Only a Timelord might know the answer to that and The Final Countdown bears no small resemblance to a big budget version of a Doctor Who episode. All that was needed was the TARDIS and one of the Doctors Who to provide an explanation for what was going on.
Kirk Douglas heads the cast in his own Bryna films production of The Final Countdown. He's the captain of the U.S.S Nimitz, finest nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the fleet and on this cruise they've got a VIP aboard, Martin Sheen who works for a mysterious Howard Hughes hermit like defense contractor named Tideman.
Once out of port they encounter a storm unlike any other in history and though they're slow to comprehend it, the U.S.S. Nimitz and crew are transported back in time, precisely to December 6, 1941.
What to do? The mind boggles with the possibilities. Complicating things even further the Nimitz rescues United States Senator Charles Durning and his girl Friday Katharine Ross who are the only survivors of a cabin cruiser that got shot up by Japanese planes. Oh. and they also rescue the pilot of one of the Japanese zeroes that sunk the cabin cruiser, Soon Teck Oh.
The Final Countdown is a good science fiction film that raises some interesting conundrum like questions. Would you kill Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin as a child if you got the chance? Should the Nimitz with the firepower it has go wreak some havoc on the Japanese fleet before they strike?
Other good performances in the film besides those mentioned are James Farentino as the air group commander and amateur historian and Ron O'Neal as the Executive officer of the Nimitz. My favorite in the film however is Soon Teck Oh. He speaks only Japanese in the film and he manages to invoke both menace and fright in his performance of a man, also not knowing what's happening but knowing he's with the American enemy.
You'll be scratching your head for days after seeing The Final Countdown. I won't say what happens to the Nimitz and its crew, but Martin Sheen gets the biggest surprise of all at the very end of the film.
Kirk Douglas heads the cast in his own Bryna films production of The Final Countdown. He's the captain of the U.S.S Nimitz, finest nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the fleet and on this cruise they've got a VIP aboard, Martin Sheen who works for a mysterious Howard Hughes hermit like defense contractor named Tideman.
Once out of port they encounter a storm unlike any other in history and though they're slow to comprehend it, the U.S.S. Nimitz and crew are transported back in time, precisely to December 6, 1941.
What to do? The mind boggles with the possibilities. Complicating things even further the Nimitz rescues United States Senator Charles Durning and his girl Friday Katharine Ross who are the only survivors of a cabin cruiser that got shot up by Japanese planes. Oh. and they also rescue the pilot of one of the Japanese zeroes that sunk the cabin cruiser, Soon Teck Oh.
The Final Countdown is a good science fiction film that raises some interesting conundrum like questions. Would you kill Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin as a child if you got the chance? Should the Nimitz with the firepower it has go wreak some havoc on the Japanese fleet before they strike?
Other good performances in the film besides those mentioned are James Farentino as the air group commander and amateur historian and Ron O'Neal as the Executive officer of the Nimitz. My favorite in the film however is Soon Teck Oh. He speaks only Japanese in the film and he manages to invoke both menace and fright in his performance of a man, also not knowing what's happening but knowing he's with the American enemy.
You'll be scratching your head for days after seeing The Final Countdown. I won't say what happens to the Nimitz and its crew, but Martin Sheen gets the biggest surprise of all at the very end of the film.