Release date: 11th October 2013
Tom Hanks will be going toe to toe with a bunch of pirates, but unlike the Johnny Depp franchise, there’ll be no swashbuckling in Captain Phillips. With a very brutal and modern day take on the seafaring scourge there’s nothing camp, overblown or tongue-in-cheek about the hijacking of the container ship, the Maersk Alabama, by Somali pirates in 2009.
The true story biopic traces the story of Captain Richard Phillips and his 20 crew members throughout the hijacking that took place off the coast of Somalia. It was the first time a US ship had been boarded by pirates since the 19th Century. When the four pirates, all teenage Somalis, manage to get aboard the vessel from their small skiff and take Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) hostage the tense situation becomes life and death for the hostages.
With a large part of the crew locked away in a secure room and the ship’s power shut down and out of the Captain’s control a tense standoff begins as the pirates take steps to fully seize the vessel.
We don’t want to give too much of the real life occurrences away and we recommend you don’t do too much research into it before seeing it at the cinema. It’s a pretty epic series of events that are probably best appreciated by watching the film a little in the dark about culmination of the hijacking.
Captain Phillips has a release date of the 11th October 2013. Directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum) and produced by Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti, Scott Rudin and Kevin Spacey, it could be one to watch for next year’s film award ceremonies.
The actors playing the Somalian pirates look as threatening and on-the-edge dangerous as is possible, which should help to give the film the tensely charged threat that the reality would have had. Tom Hanks looks as steady as a rock too, so he should be impressive as Captain Phillips, alongside a well chosen cast that includes David Warshofky (Lincoln (2012))as the Alabama’s chief engineer Mike Perry.
