@@WaywardVet Tom Hanks is a great actor and always comes across as a cool dude overall, but nah.. No matter how badass Tom Hanks may be, his job doesn't involve much in the way of personal risk. Meanwhile Jim Lovell may as well have rolled some dice to determine whether he'd make it back every time he went into space. Next to that, the greatest actors and actresses in the world are just like the rest of us. I'd have wanted an autograph!
@@zeph0shade I'd still walk away with a shake. I'm evil. I'd point him to a kid and say give him the autograph. I just assigned a megastar work and I ain't paying for it.
Gene Kranz is the epitome of a Leader.....didn’t panic whenever a new problem arose, and didn’t try to take over. Allowed each expert to be an expert and listened to their advice in their field, rather than micro manage. He was in charge, but he knew that the strength was in the team effort
If you take a Toyota A3 writing class, they actually show scenes from this movie. For them, this perfectly illustrates problem solving, decision making, and leadership. And for those who are wondering, yes they bought the rights to do so.
And he never actually said "Failure is not an option!" at the time. The line came about after an interview the screen writers did with Krantz, asking him about how they worked the problems, and he said "...you look at all the options, and a failure isn't one of them." After leaving the interview one of the writers turned to the other and said "That's the tag line for the movie: 'Failure is not an option' ". Krantz liked it so much he used it for his autobiography.
We went to Church with the brother of Astronaut White who died in the Apollo 1 fire. Many years later as part of the Navy Funeral Honor Guard, I had the honor to be in the team of Sailors who preformed the Military Funeral Honors for the rescue swimmer involved with the Apollo 13. We got to the funeral home and on either side of the table with the Urn there were two easels with large pictures of the Sailor, the first one was him jumping out of the helicopter. He was half way between the helicopter and ocean. The second one had him on the side of the command capsule getting the astronauts out of the command capsule. I had the honor to present his flag to his wife. All the Astronauts were given their choice of GM cars, by GM. Most of the Astronauts chose a Corvette.
15:01 That young guy in the glasses is supposed to be John Aaron, the guy whose “Set SCE to AUX” instructions saved the Apollo 12 mission when it was struck by lightning during launch. That got him dubbed “a steely-eyed missile man” in NASA. (Remember when they called Rich Parnell that in “The Martian?”) In a room full of smart guys, he was often still the smartest.
He is widely regarded as the greatest flight controller in NASA history. He was set to be a rancher after receiving his BS degree in Physics from Southwestern Oklahoma State when he heard about NASA from a friend.
another incident happened on Apollo 14 that while fairly known doesn't seem to get as much recognition (probably just lack of easy short catchphrase such as "SCE to AUX" :) ) simple version: while approaching Moon a short circuit in the control panel caused intermittent ABORT signals to be sent to the computer which would've ruined the landing. as the programming couldn't be altered Don Eyles had two hours to find a way to modify the state of the computer memory to let it ignore the signal. in the end they convinced the computer it was already doing the abort sequence so no need to do it again and the day was saved. (many better versions of the story online of course, for one check Scott Manley's video "Computer Hack That Saved Apollo 14")
@@snooks5607 Scott Manley is one of my top 3 "Go-To" sources for detailed, yet understandable explanations regarding space history/science. It was suspected that a tiny metal shaving got into the actual space where the switch was placed during manufacture at Grumman (the company making the LM). Now - they had procedures to prevent this from happening. In fact one of them involved LITERALLY turning the ENTIRE SHIP upside down and gently shaking it to get such particles to let go and be collected before control panels were sealed off. The mounting and gimbal turning assembly for this was particularly bizarre looking. And the procedure was very thorough, yet it seems in this ONE instance, it seems likely that a metal filing stayed inside the switch to cause the intermittent short later. As an aside - it wasn't caught earlier because while in the influence of gravity, the metal shaving would always fall to the bottom of the switch and be out of position to cause any short. The problem only began occurring because the tiny metal debris could now float around in zero g. NOTE: I said - "suspected" and "likely" because it's impossible to pull apart the switch and inspect the craft to see if that really did happen. Why? Well there's the little matter that the entire thing was disposable and purposefully de-orbited to smack into the moon after they docked back with the command module after the Lunar mission. So we'll never know for absolute certain. But Grumman made the assumption that must have happened and tightened up their procedures even MORE after this. And the last 3 flights had no such issues.
Re: The biomonitors scene... In an interview, Jim Lovell said that he did take them off. He told NASA it was to conserve power, but he really just didn't want them knowing how scared he really was. Not much else to say, this is just a nearly flawless movie, so I figured an interesting fact was in order. ;)
Thanks for the info. I didn’t know about that one. Quite the character. There’s a James Burke episode about the Men who Walked on the Moon that’s available on UA-cam. Title is a bit off as he interviewed astronauts that didn’t walk on the moon. Some great stuff including Jim Lovell’s description of his time with Frank Borman during the Gemini 7 mission. Pretty hilarious!
Jim Lovell was the guest speaker at my college graduation in 1995 a few weeks before this movie was released. Was a great speech about overcoming adversity.
@@alanholck7995ive read (and im paraphrasing) that other astronauts who know him have said if you couldn't get along with Lovell you couldnt get along with anyone.
The first time I saw the movie Apollo 13 was actually at a lecture given by Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. He talked about the mission with actual footage for the first hour and then showed clips from the movie and would get up intermittently to talk about what parts were accurate and what parts were not. He said the movie was mostly accurate, though he said the crew tension before and after the Service Module explosion was dramatized, as well as smaller details like the tension while Swigert was docking the Command Module to the Lunar Module and the crew taking out their biomonitors after getting fed up with the flight doc. He got quite the chuckle out of that scene and the one near the end where Lovel is hugging him and rubbing him to warm him up. Haise told us, "You don't want a Navy man hugging you when he's been away from his wife for a long time." (His words, not mine so don't start a war in the replies section.) He also said that Bill Paxton (the actor who played him in the movie) did a pretty good job, though they made him out to be a bit more of a joker than he really was, though he did say he played jokes on the crew. He also told us he was indeed ill during the last half of the mission with a UTI most likely due to water rationing. The best part though was when he was talking about his trip to go see the movie for the first time. He took his grandson with him and as they were leaving the theater, Haise asked his grandson what he thought of the movie. His grandson looked at him and said, "Grandpa, you weren't even in the movie!" It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. He's a swell guy and I hope to see him again. P.S: A fun fact about this movie: the captain Tom Hanks shook hands with at the end of the movie was actually Jim Lovell. When asked what cameo he wanted in the movie he said, "I've been a Navy man all my life, I may as well be the captain."
Yes, if they stuck to the actual facts it would have been a boring movie. Swigert was actually a highly qualified astronaut, and there was no tension about the docking, or blame after the cryo tank blew up.
@@Caseytify You're definitely right about that, though the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon stuck close to the facts and they made a pretty entertaining series. Though ironically the Apollo 13 episode was combining several different reporter's experiences into one character.
4:19 - Marilyn Lovell really had nightmares because she and Jim had gone to see a sci-fi movie in which there's an accident in space, leaving the astronauts stranded. 4:37 - This was also real. Marilyn took the car stalling out as yet one more premonition that the mission was going to result in disaster. 5:18 - This is drama for the sake of drama. Swigert was fully qualified as a replacement. Ken Mattingly WAS upset, but there was no concern that Jack couldn't handle the mission. 6:35 - Critics thought this was a cheap piece of drama. It wasn't. This actually happened, and the motel staff was able to retrieve her ring from the trap in the drain. 6:56 - The soundtrack by James Horner is phenomenal! 8:23 - The engine shut-off occurred and Lovell really did think that was the glitch for the mission. 9:56 - This absurd line comes from Bill Paxton asking Gary Busey, who was visiting the set, what the perfect redneck reply would be. Gary provided, Bill said it, and so we have... that. 10:21 - Jack Swigert was so distracted by the mission that he really forgot to file his taxes. 11:10 - The actual line was, "Houston, we've had a problem." The panic that then follows in the film is all for dramatic purposes. If you listen to an actual recording of the incident, it all sounds so... boring. 12:08 - Using the LEM as a lifeboat wasn't a new idea. They'd actually performed drills for just such a thing in case the air in the CM became contaminated. 12:27 - Jim Lovell was so pumped with adrenaline that he honestly wasn't sure of his math, so ground control helped confirm his numbers. But in the movie commentary, he doubted if the used slide rules. 15:15 - The square peg in a round hole was also quite real, and the roughshod filter assembly they made worked remarkably well. But being a guy from Long Island and living so close to Grumman, I was sorely disappointed in their lack of forethought. 15:54 - Fred Haise developed a UTI during the mission. The idea that it was an STD from Swigert was a line played for laughs. 16:10 - This didn't happen. They never lost their tempers with one another. But if there was no tension, this movie would have been a snooze-fest. 17:28 - The movie uses Ken Mattingly as an amalgam of numerous astronauts working the startup process. He did NOT work it alone. 19:25 - They had several burns to correct their course. This one was just an example of what they had to endure. 22:03 - Swigert really did this because he was so exhausted. 23:12 - Their shallow re-entry delayed their radio blackout, which made it VERY stressful. The movie commentary by Jim and Marilyn Lovell helped with the above facts, as well as reading "Lost Moon" by Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger.
I'm glad to hear you say they had multiple course correction burns. It always seemed so incredibly impossible to me that that one imprecise burn could possibly have gotten them on the right trajectory.
If memory serves, slide rules were dichiarately added in this scene by Ron Howard to better depict the way they had to make things back then: manually. He knew that this tool wasn't used in the specific circumstance. Other than that, your commentary is brilliant!
Also when Hanks mentions Alan Shepard ear infection flaring up is a mistake. Shepard had developed Meniere's after his Mercury flight and had an experimental surgery to fix it. He had requested to be on Apollo 13, but it was shot down by NASA.
"If you listen to an actual recording of the incident, it all sounds so... boring." I think that later the movie, more or less intentionally, made fun of this, more precisely when Lovell turned on the communications, moments after the quarrel with the crew, and instantly lowered the voice to the quiet and "boring" tone you can hear in the actual recordings. Very funny.
Everyone who knows the outcome of Apollo 13 mission are still drawn to this film. Your facial expression on liftoff was absolutely worth watching this reaction video!!! And placing the DEATH STAR in the earth re-entry scene? Good one 😆!!! Great reaction video Vicky!!! Keep it going!!!
