Men walked on the moon from Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. That's six times. Would have been 7 but for Apollo 13 not landing. I'm sorry I wasn't alive to see any of those landings, but I became fascinated with the Space Race as a boy, from the dog Laika in Sputnik 2 (which I always felt sorry for as there was no coming back) to the space shuttle, I read about it all. I was always particularly fascinated by Apollo 13, years before they made a film of the events, I think I already knew everything that happened. The telling was spot on, not a detail missed that I remember reading.
Same. When I found out a medical issue prevented me from becoming an astronaut, I started studying film… my first courses were at a studio called “laika” (claymation studio in Portland, originally will Vinson studios)
As for the films accuracy, I think the only difference was the fight scene between jack and Fred… the astronauts said they never got that emotional or angry (they were military after all… trained to be calm under pressure). But I don’t mind… it’s a movie. Needs drama
I was 8 years old the night that every TV in America was watching the same thing. Apollo 11 had landed some hours earlier but now Neil Armstrong was going to actually stand on the moon. It didn't even seem real. And as a kid, it seemed to take forever. It was extremely hard to make out what was happening on the TV until it said Armstrong On Moon. It was one of those moments that you'll always remember where you were. I still remember having popcorn and a paper cup of Pepsi. That's how much I remember that night.
23:20 They actually _had_ considered doing so. The issue with that was that one tended to perspire a lot in those suits; the suits were lined with neoprene, a plastic bladder. That was the pressure vessel. With no power to circulate air in the suits, they would have quickly perspired and soaked their clothes. They'd be both cold _and_ wet, and that was a recipe for pneumonia.
I think this movie should have won a best picture Oscar. It's so good and I appreciate it depicting real people and a real event. The mom in the nursing home is played by Ron Howard's mother Jean, the little guy with the heavy glasses at NASA control is his brother Clint, and the reverend that is at their home during the coverage of this event is his father Rance. The dramatic license taken with telling this story was the freaking out and arguing, they said that didn't happen, they don't get to be astronauts without being able to handle pressure.
yeah if you listen to the actual archival recordings of Mission Control and the crew talking about literally everything going wrong, if you didn't know better from their calm and collected demeanor you would assume that the stuff they were talking about was fairly routine and no big deal. They had to punch it up a little for theater audiences to get across how dire the situation actually was.
Also, Marylin Lovell is in the stands watching the launch, the older lady in navy blue and white. Jim himself is the captain of the ship who shakes their hands at the end.
A number of Apollo missions landed on the moon - 11 thru 17 (without 13). I attended Cpt. Lovell’s book lecture re: Lost Moon. He was asked about the amount of Hollywood exaggeration. He replied that there was a little, but most was right on. The biggest exaggeration was about Swigert being a “rookie.” He said Jack was right on the money every single time.
Another exaggeration was the heated argument they had with Haise accusing Swigert of doing something wrong. That never happened. They were all professional on the journey and focused on doing the right things to make it back home. Another exaggeration was how the movie portrayed the carbon dioxide problem as sneaking up on them, out of nowhere. Lovell said that as soon as they made the decision to move into the LEM they knew they'd have a problem with the carbon dioxide scrubbers.
The communication transcripts are in the public domain. Most of the script matches what was actually said. Remarkably, everyone was even more calm than you could believe!
I just noticed that the captain (or whatever rank) that greeted Tom Hanks when he landed safely, was the actual commander of Apollo 13, Jim Lovell, that Tom Hanks portrayed. Awesome detail that I didn't notice in the many other watches of this amazing movie. Thanks for the reaction!
You know a movie is good when even though many of us know the outcome, we were all stressed and excited while watching. Kudos to the director and the actors.
11:06 So many people asked about that vest it was placed in the Air and Space Museum in D.C. My dad cried watching this movie (it is very accurate) He is a electrical engineer
I was in the 5th grade when this happened. As students, we watched many space launches and "splashdowns" on a TV in our classroom. I remember when they went passed the 3 minute blackout. I thought they had burned up and died. Then we saw the capsule on TV with the 3 parachutes open. We all cheered!!
And an added bit of trivia, Tom Hanks was going to make JIm Lovell an admiral on the carrier. Lovell refused, saying he was a real life Captain and would not take any other rank than that. A man of honor and integrity
This is even more amazing when you consider the phones in our pockets have more computing power than the rocket/vehicle they were riding in. Pretty brave guys.
A simple graphing calculator, like are used in college math classes, has more computing power than THE ENTIRE WORLD at the time of the Apollo missions.
Corvettes like the ones Lovell & Ken had were pretty much THE cars for astronauts. a former racer turned dealer worked out a promotion where if you were serving in the astronaut corps you could get a Corvette lease for practically nothing, rack up a few thousand miles on the car & then buy it outright as used.
The story I heard was after leasing the cars for a year they were returned to the dealer... who sold them at inflated prices based on the previous celebrity owners. Everyone's a winner, you know it makes sense. Cushty.
The fire combined two issues. 1) they had VERY oxygen rich atmosphere, which let the fire grow insanely fast. 2) the doors opened inward, in which case the increased pressure caused by the expanding fire sealed the doors shut. They reduced the oxygen level to normal atmospheric levels and redesigned the doors so they open outward to avoid a repeat.
Wow! Nobody has brought this up yet; so I will. Hanks’ previous move was Forrest Gump, also starring Gary Sinese as Lieutenant Dan. There’s a scene in the bar when Forrest tells Lieutenant Dan that he’s going to be a shrimping boat captain. Lieutenant Dan then replies “The day you’re a shrimping boat captain, I’ll be an astronaut.” Well, Forrest became a shrimping boat captain and, in the next movie, Lieutenant Dan became an astronaut.
Around 34:50, the captain of the ship who shakes the hand of Tom Hanks (playing Jim L.) is the real Jim L. that Tom is portraying. It's a wonderful cameo of a legend.
3:08 "Who's MCA?" They're a record company, Lynyrd Skynyrd actually was one of the musical artists that were contracted to them, and they'd performed the song "Working For MCA"
@@AwesomeUSMovies Unfortunately, its one of the things too many people use as their "Proof we never landed on the moon", their ignorance of how many missions flew. They all say "we only ever landed once and never went back" when we did, several times over the following three years. Just, nobody remembers it, because nobody gave a damn after the political goal of beating the Russians was accomplished. And that is the simple answer, any time anyone challenges you with "Oh yeah? If we were able to land in 1969, then how come we never went back?" - because we don't have a rival to beat. You can bet your backside once China starts sending Taikonauts to the Moon, we'll have our own Moon Landings once again, and NASA's budget will inexplicably double or triple to make it happen.... that is,... assuming "Space Force" doesn't get all the funding and all the glory while NASA gets its proverbial nuts cut off again with more budget cuts...
Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 all landed on the moon. Apollo 18 is either the reason why we've never returned to the moon, if you believe the movie, or the TMBG album with I Palindrome, I on it.
Another commenter explained everything. They had way to high of an oxygen content inside and the door opened inward. The spark happened due to oxygen content and the pressure was so high from the fire they couldn't pull the door inward.
The reason Swigart didn't pilot during the course correction burn is that he was trained in the command module, not the lunar excursion module which they used for the burn.. that's why Lovell and Haise did the navigation, they trained in it to operate it
On the back of the success of this Tom Hanks managed to get the financial backing as co-producer to make a TV series on the story of the Space race called 'From Earth to the Moon'. As you enjoyed this and love the space program it's well worth seeking out.
That is amazing series. Another great job of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, both as producers, and Tom Hanks as executive producer. I only recently discovered this series, and it's one of my fav series to watch now.
