The Final Countdown

A time-travel film. An aircraft carrier sails into the Pacific for exercises. There is a civilian on board as well: an observer preparing a report on the navy. A strange storm rises at sea. The ship passes through the cloud, the radios go silent, and when they come out nothing is normal. Then they learn a date: 6 December 1941. Pearl Harbor will be bombed the next day. From there the film is built on a decision. There are modern aircraft on board; the attack could be prevented. But doing that means changing all of history, and the captain does not want to take the responsibility. What the narrative is interested in is not action but authority: where the order comes from, to whom duty is owed, and what a ship serving a government that does not exist should do. A side line runs through two people picked up from the water: a senator and his assistant. The senator has a known place in history, and that knowledge becomes a problem inside the narrative. It was made with the support of the American navy; the scenes were shot on a real carrier with real aircraft, and the launch and landing footage is the strongest thing in it. Kirk Douglas plays the captain and Martin Sheen the observer. Katharine Ross and James Farentino are in the cast. Don Taylor directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes military detail and science fiction that works by rules. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a quick resolution; the film stays on the argument for a long time and its ending may not satisfy.