The Final Countdown ending question

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

This is about The Final Countdown movie not the "It's the final countdown! Doo doo doo doo. Doo doo doo doo doo!" song. Spoilers ahead.


So I rewatched the movie and at the end the CAG shows up and he was alive living with the girl they set down on the island with. He says he has a lot to talk about with Martin Sheen's character. Martin Sheen's character was hired by this guy at the beginning, implying he has a lot of power to get him onto a carrier. Is there more to it than that? Martin Sheen's character really didn't do anything that substantial so it wasn't like including him changed the timeline or anything. I'm not sure if they just wanted to imply there was more there than actually was or what.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

 

[DarthWilder]

In the movie, the CAG was said to have contributed to the design of the Nimitz. So yeah, he had some sway with the military. Martin Sheen's character kept rifling through his bunk neighbor's room, which would have been good reason NOT to include him. However, Sheen's character also brought the CAG's historical knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack to the attention of the Skipper. IIRC, Sheen was also the first to posit that they had traveled back in time. And Sheen almost took the bait to also be offloaded to the island with the woman. Maybe the CAG didn't want to mess with the timeline in any way? Or perhaps he had grown fond of Sheen's meddlesome character? It's been awhile since I've seen the movie.

 

[batguy]

I don't think the film was implying any big time-loop twist (like "the debris from the crushed terminator caused Skynet!").

I figured the historian guy and the woman were simply eager to talk about what happened and catch up with Martin Sheen. It was the most pivotal event in their lives and for 40 years they've been keeping it to themselves.

 

[tcsmit29]

I don't think the film was implying any big time-loop twist (like "the debris from the crushed terminator caused Skynet!").

I figured the historian guy and the woman were simply eager to talk about what happened and catch up with Martin Sheen. It was the most pivotal event in their lives and for 40 years they've been keeping it to themselves.

This was my take on it as well. It was a great movie, one of my childhood favorites!

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Thanks! I thought maybe there was something deeper other than having a chat. Still one of my favorite movies!

One thing I hate about having a lot of knowledge about anything (military aircraft in this case), is you can't unsee errors. For example there's one jet (maybe an A-6) that takes off with ejector racks full of blue practice bombs. They also launch an EA-6 which would be useless, other than maybe recon. I guess it could jam the Japanese fleet's radar, but that's about it. They also had carts of MK82s being wheeled around to load onto the planes without any fuses. Maybe they did that at the plane, IDK.

 

[tcsmit29]

Thanks! I thought maybe there was something deeper other than having a chat. Still one of my favorite movies!

One thing I hate about having a lot of knowledge about anything (military aircraft in this case), is you can't unsee errors. For example there's one jet (maybe an A-6) that takes off with ejector racks full of blue practice bombs. They also launch an EA-6 which would be useless, other than maybe recon. I guess it could jam the Japanese fleet's radar, but that's about it. They also had carts of MK82s being wheeled around to load onto the planes without any fuses. Maybe they did that at the plane, IDK.

You may be interested in Ward Carroll's Youtube channel. He was a radar officer and flew in Tomcat squadrons during the 80's and 90's. He has a pretty good breakdown video of Final Countdown and other movies that feature naval aviation, like Top Gun. He also discusses current events as they relate to the US Navy. It's a pretty good channel. Here is the link to the Final Countdown video.

 

[JNordgren42]

Thanks! I thought maybe there was something deeper other than having a chat. Still one of my favorite movies!

One thing I hate about having a lot of knowledge about anything (military aircraft in this case), is you can't unsee errors. For example there's one jet (maybe an A-6) that takes off with ejector racks full of blue practice bombs. They also launch an EA-6 which would be useless, other than maybe recon. I guess it could jam the Japanese fleet's radar, but that's about it. They also had carts of MK82s being wheeled around to load onto the planes without any fuses. Maybe they did that at the plane, IDK.

There's definitely continuity and technical errors. If you pay close attention Modex numbers sometimes change between scenes, and even loadouts in the pivotal Zero dogfight (I watched the movie and especially the dogfight a *few* times researching my Final Countdown Tomcat build). A couple of the more interesting ones:

Victory 202 and 203 shot down one Zero each, but Victory 203 ends up with both of the rising sun kill markers on the aircraft, and they are both on there before the dogfight occurs (more time travel shenanigans? ).

Both dogfight F-14's have the same loadout; 2 AIM-54A Phoenix, 2 AIM-7C Sparrow, and 2 AIM-9 Sidewinder. Curiously, each aircraft has one AIM-9D/H and one AIM-9L/M (on opposite stations).

Victory 202 gets the Sidewinder kill, but the footage of the actual missile shot is Victory 200, and it's loaded with only Sidewinders. I'm guessing this was stock footage of a test or training shot (the film quality is noticeably different from most of the other dogfight footage). There's a few other magical Modex swaps in some of the recovery footage as well.

The interior cockpit shots were actually done from an A-6 since it has a side-by-side configuration with room for the large cameras of the time. The camera and operator were in the Weapons Officer's seat.​

Still one of my favorite movies, and I really enjoyed my Tomcat and Zero builds. At some point I have to finish the other pair for the project.

 

[JNordgren42]

You may be interested in Ward Carroll's Youtube channel. He was a radar officer and flew in Tomcat squadrons during the 80's and 90's. He has a pretty good breakdown video of Final Countdown and other movies that feature naval aviation, like Top Gun. He also discusses current events as they relate to the US Navy. It's a pretty good channel. Here is the link to the Final Countdown video.

Ward's content is awesome. Mooch FTW!