WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 Houston, we have a problem. Oh, yeah. It is, 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:05.879 I mean, it's just five simple words, but they 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:08.039 carry this incredible amount of weight in our 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:10.080 culture today. They really do. You hear that 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:13.339 phrase and you immediately see Tom Hanks. You 00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:16.219 see the white vest, the furrowed brow. You feel 00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:19.379 that cold, creeping dread of being 200 ,000 miles 00:00:19.379 --> 00:00:23.500 from Earth in a tin can that is slowly dying. 00:00:24.089 --> 00:00:27.149 It's really the ultimate cinematic moment of 00:00:27.149 --> 00:00:29.649 crisis. It absolutely is. It's the shorthand 00:00:29.649 --> 00:00:32.590 we all use for disaster now. It gets used in 00:00:32.590 --> 00:00:34.710 boardrooms when the quarterly numbers are down. 00:00:34.950 --> 00:00:37.070 It's used in traffic when you miss your exit. 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:40.600 or even just when the coffee machine breaks on 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:42.560 a Monday morning. Yeah, exactly. It's arguably 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:44.619 one of the most famous quotes of the 20th century 00:00:44.619 --> 00:00:47.700 right up there with I have a dream or Mr. Gorbachev 00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:50.100 tear down this wall. It's totally iconic. It's 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:52.659 etched into the stone tablets of history. But 00:00:52.659 --> 00:00:55.179 this is exactly why we are here today looking 00:00:55.179 --> 00:00:57.719 at this massive stack of transcripts and flight 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:01.359 journals. It is also, technically speaking, a 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:03.399 lie. Well, lie might be a little bit of a strong 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:06.019 word, but it is definitely a fabrication. A Hollywood 00:01:06.019 --> 00:01:08.719 rewrite. Yeah, a Hollywood rewrite that somehow 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:11.200 became more famous than the actual truth. So 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:13.579 that is our mission for this deep dive today. 00:01:13.719 --> 00:01:15.780 We're going to look at the Apollo 13 mission 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:18.799 and not the movie, but the actual real world 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:21.739 event that took place in 1970. Right, the historical 00:01:21.739 --> 00:01:25.420 reality. We are going to parse the literal second 00:01:25.420 --> 00:01:27.500 -by -second transcript of what happened when 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:31.079 that oxygen tank blew. We'll figure out who actually 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:33.879 said what, why the technical details matter so 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.340 much, and honestly, why the misquote might actually 00:01:36.340 --> 00:01:39.260 feel truer than the historical fact. It's such 00:01:39.260 --> 00:01:41.680 a fascinating case study in how collective memory 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:44.120 works. I mean, we remember the movie version 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:46.819 because it fits how we want our heroes to sound. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:49.950 Totally. But the reality... The reality is much 00:01:49.950 --> 00:01:52.469 messier, it's a lot more technical, and in my 00:01:52.469 --> 00:01:54.650 opinion, it's much more interesting. I completely 00:01:54.650 --> 00:01:56.790 agree. And to get to the bottom of this, we are 00:01:56.790 --> 00:01:58.989 pulling from a few different sources today. We've 00:01:58.989 --> 00:02:01.629 got a great mix. Yeah, we're looking at the Wikipedia 00:02:01.629 --> 00:02:04.269 entry for the phrase itself, which has some great 00:02:04.269 --> 00:02:07.489 background. We are diving deep into the official 00:02:07.489 --> 00:02:11.509 Apollo 13 flight journal for the exact transcripts. 00:02:11.689 --> 00:02:14.610 And we've also got some really interesting production 00:02:14.610 --> 00:02:17.750 notes and insights from the makers of the 1995 00:02:17.750 --> 00:02:20.129 film. It's the perfect combination of history 00:02:20.129 --> 00:02:22.389 and Hollywood. So let's set the scene for everyone 00:02:22.389 --> 00:02:26.219 listening. It's April 1970. Apollo 13, this is 00:02:26.219 --> 00:02:28.219 the third attempt to land humans on the moon. 00:02:28.979 --> 00:02:32.039 And the vibe at the time was, it was weirdly 00:02:32.039 --> 00:02:34.840 complacent, wasn't it? It was incredibly complacent. 