Quotes
 Rafe: J, L, M, K, P, O, E, T, X. Eyes like an eagle, ma`am.
Evelyn: Slow down, flyboy. And instead of the bottom, read the very top. Both eyes.
Rafe: Yeah. C. Sorry, J.
[Clears throat]
Rafe: C, W, uh, Q, uh, Q
Evelyn: [Smiles] Read the bottom line again, please, but read it right to left and every other letter.
Rafe: E, X...
Danny: X, E.
Rafe: X, E. X, E, ma`am. Ma`am, I know how this looks.
Evelyn: I`m sorry, Lieutenant. I really am, but army and navy requires 20/20 vision.
Rafe: Oh, I... It`s not a problem with my eyes. I mean, I can see. I mean I can hit a runnin` rabbit with a $3.00 pistol. I got a problem with letters, that`s all.
Evelyn: Well, maybe after some schooling, you could come back and take the test again.
Rafe: No, I had schooling. I mean, the teachers just never knew what to make of it, I... It`s just letters. I mix `em up sometimes. That`s all. I mean, I just get `em backword sometimes. Look here. My math and spatial reasoning and my verbal scores are all excellent.
Evelyn: But you barely passed the written exam.
Danny: Yeah, but he did pass it. So it`s my turn now?
Evelyn: No, you`ll wait your turn.
Danny: Yes, ma`am.
Rafe: Ma`am, I`m never gonna be an English teacher. But I know why I`m here: to be a pilot. And you don`t dogfight with manuals. You don`t fly with gauges. I mean, it`s all about feeling and speed, and lettin` that plane become like a part of your body. And that manual says that a guy who`s a slow reader can`t be a good pilot. That file says I`m the best pilot in this room. Ma`am, please, don`t take my wings.
Danny: How can I not feel this way? I kinda` like it.
Evelyn: Oh, you do
Captain Connor: You ever lose a fight, Miller?
Dorie Miller: I`ve been lucky, so far, Captain.
Captain Connor: From what I hear it ain`t luck. The ship`s proud of you, son.
Gooz: Oh, that ain`t no Navy issued uniform, there.
Nurse Martha: This is Ward Three, and as you can see, no patients. Welcome to Hawaii.
Evelyn: Oh, but it`s such a long story.
Nurse Martha: We`ve got time.
Cole Walker: I fought the Germans in France, and I fought `em in the trenches. And I pray to God that nobody has to see what I saw.
Young Rafe: Land of the free.
Young Danny: Home of the brave.
Danny: Y`all pilots?
Gooz: Uh, we`re working on it. There`s a lot of switches and stuff. Pride of the Pacific.
Earl: Who are you?
Danny: Terrors of the Skies.
Gooz: Well how`re you gonna know they`re submerged if they`re submerged?
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: You know at Pearl they hit us with a sledgehammer. This raid, even if it makes it through, it`ll only be a pinprick... but it`ll be straight through their hearts.
Major Jackson: Most officers would have thrown you in the brig.
Evelyn: Most nurses would`ve gone on to somebody else instead of keeping their fingers plugged in your artery.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Victory belongs to those who believe in it the most and believe in it the longest. We`re gonna believe. We`re gonna make America believe too.
Commander Tubbs: Some people frown on the Yanks for not being in this war. I`d just like to say that if there are any more back home like you, God help anyone who goes to war with America.
Billy: Man, I am one good-lookin` son-of-a-bitch... Don`t you ever die.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: That`s bull-shit MacCawley... but it`s very, very good bull-shit.
Earl: Hey, you know you`re not supposed to be painting titties on the side of my airplanes, and if you do, don`t make `em lop-sided.
Gooz: They we`re lop-sided, Earl.
Gooz: I got a girlfriend.
Billy: ...That`s great.
Evelyn: You died Rafe. So did I.
General: Mr. President, with all due respect, sir... what you`re asking can`t be done.
[President struggles and gets out of wheelchair]
President Franklin D. Roosevelt: [serious tone] Do not tell me it can`t be done.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Where`d you find religion?
Doolittle Co-Pilot: When you assigned me to this mission, Sir.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: I want you to do me a favor.
Doolittle Co-Pilot: What`s that, Colonel?
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Pray for both of us.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy. The United States Of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by Naval and Air Forces of the Empire of Japan. It is obvious that planning the attack began many weeks ago, during the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American military forces, I regret to tell you that over three thousand American lives have been lost. No matter how long it may take us to over come this pre-meditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. Because of this unprovoked, dastardly attack by Japan, I ask that the congress declare a state of War.
