Sometimes it can be very interesting to fantasize about how some movies would have turned out if other decisions had been made. What if specific actors would have said yes to roles which are now considered iconic? Would that movie still have been a success? You could do the same for big historical events. the Final Countdown does so in a very original way.
For his work Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen) has to board the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz for his mysterious boss to check if everything is running correctly. The ship leaves the port and ends up in a strange storm. Communication no longer seems to work anymore and the only signals the ship seems to receive are those of old radio shows. Captain Matthew Yelland (Kirk Douglas) gets his team together to find an explanation and slowly they conclude that they might have travelled back into time, to be more specific, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. If this is really the case, should they do something about stopping this event?
It is a concept which immediately makes you think, because an aircraft carrier isn’t only full of planes which are no match to the Japanese, but it has the technology which probably would be able to wipe out the Japanese fleet. But it isn’t the only reason to see this film. The ship is a central character which you see a lot of and the planes themselves have also been filmed in great ways. It comes as no surprise that the navy used this film to recruit people. The time travel element can’t be explained and places the characters in a situation you never can prepare for. Both Sheen and Douglas really sell the story well. It makes The Final Countdown a fascinating film which tickles your imagination where you think about what might happen in such a situation.
