The Final Countdown Martin Sheen 2002 DVD Top-quality Free UK shipping

Sci-fi thriller in which a 1980s warship is transported back to the Second World War. In 1980, the US Navy’s most powerful warship, the USS Nimitz, is caught in a storm during routine manoeuvres in the Pacific. Enveloped by a strange green light, the ship passes through a vortex and when it emerges, the crew finds that all communication has been cut off. When Captain Matthew Yelland (Kirk Douglas) sends out a patrol, his F-14 pilots are shocked to encounter vintage Japanese warplanes. To their surprise, they discover that they have somehow been transported back in time to 6th December 1941: the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. As captain of a technologically superior craft, should Captain Yelland fulfill his duty to protect the United States and foil the impending attack – or let history run its course?
With a tantalising “what-if?” scenario and a respectable cast of Hollywood veterans, The Final Countdown plays like a grand-scale episode of The Twilight Zone. It’s really no more than that, and time-travel movies have grown far more sophisticated since this popular 1980 release, but there’s still some life remaining in the movie’s basic premise: what if a modern-era navy aircraft carrier–in this case the real-life nuclear-powered USS Nimitz–was caught in an anomalous storm and thrust 40 years backwards in time to the eve of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor? Will the ship’s commander (Kirk Douglas) interfere with history? Will the visiting systems analyst (Martin Sheen) convince him not to? Will a rescued senator from 1941 (Charles Durning) play an unexpected role in the future of American politics?
Veteran TV director Don Taylor doesn’t do much with the ideas posed by this potentially intriguing plot; he seems more interested in satisfying aviation buffs with loving footage of F-14 “Jolly Roger” fighter jets, made possible by the navy’s generous cooperation. That makes The Final Countdown a better navy film than a fully fledged time-travel fantasy, but there’s a nice little twist at the end, and the plot holes are easy to ignore. James Cameron would’ve done it better, but this popcorn thriller makes an enjoyable double bill with The Philadelphia Experiment.