What’s happening in this Apollo 13 movie clip?
In Houston, Kranz (Ed Harris from The Truman Show and Pollock) rallies his team to come up with a plan to bring the astronauts home safely, declaring "failure is not an option".
Rent or buy Apollo 13 here: amzn.to/2UYJm5U
What’s the movie Apollo 13 about?
Apollo 13 is the seventh U.S. manned space mission to the moon of the Apollo program, which includes astronaut James Lovell (Tom Hanks from Big, Forrest Gump and Philadelphia), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton from Twisters and Titanic) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon from Footloose and Tremors) as crew. The launch was a success, despite a shutdown of the rocket's No. 5 engine. On April 13, 1970, astronaut Jack Swigert alerts NASA's command center: an explosion on board their spacecraft destroyed one oxygen tank and damaged the other, as well as several of the spacecraft's fuel cells. The Control Module Main Engine (CSM) may also be damaged, making the planned lunar mission impossible and forcing Houston mission control to hold back a trajectory through lunar orbit for the Apollo 13 crew's return to Earth. The loss of electrical power caused by the damage will then force the astronauts to shut down all non-essential devices on board, leaving them without assistance in guiding their spacecraft back to Earth.
Credits: © 1995 Universal Pictures
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"I don't care what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do". Spoken like a true engineer
That is great, because we use something similar all the time at our work. What the product team asked us to do, and what we built are two different things. They wanted something that could manage a city/town/district's street assets, and allow users to tweak their own stuff. What we actually built was akin to a database inside a database with it's own query language. So when they come to us with "guys, you are gonna hate us, but we need it to also do x/y/z, and we need it in 3-4 months".. We turn back around and just say "It can already do it NOW"
"That's the deal?" "That's the deal." Bad leaders talk, great leaders listen.
Great leaders do listen, but I would argue that great leaders also know when to do which. For example, in this video when the guys in the room start to argue or go in circles, the leader shuts them down and says "this is what we're gonna do and why".
Yep. "I've done the math for the last hour" "That's it?" = Are you 100% sure. "That's it." with no hesitation; and he knows that his guy has it. Give him enough room to back out, and when he doesn't then it's time to move.
That was one of the things that was embellished for the movie, during the closing the reactant valves scene. When Si recommended the move, gene didn’t hesitate and told the capcom to tell the crew to close them. And the crew didn’t hesitate to close them. They all knew what that meant. I understand why they dramatized that for the movie though. They had to tell the audience it was Official, there would be no moon landing.
@@echoct506 This is a fictional Hollywod-ised take. In reality Gene did not say those things or behave in this way. You're valorising a work of fiction.
@@echoct506John Aaron was THE original steely-eyed missile man. If he gave Gene Kranz the numbers, that was what they were.
I met Gene Kranz once. Even at 80 years old, the guy commanded a room like a 5 star general. True leadership and grit.
A steely eyed missile man. And his leadership was reflected by some of the smartest and most creative people in the world who were willing to invent anything from a box of junk at his say so. Truly amazing people, all of them.
@@ellencameron3775 What do you call more than 400,000 scientists, engineers and technicians ie "Nerds" with 25.4 Billion US (1969) Dollars and a dream? N.A.S.A.
@@ellencameron3775 The guy mentioning that power was everything is the true steely eyed missle man. That expression was created by his colleagues during apollo 12 where he saved the mission by telling the crew to flip a switch most people didn't even know existed while everyone were panicking. That's why Gene had him called in immediately after the accident on 13.
I can't believe he's still alive even to this day!
Yep. I met him once too. Quite a man. A real hero.
This whole movie is basically one long course on problem solving and proper team management and I love every second of it.
Just to quote "The Martian": "You solve the most urgent problem and then the next most urgent problem and if you solve enough problems you get home"
💯%
I still find it both sad and funny that everyone used Challenger for its engineering failure case studies except NASA. After having read the book by the Thiokol engineer that recommended against launching… I’m convinced it was time for NASA to replace its administration with engineers. They had the cover story all set up and agreed on, Reagan ok’d it. Those engineers were shunned for doing the right thing. Reminds me of Boeing and MCAS.
@@JimAllen-Persona The merger with McDonnell Douglas was the worst thing that ever happened to Boeing.
“Gentlemen, that’s not acceptable.” I just LOVE the way he delivers the line.
Same!
It's like saying, "I understand this is going to be difficult, but we are not going to allow them to die."
Then he bends right over on behalf of the feds...
@@badlaamaurukehuwhat do you mean?
"You can't run a vacuum cleaner on 12 Amps, John!" I love this line. Puts just how little 12 Amps is into perspective for the audience.
i work as an electrician part time off and on and i use this as often as i can when i can... even at home..
But you can run a vacuum cleaner on 12 A, well in Europe anyway. 12 A * 240 V = 2880 W which is more than most vacuum cleaners you can buy.
