I think it's pretty fucking retarded to apply the same standards as to what constitutes as "science fiction" in literature to movies. When someone says "a science fiction movie", you fucking well know they're talking about a movie with a fictional, made-up story that does not represent some aspect of reality, fact, or history. Speaking of which, Dan posted the definition of "fiction" as "imaginative creation or a pretense that does not represent actuality but has been invented.", bolding the "pretense" part, but conveniently ignoring the "does not represent actuality" part. Well guess what, genius, the story portrayed an "actuality", and it did it about as accurately and as faithfully as possible (save perhaps for some plot-filler moments, although those are the least science-related aspects of the story and have little to nothing to do with the story of the Apollo 13 flight, if you want to nit-pick).
If you're going to do something as absurd as label Apollo 13 as "science fiction", then what the fuck would you consider science non-fiction? Why even make the "fiction" distinction at all?
If you're going to do something as absurd as label Apollo 13 as "science fiction", then what the fuck would you consider science non-fiction? Why even make the "fiction" distinction at all?