A modern aircraft carrier is thrown back in time to 1941 near Hawaii, just hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.A modern aircraft carrier is thrown back in time to 1941 near Hawaii, just hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.A modern aircraft carrier is thrown back in time to 1941 near Hawaii, just hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
- Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations
- Lt. Perry
- (as James C. Lawrence)
- Simura
- (as Soon-Teck Oh)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA total of 48 real life U.S. Navy personnel from the USS Nimitz were credited in the closing credits for their performances as extras, background artists, or actors; some even had speaking parts.
- GoofsWhen Mr. Lasky first arrives on board the Nimitz, he is met at the hatch into the island by the XO, CDR Thurman. CDR Thurman has his cover on, on the flight deck, during flight operations. As the XO, he should know that covers are never worn on the flight deck during flight ops. The hat could get blown off his head and become FOD, or Foreign Object Debris, and possibly get sucked into a jet intake and cause major damage to the engine and maybe cost some sailors their lives.
- Quotes
[an F-14 pilot is reporting the identity of a pair of enemy planes to Captain Yelland over the radio]
Captain Yelland: Alert 1 this is Eagle 1, what've you got?
Pilot: Two Japanese Zeroes, sir.
Captain Yelland: Two what?
Pilot: Two Trophy Class Mitsubishi A6Ms in original condition, complete with all markings. I mean, they look brand new sir!
Captain Yelland: Have you been spotted?
Pilot: Negative, we're right in the sun at their 6 o'clock high.
Captain Yelland: Stay in visual contact, take no action without clearance.
Pilot: Wilco Eagle 1, out.
- Alternate versionsUK cinema and video versions were cut by six secs to edit blood spurts from gunshots. In 2002 these cuts were waived by the BBFC.
- ConnectionsEdited from Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
But when you need lots of planes and ships, you gotta have official help. And few movies have gotten more assistance than the producer, director and cast of "The Final Countdown," now available on DVD,a sci-fi recruiting spectacular that features - on loan at taxpayer expense - the huge carrier U.S.S. Nimitz complete with crew. Now that's cooperation!
Kirk Douglas skippers the supercarrier which is on Pacific Fleet maneuvers. On board as some sort of efficiency consultant is a young Martin Sheen, not yet ready for the West Wing. A mysterious and never explained weather phenomenon grips the mighty floating air base and to the unfolding amazement of captain, officers and crew dawns the realization that the Nimitz in sailing not that far from Pearl Harbor on 6 December 1941.
Meanwhile a U.S. senator, played by one of Hollywood's deservedly decorated war heroes, Charles Durning, is enjoying his yacht, also near Pearl, while dictating to his lovely secretary, Katharine Ross. A brace of Japanese Zeroes sink the yacht, killing two passengers which then prompts the carrier C.O. to order trailing F-14 Tomcats to "splash" the "enemy." Durning and Ross are rescued. Without a word, this talented actor's face does a comical double-take when introduced to the ship's executive officer who just happens to be black (in 1941 a black navy man could only serve as a steward in the officers mess. That was it. Period.)
The dilemma facing Douglas, of course, is a classic time-travel conundrum. To interfere with the course of history (the carrier's air wing can make instant teriyaki of the six Japanese carriers) or to let events take their known and disastrous course.
A chaste incipient romance between the nearly drowned damsel and the carrier's Commander Air Group competes with the white knuckle decision-making struggle of the C.O.
So much for the plot. What is on offer here is a demonstration of every aircraft type, fixed-wing and rotary, deployed on the vessel as well as demonstrations of shipboard activities ranging from retrieving a damaged jet to going to General Quarters to...you name it. The technical advisers knew they had a film crew pliant to every suggestion. The result is a genuinely exciting show- a great warship going through its paces. And, unlike "Tora Tora Tora" it doesn't appear that any genuine sailors were harmed in the making of the movie.
There's one big problem. A science fiction story is usually utterly improbable, indeed impossible, but its internal logic is vital: it must be consistent. Spielberg understands that very well. Watch the first couple of minutes when Sheen is greeted by his employer's lackey and the last minutes when he debarks from the Nimitz. Something is very, very off-kilter. Could the CEO of a great military-industrial conglomerate have used top secret technology to send the carrier back to 1941 for...
So what. This is a beautifully filmed adventure story, not a great film. The cast probably relished taking over the carrier for a while and the real captain, never shown, surely wished that the Navy hadn't banned hard spirits from our ships in World War I. But all emerge unscathed in a genuinely entertaining romp through time.
8/10
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $12,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $16,647,800
- Gross worldwide
- $16,647,800
- Runtime1 hour 43 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1