Apollo 13 - 1995 - ep 131 -

“Everything’s fine up here, Houston… oh, oopsie, nevermind. We’re all gonna (expletive deleted) die.”

Are we sure that astronaut Jim Lovell kept his cool enough to say, “Houston, we have a problem,” onboard Apollo 13? Because we’d be swearing up a storm and bouncing off the walls of that tiny space module if it were us.

Luckily, Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert were well-trained and far more composed, because the “successful failure” of Apoll0 13 makes for an incredibly compelling (and thankfully uplifting) space adventure, especially in the capable hands of quintessential journeyman director Ron Howard.

“Apoll0 13,” released in 1995, doesn’t get enough credit as one of the 90s best summer blockbusters. Is it too reductive to call this Best Picture Oscar contender a blockbuster? Because, man, what an exciting piece of spectacle that also boasts a deep A-list cast topped by Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon (this movie is a STRONG anchor to any round of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”).

You can’t dismiss the characters on Earth either, including Ed Harris and Gary Sinise as the dudes at NASA leading the charge to get the astronauts home safely, though it’s a bunch of other white dudes shown depicting that “circle-into-a-square-peg CO2 problem.

Yes, “Apollo 13” is a movie full of heroic white dudes, which we can’t blame the movie for obviously, but at least we have Kathleen Quinlan in a standout, Oscar-nominated role as Marilyn Lovell. Also, look! It’s Clint Howard in one of his numerous supporting parts in his brother Ron’s filmmography.

The Old Millennials spend the episode gushing over “Apoll0 13,” with Tyler recalling a theater experience as a kid where he had no idea about the true story going into the screening (“Those astronauts are DEAD!”). They also discuss showing the film to all four of their space-obsessed kids, as well as the connection to watching recent space rocket and telescope launches in real life. “Apollo 13” is loaded with technical, confusing language, but it does an incredible job of pushing tension and explaining the basics without it coming off like a rote history lesson.

Also, how about that James Horner score?! Hot Take: It’s better than his Oscar-winning work on “Titanic.”

So strap in, hold down your Tang and stick your thumb in the air and cover up the moon like Tommy Hanks and rediscover one of the most exciting movies of the 90s!

Also discussed on this episode of Old Millennials Remember Movies

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
The Bad Guys (2022)
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
Wild at Heart (1990)
Crimes of the Future (2022)

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