I graduated from high school at the time of the events of Apollo 13. I watched them on TV. The engineers did a great job bringing out astronauts home safely.
There's a museum dedicated to Gus Grissom very close to where I live in Indiana (his hometown was a small town called Mitchell). Gus Grissom was the first man to go into space twice, and had he not died in the Apollo 1 fire, he might have been the one to command Apollo 11 and set foot on the moon.
He also prematurely blew the hatch on his capsule when his first flight landed in the sea, causing the loss of the whole capsule when it sank. And he almost drowned because the weight of all the coins he had on him which he took up into space to give as souvenirs when he got back.
27:48 the Lunar Module was Haise responsability (Paxton). And, according to the procedure, the mission commander (Lovell/Hanks in this case) is the one that, if necessary, drive the Lunar Module manually. Swigert (Bacon) was the Command Module pilot, that at that point is shut off, so the role ripartition during the maneuvre makes sense.
“Kevin Bacon, from Footloose, and A Few Good Men, … and I think from something else, too”. I laughed so hard at this. There’s a party game that was super popular there for a while, called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. You name any actor/actress, and then using films they’ve been in together with another actor/actress, you create a chain that must end at Kevin Bacon. The goal is fewer than 6 steps, which is not as difficult as it sounds. Because he’s been in soooooo many movies.
Allegedly, thr set design for mission control was so good that consultants from NASA would forget it WAS a set, and make a muscle mempry turn to where elevators should've been, only to hit a dead end!
Fun Fact: Jack Black's (yes, THAT Jack Black) mother, Judith Love Cohen, was one of the engineers that helped design the Abort Guidance System that helped save Apollo 13.
There were a total of 6 landings on the Moon, with 12 individuals walking on the surface while a third member of each crew remained in the orbiting capsule. A fascinating documentary was made in 2007 and Ron Howard was involved and on the DVD copies, he has a wonderful introduction. It spends time explaining about the fire in 1967 which killed the 3 astronauts meant for Apollo 1. The documentary is mostly interviews with the living astronauts and is unique since it is from their personal perspectives. The DVD bonus features also includes a piece on the paintings by Alan Bean who was on Apollo 12. After he retired, he spent his time making paintings and incorporated mementos from the Moon, from imprints of his boots in the paint, to specks of fabric from his spacesuit, etc. The documentary is very inspirational. It focuses mostly on the events leading up to Apollo 11 but includes footage from all of them. Well-worth a watch! 🌙
There was even a planned Apollo 19 and 20. 20 was cancelled first, 18 and 19 cancelled at the same time. All the hardware was built. It was operational costs that were finally cut, leaving unused hardware that had to be repurposed for other projects. One of the unused Saturn IV-B boosters was rebuilt into the Skylab space station. And I believe the Solar Observatory telescope on Skylab was built from an unused Lunar Module descent stage, but I could be wrong about that. It was certainly a similar shape
I’ve been obsessed with early nasa since a kid, and know all kind of fun/weird facts: -the first American in space peed himself on the launchpad -the black and white caps are based on snoopy (hence, called snoopy caps) -the 3rd man on the moon, Pete Conrad, was the shortest astronaut. His first words on the moon were “Whoopie! that may have been a small step for Neil, but it was a big one for me!” -Apollo 12 astronauts had porn on the moon. It was a joke put there by the other astronauts
This movie was amazing. All the anti gravity scenes were really done in an airplane called the vomit comet. Also you know that scene where his son asked him about the fire. And Tom Hanks said that won't happen again. I totally would have told him yes. That could happen again. Because we all die, it's what we choose to live doing.
A band called OK GO made a music video called "Upside Down and Inside Out" where the whole 3m song is 21(!) back to back vomit comet cycles with choreography.
The Lovells lived near NASA Ground Control in Houston, the mission launches were in Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Florida. The 12 part HBO mini series *From the Earth...To the Moon* that details all the manned Apollo missions along with a recap of the Mercury and Gemini programs is absolutely fantastic! Produced by Ron Howard and Tom Hanks and each episode bookended by Hanks, the final episode directed and starring Hanks. This is a series I can't recommend highly enough!
James, just in case no one else has explained it...the reason there was a delay in the 13 crew responding to Mission Control after making it thru the re-entry was due to the fact that they wanted to make sure the chutes deployed before risking using anymore extra power from the beleaguered batteries before they were assured of having chutes. They just didnt warn Mission Control of their intention to do that.
Not exactly. If you listen to the audio transcripts, the first callback "Okay Joe" upon reacquisition occurred long before chute deployment. Naturally, the movie makes this a tad more dramatic, visually and audibly "Hello Houston, this is Odyssey, its good to see you again". The real reason for the delay was because their re-entry angle was a little shallow. Not quite shallow enough to fully skip off, but enough to provide a tad of slippage, as it were. But much like the vast majority of dramatic license this movie takes, this one was totally justified and makes for a better film. Skating that line of historical accuracy vs. dramatic effect has always been difficult, but Ron Howard rode that line like a champ. The only historically iffy thing is how they portrayed Jack Swigert as a "rookie" who had to earn his stripes on the flight. This couldn't have been further from the truth, especially since both Mattingly and Haise were rookies themselves. Thankfully it doesn't really harm the film, and while still a bit unfair to Swigert, it wasn't nearly the hatchet job that The Right Stuff did to Gus Grissom.
The LEM was about the size of two typical airline lavatories put together. The reason that the filter on the command module and the filter on the LEM were different was because they were built by two different companies. And the walls of the LEM were only about as thick as a sheet of heavy duty aluminum. You could easily punch your way through the wall.
Nominated for 9 Oscars in 1995: Best Picture Best Supporting Actor - Ed Harris as Gene Kranz Best Supporting Actress - Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Lovell Best Adapted Screenplay Best Film Editing (won) Best Original Score Best Art Direction Best Sound (won) Best Visual Effects Many people (myself included) thought it should have won Best Picture, but without a Best Director nomination, it was unlikely. To that point, only three films had won Best Picture without a nomination for directing.
The Apollo programme went to the moon 9 times (Apollo 8, 10, and 11 - 17). With the exception of Apollo 13, all the missions from 11 onwards landed. This year, the Artemis project sent a spacecraft capable of carrying humans (though it was uncrewed for the test flight) around the moon, with the aim of having Artemis 2 repeat the feat soon, except with humans aboard, and that will hopefully lead to Artemis 3 landing people on the moon for the first time since the 1970s.
The problem with the door (aka the hatch) on Apollo 1, that caused the deaths of Grissom, White and Chaffee, was the hatch opened inwards, meaning it couldn't be opened against the internal pressure, and even less with the increased pressure from the fire.
There were nine Apollo missions that went to the Moon, comprising 24 astronauts (all Americans). In all, 12 men walked on the moon. There were several missions to the moon before this and several after it (which is why the media stopped covering these missions... claiming it had become boring).
The mechanical issue with the apollo 1 hatch was it opened inward. When the fire broke out, it over pressurized the cabin sealing the hatch shut and the fate of the astronauts inside.
We have been to the moon more than once for sure.. here are all the times we went : As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, twelve astronauts from the United States have walked on the moon. These missions were part of NASA's Apollo program. The missions were: Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (July 1969) Apollo 12: Pete Conrad and Alan Bean (November 1969) Apollo 14: Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell (February 1971) Apollo 15: David Scott and James Irwin (July-August 1971) Apollo 16: John Young and Charles Duke (April 1972) Apollo 17: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt (December 1972)
You wondered about the astronauts living situation...and yes, almost all of them did live far from the launch pads at Cape Canaveral. Most of the astronauts called the Houston area home, since the location where pretty much all their training happened was the Johnson Space Center, while the launches all happened in Florida...that is why Marilyn Lovell was staying in a motel in Florida.👍
Putting the Johnson Space Center in Houston was a pork barrel project so that Lyndon Johnson would push for approval of the NASA budget for a moon landing in Congress.