14:31 Apollo 13 still holds the record for the furthest distance from Earth of any manned mission. At the time they were out of radio contact, they were the most alone anyone has ever been.
After this film came out Tom Hanks did a series for HBO called "From The Earth To The Moon". Since you like this so much you might want to check it out. Tom Hanks hosts each episode.
I agree. VK get the box set and watch. It is a series you will want in your permanent collection, not subject to whim of a streaming service in regards to a availability.
Two of my favourite reactors did this movie within the span of a couple of days. Speaking as a huge fan of this film, I'm really happy more people are watching it!
I think there must be a massive overlap between viewers and Patreon supporters of movie reactors. I watch a few, and their movie lineups cross over a ton
Fred was at the controls (despite having a fever) because he was the LEM pilot. Jack was the CM pilot. They all had good knowledge on everything, but they put the best trained and most experienced people in the best spots for that course correction burn.
This movie really did Jack Swigert dirty, he was an accomplished pilot and scientist with almost 10,000 sim and test hours on the project. The real Jack held 3 doctorates and was more photographer than playboy. He also didn't give Haisse the clap, that was just a UTI from the relief tube.
7:19 _"Apollo 13_ flight controllers, listen up. Give me a go-no-go for launch." I used to find the _entire_ launch sequence _so_ inspiring, but _this_ whole mini-sequence in particular; an exercise in good _science,_ good _engineering,_ and good _leadership_ to boot. Gene Kranz is a good leader and he _demonstrates_ that by demonstrating his awareness that the people he's in _charge_ of are good leaders, _too._
The scene with the ring going down the drain really happened but you'll be happy to know that hotel maintenance was able to get it out of the trap and she did get it back!
It's a testament to how incredible this movie is that every moment, even knowing what really happened not mention every line of the movie after having seen it so many times, is still 100% riveting.
It isn't even that, it's a pretty awe inspiring sight tbh. I've seen pretty dumb bircks of human beings look equally awestruck at the sight of it. You can definitely see why the superpowers did the space race, it was the perfect distraction from the cold war because it gave us hope rather than despairing about nukes killing us all.
Jim Lovell had a cameo as the captain of the aircraft carrier. He also said the crew did not have any loud arguments or outbursts with each other as was depicted in the movie...but that they had to put some Hollywood Drama in it...
The "Not bouncing off the walls for 10 minutes" line is something he said in an interview after the fact, as an explanation for why they didn't have any outbursts like that.
8:23 The number 5 engine cutoff during the second stage really did happen. The engine was exhibiting a behavior called "pogo oscillation", causing it to vibrate near its mechanical limit. The engine's safety system detected the oscillations and automatically shut it down. But the other engines compensated for 5's loss by burning for a slightly longer time and the launch continued safely. It was completely unrelated to the catastrophic oxygen tank failure that happened later.
Vicky, Time for an Apollo story as it relates to me. My father worked at NASA during this time all the way up through the 80s when he worked for JPL. He worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Goddard was also a secondary communications center for manned missions when communications could not be established with Houston. Generally "line of sight" communications as the Earth rotated. Goddard was on the east coast while Houston was in the center of America. As it turns out, the day of the fire in the capsule while on the launch pad, my day was in the communications center at Goddard. When the fire occurred he heard the three astronauts screaming and fighting to open the hatch and like many others he was talking to them trying to help in any way he could. He, along with everyone else listen to them die. So you could imagine my thoughts hearing about how my dad listened to them die. When my mom and I went to the theaters to watch this movie and that scene came up in the beginning, she gasped and had to look away because of what she lived through with her husband with that event.
I took a class in college called PSDM-500. It stands for Problem Solving and Decision Making. The final of the class was watching this movie and writing down all the instances they used the PSDM processes. Great stuff. Really useful.
What blows my mind is how tense this movie was but after seeing a UA-cam video of Gene Kranz giving a talk (played by Ed Harris) apparently there were tons of other things that went wrong they didn’t even have time to show in the movie. One crazy one was they had to figure out how to put the spacecraft into a roll to balance the temperature a bit because one side facing the sun was heating up while the other side was freezing.
@@wwoods66 was it a normal procedure to do without the use of their normal engine’s? In the video I saw he seemed to imply that they had to figure out an alternative way to do it but I’m not an expert in any sense.
@@Fonny222 It was used by Apollo missions to the Moon. They didn't use the _main_ engine on the Service Module, but the same little thrusters that Swigert uses for the docking maneuver. They can roll the ship around any axis, and if not countered, it'll keep rolling. I guess the main issue is communicating with Earth, since the ship's antennas are turning with the ship. Here's a bit from the Apollo 11 mission, which mentions that: [The Apollo 11 stack is currently in its barbecue roll mode, more formally known as Passive Thermal Control [PTC]. This is in order to distribute the heating effect of the Sun and the cooling effect of space across the spacecraft's exterior. The rate of rotation is 0.3° per second and ... However, at this time, the thrusters have been disabled so the spacecraft will continue to rotate.] history.nasa.gov/afj/ap11fj/06day2-tv.html
True, which makes what it was able to accomplish even more amazing! There are two videos I came across recently on UA-cam that are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone who has even a passing interest in the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). Both are totally fascinating, detailing how clever that thing really was (especially for the time): - "Light Years Ahead | The 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer" ua-cam.com/video/B1J2RMorJXM/v-deo.html (Funny and very informative) [About 1 hour 21 minutes] - "34C3 - The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk" ua-cam.com/video/xx7Lfh5SKUQ/v-deo.html (EXTREMELY detailed!) [About 1 hour] There's also this episode from "Moon Machines" (2008) about the AGC, which they called the "Navigation Computer": ua-cam.com/video/aTE4tg0lD8Q/v-deo.html They did 6 episodes total and all of them are exceptional.
When I saw this pop up my first thought was “well, I guess I’m due for a good tearing up session” and it only took until 2:32. Exploration and discovery is, in my opinion, one of the most human things there is. It’s beautiful.
As a note, its good to know that, the crew and team, did NOT have this kind of drama that was shown in the film. There wasnt any major freakouts, no yelling or arguing. All that was added to the film for dramatization. The real crew and team were professional the entire time (and you can hear it in the actual recordings)
Actually in his book Lovell did say that they had a "bicker fest" at one point, though he said he'd never say what it was they actually said. Also, Ron Howard said he did hear it from one of the astronauts when he was interviewing them that Jack Swigert had been paranoid at one point that they were coming in to fast and that mission control wasn't telling them because there was nothing they could do. So even though the argument was scripted, it wasn't really that far off.
The world has come so far in less than 125 years. My grandfather watched technology progress from horse and buggy to automobiles, airplanes and finally manned space flight. I remember watching with childlike amazment as the Russian satelite, Sputnik, crossed the sky above me, looking like a star in motion. I was glued to our tiny black and white television for every launch of the Mercury program, followed by the Gemini and Apollo flights. As a teen, in 1969, I saw Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon live and raced outside to look at the moon as I heard his famous, "One small step for man....". The radio was played over the intercom at school, so we could hear the reports on the current status of the attempts to bring Apollo 13 home safely. I'm now an old man who has seen triumphs and disasters in the space program, but even now, I am thrilled with each new step into the frontier of space. I will never travel on a NASA or any of the private space flights of the future...but I so seriously hope that my grandchildren and great grandchildren will experience it for me. Thank you for this fine reaction to a great movie, young lady.
Growing up and watching a lot of Star Trek, I never knew about the Apollo 13 mission until a PBS documentry. I was like, "How Have I never heard of this before"? Got to meet Jim Lovell on a book signing for "Lost Moon". An incredible story and achievement of science, engineering, and fortitude. If you listen to the commentary for the movie by Lovell and his wife, you'll find the things that were dramatized a bit more in the movie.
@19:23 "Why would they give the sick one the most difficult job". This was because swagger was command module pilot, he would have remained in lunar orbit, the other two were trained on the lunar lander (And thats the rocket they are using here) so the two men trained on the equipment was using it.
They made the capsule capture part much more tense than it really was. Of all the docking maneuvers, two vehicles on the same trajectory is incredibly easy to align and dock. lol
The older naval officer that Hanks' character shakes hands with at the end is the real Jim Lovell. The footage of Walter Cronkite, the gray-haired news anchor with the moustache, is all real. I remember when all of this actually happened and what a nailbiter it was for everyone. I was in 7th grade at the time. I grew up with the manned space program--one of my earliest memories is watching the first Mercury rocket with Alan Shephard take off. If you want to see another fantastic space movie, this time about the Mercury program and its original seven astronauts, don't miss THE RIGHT STUFF. Ed Harris, who is Gene Krantz in APOLLO 13, plays astronaut John Glenn.
Just to answer your question: The reason that Jim and Fred did the manual burn while Jack timed them is because Jim and Fred were trained to pilot the LEM to the lunar surface while Jack is the CM pilot and would have stayed up in space while they walked on the moon...if the mission had gone correctly. It's also why Jack was the one that docked the CM with the LEM in the first place and why he was in the pilot seat for re-entry.
I saw this movie in theaters for my brother's 10th birthday. I was 8 at the time. I was my first brush with a Ron Howard directed film. My first exposure to Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Bill Paxton and Tom Hanks. I was blown away then, and almost 30 years later I'm still blown away
I once did some aptitude tests for the Royal Airforce, for just NCO Aircrew, and my god the amount of mathematics just in the basic aptitude tests was a lot. Spaceflight always impresses with the sheer human ingenuity, not just with NASA but with every early spaceflight nation pushing the boundaries of what we understood about what the human body could endure and the amount of mental and physical ability required from those test pilots and astronauts to get us to the level of knowledge we have today. Not only the astronauts but the ground crew who were so dedicated to their jobs and so resourceful with focusing on the task at hand, even when the mission doesn't go the way it was planned, and the discipline and focus of the astronauts to relay info back to flight control and follow instructions in such high stress situations.
As a watch guy I love the fact one of the most critical burns was timed with a mechanical watch, the Omega Speedmasters NASA bought for the astronauts to wear. With manual calculation and very basic computing all they need to do is time the burn accurately to a few seconds so they did it with a mechanical chronograph.
