The Final Countdown (film) - Production

Production

Kirk Douglas's son, Peter, as producer, was the driving force behind The Final Countdown. With a limited budget but with a promising script, he was able to attract interest from the U.S. Navy. After seeing a script, officials from the Department of Defense offered full cooperation, but insisted that for safety and to maintain operational readiness, the film schedules would be dependent on the "on location" naval personnel's approval. Principal photography took place at Naval Air Station Key West, Naval Station Norfolk and off the Florida Keys, over a set of two five-week periods in 1979. Scenes at Pearl Harbor consisted of mainly stock footage with most of The Final Countdown exteriors shot on the Nimitz while at sea, and at drydock for interiors. During operations, an emergency landing took place with the production crew allowed to film the recovery of the aircraft on the Nimitz; the sequence appeared in the final film.

Many of the Nimitz crew members were used as extras, a few with speaking parts; a total of 48 of the Nimitz crew appear as "actors" in the final credits.The difficulties in filming a modern jet fighter were soon apparent when the first setup to record a F-14 takeoff at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, resulted in both camera and operator being pitched down a runway.

Dissension in the production crew led to major changes during location shooting, leading to a number of the crew being fired and replaced.Taylor's direction was considered workmanlike as he had a reputation for bringing projects in on time and on budget, but suggestions from the U.S. naval aviators were ultimately incorporated into the shooting schedules with the "B" crew placed in charge of all the aerial sequences that became the primary focus of the film.

In order to film the aerial sequences, Panavision cameras were mounted on naval aircraft while camera-equipped aircraft and helicopters were also employed by the studio, including a Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter, Learjet 35 and a B-25 bomber converted into a camera platform, and leased from Tallmantz Aviation. Three Mitsubishi A6M Zero replicas, originally built for the film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), were flown by pilots from the Confederate Air Force (now known as the Commemorative Air Force). Two of the replicas were featured in a dogfight with F-14 Tomcats; a dissimilar engagement that was the first time that "the match-up of fighters with totally different speeds, totally different environments and weaponry had ever been done in film".

In one scene where a F-14 "thumps" a Zero by flying under and streaking upward in front of the slower aircraft, the resultant "jet blast" of turbulent air was so intense that the control columns of both of the Zeros in the scene were violently wrenched out of the pilots' hands and caused both aircraft to momentarily tumble out of control. The lead pilot's headset, along with his watch were ripped off and out of the open canopy of his Zero, resulting in a few anxious moments as the F-14 pilots were unable to establish contact. During the engagement when a Zero fires on a F-14, in order to get on the "six" of the low and slow Zero, the jet fighter did a low pullup that ended just 100 ft above the ocean in a screaming recovery.

During the climatic attack on Pearl Harbor, scenes reproduced in monochrome from Tora! Tora! Tora!, featured Aichi D3A Val dive bombers, Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters and Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo bombers.