Apollo 13: Survival is a documentary that grips you by the throat, even when you know how it ends.

Directed by Peter Middleton, this Netflix film masterfully revisits the harrowing space mission that captivated the world in 1970. Middleton doesn’t rely solely on the well-worn beats of the story but injects fresh life through expert editing and rare, never-seen-before footage.

From the moment the mission falters, you’re pulled into a tense, visceral experience that feels more like a thriller than a historical recap.

The strength of Apollo 13: Survival lies in its balance between the technical and the personal. The film toggles between the problem-solving frenzy of NASA’s Mission Control and the intimate moments of the astronauts and their families.

Interviews with Jim Lovell and his wife Marilyn are especially poignant, capturing the emotional weight of a wife watching her husband fight for his life 200,000 miles away. It’s a documentary that understands the human side of space exploration as much as the engineering.

Despite the flood of material already available about Apollo 13—including Ron Howard’s acclaimed 1995 feature film starring Tom Hanks—this documentary manages to create new suspense.

The use of real-time audio and footage from the mission, juxtaposed with tense shots of Mission Control, elevates it beyond a typical historical retelling. Even though we know the astronauts will survive, Middleton’s pacing makes it feel like they might not.

Apollo 13: Survival doesn’t just chronicle an event; it makes you feel the stakes all over again. It challenges the Hanks version by stripping away Hollywood gloss and letting the raw, unvarnished truth hit harder. It’s a stirring reminder that even in the most desperate situations, human ingenuity and determination can pull us back from the brink.

This is a space documentary that soars.