History Film / Apollo13

* TheCameo: Aside from Ron Howard's relatives, he also put in movie producer Creator/RogerCorman (as the congressman who questions continuing the Apollo program) and Todd Hallowell, the film's Executive Producer, (as the guy that yells at Jim Lovell at a traffic light). Creator/WalterCronkite does the prologue narration, and his news broadcasts for both Apollo 11 and 13 are used as plot points. On the astronaut front, the real Jim Lovell appears near the end as a naval captain shaking the crew's hands, while Apollo 7 commander and original Mercury Seven astronaut Wally Schirra briefly appears in one of Cronkite's news reports on Apollo 13 from the time.

'''Marilyn:''' ''(softly)'' Remember? You're proud, happy and thrilled...\\
'''Reporter:''' How are you feeling?\\

* LiteralMetaphor: The carbon dioxide levels on the Lunar Module are rising faster than the LM's air filters can handle. But the Command Module's filters, which can handle it, are square, whereas the LM's filters are round. So NASA's engineers have to actually put a square peg into a round hole, promptly lampshaded by Kranz.

In 1970, the Apollo 13 mission was launched, headed for the moon. But this ill-fated flight would never reach its goal. Instead, its crew--Commander Jim Lovell (Creator/TomHanks), Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert (Creator/KevinBacon), and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise (Creator/BillPaxton) would have to handle another crisis, one which endangers not only the mission, but their very lives. When an explosion rocks the service module, the crew soon realizes that the oxygen tanks aboard the Command Module ''Odyssey'' are leaking, forcing Mission Control, led by Flight Director Gene Kranz (Creator/EdHarris) to abort the landing. The crew shut down ''Odyssey'' and power up the Lunar Module ''Aquarius'' (which normally could only support two men for a little over a day) to act as a lifeboat as they slingshot around the far side of the moon. Only ingenuity and the ability to keep their wits about them will allow them to get home safely...

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: On day 6, a fit of cabin fever leads to the crew ripping off their bio-med sensors. While Charles Berry was exasperated to say the least, Gene Kranz was rather amused.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: [[http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/28000000/gary-sinise-als-ken-mattingly-gary-sinise-28044677-1184-1374.jpg Gary Sinise]] is a lot more handsome than [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mattingly_Ken.jpg Ken Mattingly]] was.
* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: No one, not in space or the ground, ever showed any emotion, let alone snapping or arguing at each other, regardless of the severity of the danger. All of the emotion in the film were RuleOfDrama.

** When Lovell takes off for Florida, his wife watches from the yard as his plane flies over the house. Justified by the plane being a white T-38 Talon, and also by the likelihood that Lovell would have set up his flight plan specifically to allow the pass. (NASA has maintained a fleet of T-38s, as chase planes and astronaut trainer/taxis, for a very long time, and the agency's fleet livery is white with sky blue pinstriping. NASA pilots often let their families know they were home by overflying their house, Air Traffic Control permitting. The more senior the pilot, the hotter the aircraft which might be available for personal taxi service, e.g at least one pilot at Dryden (Edwards AFB) often used an F-104 Starfighter for trips.)

** Gene ''frickin''' Kranz: The character's famous line is a bit of ArtisticLicense as the real Kranz did not say this, but let's all [[RuleOfCool pretend that he did, m'kay?]][[note]]The real Kranz eventually used the line as the title of his autobiography, so he certainly agrees with the sentiment.[[/note]]

** Then there was this reply by Kranz:
--->'''Director:''' This could be the worst disaster NASA's ever experienced.\\
'''Kranz:''' WithAllDueRespect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our ''finest hour''.

** It's ''NASA''. This skill needs to be on the resume of each team member.

** After the explosion and Kranz calls a meeting in a side room, he uses a chalkboard to draw the Earth, moon, and the current position of the astronauts - for the audience, this is used to explain what is meant by "free-return trajectory" vs. "direct abort", as well as (later on) how far 45 hours would get the astronauts. (He first tried using an overhead projector, but, [[BlackComedy appropriately]], it malfunctioned when he tried to use it.)

** The confusion over VOX (basically, a toggled-on mic). Early on, right after the initial catastrophe, the crew gets frustrated about obvious things that Mission Control is telling them, and Mission Control breaks in to inform them that they're hearing every shout and swear. Later on, during another tense moment caused by stir-craziness (and possibly low-level [=CO=][[subscript:2]] poisoning), Mission Control chimes in again, and the first thing Lovell yells is "Are we on VOX?!?!" remembering the last time. They weren't, and he immediately collects himself.
** The film answers the question that Lovell declines to respond to the lady reporter - how does one go potty in space. (That joke was done specifically because that is [[TruthInTelevision one of the most often asked questions of astronauts]].)