@@swunt10 well, this was way back in 1970... most of our household electronics ... vacuums... refrigerators... coffee makers etc... all used about 25% to 30% more power just because things were over built to last forever and the tech to make things out of the lest materials to do the job... means that 12 amps was probably not enough to run a vacuum cleaner. My old 1980's Kerby pulls a nasty 10.5 amps when plugged in. My grandmothers house still has a 1950's refrigerator and it pulls well into the 18 amps when it runs. 15 amp circuits have a limit of about 18 amps at peak when motors start up or (8%) thus why these behemoth old stuff started it didnt blow the breaker. so NO his point was completely valid. You are just being silly without realizing the seriousness of the analogy.
@@timothywhieldon1971 I'm just saying you can clearly run a vacuum on 12 A, it all depends on the voltage. I could spin up a planet sized moon with 12 A if the Voltage is high enough.
It's all about the voltage. 12 Amps means nothing if you don't relate is to the voltage behind the current. But I know it is a movie so there is where the vacuum cleaner comes in.
You can’t go wrong with Ed Harris. He only delivers slam-dunks.
He was wrong in national treasure 2. But then again that movie was lousy. He doesn't play a good villain I mean.
@@troyterry6919 WTF? The rock?!? okay mate!
@@Kellemaniac0002 The scarred bad guy from a History of Violence:
He acted beautifully in this role.
@@Kellemaniac0002 I actually quite like him in Snowpiercer. He does detached villain well there. I'd agree that him in Enemy at the Gates is pretty wooden, but that was a tough, somewhat visionless movie for any of the actors to be in.
I love how the very beginning of the scene is improvising. The bulb in the overhead projector fails, and Gene immediately switches to the chalkboard without hesitation.
It also shows the archaic technology and also brings in a little bit of doubt. If we can’t get a projector to work, how can we get the LEM to work?
@@davidholaday2817 Archaic perhaps, but those overhead projectors will still being used well into the 90's. They would heat the whole room and burned you if you touched the wrong part.
@@bobbyricigliano2799 well into the 2000's. quite frankly, a bright light and a mirror is the best projection you could get without spending $2000
@@davidholaday2817 Because the LEM is not a projector…
Went to my church last night and they still had an overhead projector
"I don't care what anything was designed to do. I care about what it CAN do." As an EE, this was music to my ears. Well done on the casting and line delivery.
As an ME it’s music to my ears as well 😊
@@methos-ey9nf I'm surprised by the responses of both of you. I don't get the "music to my ears" comment. You seem to be suggesting this is "normal" engineering practice to take the design to the edge. As engineers we design and test to the parameters (requirements) we are given and usually don't go outside that unless its part of the acceptance criteria or to answer someone's "what if" question. We include a safety margin as you both know. This was a special life-and-death case obviously and those engineers had to redesign the system with what they had. It was certainly impressive though.
@@minerran I'm not suggesting it's normal. I'm commenting within the context of the scene. The Grumman guy is more worried about liability than solving the problem of bringing the astronauts back. I feel similarly about the Daytona "Go Like Hell" scene in Ford vs Ferrari when the Ford exec is talking so proudly about how they're even controlling what RPM the cars are "allowed" to run, when Shelby and Miles are interested in winning the damn race. Funny thing is that your channel is about drones, and the Ukrainians have been pretty successful at repurposing cheap hobbyist drones for taking out tanks and stuff. So there's a modern example of "I don't care what it was designed to do I care about what it CAN do".
@@methos-ey9nf ME here also... this movie brings back to mind a few instances of numerous 100+ hour weeks strung end to end, right? And though most of us probably never saved the lives of astronauts as a result, solving the problem and saving the program or delivering the product is a reward to be treasured. (Almost enough to make up for the suck factor LOL!)
@@minerran Sometimes things go wrong, or unexpected inputs and noise factor occur, no matter how thorough the DFMEA or how well executed the DV plan. To be sure, it's absolutely NOT normal engineering practice! Thank goodness; I'd be dead by now if it was!
Small detail, but I like how when the guys start arguing, Kranz doesn't have to yell to shut them up. The film shows he commands enough respect in the room that a calm "let's hold it down, people" is enough.
Exactly!
Panty soup.
This is what happens when smart and sane people with self discipline are in a room (i.e. scientist and engineers), it‘s not so much about respect. Something like landing on the moon absolutely requires a no bullshit attitude and these people not only know that, but that‘s one of the reasons why they are in this room.
@@tpog1 I like the way they are all Experts in their fields .. and they dont question the math , because they know its already been checked by the person who did it, and so now they have to do something about it within those Parameters .
In the film he yells several times when in fact in reality what some people do by yelling Kranz commanded such authority he only would have needed to change the tone of his voice.
This is one of the best movies ever made. Aside from a few minor details it may as well be a documentary. And you have to give Ron Howard credit, it's hard to generate suspense when the audience knows how the story ends, but I think he pulled it off.
I'm watching it right now on TV
Wrong, there is not nearly as much juvenile yelling.
@@jamesboulger8705 You wouldn't be able to hear the rockets fire in space either. Hence "aside from a few minor details..." I'm aware of the flaws, but name a movie that better represents something that actually happened and everyone already knows the outcome before it starts.
It is an excellent movie in every sense. And the few details are for dramatic effect. The ONLY criticism I might have is the portrayal of Swigert and the crew’s tension associated with that character. The course correction was over the top too but not for the average viewer.
