By skyforbes So this movie was on cable again last night. For me it's one of those extremely enjoyable, very re-watchable movies. But there's one thing that just bugsged the hell out of me for all these year, and I figured I'd ask some of you about it.
(If you really need spoiler warnings for a thirty-year-old movie, come on man!)
So let's establish something right up-front. Since this is a true story, and we know the astronauts made it, it's very tough to mine dramatic tension from simply asking, "Will they make it?" It has to come from something else like, "How will they make it?" So we get groups of people doing difficult things under great pressure, what my buddy calls, "competency p.rn". (Just figured I'd screen the word in case it's a problem, if I'm being over-reactive, don't hate.)
So right before re-entry, there's a television voiceover in which Walter Cronkite establishes that the astronauts should be incommunicado for no more than three minutes during re-entry. OK, three minutes good, longer than that bad, we get it. The re-entry starts, the 3:00 mark comes and goes, and oh no, we haven't heard from the astronauts yet. Tension! Except, no, because as I said, "Will they make it," is never in doubt. Finally, after more than four minutes, the astronauts re-establish communication with Houston. The first time I watched, I was thinking, "Great, now we'll see why they took so long." Only, it's not explained.
Was there any purpose to that beyond trying to make us question if they'd make it? Does anyone know if it happened that way in reality? I feel like if we'd understood why they took so long in re-entry it would've made a little more sense. Is this just a "me problem" sort of question, where I'm overthinking it?
Either way, thanks for your time. Have a great day.
PS – I almost forgot to ask, I know Max Grodenchik (DS9's Rom) is credited as "FIDO Gold," but I really can't tell who that is in the movie. Does he have a speaking line at any point that can be used to pinpoint him? I've had trouble finding anything to his credit.
EDIT: big thanks to u/SmallButNotFast for explaining that the "shallowing up" on re-entry would account for this. This has been nagging me for a long time!