** A subtle one. After the launch, Marilyn Lovell comments that she might look calm but that this doesn't end for her until she sees Jim board the aircraft carrier from the retrieval helicopter. When that happens, it cuts to Marilyn giving an adorable "there it is" reaction.

* TheCasanova: Jack is depicted in the film as a ladies man who is introduced using [[DoubleEntendre sexual-spatial metaphors]] with a girl. He's also remarked as the first bachelor in space--initially, [=NASA=] policy ''only'' allowed married men to be astronauts for PR purposes, and Jack was one of the first bachelors in the corps. This is referenced by Fred Haise after he starts coming down with a nasty UTI during the mission. He speculates that "Swigert gave [him] the clap" by urinating in his relief tube.
* CatharticChores: Invoked when Marilyn reminisces with Jim about Apollo 8:
-->'''Marilyn:''' When you were on the far side on Eight, I didn't sleep at all. I just vacuumed over and over again.

* CherubicChoir: During re-entry and splashdown scenes.

* CompetencePorn: You already know how it ends. And you probably already know the gist of how three astronauts and their thousands of support staff on the ground cooperated to get a crippled spacecraft back to Earth. What the movie gives you is the chance to watch how they do it. At one point Jim mentions that they have half the [=PhD=]'s in the country working on a solution, and they should take comfort in that.

* ConflictBall: One arises by way of Jack Swigert trying to bring to the crew's attention to a prediction he made of the module not having a steep enough return trajectory, before hitting his head and [[ClusterFBomb cursing]] out of frustration. [[JustifiedTrope The ensuing argument tips them off]] that they were all thinking slightly less rationally than usual, by Houston alerting them to their [[AlmostOutOfOxygen high carbon dioxide levels]], and Haise's math error in calculating CO[[subscript:2]] ratios around two people's breathing, not three.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: When preparing for reentry, Lovell automatically takes the pilot's seat before Swigert gets to it. Swigert looks hurt, assuming that Lovell doesn't trust his skills, but says nothing. When Lovell notices he apologizes--taking the pilot's seat is a force of habit, and he moves aside to let Swigert fly them home.
* DangerDeadpan: Because astronauts are just awesome like that.

* DisasterDominoes
** News anchormen giving running summaries on the events of the mission can make things seem like this, combined with TemptingFate.
--->'''Walter Cronkite:''' ...And if anything else goes wrong, they'll be in ''real'' trouble.
** As explained in the book, the actual mission included two other course correction burns and at least one additional serious problem[[note]]One of the six Lunar Module batteries suffered a buildup of hydrogen gas resulting in a partial venting of the battery's electrolyte, this resulted in a loss of some of the battery's power and caused some power concerns[[/note]], not shown in the movie. Ron Howard said he left these out of fear that the real story would be [[RealityIsUnrealistic too melodramatic]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Done not-at-all-subtly by Jack when he explains to a woman how the ship will link up with the lunar lander. This [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] a later scene where he actually performs the maneuver in space and it causes a completely unsexual scraping noise.

** Mission Control is stuffed to the vents with smokers and ashtrays are as prominent as flashing lights--each station has an ashtray ''built in'', as did the seats in the viewing gallery behind the Mission Control room. Punctuated during the Go/No-Go sequence where ''Charles Berry'' blows out a huge cloud of cigarette smoke. Gene Kranz stated in a documentary that the "smell" of Mission Control was the mix of "cigarette smoke and boiled-over coffee pots" and given what they are going through the odds are that many of those engineers were [[CigaretteOfAnxiety lighting up more frequently than normal]].

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: A lot of the characters in Mission Control are known only by their positions—CAPCOM, RETRO, FAO, etc. —even in the film's credits.
* ExcessiveSteamSyndrome:
** Although the material being vented was oxygen rather than steam. As one of the flight controllers theorizes in the film, steam venting from a cooling system on the LM was responsible for the "shallowing" that threatened the re-entry. As water boils off into steam it takes heat with it, making it a pretty useful way of getting rid of excess heat in an environment where conduction and convection are out of the question. The LM was not meant to be powered up for the trans-lunar or trans-earth phases of the mission (it wasn't meant to be even attached any more for the trans-earth coast) so the effects of the steam vent had never been observed before.
** Furthermore, the reason they ran out of electric power was because they ran out of oxygen to feed the fuel cells, a technology first used on Gemini spacecraft and readied for Apollo. In the cell, hydrogen and oxygen are combined at high temperatures, producing electricity... and steam, which was condensed into water for drinking and cooling.

