Astronaut Jim Lovell on the Apollo 13 Explosion | Late Night with Conan O’Brien — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Applause]
2. 0:00thanks so much for coming well Conan I'm
3. 0:03Tom Hanks uh
4. 0:05the resemblance is uncanny oh yeah I
5. 0:07know you know actually I want to take
6. 0:08that job as the angel you have a room
7. 0:10for them yeah boy that'd be great for us
8. 0:14anytime now let me ask you first I saw
9. 0:16the movie about uh I saw it about a week
10. 0:18ago and uh I I it's gripping it's such a
11. 0:22gripping story it's fairly true to life
12. 0:24isn't it Ron Howard and and his team did
13. 0:27a very good job of capturing what really
14. 0:28happened when I first got together with
15. 0:30Rod and he wanted to make a movie out of
16. 0:31the book I said Ron I if you just take
17. 0:34the actual story don't hype it just do
18. 0:36what was there there's so much Adventure
19. 0:39so much suspense that your job will be
20. 0:41what to throw out to keep the movie at a
21. 0:43certain length and that's what happened
22. 0:44all right now the when you see the movie
23. 0:46for anyone and I think so many people
24. 0:48are familiar with the story now but in a
25. 0:50nutshell uh you go up with two other
26. 0:53astronauts and there's an explosion how
27. 0:55far into the trip was it it was two days
28. 0:57about 200 000 miles out and and you know
29. 1:00we were it was a third flight no one
30. 1:01carried it none of the networks carried
31. 1:03it uh even the control people people
32. 1:05wanted us to turn off the TV program
33. 1:07that we had going back down again we did
34. 1:09that and bang an explosion occurred and
35. 1:12uh then it was four days of trying to
36. 1:13get home and it was just trying it's
37. 1:15improvising a way to get back and and
38. 1:17the thing that's so you watch especially
39. 1:19the scene we saw right here the tension
40. 1:20is so high uh were there explosions like
41. 1:24that when you were you know were you
42. 1:24guys yelling at each other in the
43. 1:26capsule were you very calm and cool how
44. 1:27do you prepare for something like that
45. 1:29well we were test pilots so we you know
46. 1:31we had sort of the training in the in
47. 1:33the past we were in some crises before
48. 1:34uh but you know there's if you panic
49. 1:37where would you go I mean you could
50. 1:39bounce off the walls for 10 minutes as a
51. 1:40matter of fact that's what you know Tom
52. 1:41was saying yeah and you're right back
53. 1:43where you started from so you had to say
54. 1:44well what can we do to get home I would
55. 1:46have just panicked for like a solid day
56. 1:48and then maybe then maybe said okay now
57. 1:50I you know but for a solid day I'd have
58. 1:52been screaming I'd have torn my clothes
59. 1:53off running around shrieking shrieking
60. 1:56at the top of my lungs but there was no
61. 1:57a you you really uh you know you talk
62. 2:00about it so calmly you talk about it
63. 2:01like well you just have to you know you
64. 2:04just have to be reasonable and figure
65. 2:05out a way and uh it's hard to know deep
66. 2:07inside did you think we're not gonna
67. 2:09make it oh I think individually we all
68. 2:11thought holy cow what happens if we
69. 2:13don't get home uh we had a couple
70. 2:15choices uh we could either hit the earth
71. 2:17in some manner that would make us a
72. 2:19fiery meteor for a few brief seconds
73. 2:21that didn't sound that's a bad option
74. 2:22that was a bad option then we could have
75. 2:24missed the Earth completely and probably
76. 2:25gone into US orbit around the Sun that
77. 2:27didn't sound too good either then there
78. 2:29was a freezing and of course it was
79. 2:32getting much very cold then we were
80. 2:34being poisoned by our own exhalation
81. 2:36because we are breathing out carbon
82. 2:38dioxide and the lunar module wasn't
83. 2:39designed to support three guys the two
