The Final Countdown (film)

The Final Countdown is a 1980 American alternate history science fiction war film about a modern nuclear-powered super-aircraft carrier that travels through time to the day before the infamous December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Produced by Peter Vincent Douglas with director, producer, actor and Troma Entertainment founder Lloyd Kaufman and directed by Don Taylor, the film contains an ensemble cast starring Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, James Farentino, Katharine Ross and Charles Durning.

For the Europe song, see The Final Countdown (song). For the Europe album, see The Final Countdown (album).
The Final Countdown
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDon Taylor
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Thomas Hunter
  • Peter Powell
  • David Ambrose
Starring
Music byJohn Scott
CinematographyVictor J. Kemper
Edited byRobert K. Lambert
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • August 1, 1980 (1980-08-01)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Japanese
Budget$12.5 million[1]
Box office$56.6 million

This was the final film by the director Don Taylor, and one of the last action roles by Kirk Douglas before suffering a debilitating stroke that impaired his speaking abilities (but not his mind) for the last four decades of his life before he died at age 103, a centenarian in 2020. Kaufman himself served also as an associate producer and also minor acting role.

The film was produced with the full cooperation of the United States Navy's naval aviation branch and the United States Department of Defense. It was set and filmed on board seeing the actual workings and operations of the real-life USS Nimitz (CVN-68) super sized aircraft carrier, nuclear-powered warship, launched in the late 1970s. The Final Countdown was a moderate success at the box office.

Plot

In 1980, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is departing Pearl Harbor, the military complex of naval / air bases in the Hawaiian Islands for naval exercises in the central Pacific Ocean. The ship takes on a civilian observer—U.S. Defense Department consultant/efficiency expert, Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen)—on the orders of his reclusive employer, Mr. Tideman, whose secretive major defense contractor company designed and built the nuclear-powered warship.

Once at sea, the carrier Nimitz encounters a strange mysterious electric-charged storm-like vortex, paralyzing the carrier's radars and other equipment and plunging all officers and men into sheer agony, which quickly disappears after the warship passes through it. Initially unsure of what has happened to them, and having lost radio contact with U.S. Pacific Fleet Command at Pearl Harbor, Captain Matthew Yelland, commander of the aircraft carrier, orders "General quarters" and, fearing the possibility of a nuclear strike on Hawaii or America, launches an RF-8 Crusader reconnaissance aircraft to circle around its waters. Having flown over Hawaii, the aircraft returns with photographs of images that appear to date from 1941, showing the intact row of U.S. Pacific fleet battleships moored on "Battleship Row" at Pearl Harbor, a sight which has not existed for four decades, long before many of the officers and crew were born.[Note 1]

When a surface contact is spotted on the radar, Captain Yelland launches the ready alert, with two Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jets from VF-84, to intercept. The patrol eventually witnesses a civilian antique wooden yacht, "Gatsby", being attacked and destroyed by two equally antique, but in perfect fighting condition, Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M “Zero” fighters, strafing/machine gunning the yacht and killing three of the crew members. The American F-14 jet fighters flying high overhead are ordered to scare and drive off the Zeros without firing, stunning the Japanese pilots with these strange alien craft with their superior speeds and maneuverability. When the Japanese Zeros inadvertently head towards the far off area of the future warship Nimitz, Captain Yelland gives clearance to shoot them down. Nimitz rescues the yacht's remaining survivors: a prominent United States Senator, Samuel Chapman, his secretary/aide Laurel Scott, her dog, Charlie, and one of the two downed Zero pilots. The CAG (Commander, Air Group) of the Nimitz, Commander Owens, an amateur historian, recognizes Samuel Chapman as a politician who could have been Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate (and his potential successor) during his final re-election bid except for the fact that Chapman disappeared shortly before the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

