The "Successful Failure" of Apollo 13 Shortly after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin successfully landed and walked on the Moon for the first time in history, another lunar mission has almost come to an end. in disaster without the courage and strong leadership it took to bring three men back to Earth. Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks), Jack Swiggert (played by Kevin Bacon), and Fred Haise (played by Bill Paxton) took off on the Apollo 13 mission on April 11, 1970 to attempt to collect samples from the Earth's surface. Moon and observe it. Swiggert replaced the more experienced Ken Mattingly (played by Gary Sinese), since Mattingly was the only one not immune to measles after one of the other astronauts contracted it. The flight surgeon on the trip ordered him to stay on the ground to keep himself and the crew healthy during the flight. After safely leaving Earth's atmosphere and heading in the right direction, routine stirring of the oxygen tank, often required during space missions, caused a coil in the tank to break loose and erupt, creating new unforeseen problems. The explosion forced open most of the oxygen tanks as they escaped into space, increased carbon dioxide levels in the command module the men were traveling in, and significantly reduced their energy capacities. Immediately, NASA assembled the best and brightest men on its staff to assess the situation and Flight Director Gene Kranz (played by Ed Harris) canceled the moon landing, changing the mission's final task to a return home safely. Through repeated calculations, experimentation by Ken Mattingly who was familiar with module systems, and a little luck, men were able to launch themselves around the Moon, using its gravity to return home on the correct way. With...... middle of paper......unlike stereotypical "hero" stories in which a reactive call to action is made even though they have failed to demonstrate skills in leadership. I also discovered that the parties involved shared similar leadership traits and that each character in the film could be easily traced and linked to multiple theories or skills. This shows that the success of the group was almost predetermined before the accident occurred because of the experience, knowledge and skills offered by these men. Eventually, I learned that recreations of real events often correlate with real-life leadership traits, leading me to revisit other films based on real events and observe them more closely; causing further understanding and expansion in my mind on how these events parallel through leadership and quantify the importance that the traits and theories presented above can maintain in all aspects of life.