Apollo 13/Trivia

• Beam Me Up, Scotty: Lovell's actual observation was, "Houston, we've had a problem." It is hard to tell the difference between the two phrases in the recording and Word of God states it was deliberately changed to present-tense "have" because the original quote of "had" inferred that the problem was over.
• Blooper:
  • Moments after the explosion (and after Haise returns from the LM), Lovell orders Swigert to seal the docking tunnel in case the LM was depressurizing. In the moment just before the audience sees Swigert giving up on the hatch, the audience can easily see one of the production cameras wedged inside the tunnel. It's arguably the only error in the film that might pull an audience member out of the otherworldly suspense.
  • The tunnel was shown open as Jim was changing out of his spacesuit, just before they were going to dock with the LM.
  • Swigert's NO note actually is briefly visible a few moments BEFORE he is shown taping it to the button.
  • Looking carefully at the bottom leg of Lovell's moon suit during his dream of walking there, the gap of the suit costume to the boot, exposing his leg, is a bit too visible.
  • Lovell's dream shows him taking a few steps on the moon in a rather awkward-looking effect. Hanks makes up for this later in From the Earth to the Moon, where the moonwalk sequences are eerily realistic.
• Doing It for the Art: The research, period detail and accuracy were highly praised by the people who had been there.
  • Many of the makers, including Ron Howard, mention that part of their motivation for being so accurate was the likelihood that by the time of the next trip to the moon, most people who experienced the Apollo Program first-hand will have passed on, meaning that Apollo 13 may be the closest thing to a moon landing several generations get to see.
• Dyeing for Your Art: many of the weightless scenes were filmed in actual weightlessness aboard a NASA Vomit Comet. Other scenes were filmed in one gravity, using camera tricks, on a sound stage that was chilled to 34 degrees Fahrenheit so the actors' breathing would fog visibly.
• Enforced Method Acting: See above. Bill Paxton didn't have to pretend to shiver when Haise developed a fever; it really was that cold on the set.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Mission control seems to be full of these.
  • Hey, did the astronauts just tell one of the Others "Houston, we have a problem here?"
  • Hey, didn't the flight surgeon eventually make partner at a Boston law firm despite his Asperger's Syndrome?
  • I wonder if Agent Fornell is really part of Mission Control or if he's simply on another FBI job...
  • Mitch Taylor has grown up to handle GNC.
  • Agent Gibbs does public relations for NASA.
  • Seaman Beaumont is Capcom Gold.
  • Rom realizes that the crew has to do another burn to correct their entry angle.
  • Balok is EECOM.
  • Mac Taylor is doing the reentry procedures. Or Lt.Dan. Take your pick. Especially since Forrest himself is Jim Lovell lol.
  • The older Lovell daughter was the actress who played Nadine in Free Willy 2.
• Reality Subtext: The last thing Jim tells Marilyn before the mission "You can't live without me...", was, in fact, the first thing he said to her upon getting home.
• Real Life Relative: Ron Howard's brother Clint, as usual in Ron Howard movies. ("Gene, the Odyssey is dying.") Additionally, Howard's mother Jean plays Jim Lovell's mother Blanche, and Howard's father Rance appears as the minister watching Apollo 13's splashdown from the Lovell house, and Howard's then fourteen-year-old daughter Bryce Dallas Howard is an extra in the scene in which the astronauts were visiting with family members and other well-wishers down the road from the launchpad on the night before liftoff.
  • Behind the scenes, associate producer Michael Bostick is the son of Jerry Bostick, the flight dynamics officer (FIDO) played by Ray McKinnon. The real Bostick also served as a technical adviser.
• Technology Marches On:
  • Lampshaded when Jim Lovell shows off to some VIPs visiting Cape Canaveral "a computer that can fit inside a single room."
  • Ron Howard also makes sure to show the engineers in Mission Control busting out slide rules as they try to figure out what's happening.^[1]
  • The new instructions for the CO₂ adapter and the powerup checklist were physically brought to flight control, and they were hand-written. They were read out to the flight crew. No e-mail or uploading here.
• Throw It In:
  • Fred Haise's line "I could eat the ass out of a dead rhinoceros" was suggested by Gary Busey, who was visiting the set during filming.
  • After Jack Swigert admitted to not filing his taxes before leaving for the Moon, Clint Howard ad-libbed his follow-up line, "That's no joke, they'll jump on him!" (Clint Howard has a history of trouble with the IRS).
• What Could Have Been: Kevin Costner was considered to star as Jim Lovell, who the real Lovell considered a good physical match with him at that time.
  • John Cusack turned down the role of Fred Haise.
  • Brad Pitt turned down the role of Jack Swigert to star in Se7en.
  • The scene where Jim Lovell notices their landing site is followed by a short day dream sequence scene of Aquarius landed on the surface and Jim taking his first steps in the lunar landscape. Kind of a Tear Jerker, considering he was the only astronaut to visit Moon orbit twice in a row, but never had the opportunity to land there due to bad luck.

• The argument scene involving the re-entry plan and the numbers for the LEM resources actually didn't happen, it was added for dramatic effect. Ditto the anger about Ken being bumped. They were naturally saddened about it, but Lovell didn't really complain about Jack as Hanks did onscreen.

• The cracked wires that caused the explosion weren't actually a defect as the movie said, they were caused by an accident. The thermostat was wrong; the spacecraft had been slightly modified from earlier versions, but somehow the thermostat wasn't swapped out. It couldn't handle the current that went through it during ground testing and there was also a problem with a crooked vent tube due to the tanks being dropped during construction. In the end, the thermostat fused shut and couldn't turn off the heat when the tanks overheated. The heat climbed high enough to melt the coating on the wires, but as long as the tank was filled with liquid oxygen, it was too cold to cause a problem. By the time of the explosion, enough oxygen had been used to expose the wires and allow the spark.

• At one point in the film, Fred Haise (played by Bill Paxton) wonders what the gender of his unborn child would be. It was a boy, Thomas J., born on July 6, 1970.

1. ↑ Ironically, this was a case of Did Not Do the Research, since that scene involved simple arithmetic, which is not something you would use a slide rule for.