Apollo 13 Plot
Apollo 13 opens with a flashback of the Apollo 1 fire incident, accompanied by narration by Walter Cronkite. As Cronkite's monologue ends, the film moves on to July 20, 1969 where veteran astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is on his way home to a party for the Apollo 11 moon landing. After witnessing Neil Armstrong's historic first steps on the moon, an inebriated Lovell stares up at the moon and tells his wife, Marilyn (Kathleen Quinlan), of his wish for a moon landing of his own.
A few months later, Jim, who's expecting to fly Apollo 14, is giving a VIP tour of NASA's towering Vehicle Assembly Building while Apollo 13's massive Saturn V rocket is being assembled. As the U.S. representatives among the VIPs question the possibility of any further moon landings after beating the Soviet Union to the moon, he is informed by Deke Slayton (Chris Ellis) that he and his crew have been bumped up to be prime crew of Apollo 13. After informing his family of his new flight assignment, Lovell and his crew, Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) begin training for Apollo 13 instead of Apollo 14. As the launch date approaches, Marilyn's fears for her husband's fourth space mission manifest in her unwillingness to go to the launch.
At Cape Kennedy, two days before launch, Lovell is informed by flight doctors that Mattingly had been exposed to German measles. Despite his efforts to overrule the flight surgeon's recommendations, Lovell makes the decision to bump Mattingly off the flight. He is replaced by the backup Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) to the chagrin of Haise and Mattingly. On the night before launch, Haise says his goodbye to his family; bachelor Swigert is seen off by at least one person who calls out "Jack" off screen. Also in attendance, to Lovell's surprise, is Marilyn, coming to see a hell ..More
Apollo 13 opens with a flashback of the Apollo 1 fire incident, accompanied by narration by Walter Cronkite. As Cronkite's monologue ends, the film moves on to July 20, 1969 where veteran astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is on his way home to a party for the Apollo 11 moon landing. After witnessing Neil Armstrong's historic first steps on the moon, an inebriated Lovell stares up at the moon and tells his wife, Marilyn (Kathleen Quinlan), of his wish for a moon landing of his own.
A few months later, Jim, who's expecting to fly Apollo 14, is giving a VIP tour of NASA's towering Vehicle Assembly Building while Apollo 13's massive Saturn V rocket is being assembled. As the U.S. representatives among the VIPs question the possibility of any further moon landings after beating the Soviet Union to the moon, he is informed by Deke Slayton (Chris Ellis) that he and his crew have been bumped up to be prime crew of Apollo 13. After informing his family of his new flight assignment, Lovell and his crew, Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) begin training for Apollo 13 instead of Apollo 14. As the launch date approaches, Marilyn's fears for her husband's fourth space mission manifest in her unwillingness to go to the launch.
At Cape Kennedy, two days before launch, Lovell is informed by flight doctors that Mattingly had been exposed to German measles. Despite his efforts to overrule the flight surgeon's recommendations, Lovell makes the decision to bump Mattingly off the flight. He is replaced by the backup Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) to the chagrin of Haise and Mattingly. On the night before launch, Haise says his goodbye to his family; bachelor Swigert is seen off by at least one person who calls out "Jack" off screen. Also in attendance, to Lovell's surprise, is Marilyn, coming to see a hell of a show.
The next morning Lovell, Haise and Swigert are suited up for the launch. Meanwhile, in Houston's Mission Control Center, Apollo 13 flight director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) prepares the members of Mission Control for the flight. After the crew has been secured into the spacecraft, the mission is given a go for launch. The film then moves into a dramatic launch sequence as the astronauts are launched into orbit. The middle engine on the Saturn V's S-II stage cuts off prematurely during its intended burn, which causes brief concern, but the astronauts eventually make it to orbit without any more problems. After performing translunar injection (TLI), the burn that sends the Apollo 13 CSM/LM to the moon, Swigert maneuvers the Apollo Command Module Odyssey to dock with the Lunar Module Aquarius.
On the third day of the mission, the crew broadcasts a television program to Earth from their spacecraft. Unbeknown to them, the major networks have refused to air the program. The networks believe the public has come to view spaceflight as "routine" and this perceived lack of interest does not warrant valuable airtime. After the broadcast, the crew runs through an in-flight housekeeping checklist. Swigert is asked to stir the cryogenic oxygen tanks, leading to an explosion in the Service Module, which rocks the spacecraft. The crew and Mission Control are shocked to find that the oxygen tanks aboard Odyssey are leaking, which prompts Mission Control to abort the moon landing, and the crew gets to work shutting down Odyssey and powering up Aquarius to act as a lifeboat so the crew can get home.
On Earth, backup commander John Young recruits Mattingly to help prepare procedures to restart Odyssey once the crew is near Earth. Meanwhile, the Apollo 13 crew shuts down Odyssey, powers up Aquarius and orients the spacecraft so they pass around the dark side of the moon, while a melancholy Lovell daydreams of his first steps on the Lunar surface.
After regaining contact with the space craft, the team at Mission Control has to deal with more problems. To conserve power, the crew must shut down Aquarius and remain in the freezing cold in order to make it home. Swigert suspects that Mission Control hasn't given the crew a re-entry plan because they have made some kind of mistake that can't be fixed and they don't want the crew to find out that they're doomed. In a fit of rage, Haise chastises Swigert's relative inexperience as the cause for the accident, after which a full blown argument ensues, but is quickly quelled by Lovell. Then Houston radios in with another problem: they must deal with the heavy carbon dioxide being created by the three men in the two-man Aquarius. A quickly assembled engineering team in Houston puts together a crude but effective method to remove the poisonous gas, fashioning an adaptor that allows the Command Module's supply of air cleaners to be used in Aquarius. Following their directions, the crew once again averts danger.
As the spacecraft approaches Earth, the crew is forced to make a risky course correction by burning the Lunar Module's descent engine in order to prevent from skipping off earth's atmosphere. Despite Haise's fever and freezing conditions inside the cabin, the crew succeeds in righting their wayward spacecraft. With Earth approaching, Mattingly's team struggles to find a way to power up the Command Module with what little power is left on the crippled spacecraft. After Mattingly gets an ingenious idea, power-up procedures are finalized and Mattingly instructs Swigert on reviving Odyssey.
After witnessing the damage suffered by the scarred Service Module, the crew strap in for their descent into atmosphere. With one final goodbye to Aquarius, the lunar module that saved their lives is jettisoned. Then, Odyssey re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, and after over four minutes of radio ionization blackout three minutes is normal for re-entry the crew reports that they have made it alive and well. Celebration rushes through Mission Control and in the homes of the astronauts' families. In an emotional scene, Kranz simply sits down as everyone applauds around him, looking overwhelmed and fighting back tears. After splashing down, the crew is plucked out of the water and taken to the USS Iwo Jima for a heroes welcome. The film then concludes with a slow-motion sequence with monologue by Hanks (as Lovell) about the events that would follow their return from space. Actor Hanks shakes hands with Jim Lovell, acting as the captain of Iwo Jima. The sequence ends with "I look up at the moon and wonder: 'When will we be going back, and who will that be?'"
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