USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016) on Netflix
R20162h 8mActionDramaHistoryThrillerWar
In 1945, Captain Charles B. McVay III commands the cruiser Indianapolis, carrying atomic bomb parts across the Philippine Sea. A Japanese submarine sinks the ship and leaves the crew adrift.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb5.3/1015,730 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes18%
Trailer
Plot summary
In July 1945, near the end of World War II, the American heavy cruiser Indianapolis carries parts of the atomic bomb known as Little Boy to Tinian, a US base in the Pacific, and then turns for home. Captain Charles B. McVay III commands the Portland-class ship; nearly 1,200 men are aboard. On July 30, 1945, while the cruiser crosses the Philippine Sea without escort, a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-58 strikes the ship and it goes down. The sailors who get off the vessel are left scattered in the open water, without food or drinking water, with sharks around them, and wait to be found.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Captain McVay was court-martialed and convicted by the US Navy for "hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag"; already under pressure from the media and from the deceased crewmen's relatives, he took his own life in 1968, and the film's postscript states that President Bill Clinton posthumously exonerated him in 2000.- After filming on July 14 in downtown Mobile, Cage met a Navy veteran on a bench at Bienville Square who turned out to be one of the ship's survivors, and the two had an extended discussion about the disaster.
- Two ships preserved at the Battleship Memorial Park near Mobile, Alabama, were used to depict Indianapolis and the Japanese submarine, while Walt Conti of Edge Innovations provided the animated sharks and two fully-operational World War II-era warbirds portrayed the planes from the real rescue.
SPOILER
Of the 1,197 sailors aboard the real USS Indianapolis, only 317 were rescued alive; almost 300 went down with the ship and more than 500 who survived the sinking then died over the next five days from dehydration, exposure, salt water poisoning or shark attacks.