84. 2:42guys okay but not three and as the movie
85. 2:44predicted you know uh Kevin didn't want
86. 2:47to hold his breath that long that was
87. 2:48Jack Swagger right so now I'm curious
88. 2:51because the movie was so realistic was
89. 2:53so lifelike did you actually work with
90. 2:56Tom Hanks did you meet Tom Hanks and
91. 2:58tell him
92. 2:59when uh when they decided to do the
93. 3:01movie from the book uh they came down to
94. 3:04the control the Mission Control Center
95. 3:06in Houston and the Space Center and I
96. 3:09met Tom for the very very first time and
97. 3:11Tom said you know I got to know your
98. 3:13character I had to know your mannerisms
99. 3:16and how you talk and how you move and he
100. 3:18said can we get together and I said yeah
101. 3:20why don't you come down to my house I
102. 3:22have a home in Horseshoe Bay Texas and I
103. 3:24have an airplane down there and uh spent
104. 3:26a couple days with me and it's kind of
105. 3:28kind of secluded so he did I took him up
106. 3:32in the airplane now he hadn't been in
107. 3:33small airplanes much before and before I
108. 3:36got in the airplane I got a call from
109. 3:38Universal
110. 3:39and they said how much Insurance do you
111. 3:41have
112. 3:46I said I hate the best insurance policy
113. 3:49that that he has is sitting next to him
114. 3:51so uh and we went up and we flew the
115. 3:54daytime and then then I took him up at
116. 3:56night I thought to myself well going to
117. 3:58the moon it's always dark and maybe the
118. 4:02best idea to teach him how to be an
119. 4:03astronaut would be to go up at night and
120. 4:06we flew out to West Texas not many
121. 4:08lights and uh it was clear tonight
122. 4:11and I had a little cut out that of the
123. 4:14lunar module window and and I put it in
124. 4:17the windscreen of the airplane and I
125. 4:19said now Tom this is all you're really
126. 4:22going to see on the way to the moon and
127. 4:23we found a couple stars that we actually
128. 4:25used on the flight and then I let him
129. 4:27fly the airplane what yeah well I let
130. 4:31Forrest Gump take the controls of the
131. 4:32plane
132. 4:33yeah yeah I was worried about that but
133. 4:37uh my niece went to see the movie you
134. 4:41know Apollo 13 and she said she's only a
135. 4:44smaller she said well I yeah I know that
136. 4:46they'd make it okay because Forrest Gump
137. 4:48was flying
138. 4:54whatever you guys guys never did get to
139. 4:56the moon you never did actually get to
140. 4:58land on the surface of the Moon did you
141. 5:00ever what were you planning to say when
142. 5:01you uh if you had been able to step on
143. 5:03the surface of the Moon did you have
144. 5:04anything planned or no by the time the
145. 5:06third flight went along everybody who
146. 5:08was going to say something already said
147. 5:09it right so at that point no one yeah
148. 5:11yeah so I thought to myself I could just
149. 5:13get down there and land it'll be I'll be
150. 5:15happy right and uh so no I really didn't
151. 5:17plan anything to say well it's it's
152. 5:19really an amazing story and uh I gotta
153. 5:21say it's a kick to to meet the man
154. 5:23himself it really is a pleasure
155. 5:25Thanksgiving best of luck with the book
156. 5:27and uh yeah we've had the book now uh
157. 5:29Jeff Kluger and I wrote it but uh
158. 5:31started about two years ago and it took
159. 5:33us two years to get it out and then and
160. 5:34then it was called Lost Moon and then
161. 5:36the when the paperback came out they
162. 5:38changed it Apollo 13 and I said well
163. 5:39that's fine because the movie's a bottle
164. 5:41of 13s yeah and it's selling like hot
165. 5:42cakes yeah it's really go to town right
166. 5:44now it really is nice sir very nice to
167. 5:46meet you oh thank you stay right here
168. 5:49of course the movies Apollo 13 the book
169. 5:52is Apollo 13. folks we'll be right back
170. 5:54gym level everybody
171. 5:55[Applause]