Some trivia... the real Ken Mattingly was not the only one that put the power up procedure together. Also...director Ron Howard used his mom Jean to play Jim's mother Blanche. His brother Clint played the NASA team member that makes the crack about the IRS getting on Swaggert's case about failing to pay his taxes on time (the irony of that is Clint Howard has a history of problems with the IRS). Ron's father Rance also played the minister.
Yes they did film all the weightless floating scenes on the "vomit comet" plane. We landed on the moon 6 times.. Apollo 11,12,14,15,16,17. 12 people have been on the moon.
For those of you who don't know: at the last scene on that Carrier there is this Admiral, shaking hands with Tom Hanks at 34:48. That would be the real Jim Lovell.
It was an Admiral in real life, commanding the IWA JIMA, but Jim Lovell wore his Captains Uniform for the scene. He retired as a Captain, and insisted in appearing as that rank.
Sweigert was not out of the loop,he was fully trained and competent.there was never any friction between the crew.Ron Howard put that in there for some extra drama (as if it needed more drama!)
The Apollo 1 fire door issue was tragic irony. During a prior mission the emergency door explosives went off accidentally upon splashdown and the capsule sunk. So they removed the feature for safety reasons. The astronaut that happened to was in Apollo 1. Also, it was discovered Velcro becomes an explosive in a pure oxygen environment. There was limits on the amount of Velcro used in spaceships after that.
Oh yeah, and Velcro was developed by nasa for space flight. That’s why that detail was so insane. Also created by nasa for space flight: tang. And they created “zero gravity pens” so the astronauts could write in space… the Russians used pencils :P But despite the competitiveness between the Soviet’s and Americans in reaching the moon, when Neil and buzz went to the moon, they took a soviet flag with them, so emphasize this being a human achievement vs American achievement
@@thefreedommovement the "zero gravity pens" thing was an urban legend, and not remotely true. They used pencils in the NASA programs too, and we see instances of this in the film as well. As for the Velcro, that wasn't the only problem, the adhesive was flammable and toxic as well. There were all sorts of problems with the spacecraft,... and it is mindboggling that they even flew it, because the Block I was never meant to work with the Lunar mission plan at all. They really should have waited for a completed Block II (which naturally solved many of the Block I's unsolved problems from the get-go).
Marilyn Lovell had been to two launches before Apollo 13. He had been on a Gemini flight and had orbited the moon earlier in the Apollo project. That’s was when he named the crater after Marilyn.
You might want to add Sully (with Tom Hanks) to your watch list. It's the true story of the Miracle in the Hudson. Also highly recommend Hanks in yet another true story, Bridge of Spies - with the remarkable Mark Rylance (who won BOTH the Oscar and the BAFTA for his role in that...
And, if I see Tom Hanks on a flight I'm taking, I'm getting OFF. After Apollo 13, Castaway and Miracle on the Hudson, that ol' boy's number has got to come up eventually.
10:36 it was in the P-trap. The hotel management got it out for her, immediately. They knew who they were. Even astronauts in this area, it their car broke down, they could go to a dealership and get a free lease 🤣. They all drove free cars while in Florida.
You asked "why didn't they let the pilot fly?" Jack Swigert was the Command Module Pilot, he flew the Odyssey. Fred Haise was Lunar Module Pilot, he flew Aquarius. This is also a bit of a misnomer, because the Commander flew both. CMP was basically Navigator and LMP was Engineer,... But these were test pilots. None wanted to be anything but "Pilot" lol This began with the two-man Gemini spacecraft. Originally the positions were titled "Pilot" and "Co-Pilot", and NONE of the test pilot astronauts wanted to be called "Co-Pilot", so NASA kinda threw up their hands and said "Commander" and "Pilot", even though the Commander flies and the Pilot navigates and relays information.
8:45 *Lovell:* "This was my call." *Awesome:* "No it wasn't." *Me:* Lovell decided whether his _entire_ crew would be replaced by the backup crew, or just the CM pilot. I.e. whether to cut _himself_ from the mission. The backup crews exist so a mission doesn't have to be scrubbed because something happened to (a member of) the prime crew. Hanks' miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon", covering the entire Apollo program, is well worth watching. As is "The Right Stuff", which covers the Mercury program -- with Ed Harris in a different role than in this movie.
The entire crew couldn't be replaced anyway, because Charles Duke (backup LMP) was the one who definitively had the Measles, so he was out regardless. And generally when a backup is required, they swap the entire crew, specifically because of the unspoken rapport each crewmember has with each other. But since the backup was sick, and the prime crew CMP was exposed, it caused the established rule to be broken. If, however, Ken Mattingly had the Measles and Duke did not, then the entire Apollo 13 crew would have been swapped.
Great choice for a movie to watch. I've seen this movie over a dozen times and I still get anxious from it even though I know the outcome. It's just so well done and every character feels authentic. It doesn't feel like anyone is "acting" -- it truly feels like watching a moment in time with how people really would act in the moments (both leading up to the launch and during the disaster). I love this movie. Great hoice.
Mission Control is in Houston, Texas and the astronauts train and live there. The rockets are launched from Florida so they can get over water right away. When all of the astronauts were test pilots they would fly themselves to the launches. I don’t know how common that is today.
Lol, we'd been to the moon twice at that point. You forgot Apollo 12. 11 & 12 and 14 - 17 were moon landings. My grandfather was a contractor for 16 and 17.
Just a quick correction-you said we had never been back after this, or maybe once, but there were 4 more Apollo missions that landed on the Moon - 14, 15, 16 and 17. Numbers 18 19 and 20 were in the planning stage but funding was stopped, so 17 was the last. In 2005, funding from both national and international sources was made available for the Artemis project to return to the Moon, and stay for longer periods and begin the process of creating scientific establishments that would remain on the Moon. The first Artemis mission was without any people onboard and was done last December.
And don't forget about Apollo 12, which almost felt like buddies on a road trip. Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, and Dick Gordon were one of my favorite crews, just because of how much fun they seemed to have together :D
Mine was was Jim Lovell says "Gentlemen, it's been a privilege flying with you." He's saying that, knowing they could all be dead in the next minute or two.
Kevin Bacon has been in like a hundred movies lol. Stir of Echoes is one of the best. You should check it out. Gary Sinise (pronounced Sin eese) was LIEUTENANT Dan. He and Tom Hanks were both in Forest Gump, The Green Mile and Apollo13). All are excellent films.
So Ron Howard involved his whole family. His brother Clint was the one at mission control that said to shut down the fuel cells. His mom played Blanche and his dad was there priest on the couch in the Lovell home when they were returning
Fun fact: Neil and buzz took a soviet flag with them to the moon. America may have “won the race”, but it was a human achievement. They wanted to show the world we all earned that moment.
@@billolsen4360 The Soviet government, absolutely. But in most instances, the two space programs were nothing but respectful to each other. NASA even giving a heartfelt public response to the tragedy that claimed the life of Cosmonaut Vladamir Komarov in Soyuz 1 (a failure that occurred for many of the same reasons as Apollo 1). And of course, lets not forget about the true symbolic end to the Space Race, the "Apollo-Soyuz Test Project", in which Deke Slayton FINALLY got his chance to fly.
It was amazing how many things had to right for them to come home. And it did. There was a Chevrolet dealer that gave each astronaut a new corvette in the Apollo mission. I think there was 6 human missions that landed on the moon.
