History Film / Apollo13

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: As noted on the main article page, NASA sparingly used 13 as a mission number since the accident. For NASA, a trope could be made for "January is Unlucky." The final flight of Space Shuttle Orbiter ''Columbia'', the ''Apollo 1'' fire and the loss of Orbiter ''Challenger'' all occurred on January 16, 27, 28 in 2003, 1967 and 1986. (While the ''Columbia'' re-entry disaster did not occur until February 3, the problem that caused the disaster happened on launch.)

** 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 for fear that the real story would be [[RealityIsUnrealistic too melodramatic]].
* DisneyDeath: Communications black out during re-entry, and all the audience can see is Mission Control and Lovell's family awaiting for contact to be re-established. After three minutes (the longest a blackout had been sustained before a prior crew arrived safely), still no contact. After ''four'' minutes, still no contact. [[ForegoneConclusion Eventually, there's contact]], but the movie makes sure to make every character and every audience member sweat it out. In real life, the actual blackout lasted six minutes, nearly a minute and a half longer than expected. This was due to the trajectory of the command module being slightly shallower than originally calculated, due to a steam sublimator on the LM pushing them slightly off course on the long trip back from the moon.
* 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 manoeuvre in space and it causes a completely unsexual scraping noise.

* ButtMonkey: From getting crap for bumping Mattingly from the mission to a later "medical mutiny", Charles Berry can't catch a break.

** A small one happens when Jim irately demands that Mission Control give them the command module power-up procedure only to have Deke Slayton cut in on the radio to tell him to be patient. The Apollo 13 astronauts knew full well that only the CAPCOM officer at Mission Control was supposed to communicate with the flight crew directly; so when their boss Deke broke protocol and personally got on the radio to talk to them, all three astronauts immediately realized the status of the power-up procedure:

* 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.

** Taken UpToEleven in a later scene, where Lovell looks down at the Earth through a window in the lunar module, and his wife stares back up at him from her living room.

** ''Film/TheMartian'' could also be seen as one, with the problems Cranked UpToEleven.

* {{Corpsing}}: The director told Hanks at one point during filming the TV broadcast/non-broadcast scene to do something to liven up the kid actors, as they were getting bored. He went back and started his lines about the space food again, then changed to a joke about a ''Film/FreeWilly'' sandwich, playing on the actress who portrayed Barbara Lovell (the eldest daughter) also having been in that franchise's second film.

* EurekaMoment: The scriptwriters had one when they met with one of the real life members of mission control, Jerry Bostick, and asked him if they'd ever contemplated failure during the crisis.
-->'''Jerry Bostick:''' 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.

->"Failure ''is not'' an option!"

* OneWomanWail: During the loss of communications as they pass behind the moon (courtesy of [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Annie Lennox]]).

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Throughout the movie Gene Krantz is the cool, calm leader of the Mission Control team. The one moment the facade cracks is when he is informed that there's still a delay in getting the critical power-up procedure for the Command Module, letting the audience know the situation is getting critical.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. There are two Johns, John Young and John Aaron. Sometimes they're in the same scene and both respond when people don't specify which John they're asking for.
* OneWomanWail: During the loss of communications as they pass behind the moon (courtesy of [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Annie Lennox]]).

** Inverted with the team of men tasked with figuring out how to use a square filter in an apparatus requiring a round one. In reality, one engineer figured it out while driving in to work.

* TheWholeWorldIsWatching: As the ''Apollo 13'' spacecraft nears Earth, news reports are shown of reactions from the nations of the world. Many offer help, but there's really nothing they can do except pray. Archive footage of Pope Paul VI leading fifty ''thousand'' people in prayer is seen and prayers offered at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

** There are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13_(film)#Technical_and_historical_accuracy some inaccuracies]], but they were minor and primarily in service of the RuleOfDrama. The greatest changes were in the mission dialogue. The real astronauts rarely quibbled, much less argued, per the mission transcript. Tom Hank's character also "stole" lines that were often said by his crewmates.

** An artifact of the filming process. The actors in the spacecraft really are in freefall, as mentioned in the ArtificialGravity entry above, 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.

** A preview audience member criticized the "[[WhatAnIdiot typical Hollywood ending]]", and even those familiar with the basic story have assumed that certain historically accurate parts of the film (most notably the scene where Marilyn Lovell loses her wedding ring) were invented for dramatic reasons. The wedding ring shower scene ''was'' exaggerated somewhat. In real life, the ring did slip off her finger, but it was too big to fall through the drain cover and Marilyn was able to retrieve it.

** The three astronauts remained surprisingly cool under pressure in real life (let's face it, you don't get to ''be'' an astronaut if you don't have NervesOfSteel), but the movie ramped up emotional tensions between them for dramatic effect. If you're the space-buff sort, [[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a13/AS13_TEC.txt you can read the flight's entire transcript and compare it to the film adaptation]]. Although the crew had a tendancy to cuss ''slightly'' more than NASA's PR team would have you believe, and complain they don't understand why Mission Control is having them do certain procedures, they only really had one argument during the whole six day mission[[labelnote: transcript]]\\

''Apollo 13'' is a 1995 film directed by Ron Howard.

*** In a bit of ArtisticLicenseAstronomy, after the party has broken up and the guests have left, Jim is outside looking up at the moon and covering it with his thumb. The moon is depicted as being nearly full. In reality, on July 20, 1969 the moon was not quite half-full and only about 40% of it was visible from earth.

* NoPhonesTonight: Ken Mattingly takes his off the hook and goes to bed, forcing fellow astronaut John Young to come wake him up after the explosion.

Others in the AllStarCast include Creator/GarySinise (Ken Mattingly, a last-minute scratch from the mission who has to help figure out a way to get the astronauts home), Creator/ClintHoward as Sy Liebergot, and Creator/KathleenQuinlan as Jim Lovell's wife Marilyn. If you watch this on DVD, Blu-Ray, or the Signature Collection Laserdisc, make sure you listen to the commentary track by the real Jim and Marilyn Lovell.

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 would have to handle another crisis -- one which endangers not only the mission, but their very lives. But this 1995 movie is no sci-fi epic. Based on actual events, ''Apollo 13'' depicts real history.

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 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...

Director Creator/RonHoward, producer Creator/BrianGrazer, and star Creator/TomHanks went on to produce the Creator/{{HBO}} miniseries ''Series/FromTheEarthToTheMoon''.

If you watch this on DVD, Blu-Ray, or the Signature Collection Laserdisc, make sure you listen to the commentary track by the real Jim and Marilyn Lovell.

** The three astronauts remained surprisingly cool under pressure in real life (let's face it, you don't get to ''be'' an astronaut if you don't have NervesOfSteel), but the movie ramped up emotional tensions between them for dramatic effect. If you're the space-buff sort, [[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a13/AS13_TEC.txt you can read the flight's entire transcript and compare it to the film adaptation]]. To put it in perspective, the highlight of the astronauts' tension was Jim Lovell saying ''frappin[='=]'' in frustration at one point. In short, the film heightens what both astronauts and engineers were already contemplating before several of the film's crises actually occurred (such as CO[[subscript:2]] scrubbing).

* ParentalFashionVeto: Barbara Lovell wants to go out for Halloween dressed like a hippie, and her parents tell her she can't go out dressed that way.