History Trivia / Apollo13

* TheCameo: As the crew is celebrating on the USS ''Iwo Jima'', Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell shakes hands with the Captain of the ship, played by ''the real Jim Lovell'' (wearing his own uniform to boot). When Lovell was offered a cameo, Ron Howard wanted him to play an admiral. Lovell's response was, "I retired as a Captain, so I'll play a Captain."

* 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.)

* {{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 was the eldest Lovell daughter also having been in that franchise's second film.

* 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.)

* CastingGag: Creator/EdHarris previously played a character affiliated with NASA, except the last time, [[Film/TheRightStuff he was one of the Mercury Seven]].

* AFIS100Years100MovieQuotes:
** #50, "Houston, we have a problem."
* AFIS100Years100Cheers: #12

** Creator/KevinCostner was considered to star as Jim Lovell, who the real Lovell considered a good physical match with him at that time.
** Creator/JohnCusack turned down the role of Fred Haise.
** Creator/BradPitt turned down the role of Jack Swigert to star in ''Film/{{Se7en}}''.

** Lovell's dream shows him taking a few steps on the moon in a rather awkward-looking effect. Hanks makes up for this later in ''FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', where the moonwalk sequences are eerily realistic. {{Justified|Trope}} because Lovell never actually set foot on the Moon and had no actual experience with what it would feel like during the dream sequence.

* 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. 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.

* 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. 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.

* 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.

* BeamMeUpScotty: Lovell's actual observation was, "Houston, we've had a problem." It is hard to tell the difference between the two phrases in the recording and WordOfGod states it was deliberately changed to present-tense "have" because the original quote of "had" implied that the problem was over.

* DyeingForYourArt: Many of the weightless scenes were filmed in ''actual weightlessness'' aboard [=NASA's=] venerable [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomit_Comet Vomit Comet]], despite the fact that each zero-g run could only produce a few seconds of usable footage[[note]]The beginning and the end of the dives were too turbulent and caused the actors and sets to move around excessively. A window of around five to ten seconds was all they had to produce a good take[[/note]]. Other scenes were filmed in one gravity, using camera tricks, on a sound stage that was ''chilled to 34 degrees Fahrenheit'' so the actors' breathing would fog visibly.

* The first two Moon crews were guaranteed later flights if their flights failed. 13 was the first one not to have that guarantee. This is alluded to in the scene where Lovell is giving a VIP tour of the Vertical Assembly Building at the Cape, and a senator (in a cameo by RogerCorman) is questioning why the government is still funding the Apollo program now that the Space Race has been won.

* The first two Moon crews were guaranteed later flights if their flights failed. 13 was the first one not to have that guarantee.

* RealitySubtext: The last thing Jim tells Marilyn before the mission, "You can't live without me...", was, in fact, the first thing he said to her upon getting home.

** Lovell's dream shows him taking a few steps on the moon in a rather awkward-looking effect. Hanks makes up for this later in ''FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', where the moonwalk sequences are eerily realistic. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because Lovell never actually set foot on the moon, and had no actual experience with what it would feel like during the dream sequence.
* TheCameo: As the crew is celebrating on the ''USS Iwo Jima'', Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell shakes hands with the Captain of the ship, played by ''the real Jim Lovell'' (wearing his own uniform to boot). When Lovell was offered a cameo, Ron Howard wanted him to play an admiral. Lovell's response was, "I retired as a Captain, so I'll play a Captain."
* 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.

** Jack Swigert, in his hurry to get ready for the mission, has forgotten to file his income tax return. In ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' Frank Poole is concerned with a financial issue that needs to be straightened up back on Earth too.

** The new instructions for the [=CO=][[subscript:2]] adapter and the powerup checklist were physically brought to flight control, and they were hand-written. They were read out to the flight crew. No e-mail or uploading here. By comparison, even the Skylab spacecraft just a few years later was equipped with a teleprinter to directly receive text documents.

** After Jack Swigert admitted to not filing his taxes before leaving for the Moon, Clint Howard ad-libbed his follow-up line, "That's no joke, they'll jump on him!" (Clint Howard has a history of trouble with the IRS)
** Tom Hanks flubbed his line at one point while reeling off a huge list of numbers but managed to stay in character and do what an astronaut would do in the same situation, follow up with a correction ("One, six, seven-eight... uh, correction: that's one, six, seven POINT seven-eight...") Even better, given that he's asking the ground to check his math because he's not confident about it, it sounds right for the situation.

* The cracked wires that caused the explosion weren't actually a defect as the movie said, they were caused by an accident. The thermostat was wrong; the spacecraft had been slightly modified from earlier versions, and the tanks were originally intended for another spacecraft. When they were switched, the thermostat wasn't swapped out. It couldn't handle the current that went through it during ground testing and there was also a problem with a crooked vent tube due to the tanks being dropped during the shift. This normally wasn't a big problem, the liquid oxygen would just be burned off after the ground tests and refilled before the flight. During the burn-off, however, having the wrong thermostat resulted in the device being fused shut when the heat got too high and the heat never went off like it should have. The heat climbed high enough to melt the coating on the wires, but as long as the tank was filled with liquid oxygen, it was too cold to cause a problem. By the time of the explosion, enough oxygen had been used to expose the wires and allow the spark.