00:02:34.900 --> 00:02:36.580 You really have to remember the context of the 00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:39.000 era. We had already beaten the Russians. Armstrong 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.319 and Aldrin had walked on the moon in 69. Right, 00:02:41.460 --> 00:02:44.009 the big race was over. Exactly. And Apollo 12 00:02:44.009 --> 00:02:45.849 had gone perfectly too. So by the time Apollo 00:02:45.849 --> 00:02:48.370 13 rolled around, the American public was almost 00:02:48.370 --> 00:02:50.509 bored with space travel. Which sounds so crazy 00:02:50.509 --> 00:02:53.430 now. It does. The major TV networks weren't even 00:02:53.430 --> 00:02:55.330 carrying the primetime broadcast from the ship. 00:02:55.650 --> 00:02:57.990 It was treated as a quote unquote routine flight, 00:02:58.169 --> 00:03:00.550 which is just insane when you think about the 00:03:00.550 --> 00:03:03.250 physics involved. Routine space travel. That 00:03:03.250 --> 00:03:05.689 is such a wild concept, like, oh, just another 00:03:05.689 --> 00:03:08.270 Tuesday blasting three guys into a complete vacuum 00:03:08.270 --> 00:03:10.430 on top of a giant bunk. I know, but that was 00:03:10.430 --> 00:03:12.669 the atmosphere. Yeah. So they're cruising along. 00:03:12.969 --> 00:03:15.689 They are about 55 hours into the mission. They've 00:03:15.689 --> 00:03:18.150 just finished a TV broadcast where they showed 00:03:18.150 --> 00:03:20.699 the world how they live in zero gravity. You 00:03:20.699 --> 00:03:22.759 know, playing music, having a good time. Turnin' 00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:25.860 around. Yeah. And then they sign off. The cameras 00:03:25.860 --> 00:03:28.340 go dead. Yeah. And everyone just relaxes. And 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:30.060 this is where the timeline gets crucial, right? 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:32.560 We have a very specific time stamp for when everything 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:34.939 just goes completely sideways. We do. According 00:03:34.939 --> 00:03:37.520 to the Apollo 13 Flight Journal, the critical 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:42.599 moment happens at 055 .55 .15 ground elapsed 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:46.669 time. OK. That translates to 55 hours. 55 minutes 00:03:46.669 --> 00:03:50.069 and 19 seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space 00:03:50.069 --> 00:03:53.389 Center. So nearly 56 hours out into deep space. 00:03:53.969 --> 00:03:56.009 And then mission control asks them to do something 00:03:56.009 --> 00:03:58.669 that sounds like a kitchen chore. They ask them 00:03:58.669 --> 00:04:01.129 to stir the cryo tanks. The cryo tanks. Yeah, 00:04:01.129 --> 00:04:02.870 it sounds like you're making soup. But in this 00:04:02.870 --> 00:04:05.490 context, the service module had these massive 00:04:05.490 --> 00:04:07.909 tanks holding liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. 00:04:08.589 --> 00:04:11.590 And over time, the contents would settle or stratify, 00:04:11.990 --> 00:04:13.969 which made it hard to measure exactly how much 00:04:13.969 --> 00:04:16.050 fuel they have left. So they needed to mix it 00:04:16.050 --> 00:04:18.470 up. Exactly. They had these little fans inside 00:04:18.470 --> 00:04:21.509 the tanks to mix up the super cold liquid and 00:04:21.509 --> 00:04:23.629 get an accurate quantity reading. So it's literally 00:04:23.629 --> 00:04:26.189 just a standard maintenance task. Completely 00:04:26.189 --> 00:04:29.189 routine. So Jack Swigert, he's the command module 00:04:29.189 --> 00:04:31.889 pilot, he flips the switch to turn on the fans 00:04:31.889 --> 00:04:34.420 inside the oxygen tank. And that is the exact 00:04:34.420 --> 00:04:37.040 moment the universe decides to throw a massive 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:40.259 curveball. A catastrophic one. Unknown to the 00:04:40.259 --> 00:04:43.160 crew, there was some damaged Teflon insulation 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:46.300 on the wiring inside that specific tank. It was 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:48.579 actually a manufacturing defect from years prior. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:50.759 Oh, wow. Yeah, so when Swigert flipped that switch, 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:53.720 a spark jumped. And in a pure high -pressure 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:56.660 liquid oxygen environment, a spark is, I mean, 00:04:56.779 --> 00:04:59.319 it's game over. It's a bomb. Pretty much. The 00:04:59.319 --> 00:05:01.600 tank didn't just catch fire, it exploded. It 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:04.540 blew the entire side panel off the service module. 00:05:04.980 --> 00:05:08.899 Now, in the movie, this is portrayed as instant 00:05:08.899 --> 00:05:12.120 chaos. You've got debris flying everywhere, master 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:14.500 alarms are screaming, dramatic music is swelling, 00:05:14.699 --> 00:05:17.279 and Tom Hanks is looking instantly heroic and 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:20.050 concerned. Naturally. But we have the Apollo 00:05:20.050 --> 00:05:23.629 13 flight journal right here. This is the verbatim 00:05:23.629 --> 00:05:26.209 transcript of the audio loop between the ship 00:05:26.209 --> 00:05:29.569 and Houston. What actually happens in that very 00:05:29.569 --> 00:05:34.389 first second. Silence or rather confusion. Jim 00:05:34.389 --> 00:05:36.550 Lovell recalled this later in a book called Apollo 00:05:36.550 --> 00:05:39.430 Expeditions to the Moon. He said the astronauts 00:05:39.430 --> 00:05:41.740 felt a bang and the ship shuttered. But they 00:05:41.740 --> 00:05:43.339 didn't know what it was. Right. They thought 00:05:43.339 --> 00:05:45.399 maybe a meteoroid had hit the lunar module or 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:47.720 maybe one of their own engine thrusters had just 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:50.040 misfired. They were just trying to process the 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:52.319 physical sensation. So it wasn't immediate panic. 