Jim Lovell said a beef he had with the film was how they portrayed Swaggert as some kind of amateur. Lovell said that was never the case. He and Fred Haise had full confidence in him. Also, Ken Mattingly wasn't the sole person working on the simulator. Several men did. Most of the info on how to bring them home was found on the other team leader, Andy's crew, not Gene Kranz's.
19:00 mark, the reason why Kevin Bacon's character isn't flying is because he is the command module pilot, the other 2 are lunar module crew. They were using the lunar module's rocket during that burn.
Indeed. Jack Swigert was a competent pilot, but he was trained on flying the Odyssey, not the Aquarius. That being said, many times they show Jack at the controls, Jim should have actually been. The Commander is really the pilot. The other two positions are called pilot because no astronaut wants to be called Co-Pilot, Navigator, or Engineer LOL
This film still makes me tear up in places. That era of NASA was the epitome of teamwork: so many people working so hard with slide rules and long equations done on paper with formulas they'd memorized instead of just letting the computer figure it out, especially when the computers were so slow compared to anything we use today. :-D Just so amazing.
I was in grade school when this happened. The space program was a big deal for the public and we followed it closely. There were commemorative books and photos of the astronauts and their missions, model kits of the rockets and landers and every mission was covered in detail by the three TV networks and other media. Apollo 13 had us hanging on to the almost constant news coverage. In school, classes were practically suspended so that we could follow what was happening as it developed. I remember the talk of maximizing the amperage left, moving the astronauts between the LEM and command module, the strategy of using the Moon’s gravity to sling them back to Earth and the calculations they made and us all breathlessly watching and then the huge relief when the cameras caught the first sight of the capsule parachuting into the Pacific. I think we all felt a great admiration for the scientists and technicians at NASA. Now it seems the public doesn’t pay much attention to the space program or it’s mainly for nerds, but in the 60s and 70s it had the fascination of the masses.
My goodness! One of my favorite historical movies of all time. I was already familiar with the Apollo 13 incident before I watched the film for the first time, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment of it one jot. Such an _amazing_ movie. If anything, they _toned things down_ for the film from reality!
Jim and Marilyn Lovell are just about the only Apollo couple whose marriage survived the pressure. You *must* listen to the commentary track they made for the DVD release of this movie.
Weren't Frank and Susan Borman still together as well? I know most other marriages (especially among the "New Nine") were absolutely trashed. It is super unfortunate indeed
People ask WHO BUILT THE SPACE SHIP why different parts. Back then they had different Contractors (The Apollo program alone had up to a dozen prime contractors, including North American Aviation, Grumman Corp., Rocketdyne, General Motors, IBM, Douglas Aircraft and even General Motors.) So back then it was not foreseen that they would need to make redundant parts between the two parts of the mission.
Its more than that. Having redundant parts was the reason for the CO2 scrubber mismatch in the first place. The Lunar Module environment system was designed to handle the same CO2 scrubbers as the PLSS (personal life support system) backpacks, so they would only need to carry one type, and have a bunch of spares for the spacewalks, but also utilize them for the Lunar Module if needed. So this is an instance where intended redundancy actually backfired
Since you enjoyed this real life space history drama you should do "The Right Stuff" (1983) next which is about the formation of NASA itself and the early Mercury missions. It's a excellent prequel of sorts to Apollo 13. In fact, there is a companion piece to Apollo 13, hosted by Tom Hanks and along with Ron Howard produced "From the Earth to the Moon" (FTETTM), a 12 part mini-series covering all the Apollo missions with one Mercury and a couple of Gemini missions to set the stage for Apollo. Tom Hanks also stars in the final episode! Excellent series and one you should consider doing reaction vids on, along with The Right Stuff first. In fact, The Right Stuff ends where FTETTM begins! @ 1:26 I realize you know about the fire but for an excellent dramatization about Apollo 1, mainly about the investigation and aftermath of it, you'll see that in Part 2 of FTETTM. And you'll see who and why the James Webb Space Telescope is named after. @ 2:20 You can't imagine what it was like then watching unfold live on TV. Was 14 at the time and it still sends shivers thinking on it, and most of the world was watching it too. Like in "The Martian" when everyone around the globe was watching. That, and the Apollo 13 disaster had us glued to the TV! BTW, at the end when Tom Hanks was narrating you saw him shaking hands with the ship's captain. That was Jim Lovell himself doing a cameo! Nice reaction and glad to see you know a lot about space history and astronomy as I. Live long and prosper.🖖😎
@@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh I agree, I was just kidding because she claims that she is not, in her words, a big space nerd, when she clearly is, which is a great thing to be.
@@sevilnatas "Wouldn't like" is irrelevant. Not a big space nerd is irrelevant. Her technological and biological essence will be absorbed into the scifi fan collective. Resistance is fu-tile. 😁
Yes, excellent movie except for the ridiculous portrayal of Gus Grissom. They did everything possible to make him out as the worst astronaut in history prone to panicking. Yet he was selected as the commander of the first manned Gemini mission and then commander for the first manned Apollo mission. It’s well known that if the Apollo 1 accident hadn’t killed him along with Ed White & Roger Chaffee, that Deke Slayton would have done everything possible to give Gus the first crack as commander for landing on the moon. Yet anyone that doesn’t know any of this would see Gus as some kind of buffoon.
Wow, one of my absolute favourite movies, about my absolute favourite space program. Good call! The lost ring scene can be considered a little cheesy but, according to Lovell's wife, has really occurred. Actually the entire movie is pretty accurate on the real facts. Even the long black-out in the communications at the reentry, or the problem during launch, that was even more severe than depicted. Only exception, the quarrel between the astronauts, that, along with the entire Swigert subplot (he was actually really competent), was dichiarately added for dramatic purpose.
"I look up at the Moon and wonder when will we be going back...?" Only a few more years! By the way, my favorite Buzz Aldrin video is one where he punches a Moon-landing-denier in the face for calling him a liar and a coward.
I remember seeing this as a kid and wow just a great piece of cinema storytelling. Loved our reaction V. Man those guys went through the ringer. Spacecraft blowing up Losing oxygen Cold And now the death star. Wow
Oh my god. I had to go back to read your disclaimer before it started because when I looked up all I read was “some movie audio has been muted for man” and I sat there like “what?! Wtf could she have been meaning to say there?!” Then I backed up. And LOL.
Everything you see in this movie is 100% historically and technically accurate with two major exceptions: Some of the discussions by the engineers behind the scenes were dumbed down a bit to be understandable to the general public and to tie the story together. In real life those guys didn't need that stuff explained to them. There was no shouting and arguing in the cockpit. In real life they were so calm and focused that it would have been boring to watch so they had to dial up the drama. I've listened to the recordings; the words were the same as the movie but the crew is so professional you'd think they'd dealt with this a thousand times. It's really incredible. Fun fact about the movie: they built the spacecraft interior set into the inside of a special jet that allowed them to film some of the zero G scenes in ACTUAL zero G! Also, the officer that pats Tom Hanks on the shoulder on the ship at the end of the movie is played by the actual Jim Lovell!
Oh my! 7 hours in and 400 comments, Vicki, you are a beast! Jim Lovell (Tom's character) said the small argument that happened with the flight crew in the movie never happened. He said something to the effect of them being the most professional men in their field and performing admirably.
So many other reactors had no knowledge that this had been a real thing. I watched it live when I was a kid. Thanks for your knowledgeable reaction. I also suggest the movie the Right Stuff.
The number of Howard's in this movie is mind numbing. Ron Howard's brother Clint plays the NASA controller who complained about the IRS. (Clint actually had been audited by the IRS) Jim Lovell's mother is played by Ron's actual mother. His father played the reverend at the Lovell home while waiting for the capsule to splashdown. Most significant is Ron Howard's daughter Bryce Dallas Howard as an extra in a couple scenes, the redhead wearing the yellow dress in the scene where Jim and Marilyn talk the night before the launch, and moments after the launch, she is in the background in a red dress. Ron Howard stated that Bryce just liked being an extra. How times have changed.
Lady Kunia, I lived your sincere feeling but LIVE! I grew up in the 1970's loving the American Apollo Space Program. My beloved mother & I saw it live on our Black & White TV. I still remember my Mom praying in Spanish, & lighting a candle & placing it near one of our home saints for their safe return to Earth. The entire World was so quite & tense. It was heart wrenching.
If you actually watch the actual footage of the crew during the incident, you'll find that in reality, the crew actually, though nervous, acted very calm, and not nearly as dramatic as this movie depicts.
@@theawesomeman9821 Nick Hodges of History Buffs makes a good point, there is a difference between being totally historically accurate, and being historically AUTHENTIC. So long as the who, what, where, when, how, and why matches up, the rest can be played with for the purpose of engagement or audience comprehension.
Interestingly, both Marilyn and Jim are in this film. During the launch scene, Marilyn Lovell is in the stands right behind "Marilyn Lovell." And, at the end, the Navy Captain shaking hands with the crew is Jim.
If you loved this, you should watch the HBO Mini-series From the Earth to the Moon. Tom Hanks produced it, and it was made by the same people who made Apollo 13.
I enthusiastically second this suggestion! It’s a wonderful series that both entertains and educates. I’ve watched it multiple times. I also suggest watching “The Right Stuff” first. It takes some dramatic license in a few places (e.g. the stuff about Gus Grissom), but it’s a great movie and a good introduction to the pre-Apollo space program.
Gene Cernan, the last astronaut on the moon, wrote his daughters initials into the moon dust before he left. Therefore her name will be forever etched on the moon due to zero atmosphere etc. How amazingly cool is that? :D
Other Tom Hanks movies to watch if you haven’t seen them yet: - A League of their Own - Cast Away - Catch Me if You Can - Charlie Wilson’s War - Bridge of Spies
love your reactions.. and this movie even knowing how it ends .. it just gives me goose bumps and brings tears to my eyes every time i watch.. great recreation and great writing to bring so many important elements to a story that could have been a tragedy... and absolutely top notch acting frm all involved
Just to emphasize how cool they were under pressure, it was noted after the movie came out, the people involved I can't remember who said it but the yelling and general breaking down didn't actually happen but Hollywood had to embellish as they do.