After a Grumman E-2 Hawkeye scouting craft discovers the Japanese fleet task force further north in the unpatrolled waters, poised to launch its fighters and bombers to attack Pearl Harbor, Nimitz crew eventually realize that they have been astonishingly transported back in time to December 6, one day before the attack. Captain Yelland has to decide whether to destroy the Japanese fleet and alter the course of history, or to stand by and allow history to proceed as "normal". The American civilians and the Zero pilot are kept isolated, but while being questioned, the Japanese pilot grabs a rifle, kills two of the guards, and takes Laurel, Owens and Lasky hostage. He threatens to kill them unless he is given access to a radio so he can warn his commanding officers back on the 1941 Japanese attacking task force about the sudden presence of the unknown American warship Nimitz. The Japanese pilot is stunned when Lasky tells Commander Owens to recite and describe the secret plans for the Japanese attack on the next morning. He starts to lower his weapon but is suddenly overcome and shot by U.S. Marines onboard outside the compartment door. Eventually Laurel and Commander Owens become attracted to each other.

Senator Chapman is outraged to learn that Captain Yelland knows of the impending Japanese attack but has not told anyone else, and demands to be taken to Pearl Harbor to warn naval authorities there. Yelland instead orders Owens to drop off the civilians and sufficient supplies for them via helicopter on an isolated Hawaiian island, assuming they will eventually be rescued. When they arrive, Chapman realizes he has been tricked and tries to hijack the helicopter and force the pilot to fly to Pearl Harbor, but instead causes an explosion that destroys the craft, stranding Laurel and Owens on the island. Nimitz launches a massive strike force against the incoming Japanese forces, but before they can reach the enemy armada, the time storm returns. After a futile attempt to outrun the storm, Yelland recalls the strike force, and the ship and the aircraft return to 1980 safely, ultimately leaving the past unchanged. Upon the return of Nimitz to Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet admirals board the ship to investigate Nimitz's bizarre disappearance. Meanwhile, Lasky leaves the ship with Laurel's dog, Charlie, finally encountering the mysterious "Mr. Tideman" face-to-face, who is revealed to be a much older Commander Owens, along with his wife, Laurel.

Cast
Kirk Douglas as Capt. Matthew Yelland (4th from left).

Production
Filming on the flight deck of the Nimitz.

Kirk Douglas's son, Peter, as producer, was the driving force behind The Final Countdown.[3] With a limited budget but with a promising script, he was able to attract interest from the U.S. Navy. After seeing a script, officials from the Department of Defense offered full cooperation, but insisted that for safety and to maintain operational readiness, the film schedules would be dependent on the "on location" naval consultant, William Micklos.[4] Principal photography took place at Naval Air Station Key West, Naval Station Norfolk, and off the Florida Keys, over a set of two five-week periods in 1979. Scenes at Pearl Harbor consisted of mainly stock footage with most of The Final Countdown exteriors shot on Nimitz while at sea, and at drydock for interiors. During operations, an emergency landing took place with the production crew allowed to film the recovery of the aircraft on Nimitz; the sequence appeared in the final film.[5]

Many of the crew members of Nimitz were used as extras, a few with speaking parts; a total of 48 of the crew appear as "actors" in the final credits.[6] The difficulties in filming a modern jet fighter were soon apparent when the first setup to record a F-14 takeoff at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, resulted in both camera and operator being pitched down a runway.[7][Note 2]

Dissension in the production crew led to major changes during location shooting, leading to a number of the crew being fired and replaced.[Note 3] Taylor's direction was considered workmanlike as he had a reputation for bringing projects in on time and on budget, but suggestions from the U.S. naval aviators were ultimately incorporated into the shooting schedules with the "B" crew placed in charge of all the aerial sequences that became the primary focus of the film.[5]

In order to film the aerial sequences, Panavision cameras were mounted on naval aircraft while camera-equipped aircraft and helicopters were also employed by the studio, including a Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter, Learjet 35, and a B-25 bomber converted into a camera platform, and leased from Tallmantz Aviation. Three Mitsubishi A6M Zero replicas, originally built for the film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), were flown by pilots from the Confederate Air Force, now called the Commemorative Air Force.[9] Two of the replicas were featured in a dogfight with F-14 Tomcats; a dissimilar engagement that was the first time that "the match-up of fighters with totally different speeds, totally different environments and weaponry had ever been done in film".[10]

