Where to watch Apollo 13 (1995)

Trivia & production notes

• The screenplay was originally written with Kevin Costner in mind because of his facial resemblance to Jim Lovell, but Tom Hanks ultimately got the role after expressing interest in the project.
• Brad Pitt turned down the role of Jack Swigert to star in Seven instead, leading to Kevin Bacon being cast in the part.
• Ron Howard decided against using any real Apollo mission footage, committing instead to creating original shots for the entire film.
• The Mission Control set was so meticulously crafted that a NASA consultant said he would forget he wasn't in the actual control room at the end of filming days.
• The cast trained with actual Apollo astronauts Jim Lovell and David Scott inside simulated Command and Lunar Modules at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.
• Ron Howard obtained NASA permission to film 612 zero-gravity maneuvers aboard a KC-135 aircraft, totaling three hours and 54 minutes of weightlessness footage, a technique Steven Spielberg suggested.
• The spacecraft interiors were built with removable sections to allow cameras and equipment to film from inside, and the pressure suits were exact airtight reproductions that actively cooled and supplied air to the actors.
• The Saturn V launch sequence was created using a $25 model kit and digital image stitching rather than stock footage, with the camera intentionally shaking to appear realistic.
• All dialogue recorded during the KC-135 weightless filming was unusable due to the aircraft's noise, requiring the actors to redub their lines in ADR sessions.
• Filmmakers recreated the splashdown sequence using real parachutes and a prop capsule dropped from a helicopter rather than CGI, as the visual effects supervisor insisted the digital approach would not look realistic.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Apollo 13 (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.