The 'Work The Problem' meme originates from the 1995 historical drama Apollo 13, directed by Ron Howard. In this iconic scene, actor Ed Harris, playing NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, manages a room full of panicked engineers after the spacecraft suffers a catastrophic oxygen tank explosion. Kranz demands order, famously telling his team to 'work the problem' and focus on what equipment is still functional rather than speculating on the disaster. This clip has become a staple in meme culture for representing high-pressure leadership and the desperate attempt to stay logical during a crisis. It is frequently used to describe situations where everything is going wrong—from corporate IT outages and gaming losses to chaotic group chats and household disasters. The meme captures a blend of intense professionalism and the underlying dread of a situation spiraling out of control. Example captions include: 'Me trying to figure out which credit card has $5 left for gas,' and 'The senior dev during a Friday afternoon production crash.'