The American film Apollo 13 was released in 1995 that starred Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks, and Bill Paxton. It dramatized the events of the Apollo 13 mission to the moon in 1970. Jim Lovell is the main character of the film playing the captain of Apollo 13, with crew members Jack Swigert and Fred Haise. The film depicted the events of the third time a US mission planned to land on the moon. The film was praised for its depiction of the astronauts’ struggle to survive in facing various emergencies and how the crew at the space station tried to save the three main characters to get them back to Earth safely.
The film portrays the era during the cold war, where the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a competition over who launches a successful space program first. The film stirs emotions and leads the viewer to reflect on any aspect. Seeing the film today one wonders how a space mission was achieved with the kind of equipment that today would be termed as looking like tin cans. Throughout the film, one comes across themes in the film that explore the fragility and durability of human life. It is thought that in modern times human beings do not live under a constant fear of threat as did his ancestors in the medieval world. But the fact of the matter is that modern science, medicine, and technology has created an illusion of safety around us that in the contemporary world, we are in control that we have been able to conquer those forces that dominated us. But when the human being is taken out of his comfort zone, into the seas or traveling into space that is when he realizes how fragile life truly is.
The film highlights many threats that and difficulties human beings undergo in space even when they are in their protected compartments. It is not only equipment failure but the effects of being in space itself in a long duration spaceflight, that are also underplayed. Research on microgravity at the ISS showed that during a prolonged mission such as towards Mars, the human body would lose significant muscle and bone mass due to gravity alone (Dorrian, 2015).
In space, the human body without a suit would not survive one minute. An astronaut has to live in his fragile survival bubble. Effects of space radiation, space vacuum or temperature extremes all can cause detrimental effects to the human body. When Astronauts leave for their mission they have to take everything to the mission with them in order to survive, such as their power, their heat, their light, their food, and water, etc. to the atmosphere of space (Baskerville, 2016)
In space, the most difficult part is the first 400 kilometers, in order to escape from the Earth’s gravity and reach Low Earth Orbit. This phase was also accurately depicted in the film after launch. An astronaut must constantly be thinking at this point of what is the next thing that could kill me now if he survives the previous phase. The first eight minutes of the journey are the most dangerous, as one has to ride a ship that is otherwise a bomb of enormous proportions. One sees the characters see their support staff traveling the opposite way, and how they remember their times and loved ones as they begin this journey. This also explores themes such as how human life is not just fragile physically, but psychologically and emotionally as well, as soon as we are taken out of the confines of Mother Earth (Baskerville, 2016).
Every few intervals one observes the difficulties the characters in the film face during their mission, and how threats to their life seem to come from everywhere. These themes were dramatically demonstrated during the flight of the Apollo 13’s mission in 1970 when during their journey towards the moon, an oxygen tank exploded. The three characters Fred Haise, Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert faced the likelihood of being left stranded in space. They could run out of oxygen, freeze to death or become poisoned by accumulations of carbon dioxide. Even if they were to return back safely to the Earth’s atmosphere, they had to calculate precisely the right angle in order to enter (Ebert, 1995).
Space is an unforgiving place for the human body and the more time one spends away from gravity, the more toll it takes on it. Astronauts had faced stiffness, soreness, muscle loss as well as bone loss during their missions. They faced secondary conditions such as hives, skin rashes, dizziness, and nausea when they return back to the Earth’s atmosphere. The change in gravity in space can cause a loss of bone density to about 1% a month. Upward shifting of bodily fluids can occur that can cause high blood pressure, swelling and any vision problems. As they live in isolation, it can cause psychological and behavioral issues, leading to sleep disorders and depression. The immune system weakens and constant screening needs to be performed in order to assess the damage. Astronauts also face threats from radiation exposure, that can lead to nervous system damage and cancer (NASA, 2018). The film leaves us the viewer to reflect on how astronauts on the ISS survive in their station.
The film doesn’t just explore the physical aspect of human fragility but his psychological weakness, his fears of dying, his desperation to survive. Their spacecraft had three fuel cells, and they could fail in their moon landing mission if all three didn’t work precisely. Some values needed to be closed when an oxygen leak was detected, but if one valve was closed, it could not be opened again. When Lovell received the call to close one of the valves, he double checked with the station and said “We just lost the Moon”, as he saw the hopes of having done the most important feat of his life taken away from him.
The scenes that explored the possibility of death and how terrifying the experience can be for the fragile human, such as when it captured the chilling sight of the crew’s oxygen being vented into the void of space, a tape-recorder in free fall that was playing country music, the only source of entertainment for the characters – these scenes not only provide entertainment and fascinate the viewer, but have him reflect on the durability of one’s life, and how perfect the Earth is as a habitat for us. There is no villain in the film, it is only the empty vastness of space that threatens human existence which serves as the antagonist. Apollo 13, therefore, did not have any traditional bad guy. The film shows how much of an extraordinary thing, the space program is. The film allows us to appreciate those who lead the efforts in space that they were not only brave heroes who risked a low chance of survival in these missions but proved to be resourceful for all humanity.
References
Baskerville, M. (2016, January 15). How to Survive in Space Hangout. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-survive-in-space-hangout-feb-23-25-2016
Dorrian, G. (2015, December 29). 5 Things Astronauts Learned While Living in Outer Space. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from the New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/article/126727/5-things-astronauts-learned-living-outer-space
Ebert, R. (1995, June 30). APOLLO 13. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from Roger Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/apollo-13-1995
NASA. (2018, January 10). Space travel: Here’s what happens to the human body. Retrieved March 26, 2018, from BBC News: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-42627341