In one scene where an F-14 "thumps" a Zero by flying under and streaking upward in front of the slower aircraft, the resultant "jet blast" of turbulent air was so intense that the control columns of both of the Zeros in the scene were violently wrenched out of the pilots' hands and caused both aircraft to momentarily tumble out of control.[Note 4] The lead pilot's headset, along with his watch were ripped off and out of the open canopy of his Zero, resulting in a few anxious moments as the F-14 pilots were unable to establish contact.[10] During the engagement when a Zero fires on an F-14, in order to get on the "six" of the low and slow Zero, the jet fighter did a low pull up that ended just 100 feet (30 m) above the ocean in a screaming recovery.[10][Note 5]

During the climactic attack on Pearl Harbor, scenes reproduced in monochrome from Tora! Tora! Tora! featured Aichi D3A Val dive bombers, Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters and Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo bombers.[11][Note 6]

Aircraft appearing in the production
Tomcats from VF-84 with a T-6 converted to resemble a Zero.

Release

The Final Countdown was released to theaters in the United States on August 1, 1980.[14] A novelization by Martin Caidin, based on the screenplay, was released in the same month.[15]

Home media

Although preceded by a video release, on March 30, 2004, The Final Countdown was released by Blue Underground on a two-DVD set (both full screen DVD, a widescreen DVD) and a special two-disc limited edition set that comes with a hologram cover.[3] Each edition was accompanied by special featurettes including a "behind-the-scenes" documentary as well as accessing overlaid commentary by the producer and other studio principals.[16] On November 4, 2008, a high-definition Blu-ray 2-disc set was also released, but did not include some of the earlier extra background material.[17]

Reception

Critical reception

The Final Countdown was promoted as a summer blockbuster and received mixed reviews from critics. Vincent Canby of The New York Times considered it more of an interesting, behind-the-scenes tour of Nimitz. "We see planes landing and taking off with beautiful precision and, just to let us know that things don't always run smoothly on Nimitz, we also see one plane, which has lost its landing hook, landing safely anyway because of the ship's emergency gear."[18][Note 7] Roger Ebert commented that "logic doesn't matter in a Star Wars(-like) movie". He went on to clarify: "Unfortunately, the movie makes such a mess of it that the biggest element of interest is the aircraft carrier itself."[19] Later reviews concentrated on the intriguing aspect of the time travel story, again stressing the military hardware was the real star.[20][21] The U.S. Navy sponsored the film premiere and exploited the film as a recruiting tool to the extent that The Final Countdown poster appeared in U.S. Navy recruiting offices shortly after the film's release.[18] Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert selected the film as one of their "dogs of the year" in a 1980 episode of Sneak Previews.[22]

Christopher John reviewed The Final Countdown in Ares Magazine #5 and commented that "There is nothing wrong with what is on the screen in Final Countdown; what is on the screen however, is only half of the film. Maybe someday, like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, someone will go back and put in the missing half hour of this movie."[23]

Box office

The film grossed $6.1 million in its first ten days of release from 630 theatres[24] and earned a total of $16.6 million in the United States and Canada.[25]

Awards
  • Nominee Best Science Fiction Film of Year—Saturn Award (Peter Vincent Douglas)
  • Nominee Best Actor—Saturn Award (Kirk Douglas)
  • Winner Golden Screen Award (German box office award)

See also

Notes
  1. During December 1941, the U.S. Navy Pacific fleet was based in Pearl Harbor and consisted mainly of large battleships moored at harbor and smaller/middle sized naval vessels. Two of the large crucial aircraft carriers normally at Pearl Harbor were at sea on a brief mission.[2]
  2. The first attempt to film a takeoff on the USS Nimitz resulted in a repeat of the earlier incident as the camera and operator were pitched off the deck, caught in a restraining net below decks.[7]
  3. Kaufman as unit production manager was upset that unnecessary costs and unreasonable demands were hampering progress.[5] After problems experienced on The Final Countdown, Kaufman set out as independent producer, head of the Troma Entertainment film studio.[8]
  4. At the conclusion of the dogfight scene, by sheer chance, the two Zeros spun away from each other, avoiding a midair collision.[10]
  5. In the final edit, the sound of the F-14 was actually punctuated by the scream of the pilot's wife when she saw the daily rushes, interspersed by the sound editor into the high-pitched afterburner whine. This scene has now become part of the urban legend of the film, described as a pilot's "death plunge".[10]
  6. Several later films and TV series relating to World War II in the Pacific have used footage from Tora! Tora! Tora! due to the film's "almost perfect documentary accuracy". These productions include Midway, Pearl (TV mini-series 1978), From Here to Eternity (TV mini-series 1979), Magnum P. I. episode "Lest We Forget" aired February 12, 1981 and Australia (2008).[12][13]
  7. When the production crew learned that an emergency landing was imminent, they quickly set up for photography; the A-7 aircraft was safely recovered.[10]

