THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
US, 1980, 103 minutes, Colour.
Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino, Charles Durning.
Directed by Don Taylor.
The Final Countdown is one of the more entertaining films of time travel. It starts aboard the nuclear ship, the USS Nimitz in 1980. They experience a storm and find themselves travelling through the storm into Pearl Harbor 1941 just before the Japanese attack. The film explores what it is like for a modern aircraft carrier to experience the 1940s – and also has a dilemma about what they should do in terms of the attack, whether they should themselves attack the Japanese or let history take its course. One of the complications is that they have rescued a senator who disappeared and, to that extent, have altered history already.
The film has a good cast with Kirk Douglas as the captain of the ship.
Four years later a kind of reverse time travel film was made, The Philadelphia Experiment, also very entertaining. This time a ship from the 1940s was projected forty years into the future.
1. The popularity of stories which are variations on The Time Machine? Audience delight in moving through time? Bringing the knowledge of the present to that of the past? The possibility of changing history? The application of the time machine plot to Pearl Harbour and World War II and the Americans? The grounds for an adventure story?
2. The film's emphasis on technology, the navy? The equipment of the navy of the seventies? The comparisons with what was available in 1941? The detail of technological change an presented? Colour photography, Panavision, the sea? The importance of the special effects especially the storm? The score?
3. The plausibility of time machine stories? The what if .... ? The indulgence in fantasy? Theories of time and relativity? The basic fallacies underlying such stories? The build-up to drama, sentiment?
4. The presentation of Nimitz and its size, power, the landing, the computers, radio? The enormous crew? The alerting of the crew in dangers? The confrontation with the Japanese as the Nimitz went back forty years? The potential for changing Pearl Harbour? The anti-climactic return of the storm and the Nimitz not doing anything about the war?
5. The storm and its effect, the sound effects, visuals, the time warp? The experience for the sailors to go through? The discovery of the change of time? The clues and piecing them together? Lack of radio contact, etc.? The captain and his having to cope? The relief of the return?
6. The film's comment on the time warp making the captain feel that there may have been a nuclear threat on the United States, the possibility and the danger, the ways of checking and verifying? The reconnaissance, the checking with history? The importance of the information by Ovens and his expertise? The discovery of the senator and his party? The fleet, the planes? The intercutting of documentary material from the past? The blend of fact and fiction?
7. The theme of the captain being able to play God, the challenge to change history, the possibilities? What rights have people to intervene? The what if...? theory and the changing of the course of World War II - is this possible?
8. Captain Yelland: Kirk Douglas and his presence and control? The discussions with Lanky and his presence on the ship? The revelation of the captain in his ordinary details in running the ship? The drills, etc.? The storm and the effect on the captain, on the officers? Lanky and the giving of information? The hypotheses? The planes, the civilians? The captain's decision about Pearl Harbour? Leaving Ovens?
9. Lanky and his role an observer, scientific background? The audience coming on the Nimitz with him? Being involved in the mystery, the puzzle about Ovens?
10. Ovens and the puzzle about his knowledge, history? Antagonism towards Lanky? His role in the ship, concerning the war? His being put ashore?
11. The senator and his character Laurel and her presence? Talk, the strafing by the planes, the dog? Ovens and the rescue? The interrogation and the senator's puzzle? The shooting of the Japanese? The helicopter death - and its tying in with the true history of the senator? Laurel and her being left with Ovens?
12. The anticlimactic return from Pearl Harbour through the storm?
13. The revelation that Ovens and Laurel wore in the car? The knowledge that Ovens had of the navy and ships, etc.? How foreseeable was this conclusion?
14. A navy action adventure? The themes of war and changing history? Enjoyable, speculative entertainment?
