Review of Apollo 13 (1995) by David F — 28 Feb 2010

It had been less than a year since man first walked on the Moon, but as far as the American public was concerned, Apollo 13 was just another "routine" space flight--until these words pierced the immense void of space: "Houston, we have a problem." Stranded 205,000 miles from Earth in a crippled spacecraft, astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert fight a desperate battle to survive. Meanwhile, at Mission Control, astronaut Ken Mattingly, flight director Gene Kranz and a heroic ground crew race against time--and the odds--to bring them home. The Apollo 1 crew is shown getting into their spacecraft for a simulation that goes terribly wrong when a fire starts and they can't get out. Walter Cronkite says in voice-over, "Inspired by the late President Kennedy, in only 7 years America has risen to the challenge of what he called the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. After trailing the Russians for years with our manned space program, and after that sudden horrible fire on the launch pad during a routine test that killed American astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, there were serious doubts that we could beat the Russians to the Moon. But tonight, a mere eighteen months after the tragedy of Apollo 1, the entire world watched in awe as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. The big news came just a moment ago. Mission Control gave the astronauts permission to go for the extra-vehicular activity, that is, for the walk on the Moon, far earlier than anticipated, 9 pm Eastern Daylight Time.".

It's July 20, 1969. Astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is having a party at his house to celebrate the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Astronaut Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) is telling a blonde girl named Tracy about "penetrating the Lunar Module," demonstrating this with a glass and a beer bottle. "When you feel that thing slide in, everything's clickin', it's like no other feeling in the world." She laughs at his double entendre.

Lovell comes in and jokingly asks what the big occasion is. Swigert asks how things are going at Mission Control, and he says, "It's a nervous time. They're pacing around, smoking like chimneys, [Flight Director] Gene Kranz is gonna have puppies." Swigert introduces Lovell to Tracy by saying, "This is the man. Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8, they were the first ones around the moon, this guy did ten laps." Lovell says, "With one hand on the wheel." His wife Marilyn (Kathleen Quinlan) asks where he's been; he shows her a case of "the last champagne in the city of Houston." He gives it to his son Jay (Max Elliott Slade), a military cadet, to put on ice, and tells him to get a haircut. Jay protests that he's on vacation.