quote:

Nimitz, Captain Yelland mutters "Jap bastard".

He does indeed on my copy. I just checked for giggles. I believe it was “Nip Bastard” at about the 56 min mark.

Now I've just spent the last 3 1/2 hours watching this in snippets between patients.... Thanks guys. Always a good one. Always feel bad for rooting for the good Senator to eat it....

I loved the movie even though the plot was sort of silly. I once saw an interview of several of the Tomcat crews talking of their interactions with the actors. They all loved Charles Durning who hung out with them at the hotel pool and bar during filming. They said Douglas and Sheen were "OK" but that Katherine Ross was totally stuck up. During one of the flight scenes one crew held up a homemade sign for the camera telling her to "kiss their ass"

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I once saw an interview of several of the Tomcat crews talking of their interactions with the actors. They all loved Charles Durning who hung out with them at the hotel pool and bar during filming.

Not surprising whatsoever. From Wikipedia:

Durning served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was drafted at age 20. On June 6, 1944 Durning was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division and in the first wave of American troops that landed on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy. He would be the only survivor of his unit that arrived in France on D-Day. After being wounded by a German anti-personnel mine in the Bocage, he spent six months recovering. Durning was reassigned to the 398th Infantry Regiment with the 100th Infantry Division, and participated in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. He was discharged with the rank of Private First Class on January 30, 1946.

For his valor and the wounds he received during the war, Durning was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Additional awards included the Army Good Conduct Medal, the American Campaign Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Arrowhead device and two bronze service stars, and the World War II Victory Medal. His badges included the Combat Infantryman Badge, Expert Badge with Rifle Bar, and Honorable Service Lapel Pin.

Hollywood seems to love remaking movies from the 1980's but this hasn't made the list so far. The F-14, A-7, A-6 and SH-3 are long gone so any remake would have to feature the F-18E/F and F-35. Although the USS Nimitz is still in service.

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Originally posted by Dawes:
Hollywood seems to love remaking movies from the 1980's but this hasn't made the list so far.

Hollywood can't replicate perfection. Hands off damnit!!

Hated the movie. Every time we watched it, my wife would try and actually make sense of the time shift.

" But if they were back there, how could they be here?"""""

Watched ut not long ago. It's on one of Comcast's free streaming channels.

Well, I was hoping to see the previous thread resurrected and posted to as there was some interesting discussion about the F-14 engines...but, at this point, many of the same comments made by members in that thread have now made the same comments in this thread, so I suppose it doesn't matter now.

I have The Final Countdown DVD with special features on it, which includes the entire reunion recording of U.S.N. F-14 pilots involved in the making of the movie. There were so many fantastic military aviation and carrier shipboard scenes in the movie that I was originally planning on uploading several of the frame stills to go with the commentary. But, it takes a good while to upload this many pictures, and at this point it appears most members have seen the movie so there probably isn't much of a reason to include the pics with the commentary.

A couple years ago, I transcribed a few of the highlights from the VF-84 squadron F-14 pilots who reunited to reminisce about the making of The Final Countdown:

- U.S.N. (ret.) Lt. Cmdr. Emory Brown, skipper of VF-84, immediately made the point that there are pilots...and then there are aviators, and that at that time, VF-84 was made up of a number of professional, skilled, experienced aviators. To confirm this, the same year that the movie was made, VF-84 won the commendation for the best fighter squadron in the Navy.

- The year that the movie was made, VF-84 had just received brand new straight from the factory planes, so the F-14s pictured in the movie are about as pristine as front line operational fighters can be.

- VF-84 was planning for deployment during the planning stages of the movie.

- Lt. Cmdr. Brown and VF-84 had been working on providing documentary aerial footage for the Smithsonian museum, and he contacted the man responsible for the film to inform him that if he needed any additional footage, their upcoming deployment would be a good chance to get it. He was informed that they didn't need any additional footage, however there was a Hollywood producer who wanted to make a movie involving the U.S. Navy and Navy aviation. The movie had been languishing for 2 years, however a new young producer had signed on, Peter Douglas, son of acting legend Kirk Douglas. Lt. Cmdr. Brown felt that the Navy was a great career and he thought the movie would be a great way to introduce civilians to what the Navy and Navy aviation do, and would be a great recruiting tool, especially with Peter and Kirk Douglas involved in the project. After reading the script Brown saw potential in it and set up a meeting with the director. After the meeting with the director, the pilots approached the Confederate Air Force (CAF) about involving them and getting a couple of their AT-6 planes to serve as Japanese Zeros.

The dissimilar aircraft involved in the project provided for some serious technical challenges as never before had there been so many mis-matched aircraft and weapons with such differing performance characteristics filmed before. The pilots explained that they would need as much input and license as possible with the coordination of aerial choreography, terminology, and with the script, and Peter Douglas agreed to their terms.

