FILM 1870: SULLY: MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON

FILM 1870: SULLY: MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON

TRIVIA: Ferry Captain Vincent Lombardi, who was the Captain of the first ferry to reach the plane, played himself in the movie.

Chesley Sullenberger was present at the studio. He supported the movie and helped it to reflect reality.

Clint Eastwood deliberately filmed the escape onto the life raft without rehearsal to capture the physical difficulty of releasing the raft. Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart's actions were unscripted.

The actual Airbus A320 involved in the incident was recovered from the Hudson and placed on display at the Carolina's Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte was the original destination for this flight. Footage shown during the credits, with the actual passengers and crew, was shot at the museum.

"Cactus" was the air traffic control name for America West Airlines, so named because it was based in Phoenix and needed to sound distinct from American Airlines. America West later became part of US Airways. That's why the flight is identified as "Cactus 1549."

During the in-flight emergency, Sully asks his co-pilot Jeff Skiles to "get the QRH." The Quick Reference Handbook (QRH) contains all the procedures applicable for abnormal and emergency conditions in an easy-to-use format. In addition, performance data corrections are also provided for specific conditions. The aviation acronym "QRH" is never explained or defined anywhere in the movie.

At 96 minutes, this is the shortest film Clint Eastwood has directed.

This is the first collaboration between Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks.

The song "A Real Hero" by French electronica artist College, in collaboration with Electric Youth, released in 2010, is about Captain Chesley Sullenberger and the U.S. Airways Flight 1549 water landing incident. Electric Youth frontman Austin Garrick was inspired to write the song by a quote from his grandfather, who spoke of Sullenberger and the incident. Garrick's grandfather referred to Sullenberger as "a real human being and a real hero," which became the song's refrain. The song has been featured in films including Drive (2011) and Taken 2 (2012).

FILM 1811: BROKEN ARROW

FILM 1811: BROKEN ARROW

TRIVIA: John Travolta was given the choice of playing either Deakins or Hale in the film. He chose the villain Deakins.

The phrase "broken arrow" is not actually used to refer to the theft, loss or seizure of nuclear weapons or components from the U.S.;that's known as an "empty quiver". A "broken arrow" is defined by CJCSI 3150.03B, Joint Reporting Structure Event and Incident Reports, as a US nuclear weapon accident that does not create the risk of a nuclear war.

Samantha Mathis asked friend Sandra Bullock for tips on doing action scenes. Bullock told her to hum the James Bond theme before every take.

As preparation for his role in this movie, Christian Slater gave up smoking.

During the final few blows of the last fist fight, as Hale is punching and kicking, growls and roars of large cats (i.e. lions, tigers, etc.) can be heard.

John Travolta's character Deakins took off his uniform after he revealed himself to be a traitor because it was requested by the military.

The film's soundtrack was reused in Scream 2 (1997).

BOOK 157: MOBY DICK: HERMAN MELVILLE

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by American writer Herman Melville, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance. Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler the Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale which on the previous whaling voyage destroyed his ship and severed his leg at the knee. The novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, but during the 20th century, its reputation as a Great American Novel was established. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written".

"Call me Ishmael" is among world literature's most famous opening sentences.

Dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius", the work was first published as The Whale in London in October 1851, and under its definitive title in New York in November. Hundreds of differences, mostly slight and some important, are seen between the two editions. The London publisher censored or changed sensitive passages and Melville made revisions, as well, including the last-minute change in the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in both editions as "Moby Dick", with no hyphen. About 3,200 copies were sold during the author's life.

The novel has been adapted or represented in art, film, books, cartoons, television, and more than a dozen versions in comic-book format. The first adaptation was the 1926 silent movie The Sea Beast, starring John Barrymore, in which Ahab kills the whale and returns to marry his fiancée. The most famous adaptation was the John Huston 1956 film produced from a screenplay by author Ray Bradbury. The long list of adaptations, as Bryant and Springer put it, demonstrates that "the iconic image of an angry embittered American slaying a mythic beast seemed to capture the popular imagination", showing how "different readers in different periods of popular culture have rewritten Moby-Dick" to make it a "true cultural icon".

FILM 1310: CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

TRIVIA: In real life, one of the men from Richard Phillips' crew sued him after the incident. He claimed that Phillips was well aware of the danger in the Somali waters but went in anyway endangering all of them because he wanted to get the shipment to harbour faster, even though the shipping company itself sent him a note advising him to avoid the Somali seas.

The line "Look at me! I'm the captain now", was an ad-lib by Barkhad Abdi.

During an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air", Tom Hanks said the first time he met the actors playing the Somali pirates was when they started filming the pirates taking over the bridge. Paul Greengrass mentioned he did this intentionally to build up tension between the actors on board the ship and the actors playing the Somaili pirates.

Tom Hanks claimed that all the interior lifeboat scenes were filmed inside a scale model that was actually on water at all times, resulting in him being vomited on by crew members in the cramped space.

Acting debut for all four of the main Somali Pirates.

The hijacking of the Maersk Alabama and hostage-taking of Captain Richard Phillips were also central to the Elmore Leonard novel "Djibouti" (2010).

Film 814: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Trivia: Gene Tierney's first approach to the character of Lucy Muir was playful, almost screwball. After a conference between Darryl F. Zanuck and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the first two days shooting were redone so that Tierney could give the character more depth. The change resulted in huge critical acclaim for the actress.

R.A. Dick was the pseudonym of Josephine Leslie, who wrote the 1945 novel "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir".

In 1990 there was serious at talk at 20th Century Fox of remaking "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer in the leads, but the poor box-office for The Russia House killed it.

The word "muir" means "the sea" in Gaelic. Many times sailors are said to have been "married" to the sea, or that the only woman they ever loved was the sea.