Apollo 13(1995)

9 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture – Winner for: Best Editing ; Best Sound Mixing.

Pooper: Thanks, Curt (The Grand Poop-Bah)
The crew of Apollo 13 returns safely to Earth.

Longer version:
As the focus of the mission switches from getting to the Moon to safely returning to Earth, all three astronauts pass by the face of the Moon where they would have landed -specifically around the Fra Mauro Highlands- and are in awe, while Jim (Tom Hanks) laments the failure of the mission.

Conditions gradually deteriorate inside the Aquarius, due to the forced rationing of supplies and electrical power, to stay alive. Fred (Bill Paxton) develops a UTI, and they all start freezing. Tensions arise between them because of this dire situation, and they quarrel and blame each other for the turn of events; Jack (Kevin Bacon) suspects Control, back on Earth, is refusing to admit they might not return home, while Fred blames him for the original explosion that forced the aborting of the whole mission.

Jim manages to get them under control as they discover a new problem: the CO filters have reached their limit of functionality, and the levels of the gas are rising at a dangerous rate. Jim and Ground Control communicate over this issue while frantically trying to find a solution that would prevent the crew from getting killed by CO poisoning. Sy (Clint Howard) comes up with a “Rube Goldberg”-like solution that would allow the filters from the Command module, which are square-shaped, to function in the circular-shaped pods of the Lunar Module. It works, and the CO levels are brought under control.

The crew performs a course correction essential to get on the right path for eventual re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere by manually handling the Lunar Module’s engine, while the Aquarius is off, to prevent power depletion. Back at the Control Centre, Ken (Gary Sinise) -who was replaced by Jack after contracting Rubella, before the deployment of the mission- and Aaron (Loren Dean) try to figure out how to make the Command Module systems operational while saving power; when they do, they relay it to Jack, who successfully restarts the Odyssey by using the remaining power from the Aquarius -after which the latter would be permanently inoperable-.

Since the Service Module, which would have been the portion of the spaceship used to land on the Moon, was no longer needed and had been extensively damaged in the initial explosion, they blast it off into space and get to discover how destroyed it was, which, in turn, raises doubts of how safe the atmosphere re-entry could be aboard the Odyssey. Eventually, they all occupy the Odyssey and abandon the Aquarius, in preparation for re-entry, although everyone, both up in space and down at the Command Centre, grows increasingly concerned about the actual state of the heat shield, which, if in any way damaged, could cause the Aquarius to burn off in the atmosphere.

As the Aquarius crosses the atmosphere barrier and begins its tortuous descent towards Earth, everyone is on pins and needles, and a long, protracted period of no communication between the Aquarius and Control ensues, due to an ionization blackout that blocks all communication. Gene (Ed Harris) repeatedly tries to get feedback from the crew, seemingly to no avail. However, the Aquarius successfully passes through and the whole world gets to see on TV, and celebrate, how it performs a splashdown landing in the South Pacific Ocean, while the crew reports everything is under control.

They are all rescued by helicopter and brought aboard the USS Iwo Jima Naval ship, welcomed back as heroes. The movie ends with Jim recounting, in voiceover, how a damaged oxygen tank was the main cause of the whole mission’s failure, and the subsequent fates of himself and his fellow astronauts, while wondering if humanity would ever be able to return to the Moon -in reality, Apollo 17 made it happen in 1972, the last Apollo mission to date-.