- The U.S.S. Nimitz had engine problems that kept her in port for much of the early film shooting, so the interior movie shots were largely filmed in port.

- The F-14 pilots had just returned home from a 6 month deployment and had to immediately fly to Key West FL. to start filming the aviation sequences, so this was a difficult time for them as the filming cut into their precious home and family time, before their next deployment.

- When the F-14 pilots arrived at the Key West motel they were being put up in during the movie filming they were told to report to a man named "Vic", who turned out to be an Italian guy with a big belly, wearing a Speedo, who hung out at the motel pool. When they met Vic he was holding a white envelope with hundred dollar bills, and he started handing cash out to the pilots. They received $150/ day per diem, which they were thrilled with because this turned out to be a couple house payments for many of them.

They felt like they had died and gone to heaven because they were surrounded by actors and actresses, having a great time flying in Key West, they were served extravagant lunches like they were staying at the Ritz, and coming off a deployment they weren't used to eating this well... and they were being paid cash money.

- The F-14 pilots were being driven around in vans driven by Teamster union drivers. During one conversation the pilots learned that the drivers had been flown in from L.A. specifically to drive them around, which they thought was odd. When asked, one of the drivers told him his salary and they realized that he was making substantially more than their Navy salaries, despite their education, training, and the risks they took.

- The pilots briefed for each day's shoot the same they would for a mission.

- Early filming was done from a helo camera ship, but with 3 different aircraft with 3 different performance envelopes the dogfight filming sequence didn't come out the way they wanted. According to one pilot "it was like trying to get 3 pool balls to hit it each other at the same time. So they contracted with aviation great Paul Mantz and his specially modified B-25 camera plane as he could get closer to the other planes in the filming sequences.

- The F-14 flyby of the yacht was flown by U.S.N. (ret.) Capt. Richard "Fox" Farrell, and he said he and his wingman overflew it at 75'. The director was onboard the yacht at the time of the flyby and when Fox radioed to ask how it looked the director said "you looked a little high, can you do it again, but lower?", but Fox rejected that request and explained that at that speed and altitude, with a wingman, they had pushed themselves to their limits and they were not going any lower.

- Initially, the missile firing sequence was supposed to have been done with some sort of special effects or simulation, but they got permission to do a live missile firing at the Puerto Rico Navy firing range. The film crew trained one of the aircrews how to operate their camera, and the missile sequence was actually filmed by the F-14 crew flying wing.

- During the initial dogfight sequence in which the F-14s "thump" the "Zeros", the pilots had previously coordinated the maneuver and were in radio contact with each other. After the pass the F-14 pilots radio the Zero pilots to see how they were doing, but no reply. They were wondering if the "Zero" pilots were receiving them or where they were. Once on the ground, after speaking with the prop plane pilots, they learned that when the F-14s pulled up in front of them that the jetwash turbulence was so severe that the helmet headset was ripped off their heads and flew out the open cockpit.

- The Nimitz Captain decided that if the movie crew was going to film a General Quarters (GQ) sequence then he was going to make the most out of it, so he ordered that it was an actual live GQ being competitively performance evaluated.

- During the refueling sequence the B-25 tail camera man was shooting directly back at the nose of the F-14. The camera man waved the F-14 pilot to come closer so he could touch the end of the refueling probe with the tip of his foot. The F-14 pilot emphatically shook his head NO to the request, because he fully realized that aircraft built up a static charge in flight and that the camera man would get a shock if he touched the probe. However the camera man continued to insist that he maneuver the plane closer, and, knowing that the charge wasn't lethal, but would only give you a good jolt, the pilot decided to comply. The camera man got zapped pretty good, but they had a pretty good laugh about it later on the ground.

- The infamous F-14 dive towards the deck scene gets some contradictory treatment. The pilots all insist that the dive was performed in a safe manner and Fox Farrel and his RIO didn't come close to hitting the water, however they all acknowledge that it was a brilliant piece of flying and that the F-14 recovered from the dive at 100'. The camera man used a zoom lens to enhance the effect of the dive. The movie sound editor brought Fox's wife into the studio so that she could watch the dive sequence while simultaneously screaming as if in response to what she was watching, and then he edited her scream in with the sound of an F-14 engine, with the sound compilation used in the final film version of the dive sequence.

