbox" filtration system to illustrate the emergence of an unlikely hero in late 20th-century American culture—"the creative, improvisational, but restrained thinker—who replaces the older prodigal cowboy heroes of American mythology and provides the country a better, more frugal example of an appropriate 'husband'."[50]
Marilyn Lovell praised Quinlan's portrayal of her, stating she felt she could feel what Quinlan's character was going through, and remembered how she felt in her mind.[7]
In the film, Lovell tells his wife he was given command of Apollo 13 instead of 14 because original commander Alan Shepard's "ear infection is flaring up again"; in fact, Shepard had no "ear infection"; he had been grounded since 1963 byMénière's disease. This was surgically corrected four years later and he was returned to flight duty in May 1969; Manned Spacecraft Center management felt he needed more training time for a lunar mission.[54]
The film portrays theSaturn V launch vehicle being rolled out to the launch pad two days before launch. In reality, the launch vehicle was rolled out on theMobile Launcher using thecrawler-transporter two months before the launch date.[55]
The film depicts the crew hearing a bang shortly after Swigert followed directions from mission control to stir the oxygen and hydrogen tanks. In reality, the crew heard the bang 95 seconds later.[56]
The film depicts Sy Liebergot suggesting that the oxygen leak was in one or two ofOdyssey's fuel cells, and the order to shut them down was passed up to the crew, forcing abort of the lunar landing mission. In reality, Mission Controldid not order the shutdown; Haise found the cells were already dead, because of starvation due to the damage to the oxygen system.[57]
The film depicts Swigert and Haise arguing about who was at fault. The showThe Real Story: Apollo 13 broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel includes Haise stating that no such argument took place and that there was no way anyone could have foreseen that stirring the tank would cause problems.[58] Similarly on theBBC13 Minutes to the Moon program, backup lunar module pilot on the missionCharles Duke says the film portrayed Swigert as unprepared for the flight, but it was untrue and that Swigert was very familiar with the Command Module as he had been involved with the development of it during his time as an engineering test pilot atNorth American Aviation, prior to becoming an astronaut.[59]
The dialogue between ground control and the astronauts was taken nearly verbatim from transcripts and recordings, with the exception of one of the taglines of the film, "Houston, we have a problem." (This quote was voted #50 on the list "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes".) According to audio of the air-to-ground communications, the actual words uttered by Swigert were "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here". Ground control responded by saying, "This is Houston. Say again, please." Jim Lovell then repeated, "Houston, we've had a problem."[60]
One other incorrect dialogue is after the re-entry blackout. In the film, Tom Hanks (as Lovell) says "Hello Houston... this isOdyssey... it's good to see you again." In the actual re-entry, the Command Module's transmission was finally acquired by aSikorsky SH-3D Sea King recovery helicopter which then relayed communications to Mission Control. CAPCOM astronautJoe Kerwin (not Mattingly, who serves as CAPCOM in this scene in the film) then made a call to the spacecraft "Odyssey, Houston standing by. Over." Swigert, not Lovell, replied "Okay, Joe," and unlike the film, this was well before the parachutes deployed; the celebrations depicted at Mission Control were triggered by visual confirmation of their deployment.[61]
The tagline "Failure is not an option", stated in the film by Gene Kranz, also became very popular, but was not taken from the historical transcripts. The following story relates the origin of the phrase, from an e-mail by Apollo 13Flight Dynamics Officer Jerry Bostick:
As far as the expression "Failure is not an option," you are correct that Kranz never used that term. In preparation for the movie, the script writers, Al Reinart and Bill Broyles, came down to Clear Lake to interview me on "What are the people in Mission Control really like?" One of their questions was "Weren't there times when everybody, or at least a few people, just panicked?" My answer was "No, when bad things happened, we just calmly laid out all the options, and failure was not one of them. We never panicked, and we never gave up on finding a solution." I immediately sensed that Bill Broyles wanted to leave and assumed that he was bored with the interview. Only months later did I learn that when they got in their car to leave, he started screaming, "That's it! That's the tag line for the whole movie, Failure is not an option. Now we just have to figure out who to have say it." Of course, they gave it to the Kranz character, and the rest is history.[62]
In the film, Flight Director Gene Kranz and his White Team are portrayed as managing all of the essential parts of the flight, from liftoff to landing. Consequently, the actual role of the other flight directors and teams, especiallyGlynn Lunney and his Black Team, were neglected. In fact, it was Flight Director Lunney and his Black Team who got Apollo 13 through its most critical period in the hours immediately after the explosion, including the mid-course correction that sent Apollo 13 on a "free return" trajectory around the Moon and back to the Earth. Astronaut Ken Mattingly, who was replaced as Apollo 13 Command Module Pilot at the last minute by Swigert, later said:
If there was a hero, Glynn Lunney was, by himself, a hero, because when he walked in the room, I guarantee you, nobody knew what the hell was going on. Glynn walked in, took over this mess, and he just brought calm to the situation. I've never seen such an extraordinary example of leadership in my entire career. Absolutely magnificent. No general or admiral in wartime could ever be more magnificent than Glynn was that night. He and he alone brought all of the scared people together. And you've got to remember that the flight controllers in those days were—they were kids in their thirties. They were good, but very few of them had ever run into these kinds of choices in life, and they weren't used to that. All of a sudden, their confidence had been shaken. They were faced with things that they didn't understand, and Glynn walked in there, and he just kind of took charge.[63]
ADVD commentary track, recorded by Jim and Marilyn Lovell and included with the Signature Laserdisc and later included on both DVD versions,[64] mentions several inaccuracies included in the film, all done for reasons ofartistic license:
We were working and watching the controls during that time. Because we came in shallow, it took us longer coming through the atmosphere where we had ionization. And the other thing was that we were just slow in answering.
When the three astronauts are putting on their spacesuits, the NASA logo can be clearly seen on the glass behind Kevin Bacon, but that logo did not start to be used until 1975.
Apollo 13 opens on September 22.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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