15:21 the part where they have to solve the issue with the CO2 scrubbers, Jack Black's mother (yes that Jack Black, Tenacious D, Jumanji reboots) actually helped solve that problem. His parents are actual rocket scientists.
You’ll be able to experience it again soon! We’re going back by the end of this decade under NASA’s Artemis program! Artemis 1 launches in about 2 months!
Love this movie. Great reaction. I had an opportunity to meet Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Gene Kranz and Buzz Aldrin at a NASA ceremony in Florida several years ago. They were so kind, and had such amazing stories.
at the time of the moon landing I was about 3 1/2 and from what I was told, crying because I couldn't watch my cartoons because of the 'dumb show' my folks wanted to see. :) The story of what happened on this flight is incredible showing the "never say die" attitude that can push people to greatness at a time when everything seems to fail. They got all of them home safe, and remember at the time there was no modern computers to tell them how to do all this. Paper, pencil and A LOT of written math. No one could simply say, "hey Alexa how do fit a square peg into a round hole".
GREAT REACTION! I was 12 years old to Summer that we landed on the moon and I was a space nerd throughout my elementary school years!! When I was in the sixth grade I did a paper on Project Gemini Step 2 to the Moon!! I had a scale model of the Saturn 5 rocket that could come apart at each stage complete with the LEM and the ability to Dock The Command Module and the LEM!! I wish to God I remember what happened to that model and that I wish I still had it!! It was an amazing time and this Mission especially just showed the fact that we had top people in the industry and in the field of Aeronautics and Space flight!! It was definitely one of the high points of American Technology and engineering!!
I read Jim Lovell's book about this mission quite a few years back. It explained that the reason Swigert put that note over the switches was because he'd earlier had a nightmare in which his lack of sleep caused him to accidentally jettison the LEM with Lovell and Hayes still in it.
I love all of your reactions that I've seen so far, but this is now my favorite. My Dad worked on life support equipment for the Apollo program, as well as Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, STS (the Space Shuttle) and, unofficially, ISS (International Space Station). If you're interested to see what he did for Project Apollo, take a looksee at this post from one of my blogs: (Looks like UA-cam doesn't like links in comments, so google the following, and the first hit should be my blog. You'll have to scroll down a bit to see the post: breathing where there is no air buffalowingz july 20th ) Regarding the Apollo I pad fire... when it happened, my Dad and his colleagues were sweating bullets because, until the cause was determined, they were worried and horrified at the possibility that it might have been something in their work that caused the fire. So Dad and his co-workers lost alotta sleep over that. Anyhoo, again, I love all of your reactions... and it's nice to bump into a fellow aerospace geek. Fade to Black...
Check out the reaction Cassie did, on her channel 'Popcorn in Bed'. I think you'll love it just as much as this one! She's as much a sweetheart as Vicky is.
At least we got an ending that makes us smile. Lt Dan sans measles and his tireless training got the boat turned back on. Would Jack have figured it out? There was a movie called Marooned that came out 4 months before this mission. It was about a stranded crew running out of oxygen and attempting to get them home. Glad you enjoyed this. As Billy Crystal being Fernando on SNL would say" You look marvelous ".
I recommend: From The Earth To The Moon, a miniseries that HBO produced in 1998 due to the success of this film, the same producers of this film participated and Tom Hanks also as part of the production, narrates with this same quality in 12 chapters of 45 minutes, very entertaining to watch, each of the Apollo trips to the moon, including an episode on Apollo 13 too, but this time told from the television news media side. A 5-star miniseries, each chapter is presented by Tom Hanks and in fact Tom Hanks acts in the penultimate chapter, in the chapter dedicated to Apollo 17 and George Mellies, the film director, who in the cinema made the first fictional moon landing with his short film: Trip to the Moon, from the year 1902.
I saw the Death Star that you added! Bill Paxton was really sick in that scene that was shot weightless in the "Vomit Comet". The Admiral in the white on the deck of the aircraft carrier was the real Jim Lovell. My dad also worked with Ed Harris for 2 days on a movie back in the early 90s.
I actually love, and think it's one of the most valuable lessons for crisis management, that they were still thinking about this as a mission to land on the moon at the time that the suggestion is made to kill two of the fuel cells. They didn't lose their head and run around like chickens with their heads cut off at the first sign of emergency, they looked at it as a problem, or series of problems, to be solved in the course of carrying out the mission.
Having lived through the Apollo era, I was fully intrigued those great and historic missions. Your reactions were priceless and much appreciated. Like you, I knew the outcome of Apollo 13 but was fully enthralled by this terrific production and the fantastic performances of the actors. In particular, I was amazed by the acting of Kathleen Quinlin and Tracy Reiner who portrayed Marilyn Lovell and Mary Haise, respectively, during the launch sequence. They were both AMAZING especially when one considers they did not have a rocket launch to experience but nothing more than a camera above them. Quinlin had that great look of apprehension and pride while Reiner had this tremendous look of great fear and tearful and shaking release. Interestingly, I watched the re-entry of Apollo 13, live, in Houston and recall how the news media, and also in the movie, how the re-entry should not take more than three minutes. When that three minutes passed, in reality, I thought "Oh no! They're gone." A little known fact is that Apollo 13, rushing back from the Moon, set a world record for the fastest human flight, well over 25,000 miles per hour! So much speed, in fact, that they were in communications blackout for that extra minute. I look forward to more of your perspectives on great movies and music.
Great reaction and I especially love that you're a newfound fellow NASA geek!!! (whether you know it or not. Lol) These may have been mentioned elsewhere in the comments but some trivia: The weightless scenes aren't CGI, they built the lem and cm sets inside the Vomit Comet, a plane NASA uses that's specially set up to fly a flight path that simulates weightlessness. Speaking of, when Fred Hayes (Paxton) puked that was real and unplanned. They don't call it the Vomit Comet for nothing. Lol The Admiral on the Iwo Jima at the end saluting Tom Hanks is the real Jim Lovell. Ron Howard (director) had a rivalry going on with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the time, Arnold would send pics of him in his MILITARY Humvee and make fun of his car. So while making the film Ron got to drive the crawler that carries the rocket to the pad, got a pic of himself and sent to Arnold with a note "top this!"
"Why would you give the sick one that [hard] job?" Because the sick one was the LM pilot. He's the guy who had spent years training how to fly that thing.
19:01 The reason Jack was timer is because he's the CSM pilot. His ship--the one he trained to pilot--is Odyssey. They're using Aquarius for the burn. Fred is the LM Pilot and Jim Mission Commander, so they're the two who actually know the LM controls and have a feel for them. If Jack were to fly and Fred were to time, they'd have to teach Jack the controls and hope he was competent enough with such a rushed and stressed training. And at 21:34 I believe another thing (that wasn't mentioned in the movie) is that the Soviets minimized their space communications to help keep the channels clear for NASA after the explosion. Really goes to show the worldwide effect of this mission. AND at the end, on the carrier, the *actual* Jim Lovell is playing the carrier captain and wearing his old Navy uniform. Imagine that!
It didn't make the final cut, but when they landed on the aircraft carrier and Tom Hanks salutes and shakes hand with the officer, the officer is actually Jim Lovell!
Brilliant retelling of history. I am old enough to remember it happening - even had an audio tape of the Apollo 13 transmissions. "Houston, we have a problem" became the epitome for understatement. Even knowing the story and all the details, totally enjoyed every moment. Just not sure if the Death Star appearing at 21:50 was in the original - must check! Everything space became a passion, and with Elon and SpaceX I am keeping fingers crossed for an exiting future!
When they landed on the aircraft carrier at the end, the ship commander who shook hands with Tom Hanks was the real Jim Lovell.
That sounds like one of those moments where you're both so badass, neither side asks for an autograph. Shake is enough.
@@WaywardVet Tom Hanks is a great actor and always comes across as a cool dude overall, but nah.. No matter how badass Tom Hanks may be, his job doesn't involve much in the way of personal risk. Meanwhile Jim Lovell may as well have rolled some dice to determine whether he'd make it back every time he went into space. Next to that, the greatest actors and actresses in the world are just like the rest of us. I'd have wanted an autograph!
@@zeph0shade I'd still walk away with a shake. I'm evil. I'd point him to a kid and say give him the autograph. I just assigned a megastar work and I ain't paying for it.
Gene Kranz is the epitome of a Leader.....didn’t panic whenever a new problem arose, and didn’t try to take over. Allowed each expert to be an expert and listened to their advice in their field, rather than micro manage. He was in charge, but he knew that the strength was in the team effort
A shame more people aren’t like Kranz was.
If you take a Toyota A3 writing class, they actually show scenes from this movie. For them, this perfectly illustrates problem solving, decision making, and leadership. And for those who are wondering, yes they bought the rights to do so.
And he never actually said "Failure is not an option!" at the time. The line came about after an interview the screen writers did with Krantz, asking him about how they worked the problems, and he said "...you look at all the options, and a failure isn't one of them." After leaving the interview one of the writers turned to the other and said "That's the tag line for the movie: 'Failure is not an option' ".
Krantz liked it so much he used it for his autobiography.
Kranz's book, Failure is Not an Option, is an excellent read. I recommend.
Kranz had been doing that job while still in the service and he lost many friends at the time.
We went to Church with the brother of Astronaut White who died in the Apollo 1 fire. Many years later as part of the Navy Funeral Honor Guard, I had the honor to be in the team of Sailors who preformed the Military Funeral Honors for the rescue swimmer involved with the Apollo 13. We got to the funeral home and on either side of the table with the Urn there were two easels with large pictures of the Sailor, the first one was him jumping out of the helicopter. He was half way between the helicopter and ocean. The second one had him on the side of the command capsule getting the astronauts out of the command capsule. I had the honor to present his flag to his wife.
All the Astronauts were given their choice of GM cars, by GM. Most of the Astronauts chose a Corvette.
15:01 That young guy in the glasses is supposed to be John Aaron, the guy whose “Set SCE to AUX” instructions saved the Apollo 12 mission when it was struck by lightning during launch. That got him dubbed “a steely-eyed missile man” in NASA. (Remember when they called Rich Parnell that in “The Martian?”) In a room full of smart guys, he was often still the smartest.
