Apollo 13 (1995)

Ron Howard's dramatization of the 1970 "successful failure" is technically a feature film, but its meticulous accuracy makes it the definitive document of NASA's finest hour. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton in a freezing spacecraft, Ed Harris in Mission Control refusing to lose a crew — every scene is built from transcripts and interviews. The film won two Oscars and made "Houston, we've had a problem" part of the global lexicon. It's the rare Hollywood space movie that doesn't need to exaggerate because the real story is already unbelievable.