Battleship (2012)
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A group of warships must defend the Hawaiian Islands against a mysterious alien fleet.
The story
In 2005, a potentially habitable 'Planet G' is discovered, leading to the construction of a communications array on Oʻahu. Years later, during a 2012 naval exercise, five alien spacecraft arrive, plunging into the waters off the coast of Hawaii and creating a force field that isolates the islands. A group of sailors on several destroyers must navigate the immediate threat of the alien fleet while trying to maintain communication with the outside world. The crew faces a desperate struggle to defend their territory against the extraterrestrial invaders who have seized the local communication infrastructure.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After the alien invasion, the crew of the John Paul Jones is left to lead after their superiors are killed. They discover the aliens are using a local array to contact their home planet. After a series of skirmishes where they manage to destroy several alien ships by exploiting their sensitivity to sunlight, the survivors commandeer the decommissioned battleship USS Missouri. They work with retired veterans to disable the alien's force field. While a team on land stalls the aliens at the communication array, the sailors on the Missouri use their final shell to destroy the array. This action, combined with a counter-attack by aircraft, destroys the alien mothership and ends the threat. The film concludes with Alex Hopper being promoted and offered a chance to join the Navy SEALs, while a post-credits scene shows a new alien pod crash in Scotland.
- First release year
- 2012
- Runtime (minutes)
- 131
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Peter Berg
- Writers
- Jon Hoeber · writer; Erich Hoeber · writer
- Cast and characters
- Taylor Kitsch · Alex Hopper; Alexander Skarsgård · Stone Hopper; Rihanna · a sailor; Brooklyn Decker · Sam; Tadanobu Asano · Captain Yugi Nagata; Liam Neeson · Admiral Shane
- Genres
- military science fiction; war
- Themes
- defense; extraterrestrial invasion
- Tone and mood
- action-packed
- Premise and plot tags
- based on a board game; naval warfare
- Source material / true-story basis
- Board game
- Franchise connections
- Hasbro
- Reception
- The film received generally negative reviews and was considered a box-office flop, though it became successful on streaming services later.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 33% · scale: percentage · review count: 222; Metacritic · score: 41 · scale: 100 · review count: 39; CinemaScore · score: B · scale: A+ to F
- Production trivia
- The film was originally planned for a $150 million budget.; The production used real-life guided missile destroyers.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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