Taglines: The battle for Earth begins at sea.
In 2005, the distant Gliese planetary system is discovered to have a potentially habitable planet and a communications array is built by NASA in Hawaii to send a transmission to contact any intelligent life. Meanwhile, Alex Hopper is arrested while attempting to impress Sam Shane. His brother, naval officer Stone, forces Alex to join the U.S. Navy in order to improve his life.
In 2012, Alex and Sam are in a relationship; Alex serves as a Tactical Actions Officer as a lieutenant aboard USS John Paul Jones while Stone is the commander aboard USS Sampson, but Alex is in danger of receiving a disciplinary discharge. During the 2012 RIMPAC exercise, five alien spacecraft arrive.
Their communications ship collides with a satellite and crashes in Hong Kong while the other four land in the waters off Hawaii. Sampson, John Paul Jones, and their Japanese sister ship JDS Myōkō are ordered by Admiral Terrance Shane to investigate, and they discover a floating structure. When it is touched by Alex it generates a force field that encloses the Hawaiian Islands and separates the three ships from the fleet.
Three alien warships surface and commence to engage both the Sampson and Myōkō which are destroyed, resulting in Stone’s death, while the command crew of John Paul Jones are killed. With Alex assuming command as the ranking officer, they recover the survivors from Myōkō including its commanding officer, Captain Yugi Nagata. The aliens also launch drones to attack Hawaii which cause heavy damage.
On Oahu, Sam is accompanying retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and double amputee Mick Canales on a mountain hike. After becoming aware of the aliens’ presence, they encounter scientist Cal Zapata who informs them the aliens have taken over the communications array, and Mick determines that they are planning to use it to re-establish military communications with their home planet.
Aboard John Paul Jones, naval personnel capture a semi-conscious alien. The alien forms a telepathic link with Alex, showing him their history of destroying worlds. Other aliens arrive and retrieve their comrade, but are prevented from sabotaging the ship. Examination of the captured alien’s helmet reveals the aliens are sensitive to sunlight. Ashore, Sam, Nick and Zapata recover his spectrum analyzer from the aliens and they use it to radio John Paul Jones to inform them the aliens intend military telecommunication with their home planet in four hours.
Captain Nagata suggests to use National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s tsunami warning buoys around Hawaii to track the alien warships. This allows John Paul Jones to destroy two of them. At dawn, they lure the remaining warship eastwards as Alex and Nagata shoot out its bridge windows, blinding its crew and allowing John Paul Jones to destroy it, but John Paul Jones is subsequently sunk by alien drones.
The survivors return to Pearl Harbor and commandeer the previously decommissioned World War II battleship USS Missouri with the aid of the retired veterans preserving her, restoring her to battle readiness and confronting the floating structure, revealed to be a giant mothership. Missouri is able to severely damage the mothership and disable the force field, and Admiral Shane scrambles a flight of Royal Australian Air Force Boeing F/A-18 fighter jets from aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.
Meanwhile, Sam, Mick and Cal attempt to stall the aliens at the communications array. As the mothership rallies against Missouri, Alex uses their last shell to destroy the communications array. All hope is lost for Missouri and those aboard until the Australian fighter jets arrive in time and destroy the mothership, saving Missouri and eliminating the alien threat.
Battleship is a 2012 American military science fiction action film loosely based on the board game of the same name. The film was directed by Peter Berg and stars Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna, Tadanobu Asano, Alexander Skarsgård, and Liam Neeson. Filming took place in Hawaii and on USS Missouri. In the film, the crews of a small group of warships are forced to do battle with a fleet of extraterrestrial origin to thwart their destructive goals.
Battleship premiered in Tokyo on April 3, 2012 and received a wide release by Universal Pictures on May 18 2012. It received mixed to negative reviews and underperformed at the box office, making only $65 million in North America against its total gross of $303 million worldwide.
Battleship (2012)
Directed by: Peter Berg
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Hamish Linklater, Rihanna, Hamish Linklater, Peter MacNicol, Jesse Plemons, Gregory D. Gadson, Jerry Ferrara
Screenplay by: Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Jesse Plemons
Production Design by: Neil Spisak
Cinematography by: Tobias A. Schliessler
Film Editing by: Colby Parker Jr., Billy Rich, Paul Rubell
Costume Design by: Louise Mingenbach, Kimberly A. Tillman
Set Decoration by: Larry Dias
Art Direction by: Aaron Haye, Scott P. Murphy, William Ladd Skinner
Music by: Steve Jablonsky
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, action and destruction, and for language.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: May 18, 2012
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