00:05:52.379 --> 00:05:55.519 Not at all. And then exactly 26 seconds after 00:05:55.519 --> 00:05:58.139 the explosion, the radio crackles. And this is 00:05:58.139 --> 00:05:59.720 where the famous line is supposed to be. This 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:01.680 is where everyone sitting at home expects to 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:04.560 hear, Houston, we have a problem. But it's not 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:07.180 there. The first person to speak isn't even Jim 00:06:07.180 --> 00:06:09.759 Lovell, the commander. It's Jack Swigert. The 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:13.240 guy who flipped the switch? Yes. And he doesn't 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:16.519 say, Houston, we have a problem. He says, OK, 00:06:16.579 --> 00:06:18.899 Houston, we've had a problem here. We've had 00:06:18.899 --> 00:06:22.480 a problem. Past tense. Past perfect tense. Specifically, 00:06:22.939 --> 00:06:25.829 we've had. That is just such a strange grammatical 00:06:25.829 --> 00:06:28.470 choice for a life -threatening crisis. I mean, 00:06:28.629 --> 00:06:31.269 a problem is urgent. It's happening right now. 00:06:31.389 --> 00:06:33.649 We've had a problem. It sounds like you're reporting 00:06:33.649 --> 00:06:36.029 a glitch that already happened and is over. Right. 00:06:36.189 --> 00:06:37.829 Like, hey, the light's flickered. Just letting 00:06:37.829 --> 00:06:40.470 you know everything is fine now. Precisely. And 00:06:40.470 --> 00:06:42.329 that tells us everything we need to know about 00:06:42.329 --> 00:06:45.310 their mindset. These guys are test pilots. They 00:06:45.310 --> 00:06:48.610 are highly trained to suppress panic and just 00:06:48.610 --> 00:06:51.360 analyze data. So he's not freaking out. Swiger 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:53.660 wasn't screaming for help at all. He was reporting 00:06:53.660 --> 00:06:57.240 an anomaly. At that exact second, he had no idea 00:06:57.240 --> 00:06:59.379 the side of his ship is blown out into the vacuum 00:06:59.379 --> 00:07:01.959 of space. He just thought, OK, we had a weird 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:04.420 voltage spike and a loud bang. Let's report it 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:06.319 to the ground. He's treating it like a standard 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:08.600 glitch report. So how did Houston react to that? 00:07:08.620 --> 00:07:10.759 Did they immediately jump into action stations? 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:13.879 No. And this is the part that people always forget. 00:07:14.540 --> 00:07:16.920 Houston didn't even hear him clearly the first 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:19.319 time. Seriously. They missed the most famous 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:22.500 quote in history. Seriously. There was static 00:07:22.500 --> 00:07:25.459 on the line or maybe just disbelief because the 00:07:25.459 --> 00:07:27.300 telemetry screens on the ground were suddenly 00:07:27.300 --> 00:07:31.500 going haywire. Wow. Jack Luzma was the capsule 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:34.199 communicator down in Houston. He's the only person 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:36.759 allowed to talk directly to the crew. And his 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:38.819 response to Swigert's life or death announcement 00:07:38.819 --> 00:07:41.939 was literally, this is Houston. Say again, please. 00:07:42.019 --> 00:07:45.480 Say again, please. That is so remarkably mundane. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:47.759 The ship is bleeding oxygen into space. They 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:50.379 are actively losing electrical power. And the 00:07:50.379 --> 00:07:51.899 guy on the ground is basically saying, sorry, 00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:53.939 you broke up there. Come again. It really highlights 00:07:53.939 --> 00:07:56.420 the fragility of the whole link. We think of 00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:58.720 NASA as this omniscient, all -knowing force. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:01.939 But in 1970, they were relying on radio waves 00:08:01.939 --> 00:08:04.259 traveling over 200 ,000 miles. Yeah, the delay 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:05.699 in the static must have been nerve -wracking. 00:08:06.019 --> 00:08:09.040 It was. It also shows that nobody on the ground 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:11.379 was panicked yet either. They were just confused. 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:15.199 So after Luzma asks for clarification, Jim Lovell, 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:18.639 the commander, jumps on the line. OK, so Swigert 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:20.740 said it first. Nobody heard him properly. So 00:08:20.740 --> 00:08:23.600 the boss steps in to take over. Does Lovell finally 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:27.540 drop the movie line? He gets closer, but still 00:08:27.540 --> 00:08:31.259 no. Lovell says, ah, Houston, we've had a problem. 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:33.679 I'm sorry, I repeat it. He repeats Swigert's 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.639 phrasing exactly. We've had. So both of them. 00:08:37.299 --> 00:08:39.340 independently in the heat of the moment, chose 00:08:39.340 --> 00:08:42.000 to frame this massive explosion as a past event. 