Thirteen Days (2000) on Netflix
PG-1320002h 25mDramaHistoryThriller
In October 1962, U-2 photographs reveal Soviet missile sites in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy and his aides, including Kenneth O'Donnell, look for a way to remove them without war.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.3/1065,897 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
American U-2 flights over Cuba bring back photographs showing Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads on the island. President John F. Kennedy and his aides look for a way to get the missiles out. The Joint Chiefs of Staff argue for bombing the missile sites and then invading Cuba. Kennedy holds back, fearing that an attack would drive the Soviets into West Berlin and set off a wider war, and he sees an analogy to the events that began World War I. A blockade is rejected as an act of war, so the administration announces what it calls a quarantine, with naval forces stopping ships bound for Cuba to check them for weapons.
Cast
- Drake Cookas Mark O'Donnell
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Thirteen Days (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Department of Defense tried to get the film to change its portrayal of the US military, and when the producers refused, military assistance was denied. The studio had to use broken-down aircraft from the Philippines, painted and attached to trucks that pulled them along to make them look like they still functioned.
- Before seeing the movie, McNamara reacted to its premise in a PBS NewsHour interview: "For God's sakes, Kenny O'Donnell didn't have any role whatsoever in the missile crisis; he was a political appointment secretary to the President; that's absurd".
- Costner traveled to Cuba in 2001 to screen the film for Fidel Castro, saying at a press conference, "It was an experience of a lifetime to sit only a few feet away from him and watch him relive an experience he lived as a very young man."
- Several directors were involved at various points: Steven Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan expressed interest, while Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Campbell were in discussions, and Coppola later passed to pursue Megalopolis after seeing an early screening of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.
- Universal Pictures was the initial domestic distributor but dropped the film due to budgetary concerns; Sony Pictures won it thanks to the producers' positive relationship from Air Force One, then bailed out when there was no director set, and Universal chose not to buy it back.
- The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the screenplay and the performances of the cast, but it was a box-office bomb, grossing $66.6 million against its $80 million budget.