* FacePalm:
** Several. The level of frustration in the film runs extremely high, from malfunctioning equipment to accidents to outright stupidity, and the characters show it.

** Another one happens a little later on, when Mission Control [[{{Macgyvering}} macgyvers]] a solution, which includes using their spare urine bag. Which leads to this exchange:

** "It's reading a quadruple failure - that can't happen." Normally true. The flight controllers normally see issues as matters of bad telemetry or sensors that fail. That's "instrumentation" problems. But when they [[OhCrap verify their data to observation...]]
** Another case of TruthInTelevision. After the mission, Jack Swigert told ''LIFE'' magazine that if the crew had been given this type of scenario during a simulation, they would have complained about it "not being realistic."

* ForegoneConclusion: But no less tense and gripping for all that.

* GallowsHumor: When the Command Module got safely back to Earth and the astronauts were saved, the representative of Grumman (who designed the Lunar Module) gave the representative of North American Aviation (who designed the command service module) a bill. For towing expenses (with an added fee for "additional guest in room" since the Lunar Module was only meant for two, not three). North American responded in turn by stating that the [=CSM=] had already ferried three [=LMs=] (Apollos 10, 11 and 12) to the Moon with no such fees charged at the time.
* GeniusBonus: When Lovell is boasting that his landing will be "better than Neil Armstrong...and ''way better'' than Pete Conrad!" he wasn't just bragging. As Apollo 11 approached the landing site, the crew could see it was covered in boulders, requiring them to continue hovering until they could find a clear patch to set down, with only about thirty seconds worth of fuel remaining. Apollo 12 was actually a very precise landing, within a short walk to the Surveyor 3 probe, a major objective of the mission. But again, the original site was too rough, and Bean and Conrad ended up landing on the side of a hill, which caused the engine to cut off a little too early and left the LM sitting on an angle.

* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: ''[[InvertedTrope Inverted]].'' The level of stress, fear, and emotion that the astronauts express is exaggerated for [[RuleOfDrama dramatic effect]] to what the audience would expect from someone in such a terrifying situation, [[RealityIsUnrealistic in real life]] [[NervesOfSteel they were totally calm and collected at all times.]]
* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Ken Mattingly wasn't quite so handsome in real life.

* HopeSpot: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] during the reentry scene. Previously, no manned mission had gone through more than three minutes of radio silence during reentry, the state of the Service Module indicated that the heat shield may have been damaged, and the angle of reentry was much shallower than any previous mission, meaning there was a distinct possibility that the Command Module would burn up during reentry. When four full minutes of radio silence passed without contact being reestablished, it seems that there is no chance the crew survived. Cue Lovell's response of "Hello, Houston. This is Odyssey. It's good to see you again." AndMissionControlRejoiced.
* HumansAreSpecial: Jim Lovell, ''very'' drunk, is lying on a recliner in his back yard looking up at the moon, after the successful landing of Apollo 11. He explains to his wife why this trope applies:
-->'''Jim:''' From now on, we live in a world where man has walked on the moon. [[BadassBoast And it's not a miracle. We just decided to go.]]

* IfIHadANickel: Raise your hand if you are reassured by this next statement:
-->'''Jim:''' Well... if I had a dollar for every time they've killed me in this thing [the Apollo flight simulator], I wouldn't have to work for you, Deke.

* ImprobablePilotingSkills: Improbable maybe, but completely true. Improbable flying skills [[JustifiedTrope are part of the job description]].

* KeepTheHomeFiresBurning: Marilyn Lovell's subplot starts with her shielding her family from media attention (and advising Mary Haise in the same). Once the mission goes wrong, she tries to hold her family together emotionally despite the lack of updates from NASA - while still keeping press agents eager for a tragedy out of their home.

-->'''Marilyn:''' ''(softly)'' Remember? You're proud, happy and thrilled...
-->'''Reporter:''' How are you feeling?

