What's the Difference between Lost Moon the Book and Apollo 13 the Movie?
| In the Book |
In the Movie |
James Lovell
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James Lovell
Portrayed by: Tom Hanks
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Jack Swigert
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Jack Swigert
Portrayed by: Kevin Bacon
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Fred Haise
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Fred Haise
Portrayed by: Bill Paxton
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Ken Mattingly
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Ken Mattingly
Portrayed by: Gary Sinise
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Gene Krantz
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Gene Krantz
Portrayed by: Ed Harris
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| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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Lovell fights to keep Mattingly on the crew, but the flight surgeon removes him. |
Lovell is told he will lose the mission if he wants to keep the crew together. He opts to replace Mattingly. |
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The helium burst disk was expected to burst. A battery explosion also happened. |
The helium disk is shown bursting unexpectedly, the battery explosion is not shown.
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The Grumman Company (maker of the Lunar Module) and their employees were extremely eager provide any assistance to Houston while the Command Module was powered down and the LM was used as a lifeboat. |
An unnamed Grumman engineer is shown as pessimistic and reluctant to help. |
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Lovell's remark to his wife about an alternate destination for Christmas (the moon instead of travel abroad) was in reference to Apollo 8's change in mission from an Earth orbit mission to a Lunar orbit mission. Apollo 8 was in lunar orbit during Christmas 1968. |
Lovell implies he will be going to the moon for Christmas instead of on vacation. Apollo 13 took place April 1970
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There is much detail on how the oxygen tank was damaged prior to the flight and how the crew and NASA decided to risk flying with a damaged tank. The tank was actually much more badly damaged then they knew prior to the explosion. |
No details are shown on the decision to fly with a damaged oxygen tank. |