The movie is historically accurate, for the most part, though some things were exaggerated to heighten the drama. If you listen to the audio from the comm loops, everyone maintained a calm degree of professionalism. No panicked voices. Swigert was well versed in how to operate the command module. In fact, he had been very involved in its development. There was no concern about his ability to dock with the lunar module. Even if he had been unable to for some reason, Lovell or Haise could step in. There was no arguing or blaming Swigert as depicted. The course correction was not as wild and erratic as presented. Ken Mattingly was not the only astronaut working on solving the CM powerup procedure. There was a team of astronauts and engineers working the problem. Gene Kranz never lost his cool as depicted. It was expected the blackout would be longer than normal due to the atypical trajectory they had to use to come back, having slingshotted around the moon instead of orbiting it. Marilyn Lovell was easily able to get her ring back with the help of the motel staff. A side note- you had noted that Kevin Bacon had been in a couple of other films- he’s been in so many, there exists the Bacon Number! Similar to the concept of the theory that there’s only six degrees of separation between every human on (and off) the planet, friend of a friend of a friend, et cetera, there’s six degrees separating every actor from films that cast themselves and Bacon- Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, if you will. For example, Elvis Presley and Ed Asner were both in the movie, “Change Of Habit”, while Asner and Bacon were both in “JFK”. Thus, Elvis has a Bacon Number of 2.
Actually, America put men on the moon 6 times. The last time a man walked on the moon was in 1972. Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks, went around it twice. Once being the Apollo 8 flight that took the famous first videos and pictures of the Earth from the moon, and the second time on the near disastrous Apollo 13.
The early history of the US space program is covered very well in “The Right Stuff” (1983). Then, after the “Apollo 13” film, Tom Hanks produced a miniseries called “From the Earth to the Moon”, which covers the whole Apollo program. There are so many good stories in addition to Apollos 11 and 13.
It is a tad unfortunate that the historical aspect of "The Right Stuff" has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The basics are fine, but the details stray quite considerably. Especially Chuck Yeager's involvement in the X-1 project, and the absolutely unfair hatchet job they do to Gus Grissom. Its a great film, just don't take its word as gospel.
@@k1productions87 The “grain of salt” should be applied to non-fiction films in general. I read in another thread that a fully accurate film of Apollo 13 would be 10 times as long and mostly technical jargon.
@@keithmartin4670 Ron Howard walked the line of "historical accuracy vs. dramatic license" quite expertly with this film, with nearly every bit of it absolutely justified. The only real stretch was portraying Swigert as a "rookie", when both Mattingly and Haise were first-timers as well. But, he still got respect at the end. Also, the CDR is supposed to be the one flying, not the CMP. Nearly every single modern-era spaceflight movie (historical or fiction) gets this wrong. The only exception I can immediately think of is the Endeavour crash landing in the movie "The Core"
9:46 thats a Sundress. Every year around this time, my girlfriend says its sundress season and pulls all her sundresses out. They're 😍. Sundress season is better than Christmas, fight me.
Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 landed on the moon making a total of 12 people who have walked on its surface. I was fortunate to see the launch of Apollo 11 through 17 from Titusville Florida 12 miles from the launch pads.
We've been to the moon more than once. There are 12 astronauts who have been on the moons surface. So that's either 4 or 6 moon missions, depending on the size of each crew, and how many of each actually landed on the moon.
Actually, Americans landed men on the moon in six missions. Apollo 11 was the first (Armstrong & Aldren; with Michael Collins orbited in the command module). The other landings were Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16, & 17 (the last Apollo mission in Dec. 1972). Apollo 13 was also supposed to land, but...
This movie is mostly accurate with a few things added for dramatic effect 1) Jack Swaggart didn't actually fail in the simulator before the mission, he did it just about perfectly. 2) The argument they had in space was completely fictional. Astronauts don't lose their cool so easily.
Houston Mission Control was divided into three teams with color designations, white, blue, green, or some such. Gene Krantz headed the white team and his wife made the white vest that he wore while on duty, taken from his autobiography “Failure is not an option”.
Red, White and Blue actually. When the accident happened, Gene took the best qualified from all the teams, designated them the Tiger Team, and assigned them specific responsibilities.
It's a sign of a fantastic film when you are kept on the edge of your seat despite knowing how it ends.
I’m a big Apollo fan. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen this movie and the suspense still gets me.
You bet, loved it
Men walked on the moon from Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. That's six times. Would have been 7 but for Apollo 13 not landing. I'm sorry I wasn't alive to see any of those landings, but I became fascinated with the Space Race as a boy, from the dog Laika in Sputnik 2 (which I always felt sorry for as there was no coming back) to the space shuttle, I read about it all. I was always particularly fascinated by Apollo 13, years before they made a film of the events, I think I already knew everything that happened. The telling was spot on, not a detail missed that I remember reading.
Same. When I found out a medical issue prevented me from becoming an astronaut, I started studying film… my first courses were at a studio called “laika” (claymation studio in Portland, originally will Vinson studios)
Will vinton* sorry, I got one eye and this screen is tiny
As for the films accuracy, I think the only difference was the fight scene between jack and Fred… the astronauts said they never got that emotional or angry (they were military after all… trained to be calm under pressure). But I don’t mind… it’s a movie. Needs drama
@@thefreedommovement Will Vinton was a huge part of my childhood. Very cool!
I was 8 years old the night that every TV in America was watching the same thing. Apollo 11 had landed some hours earlier but now Neil Armstrong was going to actually stand on the moon. It didn't even seem real. And as a kid, it seemed to take forever. It was extremely hard to make out what was happening on the TV until it said Armstrong On Moon. It was one of those moments that you'll always remember where you were. I still remember having popcorn and a paper cup of Pepsi. That's how much I remember that night.
23:20 They actually _had_ considered doing so. The issue with that was that one tended to perspire a lot in those suits; the suits were lined with neoprene, a plastic bladder. That was the pressure vessel. With no power to circulate air in the suits, they would have quickly perspired and soaked their clothes. They'd be both cold _and_ wet, and that was a recipe for pneumonia.
I think this movie should have won a best picture Oscar. It's so good and I appreciate it depicting real people and a real event.
The mom in the nursing home is played by Ron Howard's mother Jean, the little guy with the heavy glasses at NASA control is his brother Clint, and the reverend that is at their home during the coverage of this event is his father Rance.
The dramatic license taken with telling this story was the freaking out and arguing, they said that didn't happen, they don't get to be astronauts without being able to handle pressure.
Bryce Dallas Howard is in there somewhere too as an extra. I think she's a girl in a yellow dress watching TV with all of them at the Lovell House.
yeah if you listen to the actual archival recordings of Mission Control and the crew talking about literally everything going wrong, if you didn't know better from their calm and collected demeanor you would assume that the stuff they were talking about was fairly routine and no big deal. They had to punch it up a little for theater audiences to get across how dire the situation actually was.
Also, Marylin Lovell is in the stands watching the launch, the older lady in navy blue and white.
Jim himself is the captain of the ship who shakes their hands at the end.
In the end the commader with the White hat talking to Tom Hanks was the real Jim Lovell who flew that mission.
A number of Apollo missions landed on the moon - 11 thru 17 (without 13).
I attended Cpt. Lovell’s book lecture re: Lost Moon. He was asked about the amount of Hollywood exaggeration. He replied that there was a little, but most was right on. The biggest exaggeration was about Swigert being a “rookie.” He said Jack was right on the money every single time.
Jim Lovell was a Captain in the Navy.
@@danielbrooks5585 True. My bad. I edited my post. Thanks.
