Apollo 13

“Things like a computer that can fit in a single room” First rewatch in probably 20 years, spurred by Artemis II mania. For the Elder Millennial, this one arrived an auspicious cultural moment, bookended as it is by the Challenger and Columbia disasters. It gives us Tom Hanks’ Jim Lovell and Ed Harris’ Gene Kranz, avatars of heroic American exceptionalism. Ron Howard’s old Hollywood directorial style and the soaring James Horner score tell us so. Alternative title: Space McGyver. No wonder we said we’d be astronauts one day. How could we not? People were competent. They worked problems. People worked problems. Seventies nostalgia in the Pollyanna, Clintonite Nineties. And look at what it gave us. Sam Altman is an Elder Millennial too, born the same year as me. So is the Vice President. In Apollo 13’s first act, Ken Mattingly is grounded because he’s been exposed to the measles. Those are back too, somehow. RIP Bill Paxton