FILM · 2013 · USA
Captain Phillips
- Directed by
- Paul Greengrass
- Runtime
- 134 min
- Studio
- Columbia Pictures, Michael De Luca Productions, Scott Rudin Productions
39 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (39)
- #001
Contains a major spoiler — show
Tom Hanks said the scene of Captain Richard Phillips's medical examination was improvised on location with real-life Navy corpsman Danielle Albert, who was told to follow her usual procedure. Albert was so affected by Hanks that she froze on the first take, and Hanks joked that he was the one who was supposed to be in shock. In the second take used in the film, Paul Greengrass claimed he stood beside the ship's captain and watched with tears in his eyes as the captain told him, "I've seen trauma, and that's what it looks like."
- #002
The line "Look at me! I'm the captain now!" was improvised by Barkhad Abdi.
- #003
In real life, eleven men from Richard Phillips's crew sued him after the incident. They claimed Phillips was aware of the danger in Somali waters but, despite a note from the shipping company advising him to stay away from Somali seas, entered anyway because he wanted to get the shipment to port faster, putting everyone at risk. The matter was settled out of court.
- #004
During an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air," Tom Hanks said he met the actors playing the Somali pirates for the first time when they began filming the pirates seizing the bridge. Paul Greengrass said he did this deliberately to create tension between the actors on the ship and those playing the Somali pirates.
- #005
Contains a major spoiler — show
In real life, the interior of the lifeboat reached temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius) during most of the ordeal. The film hints at this, but not to the extent of the real event. Richard Phillips described how naturally uncomfortable he was in the extreme heat and how the temperature heightened the tension of the situation. In fact, during the escape attempt, he realized that temporarily escaping the lifeboat's heat was a great relief, even though he knew he was swimming in shark-infested waters.
- #006
Before the bridge-takeover scene, Paul Greengrass told Barkhad Abdi to "own it." Abdi had lost sleep the night before in anticipation of his first acting experience. The next day, the improvisation in the line "look at me, look at me, I'm the captain now" became the clip used in awards consideration. After Abdi and his fellow actors dropped character, Tom Hanks's first words to Barkhad were, "so, you're from Minnesota."
- #007
Contains a major spoiler — show
In real life, Richard Phillips never offered to let the pirates capture or shoot him instead of his crew. He was held in the lifeboat for four days and psychologically tortured by the pirates, who staged mock executions of him as their victim. During his captivity in the lifeboat he never put pen to paper and never tried to write a farewell note to his family. Before attempting to escape, he did not want to go outside to urinate. From where he sat he saw one of the pirates urinating outside and used the opportunity to jump into the lifeboat. His absolute shock reaction after being rescued by the SEAL team never happened in real life. When he first tried to sleep after being rescued, he was affected by what had happened.
- #008
None of the Somali actors in the film had acted before. An open casting call was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which has the largest Somali population in the US. Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed and Mahat M. Ali were chosen from more than 700 people who auditioned.
- #009
Barkhad Abdi earned only $65,000 for this role and began working at his brother's cell phone store in Minneapolis after the film was completed.
- #010
When Chris Mulkey's character began talking about being in the Union and not being paid to deal with pirates, only Tom Hanks knew Mulkey was going to say those things. The reactions of the rest of the actors were completely real and natural.
- #011
Contains a major spoiler — show
In real life, the pirates planned to meet up with other pirate groups holding other victims kidnapped in the coastal region, who could provide them with a clean escape.
- #012
None of the US Navy crew members of the DDG 103, U.S.S. Truxtun, including corpsman Danielle Albert, earned additional or industry-standard pay for their roles. They were considered "on-duty" and received only their normal US Navy salaries.
- #013
Tom Hanks said all the scenes inside the lifeboat were actually always filmed inside a replica that was on the water, which caused crew members to vomit on him in the cramped space.
- #014
Contains a major spoiler — show
Some crew members sued the shipping line over the hardships they endured and Captain Phillips's alleged incompetence. The ship's officers described the real Captain Phillips as "arrogant," "self-righteous" and "sullen." One of the officers said, "Nobody wanted to sail with him." He was also accused of deliberately ignoring anti-piracy protocols. He had repeatedly seen the planned locations of roughly 50 ships attacked in the region in the past month and had received numerous emails warning him of the danger. Although advised to stay 600 miles from the coast, he was more concerned with keeping to schedule and was only 240 miles from the coast. He also rejected a suggestion to suspend the fire drill and prepare to repel the pirates when the attacking boats were visually spotted only three miles away. Instead, he ordered them to conduct a lifeboat drill. Also, contrary to what is depicted in the film, Phillips did not instruct the crew to hide or shut off power according to protocol. Instead, they decided to do so on their own.
- #015
Contains a major spoiler — show
When the real SEALs flew in to rescue Captain Phillips, neither the commander of the operation nor any other Navy officer gave them an order to shoot the pirates. Instead, the sniper team leader acted under his own "emergency assault" authority and killed the three when they could not be eliminated simultaneously.
- #016
In an interview, Paul Greengrass said he saw the Somali pirates not as terrorists but as criminals, and that he wanted the story to highlight their desperation and willingness to do illegal and violent things as part of the hopelessness of life in Somalia.
