Captain Phillips - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[jamie]

When the actual SEALs flew in to rescue Captain Phillips, neither the commander of the operation, nor any other Navy officer ordered them to shoot the pirates. Instead, the sniper team leader acted under his own "emergency assault" authority to kill them as soon as all three could be taken out at the same time.

[dustin]

During the climax when tensions escalate inside the lifeboat and Captain Phillips' life hangs in the balance, the music score ("The End" composed by John Powell) that plays during this sequence was also used in the climax of United 93 (2006), another historical drama/thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass.

[aaron]

The e-mail inbox Captain Richard Phillips reads includes messages from Paul Kirby (Production Design), Dominic Capon (Set Decoration), and Michael Bronner (co-producer). One of the subjects is "Decorating Quote".

[ethel]

The scene filmed in Combat Information Center, where a Sailor writes "Seat 15" backwards on the status board was improvised. Cinematographer, Barry Ackroyd noticed the Chief Petty Officer practicing writing backwards when not filming and asked him to repeat it for film. The act of writing backwards in the Navy has gone away in recent years since the onset of technology has put all available information on electronic status boards.

[cameron]

Originally, Ron Howard was on board as the director in development stage for Captain Phillips (2013). Howard, though, would eventually swap feature film projects with Paul Greengrass, who was set to direct Rush (2013) during its developmental stage at the time. Howard came on to helm Rush (2013) instead, as Greengrass went on-board to helm Captain Phillips (2013).

[kim]

Prior to the bridge takeover scene, Paul Greengrass told Barkhad Abdi to "own it." Abdi lost sleep the previous night in anticipation of his first acting experience. The next day, his improvisation of the line "look at me, look at me, I'm the captain now" was the clip used in his awards considerations. After Abdi and his fellow actors dropped character, Tom Hanks' first words to Barkhad were "so, you're from Minnesota."