Finding The Right Isolation Movie Isn’t Rocket Science

Opening Argument: Finding The Right Isolation Movie Isn’t Rocket Science

I didn’t watch the debate on Tuesday night. Debates don’t do much for me as information, and they tend to irritate me. And at a time when I’m already irritated so much of the time, I chose not to subject myself to that. I watched Apollo 13. 

Apollo 13, as most of you will know, is based on the true story of the April 1970 crewed space flight that was intended to land on the moon. There was an explosion on board, and mission control in Houston spent several days working with the crew through a series of emergencies — what about oxygen, what about water, what about accumulating carbon dioxide — in order to keep them alive long enough to get home, which they did. The 1995 movie, directed by Ron Howard, stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton as the crew and Kathleen Quinlan as Hanks’ wife, plus Ed Harris and a murderers’ row of white character actors of the 1990s in mission control. 

I tend to have limited patience for Let Us Celebrate The Great Men Of History movies, particularly when they are about the same kinds of men (white, working in space travel) who have often been celebrated in the past. But this is a movie I will always, always watch. 
 

There’s a terrific BBC World Service podcast called 13 Minutes To The Moon, and while the first season was about Apollo 11, the second season is all about Apollo 13. It makes heavy use of real NASA tapes, which reveal that although the movie certainly dramatized some elements, lots of dialogue comes directly from real life. The biggest difference is that when you hear the tapes, you realize they were even more determined than they are in the movie to remain calm, even in the worst moments of the crisis. 

They have faith in science, and in work, and in the knowledge they’ve gained. But more than anything, they have faith in the idea of a shared fate — that failure to save the crew would be a failure by the people on the ground. Shared responsibility is something that’s always an option, but not always an option that we choose, you know? We can choose to feel that what happens to other people reflects on what we’ve done. Might just get people home safe. 

Apollo 13 is available for rent on most of your major platforms.