The Netflix True Story Space Thriller Keeps You On The Edge Of Your Seat

Director Ron Howard and the film’s production team purposed to not use any real footage of the Apollo 13 mission during filming but to recreate every piece of the action themselves.

The result of the team’s painstaking precision on set was nothing less than excellent. Apollo 13 was and still is a classic work of art. 

With an all-star cast, Apollo 13 featured the talents of Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Ed Harris, and Gary Sinise. The screenplay for the movie was written by William Broyles Jr. and based on a book named Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, which is a real-life recounting of the mission by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jefferey Kluger. 

The movie tells the story of the actual Apollo 13 crew, astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise. Their mission was to be the fifth mission to the Moon and the third mission to land on its surface, but the team never made it to the Moon’s surface. 

The mission’s takeoff goes fairly well, but the team runs into problems on the third day. Mission Control ordered Swigert to stir the liquid oxygen tanks.

When he did, an electrical short in one of the fans caused the oxygen tank to explode, emptying all of its contents and damaging the other tank as well. 

When the crew of the Apollo 13 mission notices that their ship is spewing something out into space, they discover that the last of the oxygen supply is slowly being spilled out due to the damaged tank. 

As a last-ditch effort to stop the leak, the crew shuts down two out of three of the ship’s fuel cells as well … but it doesn’t work. With their ship crippled, their dreams of landing on the Moon were lost, and the focus turned towards survival instead. 

Director Ron Howard made it his goal to create a technically accurate movie when filming Apollo 13 and even employed NASA’s assistance during the filming. 

He also did what it took to get permission to film some of the scenes of Apollo 13 inside of a reduced-gravity plane so the weightlessness the astronauts experienced while in space would be more realistic.

Whatever he did, it worked! Apollo 13 was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. Overall, the movie grossed more than $350 million worldwide (which was a LOT in 1995) while in theaters and is widely considered one of the best movies of all time. 

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, or you just want to refresh your experience, Apollo 13 is now streaming on Netflix for those with a subscription to the channel. The movie has a runtime of just over two hours and a ‘PG’ rating.