This Hollywood drama is based on the events of the Apollo 13 lunar mission, astronauts Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) find everything going according to plan after leaving Earth's orbit. However, when an oxygen tank explodes, the scheduled moon landing is called off. Subsequent tensions within the crew and numerous technical problems threaten both the astronauts' survival and their safe return to Earth.
The Apploo 13 opening theme is also part of BSO’s November 9th concert repertoire!
BSO concert-goers receive a $1 ticket discount by entering the promo code BSOAPOLLO on the payment screen at Pickford’s online checkout or by using it in person at the box office. Discounts are also offered to anyone with a ticket stub from our recent November 9th concert.
In 1992, Lovell—one of three astronauts on the Apollo 13 mission when an explosion cost them fuel cells and oxygen, creating a life-support crisis—decided to write a book-length account of the incident titled Lost Moon. The movie actually began shooting in 1994 before Lovell’s book was even released. (It was later re-titled Apollo 13.)
Filming was done with a KC-135, a NASA-owned airplane is able to simulate zero gravity by maneuvering 45 degrees up and then plummeting. Howard, Hanks, and co-stars Kevin Bacon (who played astronaut Jack Swigert) and Bill Paxton (who played Fred Haise) had to make roughly 600 dives, called “parabolas,” in order to capture the amount of zero-gravity footage needed.
One of the most popular lines in pop culture, Lovell’s grim delivery of his module’s malfunctions to Mission Control was not quoted word for word in the film. In reality, NASA received the message, “Houston, I believe we’ve had a problem,” not, “Houston, we have a problem.” (Maybe present tense made more of an impact.)
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