Ron Howard’s 1995 film Apollo 13 is one of the best movies of the ‘90s, winning two Academy Awards (but not Best Picture) from nine nominations. The fact that it’s based on the real-life doomed moon mission of Jim Lovell and his crew adds to the suspense and horror, even if you already know how it ends. I decided recently to revisit the movie for the first time in decades, and I was really struck by one story in particular.
I am so captivated by the majesty of space, and with Apollo 13 being one of the best space movies ever, it was always those scenes — of Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon’s characters crammed into a broken ship flying through the vastness — that held my attention when the movie came out. This time, though, I was blown away by Ed Harris’ Gene Kranz and the people on the ground helping to bring the astronauts home.
