Apollo 13 (1995)

Directed by

Ron Howard

Genre

drama film, adventure film, docudrama, disaster film, historical film, survival film

Country

United States

Runtime

2h 14m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 5,976 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In 1970, three astronauts on a mission to the moon suffer an explosion in their spacecraft. With their oxygen and power running out, the crew and NASA engineers race to bring them home alive.

tensesuspensefulgroundedinspiringmethodicalurgentnerve-wrackinghopeful

What happens

Apollo 13 is a 1995 American docudrama film directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan. The screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert dramatizes the aborted 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission and is an adaptation of the 1994 book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. The film tells the story of astronauts Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred 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 forces NASA's flight controllers to abandon the Moon 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 a reduced-gravity aircraft for realistic depiction of the weightlessness experienced by the astronauts in space. Released in theaters by Universal Pictures in the United States on June 30, 1995, Apollo 13 received critical acclaim and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture (winning for Best Film Editing and Best Sound). The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, as well as two British Academy Film Awards. In total, the film grossed over $355 million worldwide during its theatrical releases, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 1995. It is listed in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made (2004). In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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