Another exaggeration was the heated argument they had with Haise accusing Swigert of doing something wrong. That never happened. They were all professional on the journey and focused on doing the right things to make it back home. Another exaggeration was how the movie portrayed the carbon dioxide problem as sneaking up on them, out of nowhere. Lovell said that as soon as they made the decision to move into the LEM they knew they'd have a problem with the carbon dioxide scrubbers.
I have an autographed copy of Lost Moon. Great book!
The communication transcripts are in the public domain. Most of the script matches what was actually said. Remarkably, everyone was even more calm than you could believe!
I just noticed that the captain (or whatever rank) that greeted Tom Hanks when he landed safely, was the actual commander of Apollo 13, Jim Lovell, that Tom Hanks portrayed.
Awesome detail that I didn't notice in the many other watches of this amazing movie. Thanks for the reaction!
You know a movie is good when even though many of us know the outcome, we were all stressed and excited while watching. Kudos to the director and the actors.
Totally agree!
I was 16 when this happened. I remember my Dad & I watching this on tv, holding our breath.
11:06 So many people asked about that vest it was placed in the Air and Space Museum in D.C.
My dad cried watching this movie (it is very accurate)
He is a electrical engineer
What a fun fact
I was in the 5th grade when this happened. As students, we watched many space launches and "splashdowns" on a TV in our classroom. I remember when they went passed the 3 minute blackout. I thought they had burned up and died. Then we saw the capsule on TV with the 3 parachutes open. We all cheered!!
In my personal opinion. This movie, is an A+
BTW, towards the end, the guy Tom Hanks shakes hands with on the aircraft carrier was the real Jim Lovell.
Wasn't a Aircraft Carrier FYI. USS IWO JIMA, an amphibious assault ship.🙂
And an added bit of trivia, Tom Hanks was going to make JIm Lovell an admiral on the carrier. Lovell refused, saying he was a real life Captain and would not take any other rank than that. A man of honor and integrity
@@TheMediaOutsiders And wearing his actual uniform as well, not a Hollywood costume
This is even more amazing when you consider the phones in our pockets have more computing power than the rocket/vehicle they were riding in. Pretty brave guys.
A simple graphing calculator, like are used in college math classes, has more computing power than THE ENTIRE WORLD at the time of the Apollo missions.
Corvettes like the ones Lovell & Ken had were pretty much THE cars for astronauts. a former racer turned dealer worked out a promotion where if you were serving in the astronaut corps you could get a Corvette lease for practically nothing, rack up a few thousand miles on the car & then buy it outright as used.
The story I heard was after leasing the cars for a year they were returned to the dealer... who sold them at inflated prices based on the previous celebrity owners.
Everyone's a winner, you know it makes sense. Cushty.
Who wouldn't want an astronaut's old Vette?! It's better than getting stuck with Yuri Gagarin's old ZIL.
The fire combined two issues. 1) they had VERY oxygen rich atmosphere, which let the fire grow insanely fast.
2) the doors opened inward, in which case the increased pressure caused by the expanding fire sealed the doors shut.
They reduced the oxygen level to normal atmospheric levels and redesigned the doors so they open outward to avoid a repeat.
Great details thanks
Awesome Movies: "...we love your little Duck Walk."
Me: "...aaaaannd someone is offended in t-minus 3, 2..." 😂
Probably but I just love it
Wow! Nobody has brought this up yet; so I will. Hanks’ previous move was Forrest Gump, also starring Gary Sinese as Lieutenant Dan. There’s a scene in the bar when Forrest tells Lieutenant Dan that he’s going to be a shrimping boat captain. Lieutenant Dan then replies “The day you’re a shrimping boat captain, I’ll be an astronaut.” Well, Forrest became a shrimping boat captain and, in the next movie, Lieutenant Dan became an astronaut.
Around 34:50, the captain of the ship who shakes the hand of Tom Hanks (playing Jim L.) is the real Jim L. that Tom is portraying. It's a wonderful cameo of a legend.
Love that
3:08
"Who's MCA?"
They're a record company, Lynyrd Skynyrd actually was one of the musical artists that were contracted to them, and they'd performed the song "Working For MCA"
17:46 We did go back to the moon. Apollo missions 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 all landed on the moon. In total 12 people have walked on the moon.
Dang.. I was way off
@@AwesomeUSMovies Unfortunately, its one of the things too many people use as their "Proof we never landed on the moon", their ignorance of how many missions flew. They all say "we only ever landed once and never went back" when we did, several times over the following three years. Just, nobody remembers it, because nobody gave a damn after the political goal of beating the Russians was accomplished.
And that is the simple answer, any time anyone challenges you with "Oh yeah? If we were able to land in 1969, then how come we never went back?" - because we don't have a rival to beat. You can bet your backside once China starts sending Taikonauts to the Moon, we'll have our own Moon Landings once again, and NASA's budget will inexplicably double or triple to make it happen.... that is,... assuming "Space Force" doesn't get all the funding and all the glory while NASA gets its proverbial nuts cut off again with more budget cuts...
Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 all landed on the moon. Apollo 18 is either the reason why we've never returned to the moon, if you believe the movie, or the TMBG album with I Palindrome, I on it.
I believe the problem with the door is that there was no way to open it from the inside so astronauts became trapped inside as it burned.
Another commenter explained everything. They had way to high of an oxygen content inside and the door opened inward. The spark happened due to oxygen content and the pressure was so high from the fire they couldn't pull the door inward.
The reason Swigart didn't pilot during the course correction burn is that he was trained in the command module, not the lunar excursion module which they used for the burn.. that's why Lovell and Haise did the navigation, they trained in it to operate it
9 missions have travelled to the moon, and 6 of them have landed on the moon.
24 men have travelled to the moon, and 12 have walked on it.
On the back of the success of this Tom Hanks managed to get the financial backing as co-producer to make a TV series on the story of the Space race called 'From Earth to the Moon'. As you enjoyed this and love the space program it's well worth seeking out.
That is amazing series. Another great job of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, both as producers, and Tom Hanks as executive producer. I only recently discovered this series, and it's one of my fav series to watch now.
I graduated from high school at the time of the events of Apollo 13. I watched them on TV. The engineers did a great job bringing out astronauts home safely.
There's a museum dedicated to Gus Grissom very close to where I live in Indiana (his hometown was a small town called Mitchell). Gus Grissom was the first man to go into space twice, and had he not died in the Apollo 1 fire, he might have been the one to command Apollo 11 and set foot on the moon.
I have been there. I live in Bloomington, IN.
He also prematurely blew the hatch on his capsule when his first flight landed in the sea, causing the loss of the whole capsule when it sank. And he almost drowned because the weight of all the coins he had on him which he took up into space to give as souvenirs when he got back.
*This* is a movie that very well deserves the term, "awesome"!
27:48 the Lunar Module was Haise responsability (Paxton). And, according to the procedure, the mission commander (Lovell/Hanks in this case) is the one that, if necessary, drive the Lunar Module manually. Swigert (Bacon) was the Command Module pilot, that at that point is shut off, so the role ripartition during the maneuvre makes sense.
Speaking of moon shot programs, I love that the current program is called Artemis, since she was the twin of Apollo in Greek mythology!
Artemis was the moon mission in Superman II.
NASA has got a pretty good track record with picking names for things. :D
We didn't only go to the moon once. A total of 12 men walked on the moon during six separate moon landing missions.