@@3steban427 I am sure there's got to be some competitors I can't recall, but certainly, they would all be movies that explicitly went in with the goal of recreating an event accurately without it coming off as a documentary.
It says a lot about the entire NASA team and Kranz that nobody ever said "failure is not an option" during this entire ordeal, but that it so perfectly encapsulated their work ethic that Kranz made it the title of his autobiography.
I believe members of his team credit him with saying, "failure is not an option," but he doesn't remember saying it... I read his book. Loved it.
Failure is always an option. It's all in how you handle it.
@@MegaFortinbras failure would've killed the astronauts. Nobody likes a loser
I had always understood that he said that after the Apollo 1 tragedy but I could be wrong.
@@cronsmans He didn't say that but the speech he gave his fellow flight controllers became the way they would do thing after that event. It's an amazing speech I recommend looking it up. Truly shows what kind of man he is.
Everyone is so goddamn good in this movie, but man does Ed Harris command every scene he's in. Just excellent presence.
He is immortalized as Mission Control.
Oh, one of the best character actors around.
masterclass in crisis management.
The cast reminds me of the Godfather for how many quality actors are playing minor roles
The first few seconds are brilliantly symbolic of the entire movie. Something that's supposed to work fails... and the men in charge quickly improvise an alternate method that does the job sufficiently.
Oh good I'm not the only person who thought that
I don't know if it was actually that quick, even though I know they have the smartest to do it but, it does show how well oil machine is supposed to work! Apollo 13 truly pushed Houston's Mission Control to the limit.
As opposed to the mini-series Chernobyl. Everyone there is a leadership role, except for two people, spent all of their time trying to deflect the blame vs actually solving the problem. Sadly, I believe deflection of blame vs solving the problem would be the case were Apollo 13 to happen in this day and time.
@@michaelmiller5877 Good comparison of movies. Both disasters but wildly different approaches to fixing them: *NASA* - "There are no wrong answers if they can lead to a solution." *USSR* - "There are no right answers if they are inconvenient."
Literally "back to the drawing board".
"That's the deal?" Ed Harris delivers this line perfectly. The whole room is against the man recommending that they power down the lem, and Ed Harris is a bit too but he recognizes the value of him. When he delivers this line his body language is semi-threatening as if he's saying "you better be right about this," but the fact that he's giving the go ahead at all shows that he trusts him.
Props to the engineer. He doesn't just state the facts about amps and batteries for someone else to make a decision. He says what has to be done and why, and his words and body language clearly convey importance, urgency and certainty. Kranz understands and follows his recommendation. A good example of communication and teamwork.
That engineer is John Aaron, the original steely-eyed missile man that saved Apollo 12. There's a reason Gene trusts him implicitly.
@@jeremiahmiller6431 Didn't know that. Very cool.
@@jeremiahmiller6431 You are correct. Here is the story. "On November 14, 1969, Aaron was on shift for the launch of Apollo 12. Thirty-six seconds after liftoff, the spacecraft was struck by lightning, causing a power surge. Instruments began to malfunction and telemetry data became garbled. The flight director, Gerry Griffin, expected that he would have to abort the mission. However, Aaron realized that he had previously seen this odd pattern of telemetry. A year before the flight, Aaron observed a test at Kennedy Space Center and noticed some unusual telemetry readings. On his own initiative, he traced this anomaly back to the obscure Signal Conditioning Equipment (SCE) system, and became one of the few flight controllers who was familiar with the system and its operations. For the case that first drew his attention to the system, normal readings could be restored by putting the SCE on its auxiliary setting, which meant that it would operate even with low-voltage conditions. Aaron surmised that this setting would also return the Apollo 12 telemetry to normal. When he made the call to the Flight Director, "Flight, EECOM. Try SCE to Aux", most of his mission control colleagues had no idea what he was talking about. Both the flight director and the CAPCOM Gerald P. Carr asked him to repeat the recommendation. Aaron repeated himself and Carr responded "What the hell's that?" Yet he relayed the order to the crew: "Apollo 12, Houston. Try SCE to auxiliary." Dick Gordon, a ground expert on the CSM as well as the Apollo 12 command module pilot, was familiar with both the location and the function of the SCE switch, and instructed Alan Bean to flip it to aux. Telemetry was immediately restored, allowing the mission to continue. This earned Aaron the lasting respect of his colleagues, who declared that he was a "steely-eyed missile man".
@@jeremiahmiller6431 The "Set SCE to AUX" guy? I didn't know that. Yeah, I'd trust him too.
I was 12 years old in 1970 and remember this. I actually remember praying for the astronauts, and I didn't pray much as a kid. Things were pretty scary for a while.
@Blorbus Unimax Flat brain can’t understand 3rd Grade Science
@Blorbus Unimax ???? Rockets work in a vacuum. Are you saying Newton is wrong? Are you smarter than Sir Isaac. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Every grade 5 student knows that.
