ALL SCI-FI

[orzel-w]

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This is one of my guilty pleasures. Kirk Douglas plays the captain of the 1980s aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. The Nimitz is caught in a time vortex which transports it back in time to December 6, 1941. Once they get their heads wrapped around the situation, the Nimitz prepares to unleash hell on the Japanese fleet approaching Pearl Harbor.

There's lots of onboard footage of carrier and flight operations, performed by the actual crew rather than actors, lending the movie more of a look of authenticity. I actually prefer the carrier ops footage from this movie over that from Top Gun.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Brent Gair]

To be a contrarian (again), I find this movie intolerable .

I watched this in the old Capitol Theater; one of the aging movie palaces that was on it last legs in the early 1980s.

It's a movie where almost nothing happens. I went into the theater with great expectations. I was young and naive. I expected a sci-fi action film. You had the U.S. Navy, the Japanese Imperial Fleet, time travel. How could this NOT be an epic thrill ride?

What we got was a grinding talk fest. I've seen more gunfire in a rerun of Hannah Montana. When I talk to fans of this movie, I'll say , "Name your favorite scene." And they ALL say the SAME thing...the "splash the Zeros" scene. Then I'll say, "Name another scene" and I'm met with blank stares. Everybody remembers the three minute action scene and the rest of this overly long movie is entirely forgettable. It reminds me of one of those post-war English parlour melodramas that is staged in one or two rooms and then gets adapted for the big screen...while still taking place in one or two rooms.

The Final Countdown has a lot of scenes of men, deep inside the carrier all looking very serious while perusing maps and photographs. Scenes of generic aircraft operations are spliced in. Ultimately, nothing happens.

[orzel-w]

Gee, I was enjoying the generic carrier flight deck footage and aerial shots so much, I didn't notice the time flying by.

Well, if there's ever a reboot, we'll probably see the destruction of the entire Imperial fleet, owing to CGI. Then some kind of twist ending showing why it wasn't such a good idea.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

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I'm with Brent on this on.

The concept is loaded with potential: the Nimitz shows up and changes history like you wouldn't believe. Japan is slapped back to their tiny island and told they better behave our we'll drop bombs on a few cities.

Then they get a demonstration that doesn't actually wipe out two cities, but does scare the kimono's right off the Geishas.

After that, the U.S. starts reverse engineering the technology on the Nimitz and puts the fear of God into the other tyrants of the world, bringing WWII to quick end.

Then, in the sequel . . .

Well, this could be a whole series of movies about how the world is changed by what happens. And yes, I know, it could possibly cause all kinds of terrible, horrible, things — but hell's bells, we've seen enough movies like that, haven't we?

Besides, it's not like terrible, horrible, things didn't happen in World War II, right! So, why be so careful to preserve a history that included things like the slaughter of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis.

So, how about a movie that shows great things being accomplished in a bright and promising future. Just this once? Please?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[alltare]

I really enjoyed THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. I found it to have a very interesting plot and it generally kept my attention. Not boring at all. I could have done without the dog, though. Yes, "Splash the Zeros" was a good scene, and I'm not surprised that most viewers cite it, but does that make TFC a bad film? Many movies have one or two popular scenes, but they're not bad movies because of it. SCANNERS' exploding head, for example.

I agree with Orzel-w. The flight deck operations were great. TFC is very true to real carrier operations. As a former aircraft carrier crew member, I appreciate the accuracy of those scenes. And I agree that they're better than TOP GUN's.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN was released by two studios. The first was an absolutely awful product by Pacific Family Entertainment (I think they're defunct now, and deservedly so). A few years later, it was done properly by Blue Underground. The cover art was almost identical on the 2 versions, and careful inspection was required to tell them apart. For quite awhile after the second version appeared, the crappy first version turned up on ebay (maybe it still does), and I suppose a lot of uninformed people got burned.

The narration track on the newer disc has some pretty interesting things to say about Katharine Ross' haughty attitude while shooting the movie. She was not loved by the Navy personnel.

[Bud Brewster]

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I might not be too keen on this film, but the trailer certainly promises a great movie. I wish I could say the movie lived up to the promise, but as I explained above, this was a huge missed opportunity for what could have been a series of "alternate history" time travel movies.

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__Final Countdown Theatrical Movie Trailer (1980)


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Brent Gair]

The trailer contains the fundamental lie about this movie:

"...We are about to fight a battle that was lost over 40 years ago"

If that had happened, this would have been a rip-roaring sci-fi adventure.

But, as anybody who has seen the movie will attest, it doesn't happen. In modern terms, the trailer is akin to Youtube click bait where you see a fascinating thumbnail but, when you watch the video, nothing promised in the thumbnail appears. Of course, movies that don't live up to their trailers are nothing new. In fact, trailers which oversell the movie are the rule rather than the exception. This one is worst than most.

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

I remember an article in the newspaper when the movie came out, where they asked a military expert what would happen if the Nimitz came up against a WWII military. He said that the Nimitz could beat every Navy with what they had. No airplane of the time could carry a bomb that could damage the flight deck. No torpedo could breach the hull. No aircraft carried a machine gun that could shoot-down the Nimitz's fighters. The Nimitz's weapons and fighters could sink any ship, or submarine before they could even get close enough to fire at the Nimitz.

My favorite scene was where the Zero's .30 caliber bullet just splatters on the fighter's canopy.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

And that was 37 years ago. Just think what a Phalanx gun could to a WWII era ship. Imagine what coffee can size projectiles of depleted uranium would do to the hull. Modern weapons are radar and LASER guided, and the WWII radar and radio is nothing in comparison, and wouldn't stand up to modern, or 1980s electronic countermeasures. By time their radar (if it wasn't being jammed) could detect our jets, the jets would be on top of them. LASER guidance to them would be pure Buck Rogers. A jet fighter could go supersonic through a squadron of enemy planes, and destroy them with just the shock wave! The jet would be there an gone before they knew what hit them.

Aircraft carriers carry devices to detect submarines, and the weapons to sink them. Modern SONAR alone could hear WWII era subs, which are noisy as hell in the water. They wouldn't even have to drop MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detector) buoys.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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This movie is ripe for a remake. Modern FX could deliver a slam-bang version of this concept and show a battle that would change the history of the world in 1941.

Wow, what an idea!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

A prime example of excellent concept but inadequate execution.

HEY......What if Spartacus had a bunch of Sherman tanks?

[Bud Brewster]