He is widely regarded as the greatest flight controller in NASA history. He was set to be a rancher after receiving his BS degree in Physics from Southwestern Oklahoma State when he heard about NASA from a friend.
another incident happened on Apollo 14 that while fairly known doesn't seem to get as much recognition (probably just lack of easy short catchphrase such as "SCE to AUX" :) )
simple version: while approaching Moon a short circuit in the control panel caused intermittent ABORT signals to be sent to the computer which would've ruined the landing. as the programming couldn't be altered Don Eyles had two hours to find a way to modify the state of the computer memory to let it ignore the signal. in the end they convinced the computer it was already doing the abort sequence so no need to do it again and the day was saved.
(many better versions of the story online of course, for one check Scott Manley's video "Computer Hack That Saved Apollo 14")
@@snooks5607 Scott Manley is one of my top 3 "Go-To" sources for detailed, yet understandable explanations regarding space history/science.
It was suspected that a tiny metal shaving got into the actual space where the switch was placed during manufacture at Grumman (the company making the LM). Now - they had procedures to prevent this from happening. In fact one of them involved LITERALLY turning the ENTIRE SHIP upside down and gently shaking it to get such particles to let go and be collected before control panels were sealed off. The mounting and gimbal turning assembly for this was particularly bizarre looking. And the procedure was very thorough, yet it seems in this ONE instance, it seems likely that a metal filing stayed inside the switch to cause the intermittent short later.
As an aside - it wasn't caught earlier because while in the influence of gravity, the metal shaving would always fall to the bottom of the switch and be out of position to cause any short. The problem only began occurring because the tiny metal debris could now float around in zero g.
NOTE: I said - "suspected" and "likely" because it's impossible to pull apart the switch and inspect the craft to see if that really did happen. Why? Well there's the little matter that the entire thing was disposable and purposefully de-orbited to smack into the moon after they docked back with the command module after the Lunar mission. So we'll never know for absolute certain. But Grumman made the assumption that must have happened and tightened up their procedures even MORE after this. And the last 3 flights had no such issues.
Aaron was the one who actually came up with the procedure for restarting the command module, not Mattingly.
@@Hiraghm no, It was a choral effort.
Re: The biomonitors scene... In an interview, Jim Lovell said that he did take them off. He told NASA it was to conserve power, but he really just didn't want them knowing how scared he really was.
Not much else to say, this is just a nearly flawless movie, so I figured an interesting fact was in order. ;)
Thanks for the info. I didn’t know about that one. Quite the character. There’s a James Burke episode about the Men who Walked on the Moon that’s available on UA-cam. Title is a bit off as he interviewed astronauts that didn’t walk on the moon. Some great stuff including Jim Lovell’s description of his time with Frank Borman during the Gemini 7 mission. Pretty hilarious!
Jim Lovell was the guest speaker at my college graduation in 1995 a few weeks before this movie was released. Was a great speech about overcoming adversity.
His advice: Have the best minds of a generation work on your problems.
It makes me so happy to know he’s still alive - he’s 93 years old now!
Lovell was by far the most laid-back of the early astronauts. He had to be to put up with Frank Borman for 2 long-duration flights.
@@alanholck7995ive read (and im paraphrasing) that other astronauts who know him have said if you couldn't get along with Lovell you couldnt get along with anyone.
LOL! The Death Star at 21:49 had me laughing so much! Great reaction.
That edit. XD
@@NewTypeDilemma01 wax on wax off soap is good to wash the bum
The first time I saw the movie Apollo 13 was actually at a lecture given by Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. He talked about the mission with actual footage for the first hour and then showed clips from the movie and would get up intermittently to talk about what parts were accurate and what parts were not.
He said the movie was mostly accurate, though he said the crew tension before and after the Service Module explosion was dramatized, as well as smaller details like the tension while Swigert was docking the Command Module to the Lunar Module and the crew taking out their biomonitors after getting fed up with the flight doc. He got quite the chuckle out of that scene and the one near the end where Lovel is hugging him and rubbing him to warm him up. Haise told us, "You don't want a Navy man hugging you when he's been away from his wife for a long time." (His words, not mine so don't start a war in the replies section.) He also said that Bill Paxton (the actor who played him in the movie) did a pretty good job, though they made him out to be a bit more of a joker than he really was, though he did say he played jokes on the crew. He also told us he was indeed ill during the last half of the mission with a UTI most likely due to water rationing.
The best part though was when he was talking about his trip to go see the movie for the first time. He took his grandson with him and as they were leaving the theater, Haise asked his grandson what he thought of the movie. His grandson looked at him and said, "Grandpa, you weren't even in the movie!"
It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. He's a swell guy and I hope to see him again.
P.S: A fun fact about this movie: the captain Tom Hanks shook hands with at the end of the movie was actually Jim Lovell. When asked what cameo he wanted in the movie he said, "I've been a Navy man all my life, I may as well be the captain."
Thanks for sharing! Love hearing about stories like these.
Dude, i'm jealous. I would love to be there.
Yes, if they stuck to the actual facts it would have been a boring movie. Swigert was actually a highly qualified astronaut, and there was no tension about the docking, or blame after the cryo tank blew up.
@@Caseytify You're definitely right about that, though the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon stuck close to the facts and they made a pretty entertaining series. Though ironically the Apollo 13 episode was combining several different reporter's experiences into one character.
Close.. he was offered the role of an Admiral. He said "I retired as a Captain, I'll play a Captain."
4:19 - Marilyn Lovell really had nightmares because she and Jim had gone to see a sci-fi movie in which there's an accident in space, leaving the astronauts stranded.
4:37 - This was also real. Marilyn took the car stalling out as yet one more premonition that the mission was going to result in disaster.
5:18 - This is drama for the sake of drama. Swigert was fully qualified as a replacement. Ken Mattingly WAS upset, but there was no concern that Jack couldn't handle the mission.
6:35 - Critics thought this was a cheap piece of drama. It wasn't. This actually happened, and the motel staff was able to retrieve her ring from the trap in the drain.
6:56 - The soundtrack by James Horner is phenomenal!
8:23 - The engine shut-off occurred and Lovell really did think that was the glitch for the mission.
9:56 - This absurd line comes from Bill Paxton asking Gary Busey, who was visiting the set, what the perfect redneck reply would be. Gary provided, Bill said it, and so we have... that.
10:21 - Jack Swigert was so distracted by the mission that he really forgot to file his taxes.
11:10 - The actual line was, "Houston, we've had a problem." The panic that then follows in the film is all for dramatic purposes. If you listen to an actual recording of the incident, it all sounds so... boring.
12:08 - Using the LEM as a lifeboat wasn't a new idea. They'd actually performed drills for just such a thing in case the air in the CM became contaminated.
12:27 - Jim Lovell was so pumped with adrenaline that he honestly wasn't sure of his math, so ground control helped confirm his numbers. But in the movie commentary, he doubted if the used slide rules.
15:15 - The square peg in a round hole was also quite real, and the roughshod filter assembly they made worked remarkably well. But being a guy from Long Island and living so close to Grumman, I was sorely disappointed in their lack of forethought.
15:54 - Fred Haise developed a UTI during the mission. The idea that it was an STD from Swigert was a line played for laughs.
16:10 - This didn't happen. They never lost their tempers with one another. But if there was no tension, this movie would have been a snooze-fest.
17:28 - The movie uses Ken Mattingly as an amalgam of numerous astronauts working the startup process. He did NOT work it alone.
19:25 - They had several burns to correct their course. This one was just an example of what they had to endure.
22:03 - Swigert really did this because he was so exhausted.
23:12 - Their shallow re-entry delayed their radio blackout, which made it VERY stressful.
The movie commentary by Jim and Marilyn Lovell helped with the above facts, as well as reading "Lost Moon" by Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger.
That's incredible
I'm glad to hear you say they had multiple course correction burns. It always seemed so incredibly impossible to me that that one imprecise burn could possibly have gotten them on the right trajectory.
If memory serves, slide rules were dichiarately added in this scene by Ron Howard to better depict the way they had to make things back then: manually. He knew that this tool wasn't used in the specific circumstance. Other than that, your commentary is brilliant!
Also when Hanks mentions Alan Shepard ear infection flaring up is a mistake. Shepard had developed Meniere's after his Mercury flight and had an experimental surgery to fix it. He had requested to be on Apollo 13, but it was shot down by NASA.
"If you listen to an actual recording of the incident, it all sounds so... boring."
I think that later the movie, more or less intentionally, made fun of this, more precisely when Lovell turned on the communications, moments after the quarrel with the crew, and instantly lowered the voice to the quiet and "boring" tone you can hear in the actual recordings. Very funny.
I laughed too hard at the Death Star appearing out of nowhere.
Glad to know I wasn’t the only one. Had to watch a few times to notice it lol.
Everyone who knows the outcome of Apollo 13 mission are still drawn to this film. Your facial expression on liftoff was absolutely worth watching this reaction video!!! And placing the DEATH STAR in the earth re-entry scene? Good one 😆!!! Great reaction video Vicky!!! Keep it going!!!
Lol I thought it was just me to see it.
That Death Star edit was so funny. "Uh, Houston...? I think we have a bigger problem."
"That's no moon."
@@BammerD Damn you, came here just to say that.
That was editing gold!
14:31 Apollo 13 still holds the record for the furthest distance from Earth of any manned mission. At the time they were out of radio contact, they were the most alone anyone has ever been.
After this film came out Tom Hanks did a series for HBO called "From The Earth To The Moon". Since you like this so much you might want to check it out. Tom Hanks hosts each episode.
Great series that goes into depth of the program.
Agreed. Such a good series!
Seconded, it's fantastic.
I agree. VK get the box set and watch.
It is a series you will want in your permanent collection, not subject to whim of a streaming service in regards to a availability.
That series was made because of how well this movie did.
Two of my favourite reactors did this movie within the span of a couple of days. Speaking as a huge fan of this film, I'm really happy more people are watching it!
Was the other one Popcorn in Bed?
@@LockeDemosthenes2 Must have been. Seen that one a couple of days ago as well.
Cool name
Yeah, it's nice when my favorite movie make the rounds among my favorite reactors.
I think there must be a massive overlap between viewers and Patreon supporters of movie reactors. I watch a few, and their movie lineups cross over a ton
I was a child, but I remember watching Armstrong walk on the moon. I can assure you, it was indeed cool.
Fred was at the controls (despite having a fever) because he was the LEM pilot. Jack was the CM pilot. They all had good knowledge on everything, but they put the best trained and most experienced people in the best spots for that course correction burn.
