"Houston,
we've got a problem." Those words were immortalized during the tense
days of the Apollo 13 lunar mission crisis, and the suspense, fear,
and excitement of those days are captured in Ron Howard's epic recreation
of the 1970 crisis. Astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) leads command module
pilot Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon)
and lunar module driver Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) on NASA's fifth lunar
landing mission after the original commander, Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise),
bows out due to possible exposure to measles. All goes smoothly until
the craft is halfway through its mission, when an exploding oxygen tank
threatens the crew's oxygen and power supplies. As the courageous astronauts
face the dilemma of either suffocating or freezing to death, Mattingly
and Mission Control leader Gene Kranz (Ed
Harris) struggle to find a way to bring the crew back home, all
the while knowing that the spacemen face probable death once the battered
ship re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. Even though the outcome, in which
all three astronauts miraculously survived, is historical fact, the
film derives suspense from the situation itself and from the actions
of the heroic astronauts and the men on the ground. Howard's taut direction,
a solid ensemble of players, and eye-opening special effects all add
to the overall impact of the film, which has been hailed as one of Hollywood's
best historical dramas.
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