movies similar to “Apollo 13” of disaster barely averted?

[Dancing Fool]

And the emotional core of the movie may have been the argument between the astronauts Fred and Jack—

with Fred saying, “What was that gauge reading before you hit the switch? You don’t know.”

And later on, when the folks in mission control figured out how to power-up the CM [Command Module] on a very limited energy budget, and Jack worked his end as CM pilot,

Fred said, “Way to go, Jack,” and he really meant it. It was better than an apology.

***************

What other movies have the same or similar theme of barely-averted disaster? I’ll even take a couple of boring, crappy movies. But yeah, a good, fun movie would be better. Thanks.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Airport comes to mind.

Airport (1970 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Dancing Fool]

Airport comes to mind.

And even Airport 75, in which the flight attendant flies the plane for a while . . .

If they had just set it up with a throwaway line early in the film— [potential] ‘You know I got interested in aviation because my grandfather was a crop duster,’ or something to that effect, then the situation would have been accepted much more readily.

We think the line is just part of getting the social read on how formal or informal her relationship is with a newer co-worker.

And lo and behold, comes into major play later on [good screenwriting often, but not always, serves two functions at the same time]

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Hostile Waters (1997) and K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) are both submarine pictures that have a somewhat analogous theme of disaster averted and a limited crew having to solve terrible problems to save themselves in a hostile environment; Hostile Waters has the added element of direct sacrifice involved.

 

[pattersonautobody]

Airplane(!)

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Do any of our South American friends know if there was a movie made on that Chilean mine collapse where the miners were rescued after weeks? I don't recall one but it could have been made down there.

 

[jlckansas]

One that would be a good movie to be made is the rescue by Charles Momsen of the Submarine Squalus. I think this would make for a good movie.

 

[Dancing Fool]

Hostile Waters has the added element of direct sacrifice involved.

Sacrifice adds to it, as long as it’s not something they try to shoehorn in.

[by “they,” I mean the screenwriter, director, and editor; and that last person in particular usually doesn’t get enough love! ❤️ ]

 

[Dancing Fool]

Comedy’s cool, but hard to sustain for a whole movie! 😀

Airplane(!)

 

[Simon Darkshade]

No, in that film it is the case of this chap:

Sergey Preminin - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

He genuinely lost his life to prevent a reactor accident.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Comedy’s cool, but hard to sustain for a whole movie! 😀

The problem I have with Airplane! is that when you've seen it you can't watch Airport or Airport 75 without waiting for the jokes.

 

[Dancing Fool]

The problem I have with Airplane! is that when you've seen it you can't watch Airport or Airport 75 without waiting for the jokes.

I want every light you have poured on that runway!

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

I want every light you have poured on that runway!

Surely you can't be serious.

 

[jlckansas]

Surely you can't be serious.

Don't call me Shirley

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Looks like I picked a bad time to stop drinking.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

If they had just set it up with a throwaway line early in the film— [potential] ‘You know I got interested in aviation because my grandfather was a crop duster,’ or something to that effect, then the situation would have been accepted much more readily.

If remade today there'd be a scene where she says she took flying lessons for a while but stopped when the instructor wanted "favours" to continue.

 

[Kalga]

Would Sully count?

 

[Dancing Fool]

Would Sully count?

Not so much for me. First off, the movie is “frontloaded,” with the main danger and heroic action toward the beginning.

And at the end of the day it’s a legal drama.

 

[Dancing Fool]

If remade today there'd be a scene where she says she took flying lessons for a while but stopped when the instructor wanted "favours" to continue.

on the topic of workplace harassment . . .

And turning very serious, including the topic of sexual assault, I am glad we as a society are finally talking about all this. We have all skills we can learn. And most of all . . .

Non-abusive men need to clearly tell abusive men that we don’t approve— not at all.

For example, I’m a 60-yr-old man and what if I suspect, but do not know, that a friend is gearing up to trying something abusive with his step daughter? Say he’s talked about her in sexualized terms on three occasions, so that’s a pattern. Talking twice about her in sexualized manner is a potential pattern, probably is. What can I do constructively? And I don’t think this is an insolvable issue.

This is hypothetical. I don’t face this right here right now. But I think we need these kind of examples so that the majority of us who are not abusers can become more effective at dealing with the minority who are.

Sorry for the mini-essay, but this struck a chord.

* I should be willing to fight my best friend, and maybe lose that fight. But someone else might see me with a big ol’ shiner. Asks me about it, but then maybe he takes it up with the first friend.

 

[Dancing Fool]

directed by Ron Howard.

About the Thai cave rescue, this movie came out late last Summer, pretty much directly onto “Amazon Prime.”

a little goody two-shoes, to tell the truth.

But that’s to be expected. In a movie based on a true story in which people generally made a series of pretty right decisions and generally came through, yes, that’s to be expected. I still enjoyed the movie very much. I think both of the main British divers were divorced, so that added a little imperfection of people and realism.

screenwriter — William Nicholson

film editor — James Wilcox

sound editors — Rachael Tate and Oliver Tarney