“Kevin Bacon, from Footloose, and A Few Good Men, … and I think from something else, too”. I laughed so hard at this. There’s a party game that was super popular there for a while, called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. You name any actor/actress, and then using films they’ve been in together with another actor/actress, you create a chain that must end at Kevin Bacon. The goal is fewer than 6 steps, which is not as difficult as it sounds. Because he’s been in soooooo many movies.
News to me, lots to learn
Allegedly, thr set design for mission control was so good that consultants from NASA would forget it WAS a set, and make a muscle mempry turn to where elevators should've been, only to hit a dead end!
That's awesome
Fun Fact: Jack Black's (yes, THAT Jack Black) mother, Judith Love Cohen, was one of the engineers that helped design the Abort Guidance System that helped save Apollo 13.
That's cool, love it
There were a total of 6 landings on the Moon, with 12 individuals walking on the surface while a third member of each crew remained in the orbiting capsule. A fascinating documentary was made in 2007 and Ron Howard was involved and on the DVD copies, he has a wonderful introduction. It spends time explaining about the fire in 1967 which killed the 3 astronauts meant for Apollo 1. The documentary is mostly interviews with the living astronauts and is unique since it is from their personal perspectives. The DVD bonus features also includes a piece on the paintings by Alan Bean who was on Apollo 12. After he retired, he spent his time making paintings and incorporated mementos from the Moon, from imprints of his boots in the paint, to specks of fabric from his spacesuit, etc. The documentary is very inspirational. It focuses mostly on the events leading up to Apollo 11 but includes footage from all of them. Well-worth a watch! 🌙
We landed on the moon 6 times, Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17. They cancelled Apollo 18 due to budget cuts.
Thanks for the clarification
There was even a planned Apollo 19 and 20. 20 was cancelled first, 18 and 19 cancelled at the same time.
All the hardware was built. It was operational costs that were finally cut, leaving unused hardware that had to be repurposed for other projects. One of the unused Saturn IV-B boosters was rebuilt into the Skylab space station. And I believe the Solar Observatory telescope on Skylab was built from an unused Lunar Module descent stage, but I could be wrong about that. It was certainly a similar shape
I’ve been obsessed with early nasa since a kid, and know all kind of fun/weird facts:
-the first American in space peed himself on the launchpad
-the black and white caps are based on snoopy (hence, called snoopy caps)
-the 3rd man on the moon, Pete Conrad, was the shortest astronaut. His first words on the moon were “Whoopie! that may have been a small step for Neil, but it was a big one for me!”
-Apollo 12 astronauts had porn on the moon. It was a joke put there by the other astronauts
15:09
Fun Fact, James:
The Actress who played Jim Lovell's mother was the director Ron Howard's mother
& The actor at the console that replies back about the IRS 'that's no joke they'll come after you' is Ron Howards brother.
@@mrtim5363 and the priest who's watching along with the lovell family was Ron's dad
I’m sure a lot of people brought this up, but it’s LIEUTENANT, Dan not Sergeant Dan 😂
yup... I screwed up
This movie was amazing. All the anti gravity scenes were really done in an airplane called the vomit comet. Also you know that scene where his son asked him about the fire. And Tom Hanks said that won't happen again. I totally would have told him yes. That could happen again. Because we all die, it's what we choose to live doing.
A band called OK GO made a music video called "Upside Down and Inside Out" where the whole 3m song is 21(!) back to back vomit comet cycles with choreography.
The Lovells lived near NASA Ground Control in Houston, the mission launches were in Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Florida.
The 12 part HBO mini series *From the Earth...To the Moon* that details all the manned Apollo missions along with a recap of the Mercury and Gemini programs is absolutely fantastic! Produced by Ron Howard and Tom Hanks and each episode bookended by Hanks, the final episode directed and starring Hanks. This is a series I can't recommend highly enough!
Great reaction James to a true classic Im glad you enjoyed it big thumbs up
16:30
The actor who played this mission control member is actor Clint Howard, Ron Howard's brother
Sy Liebergot, callsign EECOM. Arguably the most important flight controller position in the Systems row.
35:04
"Did We Go Back To The Moon?"
Apollo 17 was the last mission to the Moon
James, just in case no one else has explained it...the reason there was a delay in the 13 crew responding to Mission Control after making it thru the re-entry was due to the fact that they wanted to make sure the chutes deployed before risking using anymore extra power from the beleaguered batteries before they were assured of having chutes. They just didnt warn Mission Control of their intention to do that.
Not exactly. If you listen to the audio transcripts, the first callback "Okay Joe" upon reacquisition occurred long before chute deployment. Naturally, the movie makes this a tad more dramatic, visually and audibly "Hello Houston, this is Odyssey, its good to see you again". The real reason for the delay was because their re-entry angle was a little shallow. Not quite shallow enough to fully skip off, but enough to provide a tad of slippage, as it were.
But much like the vast majority of dramatic license this movie takes, this one was totally justified and makes for a better film. Skating that line of historical accuracy vs. dramatic effect has always been difficult, but Ron Howard rode that line like a champ. The only historically iffy thing is how they portrayed Jack Swigert as a "rookie" who had to earn his stripes on the flight. This couldn't have been further from the truth, especially since both Mattingly and Haise were rookies themselves. Thankfully it doesn't really harm the film, and while still a bit unfair to Swigert, it wasn't nearly the hatchet job that The Right Stuff did to Gus Grissom.
@k1productions87 Maybe I got it wrong but I swear I read or heard that was the reason somewhere.
@@bjgandalf69 it would have been much longer if it waited all the way to main chute deployment
The LEM was about the size of two typical airline lavatories put together.
The reason that the filter on the command module and the filter on the LEM were different was because they were built by two different companies.
And the walls of the LEM were only about as thick as a sheet of heavy duty aluminum. You could easily punch your way through the wall.
Nominated for 9 Oscars in 1995:
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actor - Ed Harris as Gene Kranz
Best Supporting Actress - Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Lovell
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Film Editing (won)
Best Original Score
Best Art Direction
Best Sound (won)
Best Visual Effects
Many people (myself included) thought it should have won Best Picture, but without a Best Director nomination, it was unlikely. To that point, only three films had won Best Picture without a nomination for directing.
The Apollo programme went to the moon 9 times (Apollo 8, 10, and 11 - 17). With the exception of Apollo 13, all the missions from 11 onwards landed.
This year, the Artemis project sent a spacecraft capable of carrying humans (though it was uncrewed for the test flight) around the moon, with the aim of having Artemis 2 repeat the feat soon, except with humans aboard, and that will hopefully lead to Artemis 3 landing people on the moon for the first time since the 1970s.
The problem with the door (aka the hatch) on Apollo 1, that caused the deaths of Grissom, White and Chaffee, was the hatch opened inwards, meaning it couldn't be opened against the internal pressure, and even less with the increased pressure from the fire.
Those big camera rigs were based off the moving gun turrets on ww2 bombers. They used those cameras for tracking shots of it going up
Those things were coooool!
In case nobody answered your question, The "MCA" in MCA Universal stands for Music Corporation of America!!!
They produced a lot of music!
There were nine Apollo missions that went to the Moon, comprising 24 astronauts (all Americans). In all, 12 men walked on the moon. There were several missions to the moon before this and several after it (which is why the media stopped covering these missions... claiming it had become boring).
The mechanical issue with the apollo 1 hatch was it opened inward. When the fire broke out, it over pressurized the cabin sealing the hatch shut and the fate of the astronauts inside.
