Few naval battles stand out in history like the one that occurred near the small island of Midway in 1942, which helped secure American victory in the Pacific front of World War II, so any adaptation is going to have its work cut out for it. Given that he is known for his sense of spectacle, Roland Emmerich could have easily made Midway into another generic and embellished war film, but instead, we get a shockingly accurate portrayal of what transpired. Although the film does not cover the whole battle and small differences can be found, many of the craziest and unbelievable moments happened just as depicted. Born as a major passion project for the director, the film was also the result of an entire team helping to capture the essence of the battle, from the smallest set of details to the bigger epic moments.

What Is the Importance of Midway?

Today, few people would describe the tiny island of Midway as being a major or important location, but it remains one of the most important sites in naval history due to its significance in World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, American forces had little in the way of victories, but their aircraft carriers had remained untouched during the attack. Since they remained the only threat to their imperial ambitions, the Empire of Japan sought to lure the Americans to a decisive battle on the open seas. When they learned Midway would be the site of the battle, the Americans wanted to catch them by surprise near the coast of the island, where they met on June 4, 1942.

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Regarding the battle itself, Midway gets many of the finer details right, such as Wade McClusky (Luke Evans) and his squadron blindly stumbling upon the Japanese destroyer, which led them to the main fleet. The tragic moments, like when Eugene Lindsay (Darren Criss) is killed along with most of the torpedo squadron, remain true to life as well. The decisive events of that day and the destruction of the Japanese aircraft carriers are portrayed perfectly, but the battle was not immediately over for two more days, where the Japanese and American battleships pursued each other but never fought. Unlike the first day, very little action occurred on the second or third, so it’s understandable why the film would omit them, but there was one important moment. The last act of the naval battle, six months to the day after Pearl Harbor, was when a Japanese torpedo submarine sank the damaged American carrier Yorktown, although most of the crewmen had already been evacuated after being damaged on the first day. Even this attack is reduced to a brief mention, however, and the battle is still correctly portrayed as a clear American victory.

The Wildest Moments in ‘Midway’ Were Entirely Real

In addition to the grand strategy made by those like Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) or the intelligence efforts of Edwin Layton (Patrick Wilson) before the battle, Midway also focuses on the efforts of the pilots whose brave actions proved just as crucial to the outcome, if not more so. Some of these moments might seem made for the movie, but many of them occurred precisely as they were shown. For example, while his practice landing on the aircraft carrier was fictional, Dick Best (Ed Skrein) really did bomb two aircraft carriers in a single day, all while struggling with a bad batch of oxygen. Equally impressive were the actions of Bruno Guido (Nick Jonas) before the battle, when he was promoted on the spot for leaping into the cockpit of a downed plane and single-handedly destroying a Japanese fighter. Even the brief scene with John Ford watching the action was very real, with the acclaimed director still filming events after being injured by shrapnel. Sometimes, war really can be stranger and more epic than fiction.

Everyone Did Their Homework For ‘Midway’
Image via Lionsgate

According to him, Emmerich was met with skepticism by the military when he approached them with the proposal to adapt the story of Midway to the big screen, but the cast and crew went to great lengths to capture the essence of the battle and the people who played a part in it. While researching each of their characters, both Woody Harrelson and Patrick Wilson did extensive tours and met with retired military officers as consultants. The former even visited Pearl Harbor and spent time with troops stationed out in the Pacific to get a better sense of military life. After all, the actors were playing real people, so it felt essential that they were treated with the dignity and respect they rightly deserved.

This attention to detail also extends to production design, despite the movie being filmed on a blue screen on a soundstage in Montreal. As Emmerich noted to the military in an interview, none of the surviving aircraft carriers remain in wartime condition and the few that are still preserved have been updated or altered for tourists. Instead, the crew decided to remake them from scratch, using exact models for many ships and planes that were used during the era. In the end, all this hard work paid off, as Midway stands as not only a great war film by itself, but one of the most accurate in recent memory.

Midway is available to stream on Netflix in the US.

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Your changes have been saved Midway Release Date November 8, 2019 Director Roland Emmerich Runtime 138 minutes