Rafe: Dolittle assigned me. He wanted me to get some... some real combat training.
Danny: Well guess what? It isn`t training over there, it`s war. Where losers die and there aren`t any winners, just guys who turn into broken-down wrecks like my father. Now if trouble awaits me, I`m ready. But why go looking for it?
Rafe: Danny, you can`t die. You can`t die. You know why? `Cause you`re gonna be a father. You`re gonna be a daddy. I wasn`t supposed to tell you. You`re gonna be a father.
Danny: No, you are.
Rafe: You are so beautiful it hurts.
Evelyn: It`s your nose that hurts.
Rafe: I think it`s my heart.
Evelyn: Rafe I`m pregnant... I didn`t even know until the day you turned up alive... and then all this happened... I haven`t told Danny... I don`t want him to know. All he needs to think about is how to do this mission and get back alive. Oh Rafe, all I ever wanted was for us to have a home and grow old together, but life never asked me what I wanted. Now I`m going to give Danny my whole heart... but I don`t think I`ll ever look at another sunset without thinking of you... I`ll love you my whole life.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: You know what top secret is?"
Rafe: Yes, sir. It`s the kind of mission where you get medals, but they send `em to your relatives.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt: I like sub commanders. They have no time for bullshit, and neither do I.
Admiral Kimmel: [reading signal] "U.S. Navy believes attack on Pearl Harbor imminent." Well... they`re only an hour late.
Danny: You`re a rotten drunk... always have been.
Rafe: Well, you`re a lousy friend... that`s a new development.
Rafe: Returning from the dead wasn`t all that I expected... but that`s life.
Admiral Yamamoto: A brilliant man would find a way not to fight a war.
Rafe: Not anxious to die sir, just anxious to matter.
Evelyn: Do you ever wonder if this war`s going to catch up with us?
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: There`s nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.
Danny: I think World War II just started.
Admiral Yamamoto: I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant.
[while Evelyn is fixing up a cut on Doris Miller`s head]
Evelyn: [referring to the cut] Where`d you get this?
Dorie Miller: Boxin`.
Evelyn: You win?
Dorie Miller: Yes, Ma`am.
Evelyn: And what do you get for winning?
Dorie Miller: Respect.
Danny: Why the hell is the US Navy practicing this early on a Sunday morning?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt: How long is America going to pretend, that the world is not at war? From Berlin, Rome and Tokyo, were have been described as a nation of weaklings and playboys who hire British or Russian, or Chinese soldiers, to do our fighting for us. We`ve been trained to think we`re invincible, and our people think Hitler and his Nazi thugs are Europe`s problem. We have to do more. Does anyone think that victory is possible without facing danger? At times like these we all need to be reminded who we truely are. That we will not give up or give in.
Evelyn: You`re acting like I didn`t love you.
Rafe: Evelyn, loving you kept me alive.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: I heard what you did.
Rafe: We can explain that, sir.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Explain what?
Danny: Whatever it is you heard about us, sir.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: You mean the hoola shirts you were flying in... or the seven planes you shot down.
Rafe: Hold on a second, Miss, I really, really lick you.
[covers mouth]
Rafe: Like you. I didn`t mean to say that, and I just wanted to know if I could donate dinner, well, buy you dinner.
Evelyn: This isn`t your chart.
Rafe: No that`s this guy right here I think he left.
Evelyn: Have you already had this shot?
Rafe: Yea well once already yea. Well, I mean can I ask you out?
Evelyn: No.
Rafe: Uh...
[Bangs his nose into the tray of supplies]
Rafe: Oh.
Nurse: Oo. What`d you do to him?
[Later after Col Doolittle explains the mission]
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: And I will tell you one thing... leave your goddamn hula shirts at home.
Rafe: I`ve got some genuine French champagne. From France.
Admiral Kimmel: The smart enemy attacks you exactly where you think you are safe.
General: Mr. President, with all due respect, sir... what you`re asking can`t be done.
Nurse Martha: I joined the army to do MY patriotic duty... AND... to meet guys.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Secretary of the Navy gave me these.
Danny: What are they?
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Friendship medals the Japanese gave us when they were pretending they wanted peace.
Rafe: What do you want me to do with them sir?