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:45.440 We've had a problem. Yes. And then Lovell immediately 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:47.600 pitted straight to the data. He doesn't say the 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:49.879 ship is shaking or we are scared. He adds the 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.200 specific technical detail that defines the crisis 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:54.139 for the engineers on the ground. Which was? He 00:08:54.139 --> 00:08:56.960 says. We've had a main B bus undervolt. OK, hold 00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:59.120 on. Main B bus undervolt. We definitely need 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:01.159 to untack that. It sounds like straight up Star 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:03.620 Trek techno babble, but this was the specific 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:05.480 thing that told them they were in deep trouble. 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:08.519 It was the smoking gun. So what exactly is a 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:11.360 main B bus? Think of the Apollo command module, 00:09:11.500 --> 00:09:14.159 kind of like a house. A bus is essentially a 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:16.919 main circuit breaker panel. It distributes electricity 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:19.000 from the power source, which were the three fuel 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:21.820 cells, to all the critical instruments, the guidance 00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:24.600 computer, the life support, the radio. So the 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:27.779 ship has a main bus A and a main bus B. Exactly. 00:09:28.259 --> 00:09:30.679 It's all about redundancy. If one fails, the 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:33.960 other one takes over. But Lovell sees a bright 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:35.700 warning light on the instrument panel telling 00:09:35.700 --> 00:09:38.139 him that main bus B is undervolting. Meaning 00:09:38.139 --> 00:09:40.399 the voltage is dropping. Right. The voltage is 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:42.200 dropping below the functional level required 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:44.360 to run the ship. Which means the power is dying. 00:09:44.539 --> 00:09:46.419 It means the fuel cells aren't generating power. 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:48.320 And this is where the real detective work comes 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:51.620 in. Because the fuel cells run by combining liquid 00:09:51.620 --> 00:09:55.100 hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Oh, I see. Yeah. 00:09:55.299 --> 00:09:57.659 So seeing a severe power drop was their very 00:09:57.659 --> 00:10:00.539 first clue that they were losing oxygen. No oxygen 00:10:00.539 --> 00:10:03.139 means no power. That is absolutely terrifying. 00:10:03.320 --> 00:10:06.340 But listening to the actual audio tapes, Lovell's 00:10:06.340 --> 00:10:08.919 voice is incredibly flat. It's almost bored. 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:12.200 Main B bus undervolt. It's the right stuff. Right. 00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:14.320 That's what Tom Wolf wrote about. It's the ability 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:17.639 to completely control your physiological response 00:10:17.639 --> 00:10:20.519 to fear so you can continue to work the problem. 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:24.399 It's superhuman. If you listen to the tape, his 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:26.340 heart rate must have been spiking through the 00:10:26.340 --> 00:10:29.940 roof, but his voice is just doing the job. He 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.669 isn't emoting at all. He's purely reporting. 00:10:32.929 --> 00:10:34.990 It's so interesting, because if he had keyed 00:10:34.990 --> 00:10:37.090 the mic and screamed, oh my god, the side of 00:10:37.090 --> 00:10:39.049 the ship just blew off, Houston probably would 00:10:39.049 --> 00:10:40.789 have panicked, too. Oh, absolutely. Panic is 00:10:40.789 --> 00:10:43.929 contagious. But by saying main B bus undervolt, 00:10:44.250 --> 00:10:47.509 he forced everyone in that room in Houston into 00:10:47.509 --> 00:10:49.850 engineering mode. Like, OK, let's look at the 00:10:49.850 --> 00:10:52.450 schematic. Why is the voltage dropping? Let's 00:10:52.450 --> 00:10:55.049 solve the math. Exactly. He turned a desperate 00:10:55.049 --> 00:10:57.909 survival situation into a math problem. And frankly, 00:10:58.169 --> 00:11:00.409 That is exactly how they survived. They didn't 00:11:00.409 --> 00:11:03.250 survive by being action heroes shooting their 00:11:03.250 --> 00:11:06.029 way out of a problem. They survived by being 00:11:06.029 --> 00:11:09.090 really, really good engineers. They had to figure 00:11:09.090 --> 00:11:11.769 out how to shut down the dying command module, 00:11:12.230 --> 00:11:14.750 move the three of them into the tiny lunar module, 00:11:15.169 --> 00:11:18.250 use it as a lifeboat, and then calculate a trajectory 00:11:18.250 --> 00:11:21.129 home with a physical slide rule. It really was 00:11:21.129 --> 00:11:23.629 the ultimate