Netflix’s ‘Apollo 13: Survival’ is a superb examination of NASA’s finest hour (review)

Most of us are familiar with NASA’s aborted moon landing mission in 1970 from watching director Ron Howard’s excellent “Apollo 13” feature film that was released in 1995, and its dire declaration from Tom Hanks’ Commander Jim Lovell, “Houston, we have a problem.” The real words spoken were actually, “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” but that’s just Hollywood artistic license we suppose (and given that it’s one of the best space movies of all time, we’ll let them off).

And we’ve all watched Kevin Bacon portraying command module pilot Jack Swigert in the movie as he flipped a switch that stirred the oxygen tanks, accidentally sparking an explosion which led to gases venting out into outer space that would abort the landing. This led to the crew using Aquarius, their lunar module that was to touch down at the Fra Mauro Highlands, as a temporary lifeboat until they could strategize on how to fix their ailing craft and get back home.

A remarkable new Netflix documentary titled “Apollo 13: Survival” takes a hard look at the circumstances surrounding the mission and how a dedicated team prevailed to “work the problem” against all odds. It’s an emotional examination of the harrowing drama that held the world’s attention that one mid-April week in 1970 as interest in the American space program was starting to wane.

Utilizing a combination of actual mission footage, vintage Apollo 13 audio recordings, stoic newscasts, and archival interviews with the astronauts’ families and NASA ground personnel, British director Peter Middleton takes us straight into those cigarette smoke-choked space administration rooms to experience an unprecedented chronicle of this historic event.

It was truly one of NASA’s finest hours as cool-headed engineers later spent sleepless hours at Houston’s Mission Control cobbling together instructions for how to create a makeshift carbon dioxide scrubber to enable the stranded crew of Lovell, Swigert, and lunar module pilot Fred Haise to return to their Odyssey capsule and safely splash down in the Pacific days later.

The filmmakers’ approach tends to steer towards a clinical diagnosis that relies heavily on clips unearthed from NASA’s vaults. However, that’s part of the immersive appeal this documentary exhibits, evoking a riveting tension and reminding us of the severe hazards of outer space travel. It’s especially relevant as more privately-funded space tourists launch and we learn more about Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the marooned astronauts aboard the ISS awaiting their flight home to Earth via SpaceX in early 2025 due to a malfunctioning Boeing Starliner capsule.

Middleton is an instinctive documentarian whose earlier work, “Notes on Blindness” (2016) and “The Real Charlie Chaplin” (2021), have both received high praise from critics and audiences.

From its first eerie images of our cratered moon taken from inside the command module prior to the accident,” Apollo 13: Survival” weaves a hypnotic spell of uncertainty even though we know what the favorable outcome was. Middleton has crafted a timely portrait of those NASA times of buzz-cuts and skinny ties, even as we prepare for a manned Artemis 2 moon mission in 2025.

By using such an eclectic array of visuals, the director creates a sensory cocoon for viewers to wrap themselves in as archival interviews flow, accompanied by candid Kodachrome snapshots and grainy mission clips to provide viewers with an indelible level of intimacy and immediacy.

“Survival” exists as a time capsule and compelling cautionary tale as NASA looks toward the future with its promises and perils. Never shattering the illusion by breaking into modern talking heads, and devoid of heavy-handed voiceover narration or 21st century intrusions to spoil the Middleton magic, the project is punctuated with a beautiful ambient score by composer James Spinney.

“I don’t look back too often,” reveals Lovell. “If you don’t look forward then you lose some of the meaning of life. But being up there and seeing the Earth as it really is, and realizing how fortunate we are, It’s like a blue and white Christmas tree ball hanging in an absolutely black sky. And of course you don’t see cities. You don’t see boundaries. You see the Earth as it really is. A grand oasis in the vastness of space.”

Currently streaming exclusively on Netflix, “Apollo 13: Survival” is an impressive achievement in the documentary art form and one that instantly becomes the new gold standard of Apollo 13 accounts and a rare treat for Apollo-era enthusiasts.