Against the Sun (2014) on Netflix
In 1942, Navy pilot Harold Dixon, bombardier Tony Pastula and radioman Gene Aldrich ditch their torpedo bomber in the South Pacific. Their raft carries no food, no water and no oars.
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- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.5/107,338 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes70%
Trailer
Plot summary
On January 16, 1942, a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber leaves the carrier USS Enterprise on an anti-submarine sweep over the South Pacific. Its crew are enlisted pilot Harold Dixon, bombardier Tony Pastula and radioman Gene Aldrich. They keep radio silence so the Japanese cannot find the ship. Separated from the other planes and without their bearings, they run low on fuel, and Dixon orders the men to prepare to ditch. The bomber goes down fast, and most of the survival gear goes with it. The three climb into a small rubber raft with no oars, no map, no food and no water. They see a dive bomber searching from the carrier, but it is too far away to spot them. Dixon takes charge.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Against the Sun (2014)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The cast ate only 500 calories a day to look like the emaciated survivors of the real ordeal; as the actors lost weight they more accurately showed the stages of starvation their characters went through over 34 days stranded at sea.
- The film's three airmen were real men: pilot Harold Dixon, 41, of La Mesa, California; radioman Gene Aldrich, 22, of Sikeston, Missouri; and bombardier Anthony Pastula, 24, of Youngstown, Ohio, who took off from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise on January 16, 1942.
SPOILER
The real aircraft sank with most of the crew's survival equipment. The men drifted for 34 days and more than 1,000 miles in a rubber life raft before landing on Pukapuka atoll, where a seaplane from the USS Swan picked them up a week later.
