Plot
"Houston, we have a problem." Those words were immortalized during the tense days of the Apollo 13 lunar mission crisis in 1970, events recreated in this epic historical drama fromRon Howard. Astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) leads command module pilot Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) and lunar module driver Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) on what is slated as NASA's third lunar landing mission. All goes smoothly until the craft is halfway through its mission, when an exploding oxygen tank threatens the crew's oxygen and power supplies. As the courageous astronauts face the dilemma of either suffocating or freezing to death, Mattingly and Mission Control leader Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) struggle to find a way to bring the crew back home, all the while knowing that the spacemen face probable death once the battered ship reenters the Earth's atmosphere. The film received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic critical response and a Best Picture nomination, but lost that Oscar to another (very different) historical epic, Mel Gibson's Braveheart. In 2002, the movie was released in IMAX theaters as Apollo 13: The IMAX Experience, with a pared-down running time of 116 minutes in order to meet the technical requirements of the large-screen format. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
Review
You can look up the result in any encyclopedia: all three astronauts made it home alive. But from the moment Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) utters those fateful words -- "Houston, we have a problem" -- until the astronauts are safe on the deck of the USS Iwo Jima, you'll be on the edge of your seat in genuine suspense, hoping that somehow the seemingly inevitable catastrophe will be averted. Though a certain license has been taken with the truth (Ken Mattingly, for example, was not the one who devised the "power-up" procedure), Apollo 13 is largely faithful to actual events and sets a new high-water mark for putting real-life drama on the big screen. Director Ron Howard mixes the action in orbit with scenes back at NASA, detailing the frenzy and triumph that occurred on the ground as well as far above it. The acting is solid, the special effects spectacular, and the period and technical details recreated with single-minded accuracy. In fact, no documentary footage was used at all; every shot, effect, and model was new. Howard went to astounding lengths in his quest for realism. To achieve actual zero-gravity, for example, the cast and crew flew more than 500 parabolic flights in NASA's KC-135 airplane; each flight earned them only 23 seconds of weightlessness. The beauty of Apollo 13 is that it actually fulfills the cliché of "bringing history alive." For the millions of Americans who will never experience the national obsession of the Space Race, who will never understand how the country's pride could hinge on a few scared men in a jury-rigged tin can, or who will never list astronauts among their childhood heroes, Apollo 13 offers the unique opportunity to understand that glint in their parents' eyes. ~ Matthew Doberman, RoviCast
- Tom Hanks - Jim Lovell
- Bill Paxton - Fred Haise
- Kevin Bacon - Jack Swigert
- Gary Sinise - Ken Mattingly
- Ed Harris - Gene Kranz
- Kathleen Quinlan - Marilyn Lovell
Credit
David James Bomba - Art Director, Bruce A. Miller - Art Director, Aldric La'Auli Porter - Associate Producer, Louisa Velis - Associate Producer, Michael Bostick - Associate Producer, Jane Jenkins - Casting, Janet Hirshenson - Casting, Rita Ryack - Costume Designer, Aldric La'Auli Porter - First Assistant Director, Ron Howard - Director, Daniel Hanley - Editor, Mike Hill - Editor, Todd Hallowell - Executive Producer, James Horner - Composer (Music Score), Hallie D'Amore - Makeup, Dan Striepeke - Makeup, Raymond Stella - Camera Operator, Michael Corenblith - Production Designer, Dean Cundey - Cinematographer, Brian Grazer - Producer, Annie Lennox - Singer, Merideth Boswell - Set Designer, Lori Rowbotham - Set Designer, Joseph Hodges - Set Designer, Warren Hamilton - Sound Editor, William Broyles - Screenwriter, Al Reinert - Screenwriter, Richard L. Anderson - Sound Effects Editor, Scott Millan - Re-Recording Mixer, Michael D. Kanfer - Visual Effects, Leslie Ekker - Visual Effects, Capt. James Lovell - Book Author, Jeffrey Kluger - Book Author, Jim Loell - Book Author, Robert "Bobby Z" Zajonc - Pilot| Apollo 12: Oceans Of Storms (2005 Film), Apollo 11: The Eagle Has Landed (2005 Film) | |
| Apollo 13: Houston We Have a Problem (2004 Film), Apollo 13: The Real Thing (Film) |
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