Directed by:
Ron Howard

Starring:
Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell
Bill Paxton as Fred Haise
Kevin Bacon as Jack Swigert
Gary Sinise as Ken Mattingly
Ed Harris as Gene Kranz
Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Lovell
Mary Kate Schellhardt as Barbara Lovell
Emily Ann Lloyd as Susan Lovell
Miko Hughes as Jeffrey Lovell
Max Elliott Slade as Jay Lovell

• The main character's Jim Lovell's daughter listens to the Beatles album: "Let It Be" one month before it was released. The Apollo 13 flight was made 13.4.1970 and "Let It Be" was released 9.5.1970.

• The venerable New York Times pointed out that outside the capsule, the propulsion jets are roaring, but in the vacuum of space, the jets would make no noise whatsoever - unless you were right up against them, in which case you would be burned to a cinder.

• Apollo 13 flew in 1970; however when the astronauts are trying on their space suits, in a window you see the NASA "worm" logo, which wasn't used until 1976.

• A full moon appears out one window of the lunar module on the way back to earth, and a full earth can be seen from a window on the other side. This would be possible only if the sun were between the moon and the earth (which would also fry us to a crisp) or if the module was somewhere near Venus, which it wasn't.

• Since the ship is pointing straight at the Earth, it would not be possible to see the Earth through the LEMs windows, because the CSM would obstruct vision. - Terry

Corrected Goofs

• There is a shot of Ed Harris, and lying on his desk is a pack of Camel cigarettes. On the pack there is a surgeon general's warning. However, in 1970 there were no warnings on cigarette packs.
  • Correction: That's totally not true. Warnings were added to cigarette packs in 1966. - Rex Fenestrarum
    • Correction: You're almost right, but the warnings came out in 1964. It's not a really big crisis though. Don't want to make you mad. - hot dog 4
      • Correction: According to WRAMC Patient Education: History of Tobacco "In 1966 the Surgeon General of the United States required all packs to be stamped with warning labels

• The "manual burn" is carried out in order to get them back in the "re-entry corridor", yet the ship is aimed directly at the Earth. In fact that would merely speed up the approach (known, in technical parlance, as "Delta-V", delta indicating a change and V meaning velocity). To change the angle of approach, thereby getting them back in the "re-entry corridor", the ship should be pointing across the face of the Earth. - Terry
  • Correction: There is no goof! There was a "Delta-V" manual burn. Actually, the re-entry procedure called for two course corrections: one of each type mentioned by Terry. (1) A 23-second burn of the Lunar Module's small thruster engines sideslipped the spacecraft into the center of the 3 degree-wide "re-entry corridor". (2) The angle of entry into the atmosphere had to be between 5.5 degrees and 7.5 degrees - Note: that in this plane the "re-entry corridor" is even more critical - only 2 degrees. If the angle is too steep the spacecraft burns up, too shallow and it bounces off the atmosphere. A manual "Delta-V" burn was made which gave the desired re-entry angle of 6.49 degrees. The long blackout period of Apollo 13 was because it entered the atmosphere at the shallow end of its re-entry corridor. - Soma
    • Correction: The film used artistic license when they aimed at the earth - in actual fact they aimed at the rim of the sun causing the modual to slow down to the correct entry speed. This was explained in Jim Lovells book. - Dib
• Mission Control members often communicate without pressing their headset push-to-talk switches.
  • Correction: Mission controllers had VOX just like the spaceship did. - AE

   

Commented Goofs

• The corvette Tom Hanks drives is the '70, '71, or '72 model, but the scene where we see him drive the corvette is in July 1969.
  • Comment: When it is said that Tom Hanks is driving a '70 Corvette in 1969, this is possible. The 1970 Corvette was released in June of 1969. - Mr Tragedy

• Ken Mattingly, played by Gary Sinise, is bald in real life or at least during the Apollo 13 incident, he didn't have any hair.
  • Comment: Would MUCH rather see Gary Sinise WITH hair... I think he would look quite strange with a bald cap! - Saige
    • Comment: To seem more realistic, Sinise could have shaved his head for the role of Mattingly - no serious actors use skin-caps.