Battleship (2012)

April 3, 2012 (Tokyo)May 18, 2012 (United States)

April 3, 2012 (Tokyo)
May 18, 2012 (United States)

Battleship is a 2012 American military science fiction action film loosely based on the board game of the same name by Hasbro. The film was directed by Peter Berg from a script by brothers Jon and Erich Hoeber and stars Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna in her feature film debut, Tadanobu Asano, Hamish Linklater and Liam Neeson. Filming took place in Hawaii and on USS Missouri. In the film, the crews of a small group of warships are forced to battle against a naval fleet of extraterrestrial origin in order to thwart their destructive goals.

Battleship premiered in Tokyo on April 3, 2012, and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on May 18, 2012. The film received generally negative reviews and underperformed at the box-office, grossing $303 million worldwide against a production budget of $209–220 million, losing both Universal and Hasbro $150 million.

Storyline

In 2005, potentially habitable "Planet G" is discovered, and in 2006, a communications array to reach any extraterrestrial life is built in Oahu. There, a slacking Alex Hopper is arrested while attempting to impress Samantha "Sam" Shane, daughter of Admiral Terrance Shane. Alex's brother, Commander Stone Hopper, furiously forces Alex to join the U.S. Navy.

Six years later, Alex is a lieutenant aboard the USS John Paul Jones and in a relationship with Sam, a physical therapist working with wounded veterans. While Stone is a model officer commanding the USS Sampson, the rebellious Alex, despite showing plenty of potential, is facing a disciplinary discharge.

During the 2012 RIMPAC exercise, five alien spacecraft arrive. Their communications ship hits a satellite and crashes through the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, while the others plunge into the waters off the coast of Hawaii. Sampson, John Paul Jones, and Japanese destroyer JDS Myōkō discover a floating structure that generates an impenetrable force field isolating the Hawaiian Islands and the three destroyers from the rest of the world, and jamming all radar and communications inside.

Three alien warships surface, and first contact devolves into a battle after the humans decide to fire a warning shot across the aliens' bow; Myōkō is destroyed, Sampson is lost with all hands including Stone, and John Paul Jones' command personnel are killed, leaving Alex to reluctantly take charge as the next highest-ranking sailor on board after the executive officer is also lost. John Paul Jones disengages to recover Myōkō's survivors, including Captain Yugi Nagata, while alien drones destroy Oahu's military bases.

Hiking near the communications array, Sam and retired US Army lieutenant colonel and double amputee Mick Canales discover the aliens' presence. They encounter scientist Cal Zapata, who reveals the aliens have taken over the array to re-establish communications with their home planet. The John Paul Jones' crew captures an alien, which telepathically shows Alex images of alien conflict and planetary destruction.

More aliens board and retrieve their comrade while one starts sabotaging the ship. Its armored suit proves impervious to small-arms fire but it is obliterated by the destroyer's 5-inch gun, and the captured alien's helmet reveals their eyes are sensitive to sunlight. Ashore, Sam, Mick, and Cal recover his spectrum analyzer, using it to radio John Paul Jones that the aliens will contact their planet and most likely call for reinforcements when the facility's satellite is in position in four hours.

As night falls, Hopper realises they have no visibility. Nagata suggests using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tsunami warning buoys around Hawaii to track the warships without radar; this plan works and allows John Paul Jones to destroy two of them. The third proves too elusive, so they lure it into facing east as the sun rises. Alex and Nagata shoot out its bridge windows with sniper rifles, blinding its crew with sunlight and allowing John Paul Jones to destroy it. The destroyer then attempts to target the communications array, but is sunk by drones launched from the alien structure emitting the force field; Alex, Nagata, and several other sailors barely escape.

The survivors commandeer the decommissioned World War II battleship USS Missouri with the aid of retired Navy veterans. The floating structure is revealed to be a giant mothership, but Missouri disables the force field, allowing Admiral Shane to scramble fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. The battleship's turret carrying the ship's last shell is disabled, forcing the sailors to carry the shell to the ship's last functioning turret. Sam, Mick, and Cal stall the aliens at the array, where Mick kills an alien soldier. Alex uses the final shell to destroy the array, rendering the Missouri defenseless, but the mothership's drones are destroyed by Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 fighter jets, as reinforcements carpet bomb the mothership, eliminating the alien threat.

Alex is promoted to lieutenant commander and presented with a Silver Star and his brother's posthumous Navy Cross. Admiral Shane promises Alex will soon have a ship of his own, while he is also recommended to become a Navy SEAL. Alex asks him for Sam's hand in marriage; the admiral initially refuses, but invites Alex to lunch. In a post-credits scene, some people in Scotland are scared off by an alien that emerges from something that fell from the sky.

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