We have been to the moon more than once for sure.. here are all the times we went :
As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, twelve astronauts from the United States have walked on the moon. These missions were part of NASA's Apollo program. The missions were:
Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (July 1969)
Apollo 12: Pete Conrad and Alan Bean (November 1969)
Apollo 14: Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell (February 1971)
Apollo 15: David Scott and James Irwin (July-August 1971)
Apollo 16: John Young and Charles Duke (April 1972)
Apollo 17: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt (December 1972)
You wondered about the astronauts living situation...and yes, almost all of them did live far from the launch pads at Cape Canaveral. Most of the astronauts called the Houston area home, since the location where pretty much all their training happened was the Johnson Space Center, while the launches all happened in Florida...that is why Marilyn Lovell was staying in a motel in Florida.👍
Putting the Johnson Space Center in Houston was a pork barrel project so that Lyndon Johnson would push for approval of the NASA budget for a moon landing in Congress.
Some trivia... the real Ken Mattingly was not the only one that put the power up procedure together. Also...director Ron Howard used his mom Jean to play Jim's mother Blanche. His brother Clint played the NASA team member that makes the crack about the IRS getting on Swaggert's case about failing to pay his taxes on time (the irony of that is Clint Howard has a history of problems with the IRS). Ron's father Rance also played the minister.
the real Lovell played the captain on the ship at the end and his wife also made an appearance.
Yes they did film all the weightless floating scenes on the "vomit comet" plane. We landed on the moon 6 times.. Apollo 11,12,14,15,16,17. 12 people have been on the moon.
And at least once, they took a car up there
@@billolsen4360 Three missions took a lunar rover.
For those of you who don't know: at the last scene on that Carrier there is this Admiral, shaking hands with Tom Hanks at 34:48. That would be the real Jim Lovell.
It was an Admiral in real life, commanding the IWA JIMA, but Jim Lovell wore his Captains Uniform for the scene.
He retired as a Captain, and insisted in appearing as that rank.
Sweigert was not out of the loop,he was fully trained and competent.there was never any friction between the crew.Ron Howard put that in there for some extra drama (as if it needed more drama!)
The Apollo 1 fire door issue was tragic irony. During a prior mission the emergency door explosives went off accidentally upon splashdown and the capsule sunk. So they removed the feature for safety reasons. The astronaut that happened to was in Apollo 1. Also, it was discovered Velcro becomes an explosive in a pure oxygen environment. There was limits on the amount of Velcro used in spaceships after that.
Oh yeah, and Velcro was developed by nasa for space flight. That’s why that detail was so insane. Also created by nasa for space flight: tang. And they created “zero gravity pens” so the astronauts could write in space… the Russians used pencils :P But despite the competitiveness between the Soviet’s and Americans in reaching the moon, when Neil and buzz went to the moon, they took a soviet flag with them, so emphasize this being a human achievement vs American achievement
@@thefreedommovement the "zero gravity pens" thing was an urban legend, and not remotely true. They used pencils in the NASA programs too, and we see instances of this in the film as well. As for the Velcro, that wasn't the only problem, the adhesive was flammable and toxic as well. There were all sorts of problems with the spacecraft,... and it is mindboggling that they even flew it, because the Block I was never meant to work with the Lunar mission plan at all. They really should have waited for a completed Block II (which naturally solved many of the Block I's unsolved problems from the get-go).
Marilyn Lovell had been to two launches before Apollo 13. He had been on a Gemini flight and had orbited the moon earlier in the Apollo project. That’s was when he named the crater after Marilyn.
Three. Gemini VII, Gemini XII, and Apollo 8
You might want to add Sully (with Tom Hanks) to your watch list. It's the true story of the Miracle in the Hudson. Also highly recommend Hanks in yet another true story, Bridge of Spies - with the remarkable Mark Rylance (who won BOTH the Oscar and the BAFTA for his role in that...
And, if I see Tom Hanks on a flight I'm taking, I'm getting OFF. After Apollo 13, Castaway and Miracle on the Hudson, that ol' boy's number has got to come up eventually.
10:13 Typically astronauts lived near Huston's mission control, the launch was made from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
10:36 it was in the P-trap. The hotel management got it out for her, immediately. They knew who they were. Even astronauts in this area, it their car broke down, they could go to a dealership and get a free lease 🤣. They all drove free cars while in Florida.
If you want a great read, "Failure is not an option" is fantastic. It isn't just about this flight.
Another great movie is The Right Stuff. It's about the Space program from the beginning
And how to extract sperm from an astronaut candidate at the medical clinic, too!
You asked "why didn't they let the pilot fly?"
Jack Swigert was the Command Module Pilot, he flew the Odyssey.
Fred Haise was Lunar Module Pilot, he flew Aquarius.
This is also a bit of a misnomer, because the Commander flew both. CMP was basically Navigator and LMP was Engineer,... But these were test pilots. None wanted to be anything but "Pilot" lol
This began with the two-man Gemini spacecraft. Originally the positions were titled "Pilot" and "Co-Pilot", and NONE of the test pilot astronauts wanted to be called "Co-Pilot", so NASA kinda threw up their hands and said "Commander" and "Pilot", even though the Commander flies and the Pilot navigates and relays information.
8:45 *Lovell:* "This was my call."
*Awesome:* "No it wasn't."
*Me:* Lovell decided whether his _entire_ crew would be replaced by the backup crew, or just the CM pilot. I.e. whether to cut _himself_ from the mission.
The backup crews exist so a mission doesn't have to be scrubbed because something happened to (a member of) the prime crew.
Hanks' miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon", covering the entire Apollo program, is well worth watching. As is "The Right Stuff", which covers the Mercury program -- with Ed Harris in a different role than in this movie.
The entire crew couldn't be replaced anyway, because Charles Duke (backup LMP) was the one who definitively had the Measles, so he was out regardless. And generally when a backup is required, they swap the entire crew, specifically because of the unspoken rapport each crewmember has with each other. But since the backup was sick, and the prime crew CMP was exposed, it caused the established rule to be broken.
If, however, Ken Mattingly had the Measles and Duke did not, then the entire Apollo 13 crew would have been swapped.
Great choice for a movie to watch. I've seen this movie over a dozen times and I still get anxious from it even though I know the outcome. It's just so well done and every character feels authentic. It doesn't feel like anyone is "acting" -- it truly feels like watching a moment in time with how people really would act in the moments (both leading up to the launch and during the disaster). I love this movie. Great hoice.
The white-haired officer Tom Hanks shakes hands with on the carrier is the actual Jim Lovell.
Mission Control is in Houston, Texas and the astronauts train and live there. The rockets are launched from Florida so they can get over water right away. When all of the astronauts were test pilots they would fly themselves to the launches. I don’t know how common that is today.
Lol, we'd been to the moon twice at that point. You forgot Apollo 12.
11 & 12 and 14 - 17 were moon landings.
My grandfather was a contractor for 16 and 17.
I was way off
The woman that plays Jim Lovell's mom is actually Ron Howard's mom and the captain shaking Jim Lovell's hand at the end is actually Jim Lovell.
the real Marilyn Lovell was also sitting behind her actress during the launch.
The chaplain that pat Lovell's youngest son on the shoulder is Howard's father Rance.
Just a quick correction-you said we had never been back after this, or maybe once, but there were 4 more Apollo missions that landed on the Moon - 14, 15, 16 and 17. Numbers 18 19 and 20 were in the planning stage but funding was stopped, so 17 was the last. In 2005, funding from both national and international sources was made available for the Artemis project to return to the Moon, and stay for longer periods and begin the process of creating scientific establishments that would remain on the Moon. The first Artemis mission was without any people onboard and was done last December.
And don't forget about Apollo 12, which almost felt like buddies on a road trip. Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, and Dick Gordon were one of my favorite crews, just because of how much fun they seemed to have together :D
My favorite scene is when Jim's mother says -If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it.