hack, using the moon lander as a 00:11:23.629 --> 00:11:26.250 space tugboat. Precisely. But it all started 00:11:26.250 --> 00:11:29.169 with that very calm very grammatical, past tense 00:11:29.169 --> 00:11:31.990 report. We've had a problem. Okay, so we have 00:11:31.990 --> 00:11:34.549 established the historical reality. Sweer speaks 00:11:34.549 --> 00:11:37.409 first. Lovell confirms. They both use the past 00:11:37.409 --> 00:11:39.950 tense we've had. And they immediately get technical 00:11:39.950 --> 00:11:41.909 with the undervolt. Right. Now let's fast forward 00:11:41.909 --> 00:11:45.049 to 1995. Ron Howard is directing the movie Apollo 00:11:45.049 --> 00:11:48.169 13. Tom Hanks is playing Jim Lovell. The production 00:11:48.169 --> 00:11:50.549 team has the transcripts. They have the NASA 00:11:50.549 --> 00:11:52.509 advisors on set. They know exactly what was said. 00:11:52.909 --> 00:11:54.970 Why on earth did they change it? This is where 00:11:54.970 --> 00:11:56.809 art collides with history in a really interesting 00:11:56.809 --> 00:11:59.450 way. The screenwriter, William Broyles Jr., along 00:11:59.450 --> 00:12:01.250 with the rest of the production team, looked 00:12:01.250 --> 00:12:03.970 at that real line. Houston, we've had a problem, 00:12:04.509 --> 00:12:06.389 and they realize something crucial for a film. 00:12:06.629 --> 00:12:09.250 Which is? It sucks for a movie. It's just too 00:12:09.250 --> 00:12:11.710 anti -climactic. It's structurally weak for a 00:12:11.710 --> 00:12:14.450 narrative. Grammatically, we've had it implies 00:12:14.450 --> 00:12:16.789 the problem is over. We've had a problem, and 00:12:16.789 --> 00:12:19.429 now it's fixed. Let's move on. Right, like saying 00:12:19.429 --> 00:12:21.490 we've had a flat tire, but we changed it so we're 00:12:21.490 --> 00:12:24.190 back on the road. Or we've had a misunderstanding, 00:12:24.350 --> 00:12:27.330 but we hugged it out. Exactly. But for the audience 00:12:27.330 --> 00:12:29.490 sitting in a dark theater watching the movie, 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:33.639 The problem is definitely not over. It is just 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:36.220 starting. Because we saw the explosion. Yes. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:38.659 The audience knows the ending, or at least they 00:12:38.659 --> 00:12:40.840 know the immediate danger of the explosion that 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:43.700 just happened on screen. If Tom Hanks looks at 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:46.600 the camera and says we've had a problem, it creates 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:49.080 a weird disconnect. It makes the character seem 00:12:49.080 --> 00:12:51.649 like he's behind the curve. That is a really 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:54.129 subtle but brilliant point. So changing it to 00:12:54.129 --> 00:12:57.029 Houston, we have a problem, present tense, aligns 00:12:57.029 --> 00:12:59.529 the character's realization with the audience's 00:12:59.529 --> 00:13:02.789 anxiety. 100%. We have a problem is a declaration 00:13:02.789 --> 00:13:06.169 of an active ongoing state of emergency. It's 00:13:06.169 --> 00:13:08.549 signaled to the viewer, the nightmare has begun, 00:13:08.669 --> 00:13:11.529 and we are in it right now. It completely synchronizes 00:13:11.529 --> 00:13:13.610 the character's fear with the audience's fear. 00:13:13.909 --> 00:13:17.049 It creates instant urgency. It validates the 00:13:17.049 --> 00:13:20.159 suspense. And Broyles actually admitted this 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:22.240 in interviews later. He said the original line 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:24.460 just wasn't dramatic enough for the turning point 00:13:24.460 --> 00:13:27.620 of a major Hollywood film. I can see that. And 00:13:27.620 --> 00:13:29.879 there's another layer here, too, involving the 00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:33.399 perspective of mission control. How so? Well, 00:13:33.620 --> 00:13:36.320 in real life, mission control was confused for 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:39.980 a long time. They spent the next 15 minutes trying 00:13:39.980 --> 00:13:42.100 to figure out if it was just a sensor error. 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:44.000 They thought maybe the instrumentation on the 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:46.470 ship was just glitching and giving bad readings. 00:13:46.990 --> 00:13:48.730 Because things breaking in space usually are 00:13:48.730 --> 00:13:51.649 just sensor glitches. Right. But in a movie, 00:13:51.990 --> 00:13:54.730 you can't have 15 minutes of screen time with 00:13:54.730 --> 00:13:56.830 guys in short sleeve button downs looking at 00:13:56.830 --> 00:13:59.230 green screens saying, is that right? Maybe tap 00:13:59.230 --> 00:14:00.730 the gauge. Let's wait and see. Yeah, that would 00:14:00.730 --> 00:14:02.929 kill the pacing. You need to propel the story 00:14:02.929 --> 00:14:04.909 forward. Right. You only have two hours to tell 00:14:04.909 --> 00:14:07.350 a story that took four days to unfold. Exactly. 00:14:07.529 --> 00:14:09.690 Yeah. So by having Hank say we have a problem, 00:14:09.850 --> 00:14:11.889 it acts as a starting gun for the second and 00:14:11.889 --> 00:14:14.230 third acts of the film. It tells the audience, 00:14:14.509 --> 00:14:17.330 okay, the setup is done. Now we are purely in 00:14:17.330 --> 00:14:20.450 survival mode. It's narrative efficiency. Real 00:14:20.450 --> 00:14:23.509 life is messy and repetitive and full of static. 