Battleship (film)

Battleship
Directed by	Peter Berg
Produced by	Peter Berg; Brian Goldner; Duncan Henderson; Bennett Schneir; Scott Stuber
Written by	Jon Hoeber; Erich Hoeber
Starring	Taylor Kitsch; Alexander Skarsgård; Rihanna; Brooklyn Decker; Liam Neeson; Tadanobu Asano
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	May 18 2012
Running time	131 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$209,000,000
IMDb profile

Battleship is a 2012 American military science fiction war film loosely inspired by the classic board game. The film was directed by Peter Berg and released by Universal Pictures. The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, John Tui, Brooklyn Decker and Tadanobu Asano.

The film was originally planned to be released in 2011, but was rescheduled to April 11, 2012, in the United Kingdom and May 18, 2012, in the United States. The film's world premiere was in Tokyo, Japan, on April 3, 2012.

Characters

Taylor Kitsch as Alex Hopper
Liam Neeson as Admiral Shane
Rihanna as Raikes
Alexander Skarsgård as Stone Hopper
Tadanobu Asano as Captain Nagata
Brooklyn Decker as Samantha Shane
Gregory D. Gadson as Lieutenant Colonel Mick Canales
Jesse Plemons as Jimmy 'Ordy' Ord
Joji Yoshida as Chief Engineer Hiroki

Ships featured in the movie

USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53)
USS Sampson (DDG-102)
USS Missouri (BB-63)
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76)
JDS Myōkō (DDG-175)

Synopsis

Based on the classic Hasbro naval combat game, Battleship is the story of an international fleet of ships who come across an alien armada while on Naval war games exercise. An intense battle is fought on sea, land and air. What do the aliens want?

Plot

In 2005, a small planet capable of supporting life is discovered and named "Planet-G". NASA scientists send a signal but get no reply. Meanwhile, Alex Hopper is a talented but undisciplined slacker. His brother Stone, a naval Commander, forces Hopper to join the Navy. A few years later, Hopper is a lieutenant in Combat Information Center on the USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53), an older sister-ship to his brother's command, the USS Sampson (DDG-102).

Hopper also falls in love with Admiral Shane's daughter, Samantha, and wants to marry her, but is afraid of asking her father's permission, as he doesn't like Hopper. During the RIMPAC opening ceremony, Hopper gets into a brawl with Captain Nagata of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, in charge of JDS Myoko (DDG-175). Hopper soon learns that he is to be kicked out of the Navy at the end of RIMPAC. Meanwhile, Samantha accompanies Army veteran and amputee Mick Canales on a hike on Oahu in order to help him adapt to his prosthetic legs.

A small fleet of alien ships arrives in response to the NASA signal. One ship collides with an orbital satellite and crashes in Hong Kong, while five others land in the waters near Hawaii, hearing of this, the John Paul Jones, Sampson and Myoko are sent to investigate. The aliens erect a massive forcefield around the islands, trapping all who is there, and preventing the rest of the world to come and help.

The aliens attack, destroying both Myoko and Sampson, the latter with no survivors. Hopper's superiors are killed, leaving him in command of the John Paul Jones. Captain Nagata and some of his crew members are rescued from the waters and assists the Americans in setting up a discreet way to track the aliens using wave-detection buoys. During a night-time battle, the aliens and the Americans exchange pot shots, but Hopper manages to sink two alien ships. They rescue an alien from the water and discover the aliens are very sensitive to sun light and have to wear filters during the day. Using this knowledge, Hopper attacks another alien ship at dawn, using a sniper rifle with Nagata to breach their cockpit window and blind them with sunlight. Both ships are destroyed in the battle.

Earlier, a group of alien footsoldiers and scientists lands on Oahu and attack the NASA communications array. Samantha and Mick narrowly avoid their detection, and run into a fleeing NASA scientist. Because the aliens' communications ship crashed in Hong Kong, the aliens plan to use the NASA array to signal their home planet to invade Earth. Realizing that a larger invasion might be imminent, Samantha manages to get a communications device and warns Hopper of the threat, initially, the Jones would destroy the array, but, with the destroyer sunk, they seemingly have no hope against stopping the aliens in time.

Having no better options, the surviving crew of the John Paul Jones return to harbor and board the USS Missouri (BB-63), a 70-year old decommissioned battleship that has been converted into a museum, but armed with very heavy artillery. With the aid of the museum staff, all elderly war veterans, Hopper manages to put the Missouri out to sea again. With some clever maneuvers, the Missouri destroys the last alien ship and shells the communications array, destroying the aliens and ending the threat of invasion.

Back on shore, the crew and Mick all get medals, including a posthumous one to Stone, after the ceremony, Adm. Shane leads Hopper off to discuss his 'Terms of Surrender' over a meal.