the final countdown

Director: don taylor

Actor: kirk douglas,martin sheen,katharine ross,james farentino

Data Published: Fri May 30 1980

Genres: Action,Sci-Fi

Key Words: time travel into the past,aircraft carrier,time travel,tragedy,japanese abroad

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080736/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Countdown_(film)

Description: The Final Countdown is a movie starring Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, and Katharine Ross. A modern aircraft carrier is thrown back in time to 1941 near Hawaii, just hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Plot: In 1980, USS Nimitz takes on a civilian observer Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen), on the orders of his reclusive employer, Mr. Tideman, whose company designed and built the ship, as it departs Pearl Harbor for training in the Pacific. Once at sea, Nimitz encounters a strange storm-like vortex, which disappears after the ship passes through it. Initially unsure of what has happened, and having lost radio contact with Pacific Fleet Command, Captain Matthew Yelland (Kirk Douglas) orders General Quarters and, fearing the possibility of a nuclear strike on Hawaii, launches an RF-8 Crusader reconnaissance aircraft, which returns with photographs of the intact 1941 U.S. Pacific battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor.[Note 1] When a surface contact is spotted on the radar, Captain Yelland launches the ready alert, two Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, to intercept. The patrol eventually witness a civilian yacht being attacked and destroyed by two Japanese Mitsubishi A6M “Zero” fighters, killing three of the crewmembers. Nimitz rescues the yacht’s remaining survivors: the fictional US Senator Samuel Chapman (Charles Durning), his secretary Laurel Scott (Katharine Ross), her dog, Charlie, and one of the Zero pilots. The CAG (Commander, Air Group) of Nimitz, Commander Owens (James Farentino), 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 he disappeared shortly before the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. After a Grumman E-2 Hawkeye discovers the Japanese fleet poised to attack Pearl Harbor, Nimitz crew eventually realize that they have been 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 civilians and the Zero pilot are kept isolated, but while being questioned, the Japanese pilot grabs a weapon, kills his guards and holds the other survivors, the CAG, and Lasky as hostages, threatening to kill them unless he is given access to a radio so he can warn his commanding officers about Nimitz, which is far more powerful than anything in the Japanese fleet. The Japanese pilot is eventually overcome and Laurel and Commander Owens become attracted to each other. The senator 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—but 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 chopper 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. 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.