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: We`re gonna wire them to the bombs and give them back.
Gooz: Red, do you think they are making us do this because we are young and dumb?
Rafe: I almost did die, you little son-of-a-bitch. And her face was the last thing that went through my mind
Rafe: I should`ve died over there. When I was in that water, I made a deal with God. I told him I was sorry, I told him I knew I`d been a fool for leavin you and tryin to go over there and be a hero, and I promised I`d never ask for anything again, if I could just see you one more time... And ya know what? It was worth it. You kept me alive Evelyn, you brought me home. So I`m gonna stand by my end of the deal, I`m gonna walk away and I won`t ask you for anything... but I just want to know why... Just tell me that will you please? Just tell me why.
Danny: To Rafe McCawely the best pilot and the best friend I ever knew... Or ever will know. TO RAFE .
Rafe: Earl, I said get some guns in that goddamn tower
Earl: Right, guns in the tower, ten stories high. It`s a long son-of-a-bitch
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz: So, sir, you would have us mobilize the entire fleet, at the cost of millions of dollars, based on this `spine-tingling` feeling of yours?
Captain Thurman: No, sir. I understand my job is to gather and interpret material. Making difficult decisions based on incomplete information from my limited decoding ability is your job, sir.
Admiral Yamamoto: The rise and fall of our empire is at stake.
Red: C`mon Gooz, we`re the tip of the sword.
Rafe: Ma`am, I`m never gonna be an English teacher, but I know why I`m here, to be a pilot, and you don`t dogfight with manuals, you don`t fly with gauges, I mean it`s all about feeling and speed and lettin` that plane become like it`s apart of your body, and that manual says that a guy who`s a slow reader can`t be a good pilot... that file says I`m the *best* pilot in this room... Ma`am, please... Don`t take my wings
Danny: You know he taught me to fly, I always knew that not matter what kind of trouble I got into, I wouldn`t be in it alone, he`d be there with me. Up there he was always pushin me to be better and faster.
Evelyn: He told me you were a great flyer... The same night he told me, he volunteered to go to England.
Danny: He volunteered? He-he told me he`d been assigned. He was always tryin to protect me. But ya know what I look at myself in the mirror in this uniform... and I still don`t know who I am, I look like a hero... but I don`t feel like it.
[sighs]
Danny: Rafe... he always looked the part didn`t he?
Evelyn: He couldn`t wait to be one
Rafe: That`s what I want to come home to, that`s what I want to have to think about and dream about. I wanna know that the best part of my life is still ahead of me.
Danny: [exiting from theater] Evelyn!
Evelyn: Danny! Some comedy, huh?
Danny: Yeah.
Evelyn: It`s been a while.
Danny: Yeah, I`ve been busy training and stuff.
Evelyn: Yeah, I`ve kinda been avoiding you too.
Danny, Evelyn: Listen, do you...
Danny: Do you want to?
Evelyn: Yeah.
Evelyn: [voiceover] When the action is over and we look back, we understand both more and less. This much is certain. Before the Doolittle raid, America knew nothing but defeat. After it, there was hope of victory. Japan realized, for the first time, they could lose and began to pull back. America realized, that she would win and surged forward. It was a war, that changed America and the world. Dorie Miller was the first black American to be awarded the Navy Cross. But he would not be the last. He joined a brotherhood of heroes. World War II, for us, began at Pearl Harbor, and 1.177 men still lie entombed in the battleship Arizona. America suffered, but America grew stronger. It was not inevitable. The times tried our souls, and through the trial, we overcame.
Rafe: Danny get me to a goddamn plane!
Nurse Betty Bayer: You know what they`re doing back home? Nothing. Cow-tipping.
Rafe: [in a letter to Evelyn] It`s not easy making friends here. Two days ago I had a beer with a couple of the RAF pilots. Yesterday both of them got killed.
Evelyn: Are you gonna be a bad influence?
Rafe: Of course I`m a bad influence.
A pilot: What if we have to bail out over Japan?
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Well, in that situation, I can`t tell you what to do.
Rafe: What would you do, colonel?
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: I wasn`t built to be a prisoner... so I would have my crew bail out. I`d find the sweetest military target I could and drive my plane right smack into the middle of it and kill as many of those bastards as I possibly could.
Trivia
Ben Affleck originally turned down the role of Rafe McCawley.