00:14:23.669 --> 00:14:26.570 Movies have to be clean and linear. Precisely. 00:14:26.750 --> 00:14:29.429 And honestly, it worked perfectly. The American 00:14:29.429 --> 00:14:32.389 Film Institute ranked Houston, we have a problem. 00:14:32.649 --> 00:14:35.230 as the number 50 greatest movie quote of all 00:14:35.230 --> 00:14:38.389 time. Number 50 out of everything. Yeah. It beat 00:14:38.389 --> 00:14:40.809 out thousands of lines from purely fictional 00:14:40.809 --> 00:14:43.470 movies. It became the definitive cultural memory 00:14:43.470 --> 00:14:46.110 of the event. It's funny because in a way, the 00:14:46.110 --> 00:14:48.509 misquote has actually become the historical record 00:14:48.509 --> 00:14:51.070 for most people. If you ask a random person on 00:14:51.070 --> 00:14:53.429 the street what Jim Lovell said up there, they 00:14:53.429 --> 00:14:55.889 will confidently quote the movie, not the flight 00:14:55.889 --> 00:14:58.210 journal. It's the Mandela Effect of space travel. 00:14:58.699 --> 00:15:00.840 We collectively remember the version that sounds 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:03.440 better to our ears. It's rhythmically superior. 00:15:04.019 --> 00:15:05.919 Houston Paws, we have a problem, has a great 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:08.779 dramatic beat. Unlike the real one. Right. Ah, 00:15:08.940 --> 00:15:10.860 Houston. We've had a problem here is clunky. 00:15:11.399 --> 00:15:13.460 It has filler words. It has that passive hat. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:15.870 It just doesn't sound like a movie poster. And 00:15:15.870 --> 00:15:18.009 it's not just about the rhythm either. It's really 00:15:18.009 --> 00:15:20.649 about the utility of the phrase today. We don't 00:15:20.649 --> 00:15:22.710 just use it for space exploration anymore. It 00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:26.549 has fully entered the everyday lexicon. Oh, absolutely. 00:15:26.789 --> 00:15:29.370 It is everywhere. And what's really fascinating 00:15:29.370 --> 00:15:32.669 from a linguistic standpoint is how we use it. 00:15:32.889 --> 00:15:35.529 Linguists like Naomi S. Barron have pointed out 00:15:35.529 --> 00:15:38.429 that we use it as ironic understatement. Break 00:15:38.429 --> 00:15:40.629 that down for me. Ironic understatement. Well, 00:15:40.629 --> 00:15:42.669 think about the immense gravity of the original 00:15:42.669 --> 00:15:47.000 situation. Three men. dying in a vacuum, slowly 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:49.659 freezing to death, poisoning themselves with 00:15:49.659 --> 00:15:52.620 carbon dioxide as the scrubbers fail. It is a 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:54.820 maximum level crisis. Right. It's literally the 00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:56.919 worst possible scenario a human being could find 00:15:56.919 --> 00:15:59.639 themselves in. But now you use that phrase when 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:01.120 you can't find your car keys in the morning. 00:16:01.610 --> 00:16:04.350 Houston, we have a problem. You are deliberately 00:16:04.350 --> 00:16:07.149 taking the language of a fatal catastrophe and 00:16:07.149 --> 00:16:09.669 applying it to a trivial inconvenience. So the 00:16:09.669 --> 00:16:12.090 humor comes from the contrast. Exactly. That 00:16:12.090 --> 00:16:14.409 massive gap between the life or death survival 00:16:14.409 --> 00:16:17.110 of the astronauts and your missing keys is where 00:16:17.110 --> 00:16:19.610 the irony lives. It's a way of making fun of 00:16:19.610 --> 00:16:22.210 your own situation. Like, I'm making this sound 00:16:22.210 --> 00:16:24.490 like a space disaster, but really I just spilled 00:16:24.490 --> 00:16:28.129 mustard on my shirt. Or, conversely, it's a way 00:16:28.129 --> 00:16:30.129 of trying to summon that astronaut cool under 00:16:30.129 --> 00:16:32.960 pressure. Even if you are actually panicking, 00:16:33.159 --> 00:16:35.980 say your company's server just crashed, and you 00:16:35.980 --> 00:16:38.340 are losing millions of dollars a minute saying, 00:16:38.620 --> 00:16:41.600 Houston, we have a problem, is a way of projecting 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:43.799 competence to your team. Oh, that's interesting. 00:16:43.980 --> 00:16:46.240 It says, I acknowledge the disaster, but I am 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:48.759 remaining calm like Tom Hanks. Even though Tom 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.059 Hanks was just acting, and the real Jim Lovell 00:16:51.059 --> 00:16:53.960 was even palmer than the actor playing him. Exactly. 00:16:54.139 --> 00:16:57.330 It's a simulation of a simulation. We are imitating 00:16:57.330 --> 00:16:59.450 an actor imitating an astronaut. It reminds me 00:16:59.450 --> 00:17:01.870 of other famous misquotes like Luke I am your 00:17:01.870 --> 00:17:03.789 father. Darth Aider never actually said that 00:17:03.789 --> 00:17:06.490 he said no I am your father or play it again 00:17:06.490 --> 00:17:09.789 Sam in Casablanca. Why do we constantly do this? 00:17:09.849 --> 00:17:12.170 Why do we collectively edit our own history? 