This movie really did Jack Swigert dirty, he was an accomplished pilot and scientist with almost 10,000 sim and test hours on the project. The real Jack held 3 doctorates and was more photographer than playboy. He also didn't give Haisse the clap, that was just a UTI from the relief tube.
7:19 _"Apollo 13_ flight controllers, listen up. Give me a go-no-go for launch."
I used to find the _entire_ launch sequence _so_ inspiring, but _this_ whole mini-sequence in particular; an exercise in good _science,_ good _engineering,_ and good _leadership_ to boot. Gene Kranz is a good leader and he _demonstrates_ that by demonstrating his awareness that the people he's in _charge_ of are good leaders, _too._
The scene with the ring going down the drain really happened but you'll be happy to know that hotel maintenance was able to get it out of the trap and she did get it back!
Thank you! I was wondering about that, kept trying to look at her fingers.
It's a testament to how incredible this movie is that every moment, even knowing what really happened not mention every line of the movie after having seen it so many times, is still 100% riveting.
Getting emotional at the replays of Apollo 1 and Apollo 11, indeed, confirms that you are, in fact, a huge space nerd.
It isn't even that, it's a pretty awe inspiring sight tbh.
I've seen pretty dumb bircks of human beings look equally awestruck at the sight of it.
You can definitely see why the superpowers did the space race, it was the perfect distraction from the cold war because it gave us hope rather than despairing about nukes killing us all.
Jim Lovell had a cameo as the captain of the aircraft carrier. He also said the crew did not have any loud arguments or outbursts with each other as was depicted in the movie...but that they had to put some Hollywood Drama in it...
The "Not bouncing off the walls for 10 minutes" line is something he said in an interview after the fact, as an explanation for why they didn't have any outbursts like that.
8:23 The number 5 engine cutoff during the second stage really did happen. The engine was exhibiting a behavior called "pogo oscillation", causing it to vibrate near its mechanical limit.
The engine's safety system detected the oscillations and automatically shut it down. But the other engines compensated for 5's loss by burning for a slightly longer time and the launch continued safely. It was completely unrelated to the catastrophic oxygen tank failure that happened later.
Vicky,
Time for an Apollo story as it relates to me. My father worked at NASA during this time all the way up through the 80s when he worked for JPL. He worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Goddard was also a secondary communications center for manned missions when communications could not be established with Houston. Generally "line of sight" communications as the Earth rotated. Goddard was on the east coast while Houston was in the center of America.
As it turns out, the day of the fire in the capsule while on the launch pad, my day was in the communications center at Goddard. When the fire occurred he heard the three astronauts screaming and fighting to open the hatch and like many others he was talking to them trying to help in any way he could. He, along with everyone else listen to them die.
So you could imagine my thoughts hearing about how my dad listened to them die. When my mom and I went to the theaters to watch this movie and that scene came up in the beginning, she gasped and had to look away because of what she lived through with her husband with that event.
I took a class in college called PSDM-500. It stands for Problem Solving and Decision Making. The final of the class was watching this movie and writing down all the instances they used the PSDM processes. Great stuff. Really useful.
What blows my mind is how tense this movie was but after seeing a UA-cam video of Gene Kranz giving a talk (played by Ed Harris) apparently there were tons of other things that went wrong they didn’t even have time to show in the movie. One crazy one was they had to figure out how to put the spacecraft into a roll to balance the temperature a bit because one side facing the sun was heating up while the other side was freezing.
That, at least, and the "barbecue roll" solution, was nothing new by 13.
@@wwoods66 was it a normal procedure to do without the use of their normal engine’s? In the video I saw he seemed to imply that they had to figure out an alternative way to do it but I’m not an expert in any sense.
@@Fonny222 It was used by Apollo missions to the Moon. They didn't use the _main_ engine on the Service Module, but the same little thrusters that Swigert uses for the docking maneuver. They can roll the ship around any axis, and if not countered, it'll keep rolling. I guess the main issue is communicating with Earth, since the ship's antennas are turning with the ship. Here's a bit from the Apollo 11 mission, which mentions that:
[The Apollo 11 stack is currently in its barbecue roll mode, more formally known as Passive Thermal Control [PTC]. This is in order to distribute the heating effect of the Sun and the cooling effect of space across the spacecraft's exterior. The rate of rotation is 0.3° per second and ... However, at this time, the thrusters have been disabled so the spacecraft will continue to rotate.]
history.nasa.gov/afj/ap11fj/06day2-tv.html
@@Fonny222 No, the PTC (Passive Thermal Control) roll was an established procedure to regulate temperature of the spacecraft.
@@yxeaviationphotog I’m just going by what Gene Krantz said in the video I saw.
It still blows my mind knowing that 60 odd years after Kittyhawk and the Wright brothers we put a man on the moon.
When I was younger, I followed the Apollo program so closely. To this day, I still think this was our finest hour
It's worth remembering that today's average cell phone has thousands of times as much processing power as the computers used in the Apollo spacecraft.
True, which makes what it was able to accomplish even more amazing! There are two videos I came across recently on UA-cam that are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone who has even a passing interest in the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). Both are totally fascinating, detailing how clever that thing really was (especially for the time):
- "Light Years Ahead | The 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer" ua-cam.com/video/B1J2RMorJXM/v-deo.html (Funny and very informative) [About 1 hour 21 minutes]
- "34C3 - The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk" ua-cam.com/video/xx7Lfh5SKUQ/v-deo.html (EXTREMELY detailed!) [About 1 hour]
There's also this episode from "Moon Machines" (2008) about the AGC, which they called the "Navigation Computer": ua-cam.com/video/aTE4tg0lD8Q/v-deo.html They did 6 episodes total and all of them are exceptional.
Irony; With access to the vast knowledge of the world at their fingertips people still concern themselves with the genre of a plastic potato.
It's amazing to me honestly. ARM chips aren't even meant to be performant
More interesting is the fact that nearly no one uses them to compute!
When I saw this pop up my first thought was “well, I guess I’m due for a good tearing up session” and it only took until 2:32. Exploration and discovery is, in my opinion, one of the most human things there is. It’s beautiful.
As a note, its good to know that, the crew and team, did NOT have this kind of drama that was shown in the film. There wasnt any major freakouts, no yelling or arguing. All that was added to the film for dramatization. The real crew and team were professional the entire time (and you can hear it in the actual recordings)
Actually in his book Lovell did say that they had a "bicker fest" at one point, though he said he'd never say what it was they actually said. Also, Ron Howard said he did hear it from one of the astronauts when he was interviewing them that Jack Swigert had been paranoid at one point that they were coming in to fast and that mission control wasn't telling them because there was nothing they could do. So even though the argument was scripted, it wasn't really that far off.
@@kyleburnett4795 It was when the junior crew got out cameras for the lunar swingby.
The world has come so far in less than 125 years. My grandfather watched technology progress from horse and buggy to automobiles, airplanes and finally manned space flight. I remember watching with childlike amazment as the Russian satelite, Sputnik, crossed the sky above me, looking like a star in motion. I was glued to our tiny black and white television for every launch of the Mercury program, followed by the Gemini and Apollo flights. As a teen, in 1969, I saw Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon live and raced outside to look at the moon as I heard his famous, "One small step for man....". The radio was played over the intercom at school, so we could hear the reports on the current status of the attempts to bring Apollo 13 home safely.
I'm now an old man who has seen triumphs and disasters in the space program, but even now, I am thrilled with each new step into the frontier of space. I will never travel on a NASA or any of the private space flights of the future...but I so seriously hope that my grandchildren and great grandchildren will experience it for me.
Thank you for this fine reaction to a great movie, young lady.
Another great historical space exploration movie is "The Right Stuff" (1983). Any space nerd or fan of history will love it.
"The fact that we're trying to conquer space."
It's ballsy is what it is. And we were doing this in the 60s. The 60s!
Growing up and watching a lot of Star Trek, I never knew about the Apollo 13 mission until a PBS documentry. I was like, "How Have I never heard of this before"? Got to meet Jim Lovell on a book signing for "Lost Moon". An incredible story and achievement of science, engineering, and fortitude. If you listen to the commentary for the movie by Lovell and his wife, you'll find the things that were dramatized a bit more in the movie.
@19:23 "Why would they give the sick one the most difficult job". This was because swagger was command module pilot, he would have remained in lunar orbit, the other two were trained on the lunar lander (And thats the rocket they are using here) so the two men trained on the equipment was using it.
They made the capsule capture part much more tense than it really was. Of all the docking maneuvers, two vehicles on the same trajectory is incredibly easy to align and dock. lol
The older naval officer that Hanks' character shakes hands with at the end is the real Jim Lovell. The footage of Walter Cronkite, the gray-haired news anchor with the moustache, is all real. I remember when all of this actually happened and what a nailbiter it was for everyone. I was in 7th grade at the time. I grew up with the manned space program--one of my earliest memories is watching the first Mercury rocket with Alan Shephard take off. If you want to see another fantastic space movie, this time about the Mercury program and its original seven astronauts, don't miss THE RIGHT STUFF. Ed Harris, who is Gene Krantz in APOLLO 13, plays astronaut John Glenn.
In one of the pieces of news footage in the movie, you can see the real life Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra sitting with Walter Cronkite.
Just to answer your question: The reason that Jim and Fred did the manual burn while Jack timed them is because Jim and Fred were trained to pilot the LEM to the lunar surface while Jack is the CM pilot and would have stayed up in space while they walked on the moon...if the mission had gone correctly. It's also why Jack was the one that docked the CM with the LEM in the first place and why he was in the pilot seat for re-entry.
I saw this movie in theaters for my brother's 10th birthday. I was 8 at the time. I was my first brush with a Ron Howard directed film. My first exposure to Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Bill Paxton and Tom Hanks. I was blown away then, and almost 30 years later I'm still blown away
Yes! I was obsessed with this movie as a kid. That lift-off sequence still holds up, so majestic.
I once did some aptitude tests for the Royal Airforce, for just NCO Aircrew, and my god the amount of mathematics just in the basic aptitude tests was a lot.