The Jolly Rogers decided not to show the dive sequence to the Admiral during the daily film shoot reviews, figuring that it would be better if they waited until after the movie had been released to avoid any "concern". During the night of the premiere of the movie an extravagant reception was held after the movie viewing, and the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and various other admirals, as well as the actors and the squadron F-14 aircrews attended. Kirk Douglas introduces the VF-84 skipper Lt. Cmdr. Brown to the CNO, and the CNO says "You guys did one hell of a job, it was just a beautiful job, and we're going to get some real good show-casing of the F-14 and the Navy and naval aviation...and just how low did he go?" The skipper replies "well, about 100', but it was controlled all the way down".

- Intially, there was a little friction between the film crew and the Nimitz crew, because the film crew just thought that they could go where ever they wanted to at any time they wanted to on the flight deck and that the planes would just be positioned where they wanted, or that flight ops would be coordinated so that the planes would take off or land whenever the film crew wanted them to. The Captain explained that this wasn't how it worked, and while they would attempt to accommodate some requests, this was a warship with schedules to keep, training to perform, and deadly risks present.

One of the F-14 pilots commented that there is an expectation that Hollywood types are undisciplined and crazy, but, once they understood what the Captain explained, that the Navy crew were mostly impressed with the film crew and noted that they worked hard, and then played hard.

Actor Charles Durning would often sit at the motel bar but if he saw one of the Jolly Rogers pilots he would call them over and buy them drinks. One squadron pilot explained that another Hollywood myth is that actors are mean-spirited and don't care about guys like them, which he didn't find to be true at all... with one notable exception. It was the end of the day and everybody was back at the hotel and the pilots are sitting on the patio with the director and having a nice conversation. Just then, actress Katherine Ross walks into the lobby and sits down just on the other side of the glass door. The pilots wanted to meet her and just say hello and they ask the director if he would introduce them to her, so he gets up to go talk to her. The pilots are waiting several minutes before the director returns and says that she doesn't want to meet them. One of the pilots sitting there says "really...well, we'll see about that." So, the next day during filming of the day's scheduled flight sequences, one of the camera men films one of the plane's pilots holding up a sign. Each day the cast and crew would gather together to watch the previous day's filming "dailies" to see how they turned out. So, during the dailies the lights are turned off and the entire cast, crew, and F-14 aircrews are watching, and with Katherine Ross sitting in the front row, the sign pops up "Fuck you Katherine Ross, we didn't want to meet you anyways." They said you could see the steam rising up from her while watching that sequence.

- When the question was posed to the squadron, that, if time travel were possible, if they found themselves back in time on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, what would they do? To a man, every one of the pilots said they would man their planes and go into combat against the 1941 Japanese fleet...with the exception of the squadron commander. He felt that they shouldn't attack and shouldn't interfere because the sacrifices of those who perished at Pearl Harbor were vital to the state of the world at the time the movie was made, and that the attack united the country in a way that few other events could have, and that it gave a sense of urgency in preparing for and winning WWII, and also what was right and what was wrong, and it led to a general sense that an event like this can never be allowed to happen again.

When the rest of the squadron heard his comments they jokingly gave him a hard time, and when they pressed him on it, he admitted that, academically speaking, he felt that withdrawing the Nimitz from the battle was the right thing to do... but, as a military pilot, he would've attacked the Japanese Fleet and shot everything that he could shoot.

Edited: to correct squadron designator

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Modern Day Savage,

You sure it wasn't VF-84? I also believe Brown was a commander (O5) as CO of VF84.

^^^^

I was going by the audio I heard and it sounded like one pilot said "VF-284", but I just popped in the DVD and re-watched a portion of the comments and I think you are right. Thanks for the correction!

Isn't "VF-84" actually marked on the F-14's? That "Skull and Bones" emblem is just the coolest ever.

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"Fuck you Katherine Ross, we didn't want to meet you anyways."

LOL! That's some funny shit right there. Stuck-up bitch.

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Actor Charles Durning would often sit at the motel bar but if he saw one of the Jolly Rogers pilots he would call them over and buy them drinks. One squadron pilot explained that another Hollywood myth is that actors are mean-spirited and don't care about guys like them, which he didn't find to be true at all...

That's not surprising at all, considering Durning served in the Army during WWII and was one of the soldiers who stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day. He also was very active in participating in veterans' functions and events.

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Originally posted by Dawes:
Isn't "VF-84" actually marked on the F-14's? That "Skull and Bones" emblem is just the coolest ever.

Fun fact, VF-84 was disestablished in '95 during to Cold War wind-down. Pilots, name and badging was moved over the VF-103, formerly Sluggers.

Four Navy squadrons have used the Jolly Roger insignia: VF-17, VF-61, VF-84, VF-103 now, VFA-103

Sony TV channel currently showing movie. I need a “feel good” movie right now.

I’ve seen it about a dozen times and always cheer the senator biting it.

I also like the original The Philadelphia Experiment but they don’t play it very often