Captain Phillips - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Captain Phillips or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Captain Phillips

[ava]

In real life, the pirates planned to meet up with other pirate groups in the coastal area who held other kidnapped victims and could provide them a clean getaway.

[jim]

Barkhad Abdi only earned 65,000 dollars for his role and after it was complete he went to work at his brother's mobile phone store in Minneapolis.

[tom]

The line "Look at me! I'm the captain now!", was an ad-lib by Barkhad Abdi.

[eli]

When Chris Mulkey's character starts talking about him being in the Union and not being paid to deal with pirates, only Tom Hanks knew that Mulkey was going to start saying those things. The reactions of the rest of the cast was completely real and natural.

[scarlett]

During an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air", Tom Hanks said the first time he met the actors playing the Somali pirates was when they started filming the pirates taking over the bridge. Paul Greengrass mentioned he did this intentionally to build up tension between the actors on board the ship and the actors playing the Somali pirates.

[gerald]

The Navy Seal that shot the pirates was also at Benghazi. His character was influential in the movie 13 Hours (2016).

[cassandra]

With the exception of Max Martini who plays the SEAL Commander, all the SEALs seen towards the end of the movie were portrayed by prior active duty SEALs.

[dustin]

In real life, one of the men from Richard Phillips' crew sued him after the incident. He claimed that Phillips was well aware of the danger in the Somali waters but went in anyway endangering all of them because he wanted to get the shipment to the harbor faster, even though the shipping company itself sent him a note advising him to avoid the Somali seas.

[ivan]

In real life, the interior of the lifeboat reached temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius) for a majority of the ordeal. The film implies this, but not to the extent as the real event. Richard Phillips has described how uncomfortable he naturally is in extreme heat and how the heat added to the tension of the situation. In fact, during his attempted escape he noted that even though he knew he was swimming in shark infested waters, it was a great relief to temporarily escape the heat of the lifeboat.

[mathew]

The pirates have two handguns with them, a Makarov (Soviet design, commonly produced all over the world) and a Colt 1911.

[beth]

Tom Hanks claimed that all the interior lifeboat scenes were filmed inside a scale model that was actually on water at all times, resulting in him being vomited on by crew members in the cramped space.

[albert]

This is Corey Johnson's third film collaboration with Paul Greengrass. They previously worked together on United 93 (2006) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).

[bryan]

In real life, Richard Phillips never offered the pirates to take or shoot him instead of his crew. He was held in the lifeboat for five days and was psychologically tortured by the pirates who even conducted mock executions with him as the victim. He never got any pen or paper during his captivity in the lifeboat and never tried to write a farewell note to his family. He didn't ask to go outside to urinate before attempting his escape. He saw from his seat one of the pirates urinating outside and used that opportunity to jump the lifeboat. His reaction of absolute shock after being rescued by the SEAL team never happened in real life. He was hit by what happened only after he tried to go to sleep for the first time after being rescued.

[aaron]

The original cut featured additional scenes with Catherine Keener, with her character discovering her husband's ordeal as it happened, and subsequently dealing with the press intrusion, and the efforts to rescue him. It was decided in editing, that the subplot pulled focus from the central scenario on the ship and was excised. Paul Greengrass debated cutting the film's introductory land-based scenes all-together, but decided to keep them intact, once it meant Keener would otherwise have been removed from the film entirely.

[javier]

Despite receiving nominations for Best Actor at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Screen Actors Guild and Critics Choice awards, Tom Hanks failed to receive an Academy Award nomination. Critics, audiences, major film groups and publications considered this a major snub at the time.

[fred]

None of the Somali actors in the film had ever acted before. An open casting call was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota which has the largest population of Somalis in the U.S. Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, and Mahat M. Ali were chosen from over 700 people who auditioned.

[clayton]

Paul Greengrass said an interview that he saw the Somali pirates as criminals, not terrorists, and that he wanted the story to feature their desperation and willingness to do illegal and violent things as part of the hopelessness of life in Somalia.

[darrell]

None of the U.S. Navy crew members of DDG 103, U.S.S. Truxtun, including Corpsman Danielle Albert, earned additional/industry-standard pay for their roles. They were considered "on-duty" and received only their regular U.S. Navy pay.

[eli]

The irony of the entire incident was that the U.S. Navy ship, the U.S.S. Bainbridge, had a historic connection with pirates, in that the ship is named for the Commander of the only ship lost to pirates in the Barbary Wars. William Bainbridge and his crews were captured by the Barbary pirates and spent nineteen months in the hands of the Pasha of Tripoli. For the U.S.S. Bainbridge, this was pay back for that incident.