Did You Know?
The sailors on the carrier are playing a board war game by Avalon Hill called "Squad Leader".
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Filmed in the Atlantic, not the Pacific Ocean (where it takes place). The USS Nimitz was an Atlantic fleet ship until the summer of 1987 when it was transferred to the Pacific. USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) stood in for the Nimitz for the arrival past the 'Arizona' into Pearl Harbor.
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The grand finale, where Lasky is invited into the limo and drives away from the ship, was filmed at Nimitz's home port in Norfolk, Virginia. The limo is headed straight off the end of Pier 12.
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When an F-14 does a steep dive and pulls out just before crashing into the ocean while "playing" with one of the Zeroes, the "scream" the F-14 made was created by mixing the sound of the jet engines with the actual scream of the pilot's wife when she saw that clip for the first time.
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As with most pre-CG-effects movies about the Pacific War, the planes standing in for the A6M2 Zeroes are actually specially-modified AT-6 Texans mocked up to look like Zeroes (since from the side - but not the wings - the two planes are remarkably similar).
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The "identification" for the pilot who is doing the Recon mission over Pearl Harbor clearly says "Soup, Campbell"... or "Campbell Soup".
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During shooting of the opening shot where the CAG's Tomcat is taking off from Pearl Harbor, the film crew actually underestimated the blast radius of the Tomcat's exhaust and one of their cameras was blown over when the plane went to full afterburner, which resulted in the shot being filmed from a slightly different angle than originally planned.
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First theatrical trailer from the Blue Underground DVD includes more dialogue between Yelland and Lasky about the consequences of turning back the planes.
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Filmed during the Nimitz' Sep 79-May 80 cruise. Squadrons aboard included VF-41 and VF-84 (F-14A Tomcats), VA-35 (A-6E Intruder), VA-82 and VA-86 (A-7E Corsair II), VFP-63 (RF-8G Crusader), VAQ-134 (EA-6B Prowler), VS-24 (S-3A Viking), VAW-112 (E-2B Hawkeye), and HS-9 (SH-3H Sea King). All squadrons get time on film.
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Reportedly, the filming wrapped early on the U.S.S. Nimitz as it was recalled to its home base so that it could take on the helicopters and crew that were used in the ill-fated "Operation Eagle Claw", the attempt to rescue the U.S. Embassy Iranian Hostages in 1980.
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The script called for the Japanese pilot to try to force the F-14 into the water. The pilot who basically did a hammerhead and pulled out real close to the water was Richard "Fox" Farrell (VF-84 XO), now retired. He did kick up quite a bit of seawater and was really pushing the envelope with the Tomcat. WWII ace-in-a-day Archie Donahue was one of the Zero pilots. The Zeroes (converted AT-6 Texans) were flying with the throttle to the stops and the F-14s were flying at stall speed (note wings fully extended in most scenes). That was so they could get both aircraft in the same shot at the same time (remember, no CGI stuff back then!).
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The time travel storm is the same special effect as seen in The Lathe of Heaven during the climatic dream sequence confrontation.
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Kirk Douglas initially wanted his son Michael to play the Martin Sheen role - but this proved impossible as Michael was deeply involved in post production and publicity on 'The China Syndrome'.
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In the mid 1980s the communist government banned the movie in Hungary, claiming it glorified the United States Armed Forces. However, some illegal copies were circulated on VHS with parts about the Russian trawler spying on the USS Nimitz edited out.
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There is an 8-ball on the right side of CAG's flight helmet. CAG is the acronym for Carrier Air Group. As the air group commander he is referred to as CAG. Until 1963 the air groups were designated as Carrier Air Group (CVG). In 1963, the designation was changed to CVW, Carrier Air Wing. However, calling the air group commander just wouldn't sound right, so the commander is still called CAG. To wrap this up, all air wings are numbered and their aircraft carry a two letter designation. The Nimitz's air wing was CVW-8 and the tail code is AJ. All Atlantic air wing tail codes begin with an "A" while all Pacific air wing codes begin with an "N". In WWII the air group codes were geometric designs on the vertical stabilizer and the wing.
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