I liked that one too
Mine was was Jim Lovell says "Gentlemen, it's been a privilege flying with you."
He's saying that, knowing they could all be dead in the next minute or two.
Actually after the first to land on the moon ( Apollo 11 ) Apollo's 12, 14, 15, 16 & 17 also landed astronauts on the surface of the moon.. 👍
Dang.. I was way off
Kevin Bacon has been in like a hundred movies lol. Stir of Echoes is one of the best. You should check it out. Gary Sinise (pronounced Sin eese) was LIEUTENANT Dan. He and Tom Hanks were both in Forest Gump, The Green Mile and Apollo13). All are excellent films.
So Ron Howard involved his whole family. His brother Clint was the one at mission control that said to shut down the fuel cells. His mom played Blanche and his dad was there priest on the couch in the Lovell home when they were returning
His mom had the greatest line in the entire movie, imho
And girl in yellow dress in nighttime scene where families meat the astronauts is Ron's daughter Bryce Dallas Howard.
OMGoodness, I just can't stop! 31:50 I totally agree! Humanity needs a shared goal; heck, a FRIENDLY rivalry got us to the moon!
Fun fact: Neil and buzz took a soviet flag with them to the moon. America may have “won the race”, but it was a human achievement. They wanted to show the world we all earned that moment.
@@thefreedommovement YAY!!!
the Soviets were mostly jerks but they did do remarkable space work
@@billolsen4360 The Soviet government, absolutely. But in most instances, the two space programs were nothing but respectful to each other. NASA even giving a heartfelt public response to the tragedy that claimed the life of Cosmonaut Vladamir Komarov in Soyuz 1 (a failure that occurred for many of the same reasons as Apollo 1).
And of course, lets not forget about the true symbolic end to the Space Race, the "Apollo-Soyuz Test Project", in which Deke Slayton FINALLY got his chance to fly.
@@billolsen4360 same with the nazis… which is why we stole all their scientists after the war.
Kathleen Quinlan is one of my favourite actresses.
Hugely talented and very beautiful.
It was amazing how many things had to right for them to come home. And it did.
There was a Chevrolet dealer that gave each astronaut a new corvette in the Apollo mission.
I think there was 6 human missions that landed on the moon.
Today it’s an Hyundai.
GM would give mission astronauts free Corvettes back then.
Dang... nice
I liked that it had the real Jim lovell on the aircraft carrier giving them all a hand shake.
The movie is historically accurate, for the most part, though some things were exaggerated to heighten the drama.
If you listen to the audio from the comm loops, everyone maintained a calm degree of professionalism. No panicked voices.
Swigert was well versed in how to operate the command module. In fact, he had been very involved in its development. There was no concern about his ability to dock with the lunar module. Even if he had been unable to for some reason, Lovell or Haise could step in.
There was no arguing or blaming Swigert as depicted.
The course correction was not as wild and erratic as presented.
Ken Mattingly was not the only astronaut working on solving the CM powerup procedure. There was a team of astronauts and engineers working the problem.
Gene Kranz never lost his cool as depicted.
It was expected the blackout would be longer than normal due to the atypical trajectory they had to use to come back, having slingshotted around the moon instead of orbiting it.
Marilyn Lovell was easily able to get her ring back with the help of the motel staff.
A side note- you had noted that Kevin Bacon had been in a couple of other films- he’s been in so many, there exists the Bacon Number! Similar to the concept of the theory that there’s only six degrees of separation between every human on (and off) the planet, friend of a friend of a friend, et cetera, there’s six degrees separating every actor from films that cast themselves and Bacon- Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, if you will. For example, Elvis Presley and Ed Asner were both in the movie, “Change Of Habit”, while Asner and Bacon were both in “JFK”. Thus, Elvis has a Bacon Number of 2.
The little bald guy with the black glasses is played by Ron Howard's younger brother Clint.
Actually, America put men on the moon 6 times. The last time a man walked on the moon was in 1972. Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks, went around it twice. Once being the Apollo 8 flight that took the famous first videos and pictures of the Earth from the moon, and the second time on the near disastrous Apollo 13.
15:42
They did indeed film the weightless scenes aboard the "Vomit Comet"
He was the only one to immediately catch that during the reaction, and I totally geeked out over it :D
The early history of the US space program is covered very well in “The Right Stuff” (1983). Then, after the “Apollo 13” film, Tom Hanks produced a miniseries called “From the Earth to the Moon”, which covers the whole Apollo program. There are so many good stories in addition to Apollos 11 and 13.
And John Glenn in "The Right Stuff" is played by the actor who portrays Gene Kranz in this flick.
It is a tad unfortunate that the historical aspect of "The Right Stuff" has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The basics are fine, but the details stray quite considerably. Especially Chuck Yeager's involvement in the X-1 project, and the absolutely unfair hatchet job they do to Gus Grissom. Its a great film, just don't take its word as gospel.
@@k1productions87 The “grain of salt” should be applied to non-fiction films in general. I read in another thread that a fully accurate film of Apollo 13 would be 10 times as long and mostly technical jargon.
@@keithmartin4670 Ron Howard walked the line of "historical accuracy vs. dramatic license" quite expertly with this film, with nearly every bit of it absolutely justified. The only real stretch was portraying Swigert as a "rookie", when both Mattingly and Haise were first-timers as well. But, he still got respect at the end.
Also, the CDR is supposed to be the one flying, not the CMP. Nearly every single modern-era spaceflight movie (historical or fiction) gets this wrong. The only exception I can immediately think of is the Endeavour crash landing in the movie "The Core"
9:46 thats a Sundress.
Every year around this time, my girlfriend says its sundress season and pulls all her sundresses out. They're 😍.
Sundress season is better than Christmas, fight me.
I agree
Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 landed on the moon making a total of 12 people who have walked on its surface. I was fortunate to see the launch of Apollo 11 through 17 from Titusville Florida 12 miles from the launch pads.
Yeah I was way off. Thanks
We've been to the moon more than once. There are 12 astronauts who have been on the moons surface. So that's either 4 or 6 moon missions, depending on the size of each crew, and how many of each actually landed on the moon.
If you pause this video at 34:48, the guy in the white hat talking to Tom Hanks is the real Jim Lovell.
Actually, Americans landed men on the moon in six missions. Apollo 11 was the first (Armstrong & Aldren; with Michael Collins orbited in the command module). The other landings were Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16, & 17 (the last Apollo mission in Dec. 1972). Apollo 13 was also supposed to land, but...
This movie is mostly accurate with a few things added for dramatic effect
1) Jack Swaggart didn't actually fail in the simulator before the mission, he did it just about perfectly.
2) The argument they had in space was completely fictional. Astronauts don't lose their cool so easily.
A few dramatics thrown in
Also, the line wasn't "Houston, we have a problem".
It was "Houston, *we've had* a problem".
A dozen people have walked on the moon, two each from Apollo 11 through Apollo 17, excluding Apollo 13, of course. Four of them are still alive.
Up until the last person to walk on the moon in 1972 there have been 12 people that have walked on the moon
Houston Mission Control was divided into three teams with color designations, white, blue, green, or some such. Gene Krantz headed the white team and his wife made the white vest that he wore while on duty, taken from his autobiography “Failure is not an option”.
Red, White and Blue actually.
When the accident happened, Gene took the best qualified from all the teams, designated them the Tiger Team, and assigned them specific responsibilities.
@@BedsitBob hah! That’s what I get for relying on my memory, should have looked it up…. Thanks!😉
(0:17) Might I suggest adding Tora! Tora! Tora! to that Pole. In my opinion it is the superior Pearl Harbor movie.😎👍
Added to my list, thanks for the suggestion.