Tom Hanks stated that the scene of Captain Richard Phillips's medical examination was improvised on the spot with the real-life Navy Corpsman Danielle Albert, who was told to follow her usual procedure. However, Albert was so affected by Hanks that she froze on the first take. Hanks joked with her that he was the one who was supposed to be in shock in the scene. In the second take used in the film, Paul Greengrass claimed that he stood next to the ship's captain and watched with tears in his eyes, and that the captain told him, "I've seen trauma, and that's what it looks like."
The line "Look at me! I'm the captain now!" was Barkhad Abdi's improvisation.
In real life, eleven men from Richard Phillips's crew sued him after the incident. They claimed that Phillips was aware of the danger in Somali waters but that, despite the shipping company sending him a note advising him to stay away from Somali seas, he still went in, endangering everyone, because he wanted to get the shipment to port faster. The matter was settled out of court.
During an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" program, Tom Hanks said that he met the actors playing the Somali pirates for the first time when they began filming the pirates seizing the bridge. Paul Greengrass stated that he did this deliberately to create tension between the actors on the ship and the actors playing the Somali pirates.
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 implies 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 increased the tension of the situation. In fact, during the escape attempt, he realized that, despite knowing he was swimming in shark-infested waters, getting temporary relief from the heat of the lifeboat was a great relief.
Before the bridge takeover scene, Paul Greengrass told Barkhad Abdi to "own it." Abdi said he 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."
In real life, Richard Phillips never offered the pirates to capture or shoot him instead of his crew. He was held in the lifeboat for four days and was psychologically tortured by the pirates, who staged mock executions as victims. 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 that opportunity to jump into the lifeboat. The absolute shock reaction he gave after being rescued by the SEAL team never happened in real life. When he tried to sleep for the first time after being rescued, he was affected by what had happened.
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. Out of more than 700 people who auditioned, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed and Mahat M. Ali were chosen.
The hospital corpsman in the sick bay scene was a real Navy Corpsman (Danielle Albert). The director told her to treat Tom Hanks as in a "regular military exercise." The sequence was unscripted and improvised.
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.
When Chris Mulkey's character began to mention that he was in the Union and was not paid to deal with pirates, only Tom Hanks knew that Mulkey was going to start saying these things. The reactions of the rest of the actors were completely real and natural.
In real life, the pirates planned to meet with other pirate groups holding other victims in the coastal region and who could provide them with a clean escape.
None of the U.S. Navy crew members of DDG 103, U.S.S. Truxtun, including Corpsman Danielle Albert, earned additional/industry-standard pay for their roles. They were considered "on-duty" and received only their normal U.S. Navy salaries.
Tom Hanks stated that all the scenes inside the lifeboat were actually always shot inside a replica that was above water, which caused crew members to vomit on him in the cramped space.
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 he was also accused of deliberately ignoring anti-piracy protocols. In the past month he had repeatedly seen the planned positions of roughly 50 ships attacked in the region and had received numerous emails warning him of the danger. Although he was advised to stay 600 miles off the coast, he was more concerned with keeping to schedule and was only 240 miles from shore. He also rejected the suggestion that they 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.
When the real SEALs flew in to rescue Captain Phillips, neither the commander of the operation nor any other Navy officer gave them the order to shoot the pirates. Instead, the sniper team leader acted under his own "emergency assault" authority and killed the three of them when they could not be eliminated simultaneously.
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.
The original cut included additional scenes featuring Catherine Keener's character discovering the ordeal her husband was going through and later dealing with press interference and efforts to rescue him. During editing it was decided that the subplot drew focus away from the central story aboard the ship and it was removed. Paul Greengrass discussed cutting all of the film's introductory scenes on land, but decided to keep them as they were, since otherwise it would have meant Keener being cut from the film entirely.
Except for Max Martini, who plays the SEAL Commander, all of the SEALs seen toward the end of the film were portrayed by former active-duty SEALs.
The scene shot in the Combat Information Center, in which a sailor writes "Seat 15" backwards on a status board, was improvised. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd noticed that the Chief Petty Officer tried writing backwards when he was not shooting and asked him to repeat it for the film. In the Navy, the practice of writing backwards has disappeared in recent years with the advent of technology, as all available information is placed on electronic status boards.
The irony of the incident is that the U.S. Navy ship USS Bainbridge had a historic connection to pirates, as the ship takes its name from the Commander of the only vessel 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 U.S., Bainbridge was revenge for that event.
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 saw this as a major snub.
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.
When the negotiator is asked what his name is, he says he is "Nemo." Nemo means "no one" or "nobody" in Latin. Captain Nemo is also a famous fictional character from French science fiction writer Jules Verne's two maritime books: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1874).
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, similar to cocaine, caffeine and nicotine. All are stimulants.
The USS Truxtun plays the role of the USS Bainbridge, which 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 proceed from the bridge wings.
The Navy SEAL who shot the pirates was also in Benghazi. His character was influential in the film 13 Hours (2016).
Originally Ron Howard was 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) at its development stage. Greengrass took over Captain Phillips (2013) while Howard took over Rush (2013).
Barkhad Abdi also appears in another film about Somalia, titled "Pirates of Somalia." The film mentions the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.
The email inbox of Captain Richard Phillips contains messages from Paul Kirby (Production Design), Dominic Capon (Set Decoration) and Michael Bronner (co-producer). One of the subjects is "Decorating Quote".
The rate of piracy in Somalia varies from month to month; attacks on ships occur only once every three months during quiet periods, and every other day during intense periods.
At the climax, as tension rises in the lifeboat 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.
Kurt Larsen, who plays a crew member, is a real Maersk employee.
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).
Although Paul Greengrass received Best Director nominations at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, the Directors Guild and the Critics' Choice Awards, he did not receive an Oscar nomination. Critics, audiences, major film groups and publications at the time saw this as a major snub.
Omar Berdouni, who plays Nemo, had previously worked with Paul Greengrass. He played the hijacker Ahmed Al Haznawi in United 93 (2006).
Tom Hanks released two feature films in 2013, Captain Phillips and Saving Mr. Banks. In both he plays a real person (the second and third times in his career).
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), plays the helmsman and chief mate of the Maersk Alabama, Ken Quinn. Similarly, the Moroccan-French actor Omar Berdouni returns in the production as Nemo, the US 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 grabbed the device and announced it was fake).
The lifeboat used in the film is kept at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, IL.
In the ending as written in the original screenplay and filmed, Captain Phillips was to rest alone in the Captain's cabin, drink a beer and then begin 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 had not been quickly arranged.
Among the cast there is one Oscar winner: Tom Hanks, and two Oscar nominees: Barkhad Abdi and Catherine Keener.