10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Final Countdown

If you could go back in time would you or even should you change history? That is the premise behind the 1980 action/sci-fi film The Final Countdown. The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and her crew are transported back to December 1941 and have the potential to easily stop the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which would undoubtedly make December 7, 1941 far less infamous. The Final Countdown does a great job of avoiding any messy time travel paradoxes by focusing on the strong moral and (at least for Americans) patriotic dilemma. What sets The Final Countdown apart is the level of involvement by the United States Navy and the crew of the USS Nimitz which gives the film incredible realism and accuracy when it comes to life on a supercarrier and naval aviation. The movie should be watched for the footage of launches and recoveries of aircraft alone. For those of you that want to delve even deeper into the film I just might have 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Final Countdown.

10. During the opening shot of The Final Countdown we get a dramatic close-up of a jet taking off. The filmmakers originally wanted us to have a closer-up shot but on the first take the camera and operators were blown right off the runway by the jet exhaust.

9. The opening shot was one of the few land based shots as most of the film was shot on the real USS Nimitz. Filming on the carrier proved just as precarious as one of the camera operators got swept off the deck by the exhaust. (Jet Exhaust 2 – Camera Operators 0) Don’t worry, the operator was caught in one of the safety nets before hitting the drink.

8. The special effects of the storm that sent the Nimitz back in time were saved for last which turned out not to be a good idea because the production had become very low on funds. The low money was the reason for the primitive time storm effects, even though legendary James Bond title designer Maurice Binder tried his best.

7. The unit production manager and assistant producer on The Final Countdown was Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment fame. The film solidified in Kaufman’s mind that he couldn’t work in the traditional Hollywood system. Kaufman particularly did not care for, in his words, the flame-out bozo director Don Taylor. Some of his complaints include Taylor “falling off the wagon” and hiring “a crew of s***heads.”

6. Kaufman’s opinion of the cast wasn’t much better, calling James Farentino a whiner and disclosing that Katharine Ross also had a penchant for complaining about useless things like the chairs in the cafeteria. In Kaufman’s mind, Kirk Douglas and his son and producer of the film Peter Douglas are the ones who made the movie go, fighting for many of the great scenes to be included. After seeing the shot with the two F-14s behind the Japanese Zeros that the Douglases wanted I tend to agree with him.

5. The real life U.S. Navy F-14 pilots had no problems with the cast (including Taylor but that could be because he was pleasant to them in the bar) except for an instance with Katharine Ross when she didn’t want to talk to them one night at the hotel. They got her back by holding up a large “F-U (except they spelled it out) Katharine we didn’t want to meet you anyway” sign in a plane during filming. There was said to be smoke coming out of Ms. Ross’ ears when everyone saw the sign while watching the dailies.

4. One person that everyone seemed to love was Charles Durning. He played a sort of smarmy senator, but the actor couldn’t have been friendlier. The thing that might have loved Durning the most was the helicopter rescue cable. The large actor opted for a more svelte stunt double during the water rescue scene while Katharine Ross was a trooper and did all of her own stunts.

3. The F-14 pilots loved the Hollywood treatment but were really nonplussed when they found out the teamsters flown in from Los Angeles just to drive the pilots around made more money then they did in the Navy.

2. Both producer Peter Douglas and associate producer Lloyd Kaufman have small roles with Kaufman playing the creatively named LCdr. Kaufman. Kirk Douglas told Kaufman that he was a terrible actor but a better actor than producer. Of course, that was said in good fun as the two became fast friends during filming.

1. The soundtrack to The Final Countdown works in perfect harmony with the film and adds to the suspension and tension in all the right notes. I personally can’t get enough of the instrumental theme to The Final Countdown. However, it can’t hold a candle to the unrelated 1986 Europe hit song “The Final Countdown” which was initially written as an opening for Europe’s live shows but is now being used as a closing to this 10 Things.

Special thanks to the special features on Blue Underground’s Blu-ray release of The Final Countdown for assisting with the content of this edition of 10 Things You Didn’t Know.