To a certain extent, Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) is based on real fighter pilot Joe Foss, who had 32 confirmed kills during the War, and many more probables. McCawley`s speech about the plane feeling like an extension of his body was taken almost verbatim from a conversation Michael Bay had with Foss.
The scene between Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale) at the Queen Mary was written by Michael Bay himself.
Jon Voight considers himself an expert on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he petitioned Michael Bay to cast him in the role.
Kevin Costner turned down the role of Col. James Doolittle.
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# Adrien Brody was considered for the role of Red Winkle, but he turned it down because he felt it was too small. The part ultimately went to Ewen Bremner.
Ashton Kutcher lost the role of Danny Walker to Josh Hartnett.
The producers originally hoped to cast Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Gwyneth Paltrow together in the lead roles. However, Damon and Paltrow could not commit to the movie due to scheduling conflicts.
Charlize Theron turned down the female lead to star in Sweet November (2001).
The script was originally called "Tennessee", and was sold to Disney for approximately $2 million.
Before shooting began in Pearl Harbor, a Hawaiian priest blessed the crew - a practice recommended by local custom for film crews shooting in Hawaii. The ceremony took place on the first day of principal photography and lasted over four hours, much to the chagrin of director Michael Bay who had been told it would only take about 15 to 20 minutes.
Alec Baldwin spent time in flight simulators at Fort Rucker, Alabama to prepare for his role, as well as attending Officer Boot Camp and learning how to command a team of men in the field.
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# To simulate the USS Oklahoma capsizing, the crew constructed the world`s largest-ever gimbal. It took special effects supervisor John Frazier four months to design and a further four months for he and production designer Nigel Phelps to build. It weighed 700,000 pounds, was made of pure steel, could rise 25 degrees into the air and do a 180-degree barrel turn. In the film, as the Oklahoma rolls over, the back 450 feet is CG but the front portion is the real gimbal with over 150 real stuntmen on it.
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# In the 1940s women`s shoes typically did not come in larger sizes. So, costume houses from New York City to Italy were enlisted to produce period shoes in sizes 10 and 11.
The USS Missouri was used for several of the battleships during filming (primarily the USS West Virginia) by simply changing the life preservers with the ship`s names.
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# The battleship USS Texas played a major role in this film. Exterior shots of the Texas were used to depict the USS Tennessee, USS Oklahoma and the USS West Virginia in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Interior scenes were also shot for use as the USS Hornet. The interior of the USS Lexington was also used for the USS Hornet.
Scenes of Tennessee farmland were shot an hour outside Los Angeles in Somis, California. For the look of Tennessee, corn was planted five months prior to shooting.
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# Filming was completed in 109 days, one day over schedule. Over the course of the shoot, 3906 set-ups were filmed - around 39 setups a day. Over 300 hours of material was shot, and there were over 3000 crew-members in total.
Filming of the bombing sequence was overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The shots of the series of six explosions in Battleship Row were filmed by 14 cameras in total and were actually staged on real Navy ships. While on a location scout above Pearl Harbor, Michael Bay looked down and saw a line of ships doing nothing. He learned that these ships were part of the inactive fleet, and so he decided to use them for the explosions. The explosive charges were put on the real ships on plywood for protection, with 700 sticks of dynamite, 2000 feet of cord and 4000 galleons of gasoline being used. The six 600-foot ship explosions took a month and a half to rig (with 500 individual bombs on each boat). During the scene, there were also over 100 extras in the harbor and six real planes had to fly past the ships. In total, the shots took seven months of coordination among every department on the film, the local government of Hawaii, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the US Navy to ensure everything went off without a hitch. In the end, the explosions themselves lasted only seven seconds and comprised only 12 seconds of on-screen time.
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# Unlike Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), real Mitsubishi Zero fighters were used. Three original Japanese aircraft were used - one operated by the Planes of Fame Museum (Chino, California), one from the Museum of Flying (Santa Monica, California) and the third from the Confederate Air Force. In "Tora! Tora! Tora!" the aircraft were all replicas constructed from WWII US Army & Navy trainers (T-6s and BT-13s) and some of them were used again in this film.
Planes were flown over the disused Marine Corps Air Station Tustin base in Tustin, CA, to be composited into the film. This caused some residents in the extremely conservative area of Orange County to believe that a war was starting and they were being attacked.
