Captain Philips review

Captain Phillips really rocked the boat

Captain Phillips tells the true story of the hijacking of a Maersk cargo ship by Somali pirates, and the crew's struggle to survive and save their Captain, Richard Phillips(Tom Hanks), who was held hostage by the pirates. The movie tells this story from two perspectives, mostly centering around the two captains, Phillips, and Abduwali Muse(Barkhad Abdi), the captain of the Somali pirates. At the beginning of the movie, the cargo ship embarks on a journey across the Indian ocean, headed for Africa. After going too close to the Somalian coastline, the ship is picked up by pirates, who track down the ship and board it, despite the crews' many attempts to deter the pirates. After boarding, the pirates capture Captain Phillips, who misleads them in their search to find the rest of the crew. The crew, lead by Phillips' second in command Shane Murphy(Michael Chernus), and John Cronan(Chris Mulkey), set traps such as putting glass on the floor, and evade capture by the pirates with their knowledge of the ship. The crew even injures Hufan(Isaak Farah Samatar), one of the pirates, who stepped on the glass barefoot. The crew manage to capture the Somali captain, Abduwali Muse, and hold him hostage in exchange for Captain Phillips. The Somali pirates trick the crew, however, and make off with Muse and Phillips in a small lifeboat. The lifeboat is tracked down by the U.S. Coast Guard, who employ Navy Seal snipers to take out the pirates. A possible theme of this movie is to "never give up" because despite overwhelming odds, Captain Phillips held out hope and ended up being rescued when it looked like he wasn't going to survive. I think the audience demographic of this movie would probably be somewhere in between the 15-50 year old range. The reason the range is so large is because this movie really has elements that every age demographic can enjoy. In my opinion, Captain Phillips is a great movie. The tension is palpable throughout, and really keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. The plot is even cooler when you consider the fact that this movie is based off of real events, and the ensemble effort of the cast was great because you could see the chemistry between Hanks and Abdi, and you could see their similarities as leaders, and this allowed you to sympathize with and understand both sides of the story. I give Captain Phillips an 8/10 for being a really great engaging movie.