@Blorbus Unimax “exhausted in all directions” It’s exhausted in ONE DIRECTION out of the bottom of the rocket. Where do the rockets that get launched into space GO? DO THEY TELEPORT OUT OF REALITY? HAHAHAHAHAHA We can watch them IN PERSON, WITH TELESCOPES go into space. You clown. Must be Magic making thrust happening to take these rockets into the upper atmosphere where there’s almost No Pressure. Yet they are seen with telescopes Going all the way into space. So How does that happen? Magic? Everyday People Everyday astronomers Amateurs, can look right up into the sky and see Elon Musk’s entire Satellite constellation at night. Everybody watched IN REAL TIME Space X Dragon fly INTO OUTER SPACE and Dock at the ISS. All Visible with Telescopes. You don’t understand particle physics. Rocket Science has been around for HOW LONG NOW? “vacuum sucks” Outer Space doesn’t Suck anything. Lmao you’re attempting to say that you can’t create thrust in a Vacuum. Yet you can’t cite ANY scientific evidence for it. Cite your source clown. The Standard Model of Particle Physics is mine. Look it up Clown.
@Blorbus Unimax I guess Rockets Go up into Space Watched By everyone with telescopes And they go up there VIA MAGIC HAHAHAHAHAHA Rocket Science is settled physics clown Post your Source Oh wait You don’t have one Clown
@Blorbus Unimax Wow, you never took a jr high physics class, did you? You can absolutely point a rocket and have it fire in one direction, and yes you have a pressure differential in the rocket itself. It's called a combustion chamber. There's a reason it has that name. Now go find Robert Goddard's grave an apologize to him for being intentionally stupid.
I've always loved Apollo 13 because of well the writers explained the complicated science and technological issues in such a natural way, and because it shows that a film doesn't need a villain, only a challenge for believable characters, to be watchable. Apollo 13 shows that the real strength of the USA is not our bombs and missiles and ships at sea, or our money and economic productivity, but our openness and our practical, can-do, "Failure is not an Option" spirit.
That is what some of us no-usians appreciated for ages. I wonder where it all went tho...
I always felt sorry for whoever the real NASA Flight Surgeon on Apollo 13 was, they screwed him over quite a bit and make him as close to a villain as the film gets. He's portrayed as a whiner and a weenie, and is implictly blamed for Ken Mattingley not being on the crew when he turns out not to have the measles. I could be wrong but I'm not aware that any of that has any historical basis. I might be right in saying that they don't actually give the character a name at any point, which is probably the least they could do for the sake of the real guy and his family. Imagine playing your part in one of the greatest stories in human history, then decades later they make a film about it and you're made into a pantomime villain for the sake of the script, it's a bit of a shame.
Yeah compared to some other movies where scientific ideas are explained like the audience is entirely children (like, a gravity slingshot being demonstrated to the head of NASA with a flying stapler in The Martian)
@@kebsis As someone who works in government science programs (The NRAO now) I can just about guarantee this is exactly how the phds I've had to work with explain things to people sometimes in order for them to understand complex maneuvers...
Seems like a lot of hassle just to get a ship out of low earth orbit.
Ed Harris is a beast in this movie, such a charismatic leader
No background music to build suspense. No clichés, unnecessary jargon, or dimwitted comedic relief. Just pure believable dialogue and concrete delivery of lines. I know it's dramatized and abbreviated to fit a movie, but it really is believable to think that this is really how it went down at mission control. I wish we had more of this now.
Ed Harris deserved an Oscar for this performance!
Agreed but at the same time I don’t think he had a chance against Kevin Spacey or Brad Pitt that year.
"Failure is not an option." - One of the greatest quotes by anyone ever. :)
The actual real life quote was, "We dint concede defeat and we will never surrender, my men are coming home."
Congratulations. You quoted a screenwriter.
@@larrysmith6797 And...? It's still a great quote. Or at the very least, a great line. :)
@@larrysmith6797 no worse than quoting Leonidas.
@@larrysmith6797 I'm shocked that a screenwriter would writer something quotable, aren't you? It's almost as if it's part of their *job* or something.
That projector would go on to tell its grandchildren that “I was almost part of the Apollo 13 rescue mission.”
"But I failed at the moment of truth. I was a dead projector. So they went with the blackboard..."
I found out at his funeral that my grandfather was on the first page of the engineers who were called to help trouble shoot this situation. Will always regret not knowing about this while he was alive. I would have loved to talk to him about it. He worked on multiple Apollo projects for Rockwell and proudly had pictures of their launches displayed in his living room. It is only through the lens of time I realize the opportunity I missed...
That's incredible! He must have been an amazing person to know and talk to in general.
wow! those were some smart guys! God bless you grandpa!
Did he ever tell you if 👽 were real? 🤔
My grandpa worked at KSC for 38 years and the stories he told me were quite a bothersome for him even stuff like challenger and columbia
Did your grandfather ever see this movie?
I love this whole sequence. Every performance, every line read is flawless. This whole thing is filled with some of the best character actors in the business.
This was iconic with the overhead projector. Symbolic for how things went wrong and going to the simplest solution, IE the chalkboard, got them home.
This movie is a true classic. I've watched it at least 30 times, and every single time I feel the same fear watching them try to get the astronauts home. It doesn't change. That's good film making.
