The 2013 action film was directed by Paul Greengrass and written by Billy Ray, who based it off the by Richard Phillips. The autobiographical tale is the story of Captain Phillips ( Tom Hanks ) a cargo ship captain whose ship is hijacked by Somalian pirates.
PLOT:
We start off by seeing Richard’s routine. He’s new to the African waters, and so are his crew, who have presumably never battled pirates before. Overall, he’s a nice guy. Tough, but fair. But that’s the boring part. Let’s skip to the pirates!
The first attack consisted of two small boats, they get scared off, nobody gets hurt, and Phillips and the crew are alarmed, but alright. Then comes the second wave, the boat is hijacked. Muse ( Barkhad Abdi ) is the pirate leader, he along with his three brothers ( one of them being just a ‘kid’ according to Phillips ) are more or less his glorified henchmen. While yes, they make their demands and are not slaves, they’re sidekicks at best.
After entering the control room, Phillips offers the pirates the 30k they have lying around. Being pirates, they’re interested in more. Muse demands Phillips show him around the ship. All the while, Phillips has a walkie talkie with which he’s secretly using to communicate with his crew. They use the information to avoid the pirates, and even set a couple “unintentional booby traps” around the boat.
The climax appears on the horizon as the pirates take an escape boat, and Captain Phillips along with them. Does he make it out alive? I’ll leave that to you.
CONCLUSSION:
Beyond solid film overrall! Just remember, this was Barkhad Abdi’s first EVER acting gig, and he pulled it off so seemingly effortlessly. Almost like he were just repeating moments from his past ( Abdi also had 0 pirate experience ). Hanks meanwhile, deserves his flowers too. I have a thing where if I recognize an actor, I tend not to think of them as there characters, rather as the actor. Weirdly enough, I just didn’t notice that at all with Tom Hanks. Very rarely did Hank’s name even pop up in my head. Though the rest of the cast were also all very solid, the story revolved around the two, and those two needed to be portrayed best, which is what happened.
So if your in the mood for a mild-action film full of suspense and character developement, your in the right place! 8.5/10.
-The Screenwriter