The three main actors were put on a strict diet of 500 calories a day while filming to accurately portray how emaciated the downed pilots became during their ordeal.
Based on a true story from WWII
Filmed in Playas De Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. a Horizon Tank, in 1996 20th Century Fox acquired 40 acres of waterfront south of Playas De Rosarito, and built a seventeen-million-gallon tank for the film Titanic, a Co-Production with Paramount Pictures. The tank held a replica of the ship, and provided 270 degrees of ocean view. Others Films that have used the Same Tank are. "All is Lost" (2012), "Little Boy" (2011), Titanic (1997), Deep Blue Sea (1999), Weight of Water (2000), Pearl Harbor (2001), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Ghosts of the Abyss (2003).
The plane shown in the movie, a Douglas Devastator, had to be created from the original blueprints as there are no longer any of these planes left in the world.
The actual life raft used by the three airmen in 1942 is on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.