Agreed. I have the same feeling with ALIEN 1979. I've seen it probably the same amount of times as you have with Apollo 13 and I STILL think, "They will make it this time. I KNOW it!!" Of course they don't, but I still feel the same way each time.
@@Soldier4USA2005 I know exactly what you mean with Alien. Every single time I watch that movie, I feel that same way. I'm certain they'll make it this time.... I haven't watched it in a LONG time because I always feel sad by the end. Weird.
@@katherynemero4118 Just means they did a great job. Not only on the script, but production value as well. :)
@@sk84phun It’s a great scene from an excellent movie. I don’t blame you. 😊
Ron Howard made this a slam dunk flick which alone should make him go down in legacy for the books. The casting, the camera work, the sets, the lighting, the background music and sound effects, the CGI (for what it could do at the time), and of course the script was all just perfect.
*Failure is NOT an option!!!!* Best.....line.....ever
Absolutely - Mr Krantz must have been a very special man to inspire the engineers to pull off the Apollo 13 miracle!
You ... need ... to ... get ... out ... more
@@47imagine what?
Ed Harris delivered a masterful and compelling performance as Gene Kranz, almost 30 years later this telling of the story of Apollo 13 still draws.
Ed Harris gets to play so many villain roles with such unapologetic evil, and he's so good at it, it's so weird and wholesome to see him here just like, the most lovable possible version of the guy in charge I've ever seen. Great actor in a great role.
I've always thought the Apollo missions were America's finest hours, and this was probably the best of them. I grew up in England and desperately wanted to fly. The stories of the Battle of Britain pilots and their peers sowed the seed of a dream for me. As I approached teenage years I could then watch on TV the latter day knights of the air heading off into space. I remember following the Apollo 13 mission , everyday I would run home from school to find out the latest on how the crew were doing and seeing the parachutes on the screen before splashdown and everyone letting out a huge sigh of relief and big smiles on peoples faces. Fast forward nearly 30 years to when I was going through my Command course to become a Boeing 767 Captain and this clip was shown as how leadership should be done. Gene Krantz taking centre stage with calmness, authority and using his people and resources to the max. A lot of our so called leaders around the world could do with following his example, maybe I'll send them a copy of the DVD.
I couldn't agree more. As a child I followed the Apollo program with fascination. When Apollo 11 landed, I was watching with my family, and it was my moment. And when the Apollo 13 crisis unfolded, I followed it as much as I could. When the re-entry was imminent, I was watching James Burke as he summed things up and said something like, "All we can do is wait." And I remember the relief when I saw the capsule under the parachutes, and how I ran to tell my family that the astronauts had made it back.
Amen!
2:32 Little thing to point out that I love seeing is that when Kranz deems the team's return estimations not acceptable, he KNOWS the team is capable of a better solution. These are some of the smartest people in the world he's working with and he knows they're not using all that they can do. They're dealing with the lives of 3 men possibly being killed IN SPACE and EVERYONE needs to use 100+% of their knowledge and expertise and they can only give the astronauts half of a return home? Kranz knows they can do better than that so he forces them to work and think harder because they're capable of more than that. Great leadership.
Little thing to point out. This is a movie and this conversation literally did not occur in real life.
I finished reading Gene Kranz's book "Failure is Not an Option" earlier today, a very fascinating read - though I did read it in the voice of Ed Harris thanks to this amazing (and personal top 5) film :)
It's a great read! I even have an autographed copy of it.
And Gene Kranz lifted the title from the Apollo 13 movie… (He thought it was a really good summary).
Saw this movie in the theatre while on my honeymoon. My wife and I will celebrate 28 years this summer, and we still watch this movie together from time to time. It's one of our favorites.
Many congratulations!
At 03:58 you can see that the techguy is already moving to begin testing the powering up of the module before the boss gave the instruction to do so. That's a hell of a well oiled team.
That’s an astronaut
Just to highlight something: Gene Kranz was 37 years old by the time the Apollo 13 crysis ocurred. The man hasn't even reached his 40's and was commanding a team with the best mind in the world at the moment
I sat in a London Cinema, almost 30 years ago, transfixed by this film; truly, Hollywood at its best. As a 6 year-old, I climbed through the Apollo 11 Command capsule, in (then) West Berlin, as it was on its World Tour of US Military bases. The technology may've been removed, but American, British and French school children (Service families), there, must've felt inspired (it smelt rather odd to me)!
John Arron saved Apollo 12's launch after 2 lightning strikes with the famous "SCE to AUX" call, restoring telemetry and continuing the climb up to orbit around earth...Pete Conrad was nearly about to initiate abort when CAPCOM called up the obscure command which only Alan Bean as LMP and CM engineer knew of. Arron's brilliance was tried again salvaging as much power as possible. During Apollo 8, Lovell learned to use the sextant telescope on the CM to navigate without a computer using only the sun. It was used again during Apollo 13 so they could maintain proper orientation and guidance.
Improvise, adapt, overcome. That guy in the conference who left to go get Mattingly saved the mission right there. He knew Mattingly knew that ship and knew how to think outside the box.
Yeap. Conrad said he laugh half the way to the moon for this.
John Arron should be an american treaure. This man is a true genous.
