Captain Phillips is a 2013 American action thriller directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi. The film is a biopic of merchant mariner Captain Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean during the Maersk Alabama hijacking in 2009 led by Abduwali Muse.
Trailer
The screenplay by Billy Ray is based upon the book, A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea (2010), by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Michael De Luca. It was released on October 11, 2013, and had its premiere when shown at the 2013 New York Film Festival.
Plot
Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) takes command of the MV Maersk Alabama at port in Oman, with orders to sail its cargo through the Gulf of Aden to Mombasa. Wary of pirate activity off the coast of Somalia, he orders security precautions on the vessel. During one training exercise, Phillips is aware they might be hijacked by Somali pirates in two skiffs but he succeeds in outrunning the pirates. Four pirates return the next day led by Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) in a faster skiff, carrying a ladder they had hastily welded. Despite Phillips and his crew's best efforts, they are able to board and take control of the Maersk Alabama, capturing the captain while most of his crew hides in the ship's engine room. Muse, under orders from a local faction leader, hopes to ransom the ship and crew in exchange for insurance money from the shipping company.
Cast
- Tom Hanks as Richard Phillips, captain of the MV Maersk Alabama
- Catherine Keener as Andrea Phillips
- Barkhad Abdi as Abduwali Muse, pirate leader
- Barkhad Abdirahman as Bilal
- Faysal Ahmed as Najee
- Mahat M. Ali as Elmi
- Michael Chernus as Shane Murphy, first officer of MV Maersk Alabama
- David Warshofsky as Mike Perry, chief engineer, MV Maersk Alabama
- Corey Johnson as Ken Quinn, helmsman, MV Maersk Alabama
- Chris Mulkey as John Cronan, senior crew member, MV Maersk Alabama
- Yul Vazquez as Commander Frank Castellano, commanding officer, USS Bainbridge
- Max Martini as U.S. Navy SEAL commander
- Omar Berdouni as Nemo, Somali-language translator working for the US Navy as part of Mission Essential
- Mohamed Ali as Asad, hijacker
- Issak Farah Samatar as Hufan, hijacker
Production
Development
Shortly after the publication of Richard Phillips's memoir A Captain's Duty in 2010, Sony Pictures optioned the film rights. In March 2011, actor Tom Hanks attached himself to the project after reading a draft of the screenplay by Billy Ray. During the following June, director Paul Greengrass was offered the helm of the then-untitled film adaptation.
The four actors were selected because they were "the chosen ones, that anointed group that stuck out."
A worldwide search subsequently began to find the film's supporting Somali cast. From this search, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, and Mahat M. Ali were handpicked out of more than 700 participants at a 2011 casting call at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis. According to the search casting director, Debbie DeLisi, the four actors were selected because they were "the chosen ones, that anointed group that stuck out."
Producers visited the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum to see the bullet-scarred, five-ton fiberglass lifeboat upon which the pirates held Capt. Phillips hostage so that they could accurately re-create the boat and interiors for the set. They were also able to view an example of the Boeing Insitu ScanEagle UAV, used to monitor the crisis, as well as the Mark 11 Mod 0 (SR-25) sniper rifle, (the type used by the U.S. Navy SEALs), both on display at the museum also.
Filming
Principal photography for Captain Phillips began on March 26, 2012. Filming took place off the coast of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Nine weeks were spent aboard the Alexander Maersk, a container ship identical to the Maersk Alabama, that was chartered on commercial terms.
Reception
Box office
As of November 1, 2013, Captain Phillips has grossed $74,050,507 in North America, and $26,700,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $100,750,507.
Critical reception
Captain Phillips premiered on September 28, 2013, opening the 2013 New York Film Festival. The film was praised for its direction, screenplay, production values, cinematography, and the performances of Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi.
Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports a 94% approval critic response based on 208 reviews, with a "Certified Fresh" and an average score of 8.3/10. The site's consensus reads: "Smart, powerfully acted, and incredibly intense, Captain Phillips offers filmgoers a Hollywood biopic done right—and offers Tom Hanks a showcase for yet another brilliant performance." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 83 based on 48 reviews of a "Universal Acclaim".