We Know the Ending, Yet Suspense Ensues

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2005)

Movies based on true stories do have one strike against them, and it's we know how it ends. Apollo 13 overcomes this problem to become a terrific, suspenseful space opera staring American astronauts that we know came back to Earth. But during the most trying times of the aborted 1970 mission to the Moon, the audience is questioning themselves if they really make it or not. The appeal of Apollo 13 also comes from the benefit of actually being shot in zero-gravity conditions. No special effects here, the no gravity you see was the no gravity the actors and the crew experienced, thanks to help from the NASA airplane known as the "Comet Vomet." But I believe the real lure of Apollo 13 is how Director Ron Howard made these heroes, these spacemen, real men who had to deal with a real problem. Everyone, from the men just a couple of miles above the lunar surface to the guys who put the carbon monoxide filters together, had to come together to bring home "NASA's most successful failure." From the musical score to the claustrophobic feel of the space capsule suggest suspense, and will these men really make it. They do, we know that. But there is always that doubt...