@@samsonguy10k That was John Young, He flew on the first crewed Gemini mission (Gemini 3) in 1965, and then commanded the 1966 Gemini 10 mission. In 1969, he flew as command module pilot on Apollo 10, and became the first person to orbit the Moon alone. In 1972, he commanded Apollo 16 and spent three days on the lunar surface. Young also commanded STS-1 in 1981, the Space Shuttle program's first launch, and STS-9 in 1983, both of which were on Columbia. He was one of only two astronauts, along with Ken Mattingly, his command module pilot during the Apollo 16 mission, to fly on both an Apollo mission and a Space Shuttle mission, and the only astronaut to walk on the Moon and fly on the Space Shuttle. Young served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974 to 1987, and retired from NASA in 2004, after 42 years of service.
Gene Kranz and John Aaron, two of my heroes from the Apollo program. And Jim Lovell was always my favourite astronaut at the time. As well as obviously being highly competent he just came across as being friendly and down to earth, like your favourite Uncle!
The man many ignore (Ken Mattingly) should also be included. He was the one who came up with the solution of taking power from the LEM back to the Command Module. Additionally his calm voice as he talked a very fatigued Jack Swigert through the start up process (almost from memory) did a lot to this success.
totally--they are the real heroes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Lovell is such a star and Kranz and Aaron are the epitome of Steeley Eyed Missle Men"
How this movie lost to Braveheart is a travesty and an indictment of how garbage the Oscars are.
The same society that went on to elevate Taylor Swift to the upper echelons of influence. They deserve the consequences that has reaped. People only understand punishment. What a shame. And I am being polite, respecting YT community guidelines, I don’t have any of those personally.
How did Barbie beat openheimer
@@TheSwanlake2009 By calling him a crybaby.
I'm currently reading his book, "Failure is not an option", can't wait to finish it. There are some some damn good lessons in that book, no matter what field you're in.
Read it a while ago, damn good book.
I've always said the character actors in mission control alone made this film a masterclass in proper theater. Guys like Chris Ellis, Joe Spano, Marc McClure,Todd Lousio, Jim Meskmen, Gabriel Jarrett, and yes, Clint Howard. They not only made it believable, but were in essence the greek chorus of the film..
I totally love this clip, A room with a lot of obviously intelligent, capable and specialized people brainstorming ideas, trying to go over a MAJOR issue they never faced before
My Dad was a Radar Guidance Engineer (E.E. Georgia Tech) out at The Cape from '57 til '76 when he got transferred to Vandenburg. The actor Ed Harris who is portraying Gene Kranz in this movie is almost a clone of how my dad looked and acted back in the 60's...crew cut and all business, a serious man. Those were heady times in Cocoa Beach and what a great place to grow up. As a quick aside, Brevard County school system had the highest average SAT scores in the country in '69. To say we had rather good demographics would be an understatement (a recently retired Ph.D. Aerospace Engineer who worked for America's largest defense contractor's Missile Systems company.
They did all this with a fraction of the computer technology I hold in my hand. Truly brilliant men.
@@erichmutchler9785 They used slide rules. Nobody but nobody used the computers. That other movie where the girls do the math calculations on the ibm mainframe? That was for calculating and double checking the math done by hand. The punch cards wouldn't do complicated problems. There are no symbols on the punch keys to even input advanced equations. I was trained on Fortran in the late 70s and used that same type of IBM mainframe. You had to literally assemble each equation, piece by piece. EACH different equation. Thee was no RAM to access.
The fact that IRL they're the most calmest people to ever did this mission was already mind blowing. The movie just portrayed as this as so we can't sleep in the middle of the movie and to visualize the gravity of the danger the men ever faced.
Ed Harris was perfectly cast as Gene Krantz. There is no BS in this sequence, as he said we don't care what it can't do only what it can do. That mission of going from a moon landing to bringing three men back to Earth safely was quite an accomplishment and Apollo 13 showed it well.
If I was in a life or death situation I’d want a man like Kranz looking after me
I'm adding Ed Harris to my list of people who should get an Honorary Oscar.
Failure is always an option. Not one you ever want, but sometimes one you get without any other other options.
This movie is a testament on how spectacular a director Ron Howard is. This movie came out 25 years after the Apollo 13 disaster. We knew everything about what happened and how it turned out. And yet, Ron Howard had us on the edge of our seats for 2 hours. THAT is directing.
Apollo 13 wasn't a disaster; it was a triumph. Apollo 1 was a disaster. There is a vast difference.
@@willoughbykrenzteinburg thanks Karen.
@@Rockhound6165 I think it's ironic that you think I'm the Karen.....
@@willoughbykrenzteinburg because you felt the need to be a troll and correct me, that in it's very definition is a Karen, Karen.
@@Rockhound6165 I'm totally fine with you thinking that....
Well, the fact that the flight director takes into account the people who designed it, but also the people who actually put it together shows he's thinking this through because frankly that is why NASA can't reproduce many of the older designs, because they lack the hands on expertise of the men who were cobbling the stuff together! Even a blueprint and a 3D-Scan don't tell you everything you need to know about a complicated piece of tech, even an old piece of tech!
