The Final Countdown Review

MPAA Rating: PG
Released: 1980

Films about time travel generally make for intriguing yarns, particularly when done correctly as was the case with The Final Countdown. When a modern-era aircraft carrier is caught in an unexpected electrical storm off the coast of Pearl Harbor, the ship and its crew is sent back in time to December 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese are to ambush the United States and kick off World War II.

What would you do if you possessed an arsenal of modern military might as well as the foreknowledge of history? Would you intercede to save your countrymen and risk creating a historical paradox in the process, or would you refuse to act in order to maintain the integrity of time? This is the dilemma that Captain Matthew Yelland (Kirk Douglas) must face as he is placed in an unbelievable situation.

The Final Countdown begins with a brief introduction of Yelland and his crew as he prepares the U.S.S. Nimitz to undergo a journey from Pearl Harbor into the Pacific Ocean. A civilian hired by the Department of Defense, Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen), is also placed aboard the Nimitz in order to evaluate the crew and prepare an efficiency report for his superiors.

Soon the uneventful journey is disrupted by a sudden electrical storm that swallows the impressive aircraft carrier. When the ship finally passes through, Yelland and his crew finds themselves in an odd scenario. Although their equipment is functioning properly, they cannot communicate with their base command. In fact the only signal they can pick up is an outdated code that hasn't been in use for decades.

Through reconnaissance missions and dated transmissions such as the Benny Hill show, eventually Yelland and Lasky must face the twisted reality that they have been thrown back in the past and are situated between the Japanese fleet that is destined to destroy Pearl Harbor. With their superior technology and foreknowledge the U.S.S. Nimitz could easily destroy the Japanese fleet and save their countrymen, but by doing so they would rewrite history and cause unknown potential repercussions for the future.

The thought of time travel is an interesting paradox, one that is shown in an example cited in the movie. What happens if you go back in time and kill your ancestor before you were born? Technically with the death of your ancestor, you would never have been born in the future, but if you weren't born how could you ever have gone back to the past to kill him in the first place? Does one future cease to exist when the past is manipulated in such a way as to create a new future?

Okay… enough of that philosophical banter. I never took such classes when I was in school because all that mind-bending philosophizing just doesn't do it for me; I'd rather focus on the here and now. But you have to admit, the time travel paradox is an interesting subject, and one that is explored to good effect in The Final Countdown without ever going too far and dragging the film into a scientific or philosophical quagmire. The movie delves into the time travel issue just enough to tease you, but not enough to bore you.

The acting in this film is very pleasing; Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen command the center stage with their confident charisma, but Katharine Ross, Charles Durning, James Farentino and the supporting characters also keep the quality high and story moving.

Aviation buffs will love the cinematography; the camera lovingly captures the technological beauty and power of U.S. Tomcats as they land and depart on the carrier, fly formations and engage in battle. The Navy cooperated with the filming of The Final Countdown in order to present a realistic and authentic cinema experience.

You can almost compare The Final Countdown to an extended episode of the Twilight Zone since it presents a juicy sci-fi time travel plot without delving into a level of minutia that may turn off the casual viewers.

The Final Countdown may not be the best film to have ever tackled the subject, but it's a somewhat obscure 80's gem that is well worth experiencing.

Movie rating: 8 stars

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