- #017
The original cut included additional scenes with Catherine Keener's character, who discovers the ordeal her husband is going through and later deals with press interference and efforts to rescue him. During editing it was decided that the subplot drew focus away from the central story on the ship and it was removed. Paul Greengrass discussed cutting all of the film's opening scenes on land together, but decided to keep them as they were when doing so would have meant cutting Keener from the film entirely.
- #018
Except for Max Martini, who plays the SEAL commander, all the SEALs seen toward the end of the film were portrayed by previously active-duty SEALs.
- #019
The scene filmed at the Combat Information Center, in which a sailor writes "Seat 15" backwards on a status board, was improvised. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd noticed the Chief Petty Officer trying to write backwards when not filming and asked him to repeat it for the film. In the Navy, the practice of writing backwards has disappeared in recent years as technology has put all available information on electronic status boards.
- #020
In an irony of the event, the U.S. Navy ship USS Bainbridge had a historic connection to pirates, as the vessel takes its name from the commander of the only ship lost to pirates in the Barbary Wars. William Bainbridge and his crew were captured by Barbary pirates and held by the Pasha of Tripoli for nineteen months. For the United States, Bainbridge represented revenge for that incident.
- #021
Although Tom Hanks received Best Actor nominations at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild and Critics' Choice awards, he did not receive an Oscar nomination. Critics, audiences, major film groups and publications at the time regarded this as a major snub.
- #022
The shipping company Maersk assisted Sony Pictures and "Bourne" director Paul Greengrass as a consultant on depicting daily life aboard a ship and understanding the vessel's technical aspects. The Danish shipping company's collaboration with the filmmakers also included helping to charter the Aleksander Maersk, the same ship that was hijacked.
- #023
When the negotiator is asked his name, he says he is "Nemo." Nemo means "no one" or "nobody" in Latin. Captain Nemo is also a famous fictional character from two maritime books by the French science fiction writer Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1874).
- #024
As the pirates first approach the Maersk Alabama, the camera focuses on one pirate putting a chewing substance into his mouth, and the next shot shows another pirate already chewing the same thing. This is known as khat, a plant grown in East Africa. Its active ingredients are the alkaloids cathine and cathinone, which are similar to cocaine, caffeine and nicotine. All are stimulants.
- #025
The USS Truxtun plays the role of the USS Bainbridge, and was actually at sea during the filming of the scenes on the ship's bridge. Because the production crew had blacked out the windows to limit incoming light, it was tactically challenging for the bridge watchstanders, who actually had to navigate. The watchstanders had to move along the bridge wings.
- #026
Contains a major spoiler — show
The Navy SEAL who shoots the pirates was also in Benghazi. His character was influential in the film 13 Hours (2016).
- #027
Ron Howard was initially on board as director during the development of Captain Phillips (2013). However, Howard would ultimately swap feature film projects with Paul Greengrass, who was then preparing to direct Rush (2013) in its development stage. Greengrass took over Captain Phillips (2013) while Howard took over Rush (2013).
- #028
Barkhad Abdi also appears in another film about Somalia, titled "Pirates of Somalia." The film mentions the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.
- #029
The email inbox that Captain Richard Phillips reads contains messages from Paul Kirby (Production Design), Dominic Capon (Set Decoration) and Michael Bronner (co-producer). One of the subjects is "Decorating Quote."
- #030
The rate of piracy in Somalia varies from month to month; attacks on ships occur only once every three months during low periods, and every other day during intense periods.
- #031
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the climax in the lifeboat, where the tension rises and Captain Phillips's life hangs in the balance, the musical cue playing during this sequence ("The End," composed by John Powell) was also used at the climax of United 93 (2006), another historical drama/thriller directed by Paul Greengrass.
- #032
Kurt Larsen, who plays a crew member, is a real Maersk employee.
- #033
The hijacking of the Maersk Alabama and the taking of Captain Richard Phillips hostage were also at the center of Elmore Leonard's novel Djibouti (2010).
- #034
Although Paul Greengrass received Best Director nominations at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, Directors Guild and Critics' Choice awards, he did not receive an Oscar nomination. Critics, audiences, major film groups and publications at the time regarded this as a major snub.
- #035
Omar Berdouni, who plays Nemo, had previously worked with Paul Greengrass. He portrayed the hijacker Ahmed Al Haznawi in United 93 (2006).
- #036
Some actors from Paul Greengrass's critically acclaimed film United 93 returned to appear in this film. Corey Johnson, who played passenger Louis J. Nacke II (the passenger who announced during the retaking scene that the bomb was a dummy), portrays the helmsman and first mate Ken Quinn of the Maersk Alabama. Similarly, the Moroccan-French actor Omar Berdouni returns in the production as Nemo, the U.S. Navy's Somali-English interpreter; he had previously played the United 93 hijacker Ahmed Al-Haznawi, who carried the fake bomb and was later beaten to death by the passengers (Nacke seized the device and announced it was fake).
- #037
The lifeboat used in the film is kept at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, IL.
- #038
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the ending written in the original screenplay and filmed, Captain Phillips rests alone in the captain's cabin, drinks a beer and then begins to cry. Director Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks agreed that the scene was not cathartic enough. After further research, they learned that Phillips was first subjected to a medical examination in the sick bay and that the setting was not arranged quickly.
- #039
The cast includes one Oscar winner, Tom Hanks, and two Oscar nominees, Barkhad Abdi and Catherine Keener.
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