FAQ

Set in 1790, Lieutenant William Bligh (Anthony Hopkins) faces charges that he lost the British merchant ship, the HMG Bounty, when his crew mutinied against him. In flashbacks, Bligh tells how the Bounty set sail in 1787 from England to the Pacific island of Tahiti to obtain breadfruit plants and to transport them to the West Indies as cheap food for slaves. After spending six months potting up the breadfruit while lazing on Tahiti, the crew returned to sea, headed for Jamaica and forced to leave behind their Tahitian wives and friends. Along the way, however, they faced such stern discipline as Bligh attempts to enforce his command that first officer Fletcher Christian (Mel Gibson) sees no alternative but to mutiny and take control of the Bounty, casting Bligh and his loyalists adrift in one of the ship's launches.

Yes. The Bounty is based on Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian: The Men and the Mutiny (1972), a novel by British author and maritime historian Richard Hough. The novel was adapted for the movie by English screenwriter Robert Bolt. It is the third film version of the story of the mutiny of the Bounty, preceded by Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) (1935) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) (1962).

After a long and harrowing voyage with precious little food or water, Bligh and his nearly dead crew reach Coupang, in Dutch West Timor. Meanwhile, the crew of the Bounty finally find Pitcairn Island where they go ashore, taking all their goods with them before burning the Bounty in the shallow bay of the island to prevent the ship from being found or anyone from escaping. Back in England, the courts find that the seizure of the Bounty was due to an act of mutiny on the part of Fletcher Christian, and they exonerate Bligh from any wrongdoing. As the end credits begin to roll, a postscript reads: The mutineers' fate remained a mystery for 18 years until their island was discovered by an American whaling ship. They found one man, John Adams, with nine women and 23 children. What happened to Fletcher Christian remains uncertain. Some say he was murdered on Pitcairn Island, but then there were reports that he returned safely to England. However, his descendents live on Pitcairn Island to this day.

Pitcairn Island lies in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,359 miles (2,170 kilometers) southeast of Tahiti, which itself lies about 3,800 miles (6,130 kilometers) east of Australia. It is inhabited mostly by descendents of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who accompanied them.

William Bligh [1754-1817] went on to captain several more ships in the Royal Navy. In 1805, he was appointed governor of New South Wales, Australia. In 1811, he was made a rear admiral. He died in London on 6 December 1817 and is buried in the Garden Museum in a tomb topped by a breadfruit.