00:17:12.430 --> 00:17:15.289 Because our human brains prioritize meaning and 00:17:15.289 --> 00:17:18.950 context over literal accuracy. Luke I am your 00:17:18.950 --> 00:17:21.890 father provides its own context. It tells you 00:17:21.890 --> 00:17:23.950 exactly who is being spoken to. Right, without 00:17:23.950 --> 00:17:25.910 Luke it's just a random guy saying he's a dad. 00:17:26.190 --> 00:17:29.809 Exactly. No, I am, your father requires the previous 00:17:29.809 --> 00:17:32.250 line of dialogue to make any sense. Yeah. Houston, 00:17:32.529 --> 00:17:35.630 we have a problem, is a complete self -contained 00:17:35.630 --> 00:17:38.690 package. It stands completely alone. It doesn't 00:17:38.690 --> 00:17:41.210 need the context of the main B bus undervolt 00:17:41.210 --> 00:17:44.089 to be understood. It tells the whole story of 00:17:44.089 --> 00:17:46.890 a crisis. In just five words. It's optimized 00:17:46.890 --> 00:17:49.069 for memory. It's basically the viral version 00:17:49.069 --> 00:17:51.690 of history. It really is. You know, I want to 00:17:51.690 --> 00:17:53.349 go back to something you mentioned earlier about 00:17:53.349 --> 00:17:56.170 the main B bus undervolt. We sort of glossed 00:17:56.170 --> 00:17:58.650 over it, but that specific technical detail is 00:17:58.650 --> 00:18:02.269 exactly why the misquote bothers some space purists, 00:18:02.349 --> 00:18:04.349 isn't it? Because by cutting that second half 00:18:04.349 --> 00:18:07.690 of the line, the movie removes the specific technical 00:18:07.690 --> 00:18:09.670 competence of the crew. That is a very valid 00:18:09.670 --> 00:18:12.170 critique. In the movie, the drama comes from 00:18:12.170 --> 00:18:14.799 the raw motion. In reality, the drama came from 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:17.160 the intense troubleshooting. By removing the 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:18.859 technical jargon, you make the audience feel 00:18:18.859 --> 00:18:20.740 the fear, but you maybe lose a little bit of 00:18:20.740 --> 00:18:22.319 their respect for their incredible intellect. 00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:25.700 Right. We have a problem is a cry for help. Main 00:18:25.700 --> 00:18:29.059 B -Bus Undervolt is a diagnostic report. It implies 00:18:29.059 --> 00:18:31.099 they already know partially what's going wrong. 00:18:31.539 --> 00:18:34.650 Exactly. But... To defend the filmmakers a bit, 00:18:34.849 --> 00:18:37.450 and specifically Ron Howard, if Tom Hanks had 00:18:37.450 --> 00:18:39.710 looked at the camera and said, Houston, we've 00:18:39.710 --> 00:18:42.809 had a main B bus undervolt, 99 % of the audience 00:18:42.809 --> 00:18:44.630 would have gone, what does that mean? And the 00:18:44.630 --> 00:18:46.829 tension would have completely deflated. Completely. 00:18:47.049 --> 00:18:49.789 You would have needed another character to awkwardly 00:18:49.789 --> 00:18:52.529 step in and explain, my god, Jim, that means 00:18:52.529 --> 00:18:55.230 the power is out. In English, Jim. Right. And 00:18:55.230 --> 00:18:57.910 then you're suddenly in a bad B movie. So the 00:18:57.910 --> 00:19:00.009 simplification was entirely necessary for the 00:19:00.009 --> 00:19:02.430 visual medium. You trade technical accuracy. 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:04.859 for emotional clarity. It's also worth noting 00:19:04.859 --> 00:19:06.859 the shared credit here. In the movie, it's the 00:19:06.859 --> 00:19:09.220 big Tom Hanks moment. He gets the dramatic close 00:19:09.220 --> 00:19:12.299 up. But in reality, Swigert said it first. Poor 00:19:12.299 --> 00:19:14.839 Jack Swigert. He really gets sidelined in the 00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:17.420 pop culture version of this event. He was the 00:19:17.420 --> 00:19:19.420 one who saw the warning light flash. He was the 00:19:19.420 --> 00:19:21.680 one who felt the vibration first. He initiated 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:23.839 the radio call. But Lovell was the commander, 00:19:24.140 --> 00:19:26.539 the senior officer on the ship. And in the very 00:19:26.539 --> 00:19:28.940 hierarchical world of the military and NASA, 00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:31.779 the commander's word is the official record. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:35.099 Once Lovell repeated it, it became the definitive 00:19:35.099 --> 00:19:38.119 report. Plus, let's be honest, having the biggest 00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:40.940 movie star in the world play Lovell cemented 00:19:40.940 --> 00:19:43.400 it in the culture. That helps. If Jack Swigert 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:45.539 had been played by Tom Hanks, maybe we'd all 00:19:45.539 --> 00:19:48.609 remember Swigert's line instead. So if we zoom 00:19:48.609 --> 00:19:51.710 out on all of this, we have a catastrophic explosion. 00:19:52.130 --> 00:19:55.170 We have a calm, highly technical report using 00:19:55.170 --> 00:19:58.130 the past tense. We have a confused mission control 00:19:58.130 --> 00:20:00.690 asking them to repeat themselves. And then 25 00:20:00.690 --> 00:20:02.349 years later, we have a screenwriter who needs 00:20:02.349 --> 00:20:04.769 to make an audience sweat. So he changes the 00:20:04.769 --> 00:20:06.950 tense and gives the line to the lead actor. That 00:20:06.950 --> 00:20:09.329 is the complete anatomy of the quote. And now 00:20:09.329 --> 00:20:12.430 it's number 50 on the AFI list. It's a meme. 00:20:12.650 --> 00:20:15.329 It's a joke when you drop your keys. It's a universal 00:20:15.329 --> 00:20:18.480 cultural touchstone. It has completely transcended 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:20.779 the event itself. There are people who use the 00:20:20.779 --> 00:20:23.140 phrase every day who probably don't even know 00:20:23.140 --> 00:20:25.660 it comes from Apollo 13. It's just an idiom now. 