When shooting the scene where Rafe (Ben Affleck) and Danny (Josh Hartnett) manage to get off the ground during the attack and are chased by three Japanese Zeroes, one of the real planes clipped a palm tree and crashed. The pilot was dazed, but apart from a broken finger he was unhurt.
The climactic attack scenes were shot at the same Mexican studios used in the filming of Titanic (1997).
The total amount of money spent on production and promotion roughly equaled the amount of damage caused in the actual attack.
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# While scouting locations for the film, the producers found that the modern city that most resembled 1942 Tokyo was Gary, Indiana. A team photographed that city from the air and integrated the resulting footage into the film. For that reason, during the depiction of the Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo, the planes are actually bombing Gary, Indiana.
The scenes of the exterior of the hospital area were actually shot at "Palm Circle" at Fort Shafter in Hawaii.
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# Jon Voight wore duplicates of the steel leg-braces that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to wear. As a result, Voight suffered from bruising and chafing on his legs for weeks after finishing his work for the film.
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# The fictional character of Thurman (Dan Aykroyd) represents an actual team of military code-breakers that deciphered Japanese transmissions days before the attack.
Doolittle`s dog is actually Mason, director Michael Bay`s bull mastiff.
Michael Bay quit the movie project four times over various budgetary disputes.
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# Prior to shooting the movie, as research, Michael Bay watched Midway (1976), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), In Harm`s Way (1965), The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944) and hours of combat footage.
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# Michael Bay`s favorite shot in the movie is the camera sweep over the USS Hornet (the aircraft carrier which transports the Doolittle raiders to Japan). He feels that this shot is a perfect example of how to blend CG material and photorealistic material. According to Bay, only the ship and four of the planes are real - everything else is computer generated. When the camera pass was actually filmed, the ship was in port, next to a Holiday Inn.
When the planes fly by the kids on the mountainside, only two of the planes are real, the rest are CG.
Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay agreed to give up $4 million in salaries in return for a cut of the profits to get the budget down. The film`s stars also took a drop in salaries in return for a cut of the profits for the same reason.
The premiere for the film was held at Pearl Harbor aboard the carrier USS John Stennis; bleachers were set up on the flight deck, and the hangar bay was converted into a 1940s-style nightclub for the after party.
The after-premiere party for the film is said to have cost more than the production costs of Billy Elliot (2000).
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# There is a persistent urban myth that a shot of Bruce Willis in full Die Hard (1988) gear was composited into the triage scene. The likeness is certainly very striking but it is not Willis--it`s a young extra.
During the Tokyo bombing sequence, the temple and hill seen is the real-life Byodo-in Temple located outside Honolulu, Hawaii. The temple was used in several episodes of "Hawaii Five-O" (1968).
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# The two Curtiss P-40 Warhawks flown in the movie (by Danny and Rafe) are authentic WWII planes and were on loan from the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa Idaho.
Two of the Japanese A6M2 "Zero" planes were made specifically for the movie at the "Strela" plant in Oranienburg, Russia, which specializes in restoring WWII planes.
The production budget for the film was at the time the largest ever given to a movie before filming started - $140 million.
During the briefing of the Doolittle Raid, the pilots` names are listed on the black board including "Lawson". Ted Lawson flew the Doolittle Raid and wrote the book "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo", made into a film (Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)) with Van Johnson portraying Lawson.
Cameo: [Clint Walker] The veteran western actor plays a general.
Cameo: [Matt Damon] firing a machine gun during the attack.
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# The takeoff sequence for Doolittle`s Raid was filmed onboard the USS Constellation CV-64 off the coast of San Diego, CA, and the USS Lexington Museum CV-16 in Corpus Christi, TX.
Earned a place in the "Guinness Book of World Records" for the movie with the most explosives used.
The character portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr., Doris `Dorie` Miller, was the first African-American to be awarded the Navy Cross.
According to Michael Bay on his DVD commentary, after the film came out and the critics savaged the love story, he was deeply touched when he received hundreds of letters from people who felt the love story rang completely true for the tone of the film, and was an integral part of the atmosphere of the movie. Bay says that most of these letters came from older people, including many Pearl Harbor survivors.
On his DVD commentary, director Michael Bay makes it very clear that he was not attempting to make a contemporary love story, but a 1940`s love story; the type of story that could have been seen in films of the day. Bay claims that one of the reasons the love story plot was so derided by critics and rejected by audiences was simply because they weren`t able to look at it from this perspective; that they weren`t able to adopt the sense of innocence and carefree attitude necessary to accept it. Ben Affleck also addresses this aspect of the story on his own commentary - especially in relation to the much maligned `champagne cork scene`, pointing out that such a scene would be right at home in a 1940`s romance film.