I loved it when NASA said we don't have the technology to get to the moon... When there's a complete Saturn V on its side at Kennedy Center with everything it would have had on the launch pad for a moonshot. They had to tear apart the hand-built engines to see how they worked to use computers to design the main engines for the new launch vehicle. Those old rockets were designed on paper with slide rules... This generation doesn't know ANYTHING about innovation.
I am a US Navy submarine veteran. The knowledge you are referring to, we call "Tribal Knowledge." It is specifically the knowledge one gains from extensive and intimate exposure to systems. The knowledge not in the books. Understanding how multiple systems interface at the most basic levels. It's stuff that gets passed on to those with the cognitive ability to see the unseeable relationship.
I work in IT systems and the case is exactly the same
That type of thinking in our government is sadly lacking in this day and time. Were this to happen today, it would take at least a week to recognize there is an issue and another week to figure out who could be blamed....sigh...
A lot of it simply goes undocumented and only exists in the minds of those who built it. Particularly last minute changes.
This scene demonstrates what true leadership is and the impact it makes amongst those around you. “I don’t care what anything was designed to do, I care about what it can do” is something true leaders say when facing a problem.
"We got to get this message board down to 12 amps" "You can't run a twitter post on 12 amps John."
I have almost vivid memories of this "real event"- it happened days either side of my 21st birthday. Watching the movie - and I think I have seen it 4 or 5 times really shows how both the astronaughts and the Mission Control people worked together to achieve success. In fact this missions success owe a lot to the failure (and 3 deaths) of Apollo 1 (Jan 1967). From this event NASA all but went back to zero and replanned the whole Apollo program.
It's sad that the crew of Apollo 1 died, but we can be very thankful for their sacrifice because, as you stated, a LOT of changes were made that ultimately solved countless problems for the rest of the Apollo program and, most likely, other programs to this day. Columbia was another such example. Due to the shuttle being damaged during launch, it would have been impossible for re-entry.....but they didn't know that it was damaged. As a result of its destruction during said reentry and using footage to discover as to what has caused it, they changed protocols and added a "full visual ship's inspection" after entering orbit....in case the shuttle was damaged by debris during launch like Columbia. It's a hard pill to swallow that we don't truly learn until something has gone horribly wrong. Something that makes it personal, which then makes us change our world view or how we do things.
I like how on the board you can see other things they've been working on - lists of splashdown sites, and circuit diagrams of the main bus systems
"So you're telling me that you guys have only watched 45 Apollo 13 clips? Gentleman, that's not acceptable."
"If everything is fine we can watch 3 Apollo 13 clips per hour. At that rate we watch 18 Clips per day, not 12." "We gotta get that up to 6 Clips per hour!" "6 Clips?" "You cannot run a normal life with 6 clips!" "The more we discuss here the more of our free time we waste, I thought about this no more than 4 seconds!" "That's the deal?" "That's the deal!
"IM NOT GONNA SUGAR COAT THIS FOR YA!" always liked that
Collaborative teamwork. Doesn't get better than this as an example.
I was a teenager when this happened. Those few days were so agonizing not knowing how this was going to play out. It was uncharted territory and anything including losing them forever in space was possible. It was so exciting watching that parachute open and knowing they were going to be ok.
The fact that the projector fails and they have to literally go “back to the drawing board” is such a great detail.
It literally is not a drawing board
This movie is the reason why I went into aerospace engineering I love this scene
One of my favorite little moments in this scene is that Pete Conrad is in the room looking extremely concerned despite all of the competitiveness between him and Lovell earlier. You can tell how much he cares about his colleagues.
Failure is not an option wasn’t some battle cry. It was a statement saying we have a list of choices. Direct abort. Free return. Conserving battery power. Power up procedures. Re entry scenarios. Guidance data from one computer to the other. Out of all of these choices failure wasn’t on the list.
To be fair, failure was always an option. They just didn’t want it.
One the best films I have seen. Went to the cinema 6 times in 2 weeks to watch it again. LOL. Ron Howard in the making said that in hundreds of years to come, people will watch this to say "thats how they went to space back then". So true ....brilliant movie.
Shows how hard and smart the guys on the ground worked to save three absolute heroes of the Apollo programme. 😎👍
“I’m not gonna sugarcoat this for you”😂
Ed Harris is just flawless in this movie. Love every second he is on screen
i can't believe this movie is almost 30 years old now. more time has passed between this movie's release and today than the events of Apollo 13 and this film
I remember this. I was a kid at the time. Everyone was glued to the tv praying for them to get home. The movie is just as intense as the real thing.
Kranz said in interviews that the SM SPS engine would only have been considered a last ditch effort to save the crew if all other options were unsuccessful. Seeing the damage after the module was jettisoned likely proved they made the right call. But would it have even worked? It needs H2 and O2 to combine to create thrust, and one O2 tank exploded, and the other bled out over two hours and was left empty.
It didn't use H2 and O2, is the answer to that. The service module engine burned Aerozine 50 as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidiser. The main reason for that being that you don't want to be flying around for days in space with cryogenic fuels, because they have a nasty tendency to evaporate.