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:28.039 It's literally just part of the English language. 00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:31.640 That is wild to think about. A specific technical 00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:35.759 report from three guys in a tin can in 1970 has 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:38.920 become just how we talk to each other. That is 00:20:38.920 --> 00:20:41.700 the raw power of storytelling. But I think it's 00:20:41.700 --> 00:20:43.339 really important, like what we're doing today, 00:20:43.859 --> 00:20:46.059 to actually go back to the source material. Why 00:20:46.059 --> 00:20:49.099 is that? Because the source material tells us 00:20:49.099 --> 00:20:51.940 that when the chips were truly down, these guys 00:20:51.940 --> 00:20:54.160 didn't speak in flashy movie quotes. They spoke 00:20:54.160 --> 00:20:57.880 in cold, hard data. And that data is why they 00:20:57.880 --> 00:20:59.880 got home alive. They didn't need to be dramatic. 00:21:00.059 --> 00:21:02.299 They just needed to be right. Exactly. They needed 00:21:02.299 --> 00:21:05.230 to solve the puzzle before the air ran out. Before 00:21:05.230 --> 00:21:07.430 we wrap up today, I want to pose a question to 00:21:07.430 --> 00:21:09.890 you and really to you listening at home. We spent 00:21:09.890 --> 00:21:12.329 this entire time debunking the quote. We know 00:21:12.329 --> 00:21:14.369 it's historically wrong. We know we've had is 00:21:14.369 --> 00:21:17.369 the absolute truth. But do you actually prefer 00:21:17.369 --> 00:21:20.190 the movie version? Oh, that is the big question. 00:21:20.630 --> 00:21:23.069 As a historian, I want accuracy. I always want 00:21:23.069 --> 00:21:26.150 the footnote to be right. But as a human being, 00:21:26.210 --> 00:21:28.769 I think I prefer we have a problem. Really? Because 00:21:28.769 --> 00:21:33.180 it's active. We've had carerist is passive. We've 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:35.880 had sounds like you are submitting a grievance 00:21:35.880 --> 00:21:38.759 form to HR. We have a problem. Sounds like you 00:21:38.759 --> 00:21:41.420 are picking up a sword to fed a dragon. I love 00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:43.920 that. It captures the true spirit of the struggle, 00:21:44.519 --> 00:21:46.460 even if it messes with the literal letters of 00:21:46.460 --> 00:21:48.460 the transcript. It captures the emotional truth 00:21:48.460 --> 00:21:50.960 of the moment, even if it has to sacrifice the 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:53.819 factual truth to get there. Exactly. It forces 00:21:53.819 --> 00:21:56.359 us to stay in the present moment of the danger. 00:21:56.619 --> 00:21:59.940 When you say we have a problem, you are instantly 00:21:59.940 --> 00:22:01.720 inviting the person on the other end of the line 00:22:01.720 --> 00:22:04.119 to help you solve it. It's a collaborative call 00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:06.200 to action. Which is exactly what the mission 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:09.019 was. Right. In the end, that is what Apollo 13 00:22:09.019 --> 00:22:11.700 was. It was the ultimate human collaboration. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:14.480 The crew in space and the ground team in Houston 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:17.359 working the problem together step by step for 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:20.039 four grueling days. So maybe the movie got the 00:22:20.039 --> 00:22:22.440 words slightly wrong, but it gave the feeling 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:24.859 exactly right. I think that's a very fair assessment. 00:22:25.019 --> 00:22:27.880 It translates the intense feeling of 1970 for 00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:30.619 a modern audience perfectly. Something to mull 00:22:30.619 --> 00:22:32.539 over the next time you drop a glass of milk in 00:22:32.539 --> 00:22:34.839 the kitchen and mutter, Houston, we have a problem. 00:22:35.380 --> 00:22:38.039 You're not just quoting a movie. You might actually 00:22:38.039 --> 00:22:40.700 be channeling a very specific type of crisis 00:22:40.700 --> 00:22:43.339 management. Just don't ask your spouse for a 00:22:43.339 --> 00:22:45.519 main B bus undervolt report when you're cleaning 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:47.339 up the milk. That might be a little bit of overkill. 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:49.599 We will definitely try to keep the technical 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:52.400 jargon to a minimum in the kitchen. Thanks for 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:54.480 guiding us through the transcripts today. It 00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:57.220 has been genuinely eye -opening to see how history 00:22:57.220 --> 00:22:59.420 gets rewritten like this. Always a pleasure. 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:02.420 Keep questioning the quotes. And to you, listening. 00:23:03.089 --> 00:23:05.470 Thanks for taking this deep dive with us. The 00:23:05.470 --> 00:23:07.869 next time you watch the movie, you can be that 00:23:07.869 --> 00:23:09.970 person who pauses it to explain the grammar. 00:23:10.490 --> 00:23:12.589 Your friends will absolutely love you for it. 00:23:12.829 --> 00:23:14.650 Or, you know, maybe just keep it to yourself 00:23:14.650 --> 00:23:16.930 and appreciate the real history in silence. Just 00:23:16.930 --> 00:23:18.569 a thought. Until next time.