In the recent Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, Indian authorities found themselves in a week-long stand-off with terrorists who’d taken over a passenger airliner and diverted it to a hostile nation. The rescue operation took days, during which the entire nation was glued to their television screens. But when the Apollo 13 spacecraft encountered a technical mishap on its way to the moon in 1970, ground control had to negotiate not with foreign enemies, but with the idea of time itself. Like the hijack, the Apollo 13 rescue mission lasted a week and brought people from all walks of life together in prayer for the safe return of complete strangers; in this case, three astronauts — Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert. Their ordeal has been recounted in the newly-released documentary film Apollo 13: Survival, out on Netflix.
Tightly constructed, propulsive, and made up almost entirely of previously unseen archival footage, the film sheds fresh light on the incident, which was famously dramatised by Ron Howard in his film Apollo 13. Tom Hanks played Lovell in the movie, which remains a classic of the 1990s. Described as an easygoing guy — not at all, for instance, like Neil Armstrong from First Man — the commander also had considerable experience in space flight, having previously been a part of the Apollo 8 mission. Endlessly optimistic — this trait would serve him well later — Lovell scoffed when people around him asked if he was superstitious about the number 13. Haise, on the other hand, morbidly joked that he’d have happily accepted a Friday the 13th liftoff as well.
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A still from Apollo 13: Survival.
Although several manned missions to the moon had been conducted with considerable success already, the general public, having settled into a sort of complacency around space exploration, was beginning to question to point of it all. Lovell had to justify to the press why NASA was still spending millions on rocketing men to the moon, years after Apollo 11 settled the matter with the Russians. The film builds up to liftoff with a steady pace, peppering the narrative with key information about not just Lovell, but also his family — this is vital for some well-timed third-act drama. We also learn about command module pilot Ken Mattingly, who was grounded at the last minute after contracting an illness.
Lovell had the option to delay the mission at a significant monetary cost, or proceed with Swigert as the substitute. Rational-minded as all these astronauts were, they must’ve surely wondered why fate decided to pull this late surprise on them. Certainly, the movie encourages questions like this, filled as it is with Lovell’s philosophical musings about the perspective that space travel has given him. “Can’t we all just live peacefully together,” he wonders, observing how indecipherable borders are from the sky, and how rapidly countries supposedly at war with each other are passing by from his vantage point. The film splices in a bunch of footage shot onboard the spacecraft by Lovell, Haise, and Swigert, including the now-iconic image of the damaged service module that they were attached to for days after the explosion.
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A still from Apollo 13: Survival.
The second half of Apollo 13: Survival is dedicated entirely to the rescue operation. In addition to excellent footage from inside ground control — we actually hear the famous, “Houston, we’ve had a problem” line in real-time — the film also offers insightful commentary by mission director Gene Kranz, and several other members of his team, most of whom seemingly spent the entire ordeal smoking endlessly and drinking copious amounts of coffee. Populated exclusively by men in short-sleeved white shirts, the mission control segments in the film can certainly become a little monotonous after a point, which is where Lovell’s wife comes in.
She offers not only voiceover commentary — no new footage or interviews were conducted for the film, by the way — but is also featured heavily via old photographs that show her stationed in the living room of their home, surrounded by family members, and glued to the “squawk box” — a gizmo that transmitted the spacecraft’s communications with mission control directly to her. Her physical appearance becomes more and more dishevelled as the days pass. These segments add a necessary emotional heft to the otherwise action-packed film, which unfolds essentially with its back against the wall, because most people would already know how the story ends. Apollo 13: Survival functions not as an introduction, but as an enhancement to this gruelling tale of grit and human perseverance.
Apollo 13: Survival
Director – Peter Middleton
Rating – 4/5
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