Movie Review

True Story Based on the Hijacking of Captain Phillips

The true story of the hijacking of a cargo led by Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) and his crew was a thrilling, intense, movie which contained a high-concept  for the viewers. The plot of the story began on a early morning when Captain Phillips(Tom Hanks) departed for the cargo ship, he and his crew got the Maersk Alabama to leave from Oman to Mombasa. Captain Philips crew aboard on the Alabama consisted of Shane Murphy (Michael Chernus), Mike Perry (David Warshofsky), Ken Quinn (Corey Johnson), John Cronan (Chris Mulkey) and many others. Captain Phillips was aware of the pirates who have been invading the parts of the ocean they were sailing on. Wary of pirate activities, he and his officer Shane Murphy (Michael Churns) ordered strict security on the cargo, they also decided to forgo a drill in case of a pirate invasion. During the drill the vessel is chased by two pirate ships, Phillips knew they were listening to the radio traffic and decided to pretend he was a warship. Eventually, one of the pirate ships led by Abduwali Muse (Barked Abdi) lost control of it engine and could no longer chase the Maersk Alabama.  But, Muse could not give up on tons of money and rewards. The next day Muse returns with his crew and is able to attach a ladder to the cargo, one event led to another, and eventually the pirates were on the boat. Phillips tells the crew to hide in the engine room, he offers Muse the $30,000 in the safe, but Muse wasn't fulfilled. Muse wanted to search the ship with Phillips and one of the pirates named Bilal(Barkhad Abdi). When Muse and Bilal entered the room, Bilal was cut with many pieces of glass on his barefoot, but Muse continues to search alone. The events became tragic and critical and eventually Muse took Phillips to the life boat and launched the boat with all four pirates and Phillips. The pirates on the boat consisted of Najee(Faisal Ahmed), Elmi ( Mahat M. Ali), Bali, and Muse. The lifeboat departed for Somalia, the U.S Navy was later known of the events that took place in the Horn of Africa and decided to get involved. This movie was a very emotional as Captain Phillips constantly sacrificed himself to ensure the safety of others. His selflessness created the theme of heroics and sacrifice. His heroic self was shown when he decided for the crew to hide in the engine room and for him to remain with the pirates, this shows his caring side towards the crew. His sacrifices in the movie allowed this emotional theme to be formed and allowed the movie to connect the viewers personally. The movie contains violence and tense scenes which would be appealing to most ages 12 and up. Viewers can truly understand the meaning behind the movie and sympathize for Captain Phillips and the struggles he has faced. The movie would draw many viewers because it is not cliche and contains a strong plot that many can learn from. My opinion  is that it's a strong, emotional movie that was tense and captured the interest of the viewers. When the ships approached, the movie became tense and intresting which allowed the viewers to be hooked. The story of the pirates hijaking and kidnapping Captain Phillips was a outstanding perception of real life and helped the viewers to feel for Phillips. The movie contained strong visuals, dialect, and tone which added to the plot and allowed the movie to be bold and capturing of attention. The score of the movie in my opinion would be 4.5/5 stars because it contained good visuals, an amazing plot, and captured the attention of the viewers. However, I do believe the movie took away from the true story of Captain Phillips which resulted in many viewers being against the movie. In conclusion, I believe this is an amazing movie with many important messages and I reccomend for everyone to watch it and learn about the hijaking of April 2009.