10 Best Movies About Unrealised Dreams

9. Apollo 13

Apollo 13
Universal

Starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon as a team of astronauts attempting to reach the moon, Apollo 13 is a real-life tale about a group of remarkable people trying to accomplish something out of this world - literally - who must ultimately settle for keeping their lives.

After an explosion renders their dream of a moon landing impossible, the trio's goal changes from a recon mission to a fight for survival, as they endure arduous conditions in an effort to get home. In the end, they all make it, with the disappointment of having failed to complete their objective mixed in with the joy of being able to see their families again.

The story of Apollo 13 is one of ambition, and how it's not necessarily a bad thing if you reach for the stars, but don't make it. One of the final shots of the movie is of people celebrating the survival of the three astronauts, just as happy as they would have been had Apollo 13 actually landed on the moon. Despite the mission being a failure, this story still has a happy ending.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!