References
  1. Maloney, Lane (August 13, 1980). "'Countdown' Fight Proves Peter Douglas A Chip Off Kirk's Block". Variety. p. 30.
  2. Toland 1991, p. 5.
  3. Kjolseth, Pablo. "Home Video Reviews: The Final Countdown". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: September 7, 2012.
  4. Suid 2002, pp. 421–423.
  5. Gregory, David. Interview with Lloyd Kaufman (documentary featurette that accompanies 'The Final Countdown' DVD). Blue Underground, 2004.
  6. "The Final Countdown DVD (End credits)". Blue Underground, 2004.
  7. Gregory, David. "The Final Countdown DVD (overlaid commentary)". Blue Underground, 2004.
  8. Kaufman et al. 2003, p. 62.
  9. Cooper, Gregory. "Zero Pilot Journal". CAF Dispatch, 1979.
  10. Gregory, David. "Starring the Jolly Rogers"—Interviews with the Jolly Rogers F-14 Fighter Squadron (documentary featurette that accompanies 'The Final Countdown' DVD). Blue Underground, 2004.
  11. Muir, John Kenneth. "Cult movie review: The Final Countdown (1980)". John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Film/TV, August 28, 2008. Retrieved: May 18, 2012.
  12. Dolan 1985, p. 87.
  13. Frietas 2011, p. 333.
  14. The Final Countdown at the American Film Institute Catalog
  15. Caidin 1980, p. versa.
  16. The Final Countdown DVD. Blue Underground.
  17. The Final Countdown Blu-ray. Blue Underground. Retrieved: September 3, 2012.
  18. Canby, Vincent. " 'The Final Countdown' (1980) - Carrier Nimitz stars in 'Countdown'". The New York Times, August 1, 1980.
  19. Ebert, Roger. "The Final Countdown". Chicago Sun Times, August 5, 1980. Retrieved: May 7, 2012.
  20. "The Final Countdown (1980, USA)". Black Hole Reviews, April 2, 2009. Retrieved: May 7, 2012.
  21. Carrazzoa, Vince. "The Final Countdown (1980)". DVDnet. Retrieved: May 7, 2012.
  22. http://clip-bucket.com/arslan-hassan, Modified by Richi from Juapo2Services & Developer by Arslan Hassan -. "Siskel & Ebert org - Worst of 1980".
  23. John, Christopher (November 1980). "Books". Ares Magazine. Simulations Publications, Inc. (5): 33-34.
  24. "'Countdown' In 630 Houses Hits $6,100,000 In 10 Days". Variety. August 13, 1980. p. 4.
  25. The Final Countdown at Box Office Mojo

Sources
  • Caidin, Martin. The Final Countdown. New York: Bantam, 1980. ISBN 0-553-12155-3.
  • Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
  • Frietas, Gary A. War Movies: The Belle & Blade Guide to Classic War Videos. Bandon, Oregon: Robert D. Reed Publishers, 2011. ISBN 978-1-931741-38-5.
  • Kaufman, Lloyd, Trent Haaga and Adam Jahnke. Make Your Own Damn Movie!: Secrets of a Renegade Director. Los Angeles: L.A. Weekly Books, 2003. ISBN 978-0-312288-648.
  • Suid, Lawrence H. Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2002. ISBN 978-0-8131-9018-1.
  • Toland, John. Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath. New York: Berkley, 1991. ISBN 978-0-42509-040-4.
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