Apollo 13 (film)

Apollo 13
The Apollo 13 spacecraft passes the Moon with vapor streaming from the side of it, with a crescent Earth in the distance. The words "Houston, we have a problem" appear directly above the craft. The names of the principal actors appear at the top, and the title APOLLO 13 appears at the lower right.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRon Howard
Screenplay byWilliam Broyles Jr.
Al Reinert
Based on
Lost Moon
by
Produced byBrian Grazer
Starring
CinematographyDean Cundey
Edited byDaniel P. Hanley
Mike Hill
Music byJames Horner
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • June 30, 1995 (1995-06-30) (United States)
Running time
140 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$52 million[1]
Box office$355.2 million[2]

Apollo 13 is a 1995 American docudrama film directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan. The screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert dramatizes the aborted 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission and is an adaptation of the 1994 book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.

The film tells the story of astronauts Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 for the United States' fifth crewed mission to the Moon, which was intended to be the third to land. En route, an on-board explosion deprives their spacecraft of much of its oxygen supply and electrical power, which forces NASA's flight controllers to abandon the Moon landing and improvise scientific and mechanical solutions to get the three astronauts to Earth safely.

Howard went to great lengths to create a technically accurate movie, employing NASA's assistance in astronaut and flight-controller training for his cast and obtaining permission to film scenes aboard a reduced-gravity aircraft for realistic depiction of the weightlessness experienced by the astronauts in space.

Released to cinemas in the United States on June 30, 1995,[3] Apollo 13 received critical acclaim and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture (winning for Best Film Editing and Best Sound).[4] The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, as well as two British Academy Film Awards. In total, the film grossed over $355 million worldwide during its theatrical releases. Since then, it is considered to be among the best films of all time.[5]

In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."[6]

  1. ^ Buckland, Carol (June 30, 1995). "CNN Showbiz News: Apollo 13". CNN. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Boxofficemojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Apollo 13". Box Office Mojo. June 30, 1995. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  4. ^ "Academy Awards, USA: 1996". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on July 23, 2008. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
  5. ^ Nichols, Peter M. (February 21, 2004). The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-32611-1.
  6. ^ Saperstein, Pat (December 13, 2023). "'Home Alone,' 'Terminator 2,' '12 Years a Slave' Among 25 Titles Joining National Film Registry". Variety. Retrieved December 13, 2023.