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Quotes

Jim Lovell: Houston, we have a problem.

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Trivia

The exchange between Lovell and his wife about holidays ("you know that Easter vacation?  There's been a change of destination ... how about the moon?") in fact took place in 1968, when Lovell was assigned to Apollo 8 and so missed his planned Christmas vacation. See more...

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Apollo 13 (1995) - 43 mistakes

Directed by Ron Howard, starring Bill Paxton, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks (add more)

Genres: Adventure, Drama, History

Mistakes
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Continuity: Just before Gene Krantz draws a circle on the chalkboard to indicate the Earth, the erased circles from previous takes can be seen. He then draws a hasty, sloppy unclosed circle, but subsequent scenes a few seconds later show a neater, closed circle.

Edit Submitted by Vader47000
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Visible crew/equipment: Immediately after the accident, when Swigert is struggling to close the hatch, as he pulls the hatch away, just before he says that he can't get it to seal, a camera is briefly visible sitting in the tunnel through to the LEM.

Edit Submitted by Tailkinker Time
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Factual error: It is shown that people are casually having conversation next to the giant rocket-ship transporter, known as the 'crawler'. In fact, the crawler is so noisy that no one could possibly have a conversation near it. All technicians who 'drive' the crawler (an eight man crew) and anyone in the vicinity of an operating crawler wear sound-cancelling headphones whenever near it.

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Visible crew/equipment: Just after Lovell secures the hatch for LEM jettison, and Swagert states "Okay, pryo batts look good I don't think were gonna have to tie those other batteries," there is a visible bearded crew member wearing glasses, and a hoodie on the lower right hand side of the screen.

Edit Submitted by Goofbuster Time
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Continuity: During the re-entry sequence, there is a shot of all the condensation from the control panel pouring over the astronauts. The next set close up shots of the men's faces show them to be completely dry.

Edit Submitted by Floyd1977 Time
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Factual error: Hanks as Lovell drives a red corvette. The real Lovell has said in interviews he drove a blue corvette.

Edit Submitted by Vader47000
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Other: When Apollo 13 lifts off, you hear a voice saying something like 'Houston we have cleared the tower at 13:13'. However, when this is said the Saturn V rocket has nowhere near cleared the tower.

Edit Submitted by bladesman_joe
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Factual error: When the astronauts pose for their photo shoot, the flag behind them has only 48 stars (a bit hard to tell, since it's rolled up, but the stars are arranged in straight rows parallel to the stripes, which was the arrangement used on the 48-star flag). It's 1970, so it should be a 50-star flag.

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Factual error: The fiery rocket plume left behind the Saturn V as it is ascending directly after lift off is far too small and short. In reality the flaming rocket plume was easily 2 to 3 times the diameter of the entire ship and at least 3 to 4 times the length.

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Deliberate "mistake": Keeping the Earth in the window during the burn for trajectory correction is inaccurate because if the LEM were pointing toward the earth, the window would be underneath the craft and the earth wouldn't be visible through the window. The earth is visible to be artistically consistent. This is mentioned by Jim Lovell on DVD Commentary.

Edit Submitted by William Bergquist
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Factual error: During the final voiceover, Jim Lovell says "Fred Haise was going back to the moon on Apollo 18, but his mission never flew." In reality, it was Apollo 19, not 18, that Haise was tentatively chosen to command.

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Factual error: When Ken Mattingly is drinking from beverage cans, the cans are of a "necked" design (where the diameter of the top is less than that of the main body of the can). Necked cans were not actually produced until the 1990's.

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Factual error: At the end of the movie, when the astronauts debark from the helicopter and are surrounded by the crew of the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, there are a number of junior enlisted men wearing combination caps. (The type worn by Chief Petty Officers and commissioned officers.) That they are junior enlisted men is obvious by the rank insignia on their left sleeves and by the silver USN and Eagle emblem on their caps. (Chief's caps have a large gold and silver anchor insignia, and officer's caps have a large gold officer's crest.) The U.S. Navy did, for a few years, replace the junior enlisted men's traditional white hat with the combination cap, but the change was not announced until 1972, two years after the Apollo 13 mission, and the Navy reverted to white hats in 1983, twelve years before the movie was made.

Edit Submitted by mdwalker
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Factual error: On several occasions the astronauts address the Capcom as "Andy." None of the Apollo 13 Capcoms were named Andy. Their names were Jack Lousma, Joe Kerwin, Bill Pogue and Vance Brand.

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Visible crew/equipment: During the moon landing daydream sequence, Lovell is shown performing the typical low-gravity moon walk. The thin wires used to facilitate the hopping effect can be seen at the top of the frame, and stand out against the light metal finish of the lunar lander.

Edit Submitted by Vader47000
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Deliberate "mistake": During the scene where the astronauts are building the makeshift CO2 scrubbers, the camera zooms out of the lunar module through the window, and we can see that the interior of the lunar module is oriented incorrectly compared to the exterior. The tunnel leading to the command module is on the top in the interior shot, but on the left in the exterior shot.

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Continuity: After Houston reacquires contact with the spacecraft following re-entry, Gene Kranz sits down in his chair, obviously full of emotion. The camera then cuts to a wide shot of Mission Control before panning in on Ken Mattingly. Before the camera zeroes in on Ken, watch the top left corner of the screen and you can see Gene sit down again.

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Factual error: The remaining smoke plume after the Saturn V liftoff is about 80 miles too low. It's apparent that an aircraft flew over the space center to leave a feeble 'movie' plume. Also, when the Apollo 13 crew blasts out of Earth orbit, the ship is pointed straight at the Moon, meaning that once they travelled the 240,000 miles to the Moon's orbit path, the Moon would be several thousand miles to their left, and the Apollo 13 crew would continue into oblivion, never to be seen again.

Edit Submitted by Nicki
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Deliberate "mistake": The dramatic burn towards the end lasts 39 seconds. The real burn lasted 18 seconds. Ron Howard extended it to make it more movie friendly.

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Continuity: While the flight director (Gene) is talking to a guy about bringing the spacecraft's power down, there is a side shot of Gene saying: "that's the deal?" now, his hands are in front of him (playing with a pen) the very next shot he has his hands by his side and the man next to him has his head in a different position (a very short time to move your arms and head like that).

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