Spaceflight always impresses with the sheer human ingenuity, not just with NASA but with every early spaceflight nation pushing the boundaries of what we understood about what the human body could endure and the amount of mental and physical ability required from those test pilots and astronauts to get us to the level of knowledge we have today. Not only the astronauts but the ground crew who were so dedicated to their jobs and so resourceful with focusing on the task at hand, even when the mission doesn't go the way it was planned, and the discipline and focus of the astronauts to relay info back to flight control and follow instructions in such high stress situations.
As a watch guy I love the fact one of the most critical burns was timed with a mechanical watch, the Omega Speedmasters NASA bought for the astronauts to wear. With manual calculation and very basic computing all they need to do is time the burn accurately to a few seconds so they did it with a mechanical chronograph.
Jim Lovell said a beef he had with the film was how they portrayed Swaggert as some kind of amateur. Lovell said that was never the case. He and Fred Haise had full confidence in him. Also, Ken Mattingly wasn't the sole person working on the simulator. Several men did. Most of the info on how to bring them home was found on the other team leader, Andy's crew, not Gene Kranz's.
19:00 mark, the reason why Kevin Bacon's character isn't flying is because he is the command module pilot, the other 2 are lunar module crew. They were using the lunar module's rocket during that burn.
Indeed. Jack Swigert was a competent pilot, but he was trained on flying the Odyssey, not the Aquarius.
That being said, many times they show Jack at the controls, Jim should have actually been. The Commander is really the pilot. The other two positions are called pilot because no astronaut wants to be called Co-Pilot, Navigator, or Engineer LOL
Finally, someone who loves space and knows about this.
This film still makes me tear up in places. That era of NASA was the epitome of teamwork: so many people working so hard with slide rules and long equations done on paper with formulas they'd memorized instead of just letting the computer figure it out, especially when the computers were so slow compared to anything we use today. :-D Just so amazing.
Love you're reactions!!! I've seen this many times. You're knowledge on thee subject felt like I had a personal tour guide this time. 21:48 LOL
I was in grade school when this happened. The space program was a big deal for the public and we followed it closely. There were commemorative books and photos of the astronauts and their missions, model kits of the rockets and landers and every mission was covered in detail by the three TV networks and other media. Apollo 13 had us hanging on to the almost constant news coverage. In school, classes were practically suspended so that we could follow what was happening as it developed. I remember the talk of maximizing the amperage left, moving the astronauts between the LEM and command module, the strategy of using the Moon’s gravity to sling them back to Earth and the calculations they made and us all breathlessly watching and then the huge relief when the cameras caught the first sight of the capsule parachuting into the Pacific. I think we all felt a great admiration for the scientists and technicians at NASA. Now it seems the public doesn’t pay much attention to the space program or it’s mainly for nerds, but in the 60s and 70s it had the fascination of the masses.
My goodness! One of my favorite historical movies of all time. I was already familiar with the Apollo 13 incident before I watched the film for the first time, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment of it one jot. Such an _amazing_ movie. If anything, they _toned things down_ for the film from reality!
21:46 "A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one."
It was genius to show the wives and kids perspective. They probably suffered as much stress as the astronauts onboard Apollo 13.
I love how relieved she was when the burn was over. The way she exhaled was so cute. I also love the way she says hi to people. "Hi Buzz"
Jim and Marilyn Lovell are just about the only Apollo couple whose marriage survived the pressure.
You *must* listen to the commentary track they made for the DVD release of this movie.
Weren't Frank and Susan Borman still together as well?
I know most other marriages (especially among the "New Nine") were absolutely trashed. It is super unfortunate indeed
People ask WHO BUILT THE SPACE SHIP why different parts. Back then they had different Contractors (The Apollo program alone had up to a dozen prime contractors, including North American Aviation, Grumman Corp., Rocketdyne, General Motors, IBM, Douglas Aircraft and even General Motors.) So back then it was not foreseen that they would need to make redundant parts between the two parts of the mission.
Its more than that. Having redundant parts was the reason for the CO2 scrubber mismatch in the first place. The Lunar Module environment system was designed to handle the same CO2 scrubbers as the PLSS (personal life support system) backpacks, so they would only need to carry one type, and have a bunch of spares for the spacewalks, but also utilize them for the Lunar Module if needed.
So this is an instance where intended redundancy actually backfired
Since you enjoyed this real life space history drama you should do "The Right Stuff" (1983) next which is about the formation of NASA itself and the early Mercury missions. It's a excellent prequel of sorts to Apollo 13. In fact, there is a companion piece to Apollo 13, hosted by Tom Hanks and along with Ron Howard produced "From the Earth to the Moon" (FTETTM), a 12 part mini-series covering all the Apollo missions with one Mercury and a couple of Gemini missions to set the stage for Apollo. Tom Hanks also stars in the final episode! Excellent series and one you should consider doing reaction vids on, along with The Right Stuff first. In fact, The Right Stuff ends where FTETTM begins! @ 1:26 I realize you know about the fire but for an excellent dramatization about Apollo 1, mainly about the investigation and aftermath of it, you'll see that in Part 2 of FTETTM. And you'll see who and why the James Webb Space Telescope is named after. @ 2:20 You can't imagine what it was like then watching unfold live on TV. Was 14 at the time and it still sends shivers thinking on it, and most of the world was watching it too. Like in "The Martian" when everyone around the globe was watching. That, and the Apollo 13 disaster had us glued to the TV! BTW, at the end when Tom Hanks was narrating you saw him shaking hands with the ship's captain. That was Jim Lovell himself doing a cameo! Nice reaction and glad to see you know a lot about space history and astronomy as I. Live long and prosper.🖖😎
She wouldn't like that movie, haven't you heard, she's "Not a big space nerd".
i second that the right stuff
@@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh I agree, I was just kidding because she claims that she is not, in her words, a big space nerd, when she clearly is, which is a great thing to be.
@@sevilnatas "Wouldn't like" is irrelevant. Not a big space nerd is irrelevant. Her technological and biological essence will be absorbed into the scifi fan collective. Resistance is fu-tile. 😁
Yes, excellent movie except for the ridiculous portrayal of Gus Grissom. They did everything possible to make him out as the worst astronaut in history prone to panicking. Yet he was selected as the commander of the first manned Gemini mission and then commander for the first manned Apollo mission. It’s well known that if the Apollo 1 accident hadn’t killed him along with Ed White & Roger Chaffee, that Deke Slayton would have done everything possible to give Gus the first crack as commander for landing on the moon. Yet anyone that doesn’t know any of this would see Gus as some kind of buffoon.
Buzz Aldrin once punched a moon-landing conspiracy theorist in the face, he's a hero lol.
Wow, one of my absolute favourite movies, about my absolute favourite space program. Good call!
The lost ring scene can be considered a little cheesy but, according to Lovell's wife, has really occurred. Actually the entire movie is pretty accurate on the real facts. Even the long black-out in the communications at the reentry, or the problem during launch, that was even more severe than depicted. Only exception, the quarrel between the astronauts, that, along with the entire Swigert subplot (he was actually really competent), was dichiarately added for dramatic purpose.
"I look up at the Moon and wonder when will we be going back...?"
Only a few more years!
By the way, my favorite Buzz Aldrin video is one where he punches a Moon-landing-denier in the face for calling him a liar and a coward.
I remember seeing this as a kid and wow just a great piece of cinema storytelling. Loved our reaction V.
Man those guys went through the ringer.
Spacecraft blowing up
Losing oxygen
Cold
And now the death star. Wow
Oh my god. I had to go back to read your disclaimer before it started because when I looked up all I read was “some movie audio has been muted for man” and I sat there like “what?! Wtf could she have been meaning to say there?!”
Then I backed up. And LOL.
In case no one mentioned it already, the officer on the carrier welcoming Tom Hanks and the 13 crew was the real Jim Lovell in a cameo appearance.
Was looking for this
Everything you see in this movie is 100% historically and technically accurate with two major exceptions:
Some of the discussions by the engineers behind the scenes were dumbed down a bit to be understandable to the general public and to tie the story together. In real life those guys didn't need that stuff explained to them.
There was no shouting and arguing in the cockpit. In real life they were so calm and focused that it would have been boring to watch so they had to dial up the drama. I've listened to the recordings; the words were the same as the movie but the crew is so professional you'd think they'd dealt with this a thousand times. It's really incredible.
Fun fact about the movie: they built the spacecraft interior set into the inside of a special jet that allowed them to film some of the zero G scenes in ACTUAL zero G! Also, the officer that pats Tom Hanks on the shoulder on the ship at the end of the movie is played by the actual Jim Lovell!
"Only The Brave" is a great true story if you're looking for a tear jerker. I don't even have to watch the whole movie to start tearing up.
Oh my! 7 hours in and 400 comments, Vicki, you are a beast! Jim Lovell (Tom's character) said the small argument that happened with the flight crew in the movie never happened. He said something to the effect of them being the most professional men in their field and performing admirably.
Jim Lovell is actually in the move and he wore his old Navy Captain's uniform in the scene where he greets the astronauts aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima.
So many other reactors had no knowledge that this had been a real thing. I watched it live when I was a kid. Thanks for your knowledgeable reaction. I also suggest the movie the Right Stuff.
The number of Howard's in this movie is mind numbing.
Ron Howard's brother Clint plays the NASA controller who complained about the IRS.
(Clint actually had been audited by the IRS)
Jim Lovell's mother is played by Ron's actual mother.
His father played the reverend at the Lovell home while waiting for the capsule to splashdown.
Most significant is Ron Howard's daughter Bryce Dallas Howard as an extra in a couple scenes, the redhead wearing the yellow dress in the scene where Jim and Marilyn talk the night before the launch, and moments after the launch, she is in the background in a red dress.
Ron Howard stated that Bryce just liked being an extra.
How times have changed.
Lady Kunia, I lived your sincere feeling but LIVE! I grew up in the 1970's loving the American Apollo Space Program. My beloved mother & I saw it live on our Black & White TV. I still remember my Mom praying in Spanish, & lighting a candle & placing it near one of our home saints for their safe return to Earth. The entire World was so quite & tense. It was heart wrenching.
If you actually watch the actual footage of the crew during the incident, you'll find that in reality, the crew actually, though nervous, acted very calm, and not nearly as dramatic as this movie depicts.
If you made it exactly as it was on video and audio recordings, it would have been a boring movie.
