This Kirk Douglas '80s Sci-Fi War Movie Is A Perfect Watch For Alternate History Fans

Don Taylor's 1980 thriller "The Final Countdown" has something for World War II rivet-counters as well as sci-fi fans. The film follows a state-of-the-art nuclear-powered aircraft carrier called the USS Nimitz as it encounters a bizarre energy portal in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is sucked back in time to December 6, 1941, i.e. the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place. The crew of the Nimitz, perhaps without thinking clearly, rescues a ship being attacked by Japanese Zeros and almost instantly recognizes that they might have already changed the course of history. Someone needs to talk to the Nimitz crew about causality.

"The Final Countdown" was a mid-budget thriller with a B-movie sensibility and an impressive cast. Lloyd Kaufman, the co-founder of Troma (the folks behind "Toxic Avenger"), produced the movie and has a cameo appearance. The film's star, Kirk Douglas, was also a producer, and he plays Captain Yelland, the commanding officer of the Nimitz. He's joined by Martin Sheen as a civilian observer on the Nimitz named Lasky, while Charles Durning plays a 1941-era senator named Samuel Chapman and Katharine Ross portrays the senator's aide. Finally, James Farentino plays a naval commander on the Nimitz named Owens, and he just happens to be a WWII history buff, which is a handy character to have in a time travel story.

The premise of "The Final Countdown" is a fun "what-if" fantasy for WWII nerds. Could the attack on Pearl Harbor have been repelled if the United States had just one 1980-era aircraft carrier? The movie then dramatizes how that scenario might have played out. The central drama of the film arises when Captain Yelland refuses to warn anybody about the attack, being concerned with retaining the history that he knows.

"The Final Countdown" didn't have a huge budget, but it was granted access to the real-life USS Nimitz for filming, so it possessed some good production values. A lot of the background extras were Nimitz crew members, all of whom are listed in the final credits. Some critics at the time, including Roger Ebert, noted that the sci-fi plot was actually less interesting than the film's in-born tour of the Nimitz itself. Ebert, incidentally, didn't like "The Final Countdown" very much, giving the film only two stars (out of four).

Beyond that, the film contains many shots of Pearl Harbor that were clearly made up of old stock footage. You can tell the movie was made for military nerds. Indeed, the movie contains a wide variety of specific types of aircrafts. There are a few time travel twists at the end of the film as well, and one might easily be able to predict what they are. Ultimately, though, "The Final Countdown" is not so ambitious as to try and predict how history might've been different if the attack on Pearl Harbor had been repelled.

If it were me, I'd go for it. Save Pearl Harbor and see what happens. After all, there's no law that says history has to turn out a certain way. Well, I suppose there is ... y'know, the way time works. But then, this is a story where time travel is possible, so we have every reason to recklessly muck about with causality (assuming this isn't a "Sound of Thunder"-style situation).

Like Roger Ebert, most critics were only so-so on "The Final Countdown." Ebert noted that the sci-fi elements of the movie were complete hooey, so one needs to suspend their disbelief quite a bit to accept its time travel premise. He even began sussing out the very nature of causality in his review, which was a sure sign that the picture failed to engage him. Every film has mistakes and continuity errors, but we tend to overlook them if we're wrapped up in the plot or the plight of their characters. If the movie is bad, our minds wander, and we begin to notice the script's holes. 

Vincent Canby, writing for the New York Times, had similar complaints, finding the sci-fi stuff to be nonsense. Canby also noted that the special effects were unintentionally funny and that the dialogue was laughably pretentious. (For example, "There are forces in the universe we are only now beginning to understand.") If you recall that Lloyd Kaufman was an associate producer on the film, however, the silliness might just have come hand-in-glove with the material. 

Don Taylor was likewise better known for directing TV, having worked on the likes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Dr. Kildare," and "The Flying Nun." He did, however, helm a few notable genre films in the 1970s, including "Escape from the Planet of the Apes," the 1977 movie version of "The Island of Dr. Moreau," and "Damien — Omen II." He was a respectable and capable director, but "The Final Countdown" wasn't exactly hailed as a classic. 

That said, if you're searching for alternate history movies, this one's very much worth a look.