@@d2factotum Point taken on the fuel types, that is my mistake, however the O2/H2 tanks were extremely well constructed to prevent evaporation, they hypothesized it would take years for one of them to lose its contents naturally.
@@jamesfrank3213 Maybe so, but LH2 also has another problem--its absolutely pathetic density. The only stage in the entire Saturn V/Apollo stack that used it was the third one--the first two used RP-1 (a paraffin derivative) instead, because the fuel tanks required to have those stages run LH2 would have made the rocket twice the size. Better a small reduction in engine efficiency than a massive increase in structural mass.
@@d2factotum While the S-1C first stage burned RP-1 with LOX, the S-II second stage burned LH2 with LOX as did the S-IVB third stage (the S-II had five J-2 engines; the S-IVB had one J-2). As stated above, the SPS burned Aerozine-50 with Nitrogen Tetroxide.
@@jamesfrank3213 The SM o2/h2 tanks had low boiloff because rhe quantities involved were only for power generation, so the weight of the tank wasn't so high even if it was a clunky dewar. If you're using them for propulsion you need a lot more of the stuff, which means you need a tank which is way lighter per unit mass of propellant, which means single walls and as much foam coating as you can pack without weighing down the spacecraft. This in turn is horrible at insulation compared to a dewar and has fast boiloff.
The only blackbuster where engineers are the heroes.
My father did the fix for the AJ-10 main engine design with an enhanced nozzle and a beefed up combustion chamber for the service module propulsion system in 1965. I remember that he was basically living on plant at Aerojet during the Apollo 13 mission after the accident until they got back home. EVERYONE on the program was on standby and available to help get these guys home.
I don't know if Ed's little move at 2:40 was scripted or not...that tapping home and where they'll end up .....kind of like "here ...there" ....I don't know why but it's always struck me as comedic + frustration + sarcasm + exhaustion + worry ...a brilliant little add-on IMHO
As a young engineer working at Hamilton Standard in the 1980's I learned about the role a few of the engineers there did to connect power from the LEM to the command module. Those guys were legendary. When the movie came out a bunch of us went to see it and the word back at work was they did a pretty good job with the story line.
Ed harris was the perfect casting choice for this. I know hes just some dude IRL but he has Gravitas you can’t teach
Get all players in the scenario to provide you with data on every element of the projecet you're working on. That's how you solve problems.
Two things:This event was/ is about Teamwork.3 for all,all for 3.Iin this situation.Ed Harris deserves an OSCAR for this one.
Ed Harris is fantastic as always
I think this is one of Ed Harris's best-ever roles
Ed Harris still gives me chills with this scene
Something about the awkward mumbling as he shoves the broken projector away makes me laugh every time I rewatch that part.
All the privates realizing that they had pissed off the drill, but the drill is busy so they are going to pay for it later. When they least expect it.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this movie (many) but damn is this a perfect performance by Ed Harris. Goosebumps, every time,
“You can’t run a vacuum cleaner with 12 amps John” 😂 gets me every time 😂
Love it! Gene was a legend!!
Failure is seldom an option, but it is often a result, whether we like it or not.
True, but the person in charge must express confidence it will all work out even if they know its unlikely?
This is hands down my favorite scene in the movie. So inspiring.
Ed Harris is simply brilliant
This movie should have won best picture. I watched it in the theater and I knew the ending but I was still on pins and needles. And I always cry at the end, no matter how many times I watch it
Me too. Hanks' "Houston, this is Odyssey. It's good to see you again," with the total eruption of cheers from mission control and the Lovell house is one of the most cathartic moments I've seen in film, even 20 times.
"That's the deal ?" He trusted his mens' judgement and went with it.
To be fair, when John Aaron tells you something needs to be done, you do it.
Given John's pedigree of saving the day, Gene knows to listen to him.
Ed Harris is just incredible. Love him in "The Rock", too.
Ed Harris is such a badass without question.
Everyone in that room is right.
The opening is great! He says they are going to improvise and the projected stops working!
And then he improvises.
This movie is perfection from beginning to end
Was 8 years old when this came out (1995) and I didn't know what nasa was .. let alone the apollo program. To this day .. when I watch this movie ... I feel the same feeling I felt when I was 8 watching for the first time ... when I didn't know if they were gonna make it or not. Amazing movie ... top 5 all time
I miss seeing such mature, non-political and thoughtful films.
I love this guy! What being an american should be!
0:04 even the grease pencil tip broke off...
0:04 - I never noticed that the china marker also broke... that's a nice touch!
“They blow up and die” - - “That is not the argument, we’re talking about time not whether or not they”… I would have liked him to finish that sentence.
It’s a fair argument/discussion to have given the situation. If the Astros only have 16 hours, then the 45 hour option is not plausible, therefore it’s an acceptable risk as time is the greatest factor. Different points of view. Hence why Ed Harris’s character gets paid the big bucks to make decisions.
@@will9134 Exactly this. His argument is based on the fact that it was assumed by many the LM couldn't support three people for that length of time. Therefore, Direct Abort was the only option. Turns out, the LM had power/water to spare, had lower modes of operation been used.
Pure brain power saved those three men.
also sent them around the moon