What if a modern carrier battle group, (circa 2021), was thrown back in time to the Battle of Midway through a time travel experiment gone horribly wrong? The plot of The Final Countdown? No, but close enough to it. It's the plot of John Birmingham's The Axis Of Time trilogy. The 1980 science fiction movie The Final Countdown was the inspiration for John Birmingham's The Axis of Time trilogy. The USS Nimitz, a nuclear powered supercarrier, is briefly thrown back in time to December 6, 1941, the day before Pearl Harbor. When I was in high school, I had a history teacher who didn't like what he called "iffy history." The Final Countdown is "iffy history." The Final Countdown asks the question "What if the United States shot down the Japanese planes before they attacked Pearl Harbor?" Harry Turtledove's latest alternate, "iffy history," novel, Days of Infamy, is about a Japanese invasion of Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. He asks the question "What if the Japanese invaded after the attack on Pearl Harbor?" Back to The Final Countdown. The Final Countdown is about the USS Nimitz. While on maneuvers off Hawaii, it enters a wormhole, and is sent back in time to December 6, 1941, the day BEFORE the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie is good. I saw it on television in 1983. So why didn't they stick around and fight? Kirk Douglas' character was afraid of changing history.
Review of The Final Countdown
