The Final Countdown (1980)

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The Final Countdown (1980)

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The Final Countdown is a 1980 science fiction film about a modern aircraft carrier that travels through time to just before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. It was directed by Don Taylor, and stars Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, James Farentino, Katharine Ross and Charles Durning.

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The Final Countdown (1980)

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Plot: In 1980, the supercarrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) takes on a civilian observer, Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen), at the orders of his reclusive and mysterious employer, Mr. Tideman (who helped design much of the ship), just before it departs Pearl Harbor for a training mission in the Pacific Ocean. Out in the Pacific, the ship 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 the fleet, the ship launches numerous aircraft to determine their status. After a reconnaissance aircraft discovers an intact pre-World War II Pacific battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor, an F-14 Tomcat patrol discovers a 1940s era yacht, along with a patrol of Japanese Zeros. When the Zeros destroy the civilian yacht, the F-14s shoot them down. The Nimitz rescues the survivors, a man and a woman from the yacht and one of the Zero pilots who survived being shot down.

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The Final Countdown (1980)

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The Nimitz’s CAG (Commander, Air Group), Commander Owens (James Farentino), an amateur historian, recognizes the male survivor from the yacht as a prominent United States Senator who could have been Franklin Roosevelt’s running mate during his final re-election bid and his eventual successor. After progressing through all possible scenarios, and after an E-2 Hawkeye discovers the Japanese fleet that is poised to attack Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, they eventually realize that they have been transported back in time to December 6, 1941, just one day before the Japanese attack. The commander of the Nimitz, Captain Yelland (Kirk Douglas), has the dilemma of deciding whether to use the full power of Nimitz to destroy the Japanese fleet and alter the course of history, or to stand by and allow history to proceed as "normal." After some intense debates on-board, the captain settles the dispute by "going by the book": to defend America "past, present, and future" if attacked, and otherwise, to obey the orders of the then-current Commander-in-Chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

–from wikipedia

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The Final Countdown (1980)

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The Final Countdown (1980)

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The Final Countdown (1980)

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The Final Countdown (1980)

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The Final Countdown (1980)

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