The Final Countdown - 1980
December 16, 2007 - 10:19 pm - Posted by Administrator
The USS Nimitz is cruising on maneuvers just off Hawaii. The aircraft carrier’s decks are crammed with modern jet fighters. Suddenly, the Nimitz steams into a strange magnetic storm. When the ship emerges, the crew find themselves transported to 1941. December. Just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Kirk Douglas plays the duty-bound Captain, faced with the question… “If I can prevent Pearl Harbor… should I?” As a guy who’s always been intrigued by Alternate History, I’d love to see a series of movies where we did prevent Pearl Harbor and how it would have changed the course of history.
My memory of the marketing campaign before this movie came out is that everybody was talking about the premise. “If you could, would you?” There was an unusual amount of buzz.
The Final Countdown is in my book of “must-see time travel movies” but fell short of excellence in my opinion. Good movie, but not great. Primarily because I always felt a little bit cheated that I didn’t get to see a squadron of Japanese Zeroes taken out by some American jets, and the question posed by the movie never really got answered. I will reveal no more than that in case you haven’t seen the movie.
This movie is big with Navy men and women, and many have commented on the accuracy with which Naval operations are portrayed. This is another one I’d like to see them re-make.
*** Three Stars
Posted in 1980, Three Star Rating, Time Travel | No Comments »
