I caught The Final Countdown today.
Its a movie about a US Aircraft Carrier from 1980 accidentally travelling back in time to 1941 on the eve of the Pearl Harbour attack by the Japanese empire.
Its almost a reversal of the later Philadelphia Experiment movie made in 1984.
The Final Countdown is thought provoking in a number of ways.
It poses that central paradox of time travel, should the travellers do anything that could change the future if the future can be changed at all.
In fact this conundrum is explicitly described by Martin Sheen's character during the film as the Carrier's Captain, Kirk Douglas, struggles with the temporal shift.
The film also poses another question; should a time-traveller carry out the same mission it had in its own time i.e. should the Aircraft Carrier continue to defend America forty years in the past by taking on the Japanese air fleet at Pearl Harbour?
It reminds me of one of Captain James T. Kirk's prime directives in Star Trek, if I remember rightly, to not introduce advanced technology to less developed societies.
Would a 1980's Aircraft Carrier being introduced to the world in 1941 have changed society for the worse and therefore disadvantaged the 'normal' course of history?
What do you think the ethics of time travel should be treaders?
It's interesting that you choose to take the morality approach to changing events via time travel. If I remember this movie correctly, one of the time travelers stays in the past and uses his knowledge of the future to make a fortune through investments.
ReplyDeleteIn this age of Trump, personal profit comes first in all cases.
Yep, Terran, one the modern sailors gets stranded on a 1941 desert island while his ship returns to 1980. He does become wealthy but appears to be interested in the reasons for the time slip as he sends an unwitting personal assistant with the Aircraft Carrier to experience what he experienced. Yes, I suppose I think morality is the defining human virtue Terran.
DeleteI'd leave only foot prints, but bring back a few vintage toys :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean to call readers treaders Tone but your foot prints seem to fit the name! Of course you could just buy your toys straight from the high street shops. On your return they would be immediately vintage! Ah, the benefits of time travel!
DeleteI thought it was a great film! - I watched it many years ago with a couple of my RAF mates, and they pointed out that the Captain of the Nimitz was absolutely right in his assertion of defending his country, where-ever and when-ever. They called it "Chain of Command" - One of my mates said that in real life the Captain would have sailed to a secure Navy Base [which would have been Pearl Harbour!] and reported in putting the Nimitz and the future knowledge at the disposal of the President and the High Command.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine the stir that would cause? this massive futuristic ship, bigger than a skyscraper sailing in to port? As was said in the film, the Nimitz could probably take on the whole Japanese military and win. The Pearl Harbour attack would have been swiftly repelled with with the complete neutralising of the Imperial Military and a major point of divergence in the timeline. I wonder what sort of world we would be living in if that really happened?
A revision of the "Man in the High Castle."
Glad you like it too Bill. Your mates' insight into the chain of command is fascinating, especially that they think it would still be intact after travelling through time. I enjoyed the Aircraft carrier action in the film immensely and wondered which carrier they filmed it on. I assume it was real footage.
DeleteThe carrier was the USS Nimitz. When the movie was released in theaters the movie poster was used on US Navy Recruitment offices including the one in Times Square, NYC where I saw it.
DeleteSo it really was the USS Nimitz like they said in the film! Amazing!
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