The Final Countdown

release year: 1980
genre: science fiction
viewing setting: home DVD, 7/12/17 and 3/9/12 and 4/19/04

synopsis: An aircraft carrier gets caught in a freak storm and appears in 1941...December 6, 1941.

impressions: This was a good "what if?" time-travel scenario, but it got caught in the standard time-travel-paradox problems that all such movies do. The idea was good: what if a modern-day warship, one with the planes and power to stop the attack on Pearl Harbor, was given such a chance?

something this movie has that no other movie has: A time storm.

acting: Kirk Douglas is the crusty captain of the Nimitz. Martin Sheen is the detached civilian advisor. James Farentino is the head fighter pilot. Charles Durning is the pompous, blowhard senator from 1941, and Katharine Ross is his ambitious secretary.

final word: Good, original entertaining science fiction.

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