On his DVD commentary, Michael Bay argues that the heavily criticized first part of the film was very much designed to show the innocence and blasé attitude of Americans to the possibility of becoming embroiled in the "European war". He says that the reason this part of the film is so colorful and mirthful is because that`s exactly what things were like back then--there was very much a sense of being untouchable, something which he says was emphasized time and again by the survivors to whom he spoke. Bay claims that many survivors say he got the pre-Pearl Harbor atmosphere perfect.
According to Michael Bay, after the film came out he got a letter from Daniel Martínez, the world`s foremost expert on Pearl Harbor and the director of the Pearl Harbor museum. In the letter, Bay says that Martinez wrote, "You got the essence of what happened right."
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# For the scenes of the Japanese planes taking off, an American carrier was used. According to Michael Bay, this greatly offended some of the Pearl Harbor survivors, who felt it dishonored the dead. Bay, however, pointed out to them that they destroyed all of the Japanese carriers later in the war, so an American carrier had to be used. He says that when he pointed this out, they agreed to the use of the American carrier.
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# The first scene of the film to be shot was the boxing match involving Dorie Miller (Cuba Gooding Jr.), followed by the introduction of Admiral Kimmel (Colm Feore). In this scene, all the sailors in the background are real sailors in full uniform; they also played the extras in the boxing match scene.
The scene when Danny (Josh Hartnett) returns the handkerchief to Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale) was suggested and written by Robert Towne after seeing a rough cut of the film several weeks after principal photography had wrapped.
According to director Michael Bay, he always wanted to make an R-rated movie but that the problem was that young children would not be able to see it, and he felt that they should. As such, when he was ordered by Disney to make a PG-13 movie, he didn`t argue.
Michael Bay`s least favorite shot in the movie is the cutaway during the Doolittle Raid to the Japanese women turning and seeing the attack in the distance. On the DVD commentary, he admits he has no idea why this shot is in the movie or what he was trying to achieve in shooting it.
In the scenes during the Doolittle Raid where it appears the actors are actually flying the planes, they actually are. No CG was used. Alec Baldwin, Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck were all given basic flight training so they could handle the planes. To get the various shots of the actors in the pilot`s seat, the "real" pilot would simply pilot the plane to the desired destination, and then switch seats with the actor, who would take the controls while the camera crew moved alongside to get the shot. The actor and pilot would then switch seats again.
Japanese journalists were extremely offended by the fact that the army is shown having meetings outside - meeting outside is considered to be uncivilized and barbaric in Japan.
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# Only five injuries occurred throughout the entirety of the filming: a broken ankle, a sprained ankle, a broken collarbone, a cut head, and a broken finger suffered by a stunt pilot who crashed his plane after the wing clipped a palm tree.
To shoot the strafing scenes for the airfield attack, a quarter-mile of pavement was lined with 50 sticks of dynamite and 500 gallons of gasoline.
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# There are four 100% CG shots in the film: the shot of the bomb falling toward the USS Arizona, the two shots of the explosion of the Arizona as it jumps upwards in the water, and the two Japanese Zeroes pitching down towards Battleship Row.
The wide shot of the USS Arizona blowing up took four months of constant effects work to complete.
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# Visual Effects supervisor Eric Brevig had to write an entirely new piece of software to create smoke plumes for the film as the amount of smoke needed was not allowed to be shot for environmental reasons.
During the "Fighting Back" Black & White film montage, a ship with hull number 53 is shown exploding. This true footage is actually of the destruction of the ex HMAS Torrens, a Royal Australian Navy Destroyer Escort sunk as a target by the Collins Class Submarine HMAS Farncomb in 1999.
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# Two of the nurse consultants for this film were stationed at Pearl Harbor during the actual attack; one in the army and the other in the navy. `Sara Entrikin` was assigned to the clinic at Hickham and `Helen Entrikin` at the Naval Clinic at Pearl. They were both invited out for the preview in Hawaii. During the 50 year reunion they were the only surviving twins and were extensively interviewed by CNN, ABC, CBS, etc.
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Josh Hartnett
(as Capt. Danny Walker)
with Kate Beckinsale
(as Nurse Lt. Evelyn Johnson)
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