* Although Fred Haise didn't fly in space again, he did fly the test space shuttle, Enterprise, during approach and landing tests. He later narrowly escaped dying when a vintage plane he was flying crashed and he was badly burned.
* In the movie, Hanks's Lovell says that Alan Shephard's ear infection flared up again. In reality, it was just the opposite. Shepard got surgery for his Meniere's disease, and it was cured. He petitioned Deke Slayton for a moon mission, and was assigned 13 along with Stu Roosa and Ed Mitchell. NASA rejected it, though, insisting that Lovell's crew take 13 and Shepard wait for 14 and get further training, due to Shepard having not even been in space since 1961. This account would be properly described in Hanks's later series, ''From The Earth to the Moon.''

* The Apollo 13 crew still holds the record for the furthest human beings have ever been from Earth, likely due to the fact that they'd originally left the free-return trajectory earlier missions flew and that their swing around the moon was just to slingshot them home, not to land on it.
* Aquarius's fuel cask was targeted so it would splash down somewhere in the Mariana Trench, one of the deepest ocean points on Earth, to avoid the radioactive fuel (used for one of their unused lunar experiments) landing near any populated areas.
* The first two moon crews were guaranteed later flights if their flights failed. 13 was the first one not to have that guarantee.
* 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.)

** Lovell's dream shows him taking a few steps on the moon in a rather awkward-looking effect. Hanks makes up for this later in ''FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', where the moonwalk sequences are eerily realistic.

* {{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 ''FreeWilly'' sandwich, playing on the actress who was the eldest Lovell daughter also having been in that franchise's second film.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Mission control seems to be full of these.
** Hey, did the astronauts just tell one of [[{{Series/Lost}} the Others]] "Houston, we have a problem here?"
** Hey, didn't the flight surgeon eventually make partner at a [[Series/BostonLegal Boston law firm]] despite his Asperger's Syndrome?
** I wonder if [[Series/{{NCIS}} Agent Fornell]] is really part of Mission Control or if he's simply on another FBI job...
** [[Film/RealGenius Mitch Taylor]] has grown up to handle GNC.
** [[Film/AirForceOne Agent Gibbs]] does public relations for NASA.
** [[Film/TheHuntForRedOctober Seaman Beaumont]] is CAPCOM Gold.
** [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Rom]] realizes that the crew has to do another burn to correct their entry angle.
** [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Balok]] is EECOM.
** [[Series/{{Bones}} Russ Brennan]] works through the CM power-up procedure with Lt. Dan.
** [[Series/{{CSINY}} Mac Taylor]] was supposed to be on Apollo 13, but he ended up doing the reentry procedures. Or [[ForrestGump Lt. Dan]]. Take your pick.
*** Even funnier is that he could've flown to the Moon with Film/ForrestGump.
** [[Film/TheRightStuff John Glenn]] became a flight director.
** The older Lovell daughter was the actress who played Nadine in ''Film/FreeWilly 2''.
** [[TheAndyGriffithShow Leon]] is all grown up and a NASA engineer now.
** [[Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou Vernon]] can also be seen as an engineer.

* TheCameo: As the crew is celebrating on the ''USS Iwo Jima'', Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell shakes hands with the Captain of the ship, played by ''the real Jim Lovell.'' When Lovell was offered a cameo, Ron Howard wanted him to play an admiral. Lovell's response was, "I retired as a Captain, so I'll play a Captain."

* DyeingForYourArt: Many of the weightless scenes were filmed in ''actual weightlessness'' aboard a NASA [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomit_Comet Vomit Comet]]. Other scenes were filmed in one gravity, using camera tricks, on a sound stage that was ''chilled to 34 degrees Fahrenheit'' so the actors' breathing would fog visibly.

* 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. (although the ''Columbia'' re-entry disaster did not occur until February 3).

** Tom Hanks flubbed his line at one point while reeling off a huge list of numbers but managed to stay in character and do what an astronaut would do in the same situation, follow up with a correction ("One, six, seven-eight... uh, correction: that's one, six, seven POINT seven-eight...")

** Creator/BradPitt turned down the role of Jack Swigert to star in ''Film/{{Seven}}''.

* 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.

* GallowsHumor: When the command module is safely back on earth and the astronauts are saved, the representative of Grumman, who designed the Lunar Module, hands the representative of North American aviation, who designed the command service module, a bill. For towing expenses.

* RecognitionFailure: Lovell's senile mother doesn't recognize Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they arrive to give support.
-->'''Blanche:''' [[CrowningMomentofFunny Are you boys in the space program, too?]]
** This also counts as a HistoricalPersonPunchline. While Armstrong is mentioned a lot early in the film (and the 1969 moon landing shown), he and Buzz only first appear as characters in that scene, and are named by Marilyn only after telling them what to do.

** Hey, didn't the flight surgeon eventually make partner at a [[BostonLegal Boston law firm]] despite his Asperger's Syndrome?