@@k1productions87 and that's why I have no issues with film makers making minor liberties
@@theawesomeman9821 Nick Hodges of History Buffs makes a good point, there is a difference between being totally historically accurate, and being historically AUTHENTIC. So long as the who, what, where, when, how, and why matches up, the rest can be played with for the purpose of engagement or audience comprehension.
Interestingly, both Marilyn and Jim are in this film. During the launch scene, Marilyn Lovell is in the stands right behind "Marilyn Lovell." And, at the end, the Navy Captain shaking hands with the crew is Jim.
If you loved this, you should watch the HBO Mini-series From the Earth to the Moon. Tom Hanks produced it, and it was made by the same people who made Apollo 13.
I enthusiastically second this suggestion! It’s a wonderful series that both entertains and educates. I’ve watched it multiple times.
I also suggest watching “The Right Stuff” first. It takes some dramatic license in a few places (e.g. the stuff about Gus Grissom), but it’s a great movie and a good introduction to the pre-Apollo space program.
Gene Cernan, the last astronaut on the moon, wrote his daughters initials into the moon dust before he left. Therefore her name will be forever etched on the moon due to zero atmosphere etc. How amazingly cool is that? :D
Other Tom Hanks movies to watch if you haven’t seen them yet:
- A League of their Own
- Cast Away
- Catch Me if You Can
- Charlie Wilson’s War
- Bridge of Spies
Pretty much any Tom Hanks movie where he's playing a real-life person and shit goes sideways. Vis-a-vis, "Sully" and "Captain Phillips"
Great reaction. Love your empathy and also your enthusiasm for the space programme.
Finally, a reaction from someone who knows history.
love your reactions.. and this movie even knowing how it ends .. it just gives me goose bumps and brings tears to my eyes every time i watch.. great recreation and great writing to bring so many important elements to a story that could have been a tragedy... and absolutely top notch acting frm all involved
In my opinion, what they accomplished was far more amazing than landing on the moon.
Great reaction! I love your obvious excitement over this movie and your enthusiasm about the subject.
And also, I love your hair in this video!
Just to emphasize how cool they were under pressure, it was noted after the movie came out, the people involved I can't remember who said it but the yelling and general breaking down didn't actually happen but Hollywood had to embellish as they do.
They got Gene Kranz's reaction from the documentary, so they threw that in there.
15:21 the part where they have to solve the issue with the CO2 scrubbers, Jack Black's mother (yes that Jack Black, Tenacious D, Jumanji reboots) actually helped solve that problem. His parents are actual rocket scientists.
You’ll be able to experience it again soon! We’re going back by the end of this decade under NASA’s Artemis program! Artemis 1 launches in about 2 months!
🤞🤞🤞🤞
😔😔😔
Love this movie. Great reaction. I had an opportunity to meet Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Gene Kranz and Buzz Aldrin at a NASA ceremony in Florida several years ago. They were so kind, and had such amazing stories.
at the time of the moon landing I was about 3 1/2 and from what I was told, crying because I couldn't watch my cartoons because of the 'dumb show' my folks wanted to see. :) The story of what happened on this flight is incredible showing the "never say die" attitude that can push people to greatness at a time when everything seems to fail. They got all of them home safe, and remember at the time there was no modern computers to tell them how to do all this. Paper, pencil and A LOT of written math. No one could simply say, "hey Alexa how do fit a square peg into a round hole".
I was 3 and ¾!
GREAT REACTION! I was 12 years old to Summer that we landed on the moon and I was a space nerd throughout my elementary school years!! When I was in the sixth grade I did a paper on Project Gemini Step 2 to the Moon!! I had a scale model of the Saturn 5 rocket that could come apart at each stage complete with the LEM and the ability to Dock The Command Module and the LEM!! I wish to God I remember what happened to that model and that I wish I still had it!! It was an amazing time and this Mission especially just showed the fact that we had top people in the industry and in the field of Aeronautics and Space flight!! It was definitely one of the high points of American Technology and engineering!!
If you like this movie then you'll probably enjoy Tom Hank's From the Earth to the Moon HBO mini series.
I read Jim Lovell's book about this mission quite a few years back. It explained that the reason Swigert put that note over the switches was because he'd earlier had a nightmare in which his lack of sleep caused him to accidentally jettison the LEM with Lovell and Hayes still in it.
I love all of your reactions that I've seen so far, but this is now my favorite. My Dad worked on life support equipment for the Apollo program, as well as Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, STS (the Space Shuttle) and, unofficially, ISS (International Space Station). If you're interested to see what he did for Project Apollo, take a looksee at this post from one of my blogs: (Looks like UA-cam doesn't like links in comments, so google the following, and the first hit should be my blog. You'll have to scroll down a bit to see the post: breathing where there is no air buffalowingz july 20th )
Regarding the Apollo I pad fire... when it happened, my Dad and his colleagues were sweating bullets because, until the cause was determined, they were worried and horrified at the possibility that it might have been something in their work that caused the fire. So Dad and his co-workers lost alotta sleep over that.
Anyhoo, again, I love all of your reactions... and it's nice to bump into a fellow aerospace geek.
Fade to Black...
Check out the reaction Cassie did, on her channel 'Popcorn in Bed'. I think you'll love it just as much as this one! She's as much a sweetheart as Vicky is.
@@Garryck-1 Already have... thanks muchly...
At least we got an ending that makes us smile. Lt Dan sans measles and his tireless training got the boat turned back on. Would Jack have figured it out? There was a movie called Marooned that came out 4 months before this mission. It was about a stranded crew running out of oxygen and attempting to get them home. Glad you enjoyed this. As Billy Crystal being Fernando on SNL would say" You look marvelous ".
I recommend: From The Earth To The Moon, a miniseries that HBO produced in 1998 due to the success of this film, the same producers of this film participated and Tom Hanks also as part of the production, narrates with this same quality in 12 chapters of 45 minutes, very entertaining to watch, each of the Apollo trips to the moon, including an episode on Apollo 13 too, but this time told from the television news media side. A 5-star miniseries, each chapter is presented by Tom Hanks and in fact Tom Hanks acts in the penultimate chapter, in the chapter dedicated to Apollo 17 and George Mellies, the film director, who in the cinema made the first fictional moon landing with his short film: Trip to the Moon, from the year 1902.
The actual quote from astronaut Jim Lovell was, “Houston, we've had a problem." It was paraphrased for the movie.
I saw the Death Star that you added! Bill Paxton was really sick in that scene that was shot weightless in the "Vomit Comet". The Admiral in the white on the deck of the aircraft carrier was the real Jim Lovell. My dad also worked with Ed Harris for 2 days on a movie back in the early 90s.
Vic, I love how you snuck the Death Star in @21:51 lol
I actually love, and think it's one of the most valuable lessons for crisis management, that they were still thinking about this as a mission to land on the moon at the time that the suggestion is made to kill two of the fuel cells. They didn't lose their head and run around like chickens with their heads cut off at the first sign of emergency, they looked at it as a problem, or series of problems, to be solved in the course of carrying out the mission.
Having lived through the Apollo era, I was fully intrigued those great and historic missions. Your reactions were priceless and much appreciated. Like you, I knew the outcome of Apollo 13 but was fully enthralled by this terrific production and the fantastic performances of the actors. In particular, I was amazed by the acting of Kathleen Quinlin and Tracy Reiner who portrayed Marilyn Lovell and Mary Haise, respectively, during the launch sequence. They were both AMAZING especially when one considers they did not have a rocket launch to experience but nothing more than a camera above them. Quinlin had that great look of apprehension and pride while Reiner had this tremendous look of great fear and tearful and shaking release. Interestingly, I watched the re-entry of Apollo 13, live, in Houston and recall how the news media, and also in the movie, how the re-entry should not take more than three minutes. When that three minutes passed, in reality, I thought "Oh no! They're gone." A little known fact is that Apollo 13, rushing back from the Moon, set a world record for the fastest human flight, well over 25,000 miles per hour! So much speed, in fact, that they were in communications blackout for that extra minute. I look forward to more of your perspectives on great movies and music.
Great reaction and I especially love that you're a newfound fellow NASA geek!!! (whether you know it or not. Lol) These may have been mentioned elsewhere in the comments but some trivia:
The weightless scenes aren't CGI, they built the lem and cm sets inside the Vomit Comet, a plane NASA uses that's specially set up to fly a flight path that simulates weightlessness.
Speaking of, when Fred Hayes (Paxton) puked that was real and unplanned. They don't call it the Vomit Comet for nothing. Lol
The Admiral on the Iwo Jima at the end saluting Tom Hanks is the real Jim Lovell.
Ron Howard (director) had a rivalry going on with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the time, Arnold would send pics of him in his MILITARY Humvee and make fun of his car. So while making the film Ron got to drive the crawler that carries the rocket to the pad, got a pic of himself and sent to Arnold with a note "top this!"
"Why would you give the sick one that [hard] job?"
Because the sick one was the LM pilot. He's the guy who had spent years training how to fly that thing.
19:01 The reason Jack was timer is because he's the CSM pilot. His ship--the one he trained to pilot--is Odyssey. They're using Aquarius for the burn. Fred is the LM Pilot and Jim Mission Commander, so they're the two who actually know the LM controls and have a feel for them. If Jack were to fly and Fred were to time, they'd have to teach Jack the controls and hope he was competent enough with such a rushed and stressed training.
And at 21:34 I believe another thing (that wasn't mentioned in the movie) is that the Soviets minimized their space communications to help keep the channels clear for NASA after the explosion. Really goes to show the worldwide effect of this mission.
AND at the end, on the carrier, the *actual* Jim Lovell is playing the carrier captain and wearing his old Navy uniform. Imagine that!
The clip of the deathstar above the Earth had me dying. Great reaction as always. I adore the movie to the moon and back.
It didn't make the final cut, but when they landed on the aircraft carrier and Tom Hanks salutes and shakes hand with the officer, the officer is actually Jim Lovell!
Brilliant retelling of history. I am old enough to remember it happening - even had an audio tape of the Apollo 13 transmissions. "Houston, we have a problem" became the epitome for understatement. Even knowing the story and all the details, totally enjoyed every moment. Just not sure if the Death Star appearing at 21:50 was in the original - must check! Everything space became a passion, and with Elon and SpaceX I am keeping fingers crossed for an exiting future!