* LostWeddingRing: This sequence was only slightly exaggerated for drama, though the initial Los Angeles Times review criticized this "invention". Marilyn Lovell did drop her wedding ring in the shower, but she was able to retrieve it; still, the experience was less than reassuring.

* ManlyTears:
** Gene Kranz sheds some when they regain communication with the ''Odyssey'' after the ship has safely survived reentry.
** Kranz isn't the only one; it's subtle, but if you look closely during this scene, you can see several other engineers wiping their eyes.

** An artifact of the filming process. The actors in the spacecraft really are in freefall, but the set is attached to the KC-135; as the plane is buffeted by the atmosphere, the set actually bobs around the actors, making it look like they're shifting about even when they're not touching any walls.

* MissedHimByThatMuch: Marilyn Lovell did come to Mission Control to see the astronauts broadcast. The explosion happened between her leaving mission control and getting home. Good thing they waited until after the broadcast to stir the tanks.

** [[SmashCut Cuts right from]] Jack Swigert's [[BigYes reaction to being told he's going to the moon]] to Ken Mattingly's reaction to being told he's ''not'' going to the moon...

* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: The mission was going to be flight commander Jim Lovell's SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. He was planning on retiring from NASA after this mission, and what better way to do it than by walking on the moon, after previously flying to it on Apollo 8. Unfortunately, an explosion in mid-flight means having to abort the moon landing, thereby making Lovell the only astronaut to travel to the moon twice without actually landing.

* NoodleImplements: The materials Mission Control tells the astronauts to gather (to [=MacGyver=] another air filter for the [=LEM=]) include suit hoses, a flight plan cover, 2 lithium hydroxide cannisters, duct tape, and one sock.
* NothingButHits: Anytime anyone is listening to the radio, and "Spirit in the Sky" on tape during the mission. (The last one gets a lampshade hung by Lovell, who mentions the soundtrack was switched--in real life, the music was ''[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey Also sprach Zarathustra]]'' by Strauss, as Lovell in-film said it ''should'' have been.)

* NotTheIntendedUse: Gene invokes this to come up with their contingency plans.
-->'''Gene:''' I don't care what anything was ''designed'' to do; I care about what it ''can'' do.
* ObligatorySwearing: [[DownplayedTrope Only in the sense that]] they actually ''do'' swear about as much could be expected from anyone else in their situation. In real life [[RealityIsUnrealistic they stayed totally calm at all times]], the harshest language any of the astronauts used was Jim Lovell's use of the phrase "[[GoshDangItToHeck frappin'.]]"

'''Lovell:''' [[ScottyTime We don't have that much time]].\\

* PhlebotinumAnalogy: News anchors describing how narrow of a window the ''Odyssey'' has for a safe reentry.
-->'''Newscaster:''' In order to enter the atmosphere safely, the crew must aim for a corridor just two and a half degrees wide. ... The reentry corridor is, in fact, so narrow that if this basketball were the Earth, and this softball were the Moon, and the two were placed fourteen feet apart, the crew would have to hit a target no thicker than this piece of paper.
* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: Marilyn brings in Jims' elderly mother Blanche and introduces her to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who have arrived to stay with the family during this time. They are easily the most recognizable names of the space program, but Blanche asks if they work at NASA too.

* QuieterThanSilence: The ambiance outside the capsule, as represented by... wind.
* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Like in most fictional versions, this is a Bad Thing in real life.
-->'''Sy Liebergot:''' O[[subscript:2]] Tank 2 not reading at all [...] It's -- it's reading a quadruple failure -- that can't happen... It's got to be instrumentation.
** And as noted above, this was a big part of how the tank got damaged and why it malfunctioned/blew up in the first place.

** At first stage ignition, the Saturn V launch shows great balls of fire blooming out from around the engines, and then shrinking right back down again. Jim Lovell commented on this, saying that many people believed that the film was merely being run backwards; however, [[http://www.vimeo.com/4366695 actual footage of the launches]] shows the fireball retreating in this way, as the initial cloud of flames is sucked back through the base of the launch platform by the ever-increasing velocity of the exhaust plume. The unrealistic part of the film's launch (aside from the Saturn V's paint job for 13) were the holding arms, which all swing back simultaneously, not one by one.

** Much of the astronaut's dialogue and their reactions are greatly exaggerated for drama. In particular, many comments by the cinematic Lovell were actually said by Fred Haise, according to the transcript. Also exaggerated for the sake of drama were the relative inexperience, compared to Lovell, of Swigert (the real Swigert was a solid pilot that also trained in many Command Module disaster scenarios) and Haise (who pointed out many problems in the real mission long before they came to pass).

