Apollo 13

"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. In 2002, the movie was released in IMAX theaters as "Apollo 13: The IMAX Experience," with a pared-down running time of 116 minutes in order to meet the technical requirements of the large-screen format. — Don Kaye