Apollo 13 is coming to TV today, in which Tom Hanks sets off to the moon as an astronaut, only to experience a catastrophic malfunction. The 1995 film adaptation of a true story set the standard for the realistic depiction of outer space on the big screen.
That’s what Apollo 13 is about with Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks plays astronaut Jim Lovell, who dreams of walking on the moon like Neil Armstrong. In 1970 the time had come for him. As Member of the Apollo 13 crew (also: Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton) he begins the dangerous journey into space. The first hurdles have been cleared when Lovell radios the famous sentence to Ground Control: “Houston, we have a problem.”
Director Ron Howard adapted the true story of Apollo 13 from a screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert, based on Jim Lovell’s memory Lost Moon based. The film adaptation is characterized by its – by Hollywood standards – realism. Both the history, personnel changes in the crew and the training as well as the actual catastrophe in space are portrayed with care and accuracy, which is why the film is much more sober than, say, Armageddon – The Last Judgment.
Universal
Apollo 13
One of the challenges for Howard’s team was the representation of weightlessness, which can only be simulated in a film studio with threads and computer effects, which of course was much more difficult in the mid-90s than it is today. Fortunately Steven Spielberg urged his colleague to do so, but rather in real spinning in zero gravitythan just pretend.
Almost 4 hours of material with real weightlessness
Since a film team could not simply fly into space, the next best alternative was chosen: parabolic flights. In the Directors Guild of America magazine, Ron Howard revealed how Apollo 13 became more realistic and better with the help of Spielberg and the American space agency NASA:
I spoke to Steven Spielberg about the issue during pre-production [der Schwerelosigkeit] talked and we discussed possible underwater shots, but that didn’t work out. […] Then we got to the subject of the KC-135 plane, which creates 23 seconds of zero gravity by soaring and diving like a roller coaster. I had thought about it and Steven urged me to try itand that’s how we ended up using it in the film.
Howard then approached NASA and was given permission to shoot – but only after his actors, film crew and he had gone through extensive testing. Nearly four hours of footage was captured in zero gravity, according to Apollo 13 bonus footage.
Again “vomit comet” (Barf Comet) looks like you can see in this contemporary Apollo 13 making-of:
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How to watch Apollo 13
Apollo 13 will today, August 24, from 11:00 p.m. on ZDFneo aired. Those who are not one of the night owls can catch up on the film in the Amazon Prime Video* and WOW subscriptions.
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