* RockBottom: And then some.
-->'''RETRO - WHITE:''' Flight, this is RETRO.\\
'''Gene Kranz (FLIGHT DIRECTOR - WHITE):''' Go, RETRO.\\
'''RETRO:''' Flight. We are looking at a typhoon warning at the edge of the prime recovery zone.\\
'''Kranz:''' Say again, RETRO.\\
'''RETRO:''' Flight. We are looking at a typhoon warning on the edge of the prime recovery area, now this is just a warning, Flight, it could miss them.\\
'''Kranz:''' Only if their luck changes.

** Another great mission summary from Gene.
--->'''Gene:''' I don't care what anything was ''designed'' to do, I care about what it ''can'' do.

* SinkingShipScenario

** ''Film/{{Gravity}} (2013)'' could be seen as one, as it is a 'serious' space disaster film based on current technology and starring astronauts rather than a straight sci-fi. Ed Harris [[ShoutOut even resumes]] [[CastingGag his role]] as MissionControl.

-->'''Marilyn:''' ''[sotto voce]'' Remember, proud, happy and thrilled.

* TactfulTranslation: See the quote under CaptainObvious, above.

** During the launch, after a second-stage engine failure is successfully worked around:
--->'''Lovell:''' Our gimbals are good, our trim is good; looks like we just had our glitch for this mission.
** NASA's attitude towards [[ThirteenIsUnlucky the number 13]] prior to the mission - the mission number, liftoff at 1:13 PM (1313 in 24-hour time) on April 11th, 1970 (4+1+1+7+0 = 13), entering lunar orbit on April 13th.

* {{Understatement}}:
** Yet again, "Houston, we have a problem."
** The "little jolt" during the launch.

* WaistcoatOfStyle: In both the movie and Real Life, Flight Director Gene Kranz' wife sews him a vest before each flight.

* TheWholeWorldIsWatching: the film deals with this trope before and after the oxygen tank explosion as a contrast about the world's reaction to what is now the third mission to the Moon:

* YouHadUsWorriedThere: After a tense week in space the crew make it back safely.

!!'''''Houston, we have a trope list'''':

!!"Houston, we have a trope list":

!!''Apollo 13'' provides examples of:

* TheSixties: The film is set in the transition between TheSixties and TheSeventies. As exemplified by Barbara Lovell's hippie attire and her brooding over "[[Music/TheBeatles The stupid Beatles]] breaking up" (Paul [=McCartney=] resigned from the band on April 9, 1970, two days before Apollo 13's launch).

* MissionControl: The real kind.

** When Lovell's young son is told there's something wrong with Apollo 13, he asks wide-eyed with fear, "Was it the door?"[[note]]Lovell just told the story of how Grissom and others were killed because of a fire they couldn't escape because of the door.[[/note]]

* KeepTheHomeFiresBurning: Marilyn Lovell's subplot starts with her shielding her family from media attention (and advising other astronauts' wives in the same). Once the mission goes wrong, she tries to hold her family together emotionally despite the lack of updates from NASA - while still keeping press agents eager for a tragedy out of their home.
-->--''"Remember! Proud, happy, and thrilled..."

* CompetencePorn: You already know how it ends. And you probably already know the gist of how three astronauts and their thousands of support staff on the ground cooperated to get a crippled spacecraft back to Earth. What the movie gives you is the chance to watch how they do it.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Mild examples here and there during moments of tension. Gene Kranz quickly puts an end to any bickering and there are some doubts about Jack, [[NewMeat as he was a member of the backup team]]. At some point, Fred antagonizes and confronts Jack, but eventually gives him credit. There was no ''actual'' animosity between the crew, and even in the film it's clear that they're just reacting out of stress and fear. By the end, they're FireForgedFriends.

->"Hello Houston, this is ''Odyssey''. It's good to see you again."

* AcePilot: You ''have'' to be an ace pilot to be an astronaut, but Jim Lovell is talked about as one of the best even by other astronauts (who are more likely to praise their own skills than others'), having flown numerous successful missions for the Navy, Gemini, and Apollo 8. Ken Mattingly is also considered to be up at the top -- when informed that he's working on the power-up procedures, Lovell is somewhat reassured.

* DreamTeam: Gene Kranz's White Team.