Movie Review: The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown a.k.a U.S.S. Nimitz: Lost in the Pacific

The Bryna Company, USA, 1980.

Mysterious billionaire Mr. Tideland assigns systems analyst Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen) to aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz. His duty is to observe and think ways of making things go more efficiently. Captain Matthew Yelland (Kirk Douglas) welcomes him aboard. Unexpected storm rises and the ship is sucked into a mysterious vortex. When they recover, the contacts to military base are dead except for some ancient radio signals. The ship has ended in the middle of World War II just before attack on Pearl Harbor. Commander Richard Owens (James Farentino) is a history specialist so his knowledge comes in handy. The officers try to decide if they should interfere with the Japanese attack and change history or just go with the flow.

Warren Lasky

Captain Matthew Yelland

Commander Richard Owens

The Japanese Zeros attack a yacht carrying Senator Samuel Chapman (Charles Durning) and his secretary Laurel Scott (Katharine Ross). The Americans go for help and there is F-14 Tomcats vs Zeros dogfight. Senator, Laurel and Charlie the Dog are saved together with surviving Zero pilot (Soon-Tek Oh). The senator is quite a doofus and Laurel is the one who writes his speeches. Laurel has to struggle in the men's world so Owens begins to admire her.

Time vortex

Laurel Scott

Senator Samuel Chapman

The Japanese attack force nears and Zero pilot gets nasty. Senator tries to send a radio message to Pearl Harbor, but gets a colourful response. Senator and Laurel are taken to safe place but everything does not go as planned. Captain decides to fight the Japanese but the time vortex disagrees with changing the history. Also Mr. Tidelands real identity is revealed.

Zero

Zero pilot gets nasty

This is a good light scifi with good aviation scenes, although there is not much dogfighting. Department of Defense co-operated with the production so there is good footage of aircraft carrier, takeoffs and landings. Real U.S.S Nimitz is well utilized in the movie. There is a slight letdown with the "Deus ex machina" style ending as the movie plays it safe by not changing history. Also the middle part is quite slow and uneventful, after a solid start. Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen seem to have fun as Captain and the analyst who have some friendly disagreement about the methods.

U.S.S. Nimitz

Rating: Good

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino, Ron O'Neal, Charles Durning, Victor Mohica, James Coleman, Soon-Tek Oh, Joe Lowry, Alvin Ing, Mark Thomas, Harold Bergman, Dan Fitzgerald, Lloyd Kaufman, Peter Douglas, Ted Richert, George Warren, Gary Morgan, Phil Philbin,

Robert Goodman, Richard Liberty, Neil Ronco, Bill Couch, Jack McDermott, Masayuki Yamazuki, George H. Strohsahl Jr., Ronald R. Stoops, Kenneth J. Jaskolski, Sergei M. Kowalchik, Jake Dennis, Jim Toone, Edward J. Deats ,Robert L. Huffman, James R. Augustus, Sam P. Baldwin, Ronnie J. Ellis, Timothy W. Gersbacher, Wayne L. Flesher, William S. Frost, David H. Signor

Director: Don Taylor