History Film / CaptainPhillips

* AlasPoorVillain: The Somali pirates, especially Muse and Bilal, are shown to not have much of a choice becoming pirates. Between their ruined fishing grounds by factory ships and illegal waste dumping at sea and Somali warlords who obviously would kill them on a whim, piracy is depicted as the only way to survive. That said, their brandishing weapons and threatening crew with murder is beyond the pale and they had a chance to surrender to US forces and be jailed in America.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Tom Hanks does a pretty good Massachusetts accent throughout the film, but it noticeably disappears when he [[spoiler: starts screaming in panic at the climax of the film.]]
* OneLinerNameOneLiner: Muse's response to Phillips' suggestion that he must have another career choice: "Maybe in America, Irish, maybe in America."

** Near the end, Captain Phillips sees a pen and begins covertly writing a letter to his family in despair...which only makes thing much more unstable when Najee catches him and flips out on him, resulting in Phillips getting hogtied and scared out of his remaining wits during the final shouting match (very nearly getting himself shot right then and there).

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: In-universe example. While using the life boat to escape to Somalia, one of the pirates attempts to smash open a window in order to get some air. Captain Phillips notes that the pirate is using a loaded rifle to do this. The pirate removes the clip, but does not eject a round from the chamber. Whether or not he'd chambered a round beforehand is unclear.

* SanitySlippage: Captain Philips really starts to lose his wits after the pirates re-capture him after he attempts to escape the lifeboat, and Najee attempts to strangle him to death. Then he ''really'' starts freaking out after Najee catches him writing a farewell letter and then prepares to blindfold, hogtie, and execute him. Thankfully he exposes himself to the SEAL snipers' line of sight as he holds his pistol to Philips' head.

* ArcWords: "Don't worry Irish, everything gon' be ok."
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: In universe example. While using the life boat to escape to Somalia, one of the pirates attempts to smash open a window in order to get some air. Captain Phillips notes that the pirate is using a loaded rifle to do this. The pirate removes the clip, but does not eject a round from the chamber. Whether or not he'd chambered a round beforehand is unclear.

* ArcWords: "Don't worry, everything gone be ok."

* ActorAllusion: Creator/TomHanks has "got a problem" [[Film/{{Apollo 13}} again]]. And this isn't the first time [[{{Film/SavingPrivateRyan}} he played a captain]]. Doubles as LifeImitatesArt because, according to his own account of the ordeal, the real Captain Phillips did say, "Shane, we've got a problem," at one point (when the open MOB - man overboard - failed to start, forcing them to give the pirates the enclosed lifeboat instead).

* ThrowItIn: The dramatic final scene of the movie, in which Captain Phillips is treated for shock in the infirmary, was a spur-of-the-moment, unscripted addition using actual Naval personnel from the ship they were filming on. The woman treating him (Petty Officer 2nd Class Danielle Albert) was naturally quite flustered at doing a scene with Tom Hanks, until he advised her to just treat him as she would a real-life patient.
* TooDumbToLive: The pirates, quite literally, once the U.S. Navy showed up.

* AmateurCast: None of the Somali actors had ever acted before. Newcomer Barkhad Abdi, who plays Muse, earned several award nominations including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

** Near the end, Captain Phillips sees a pen and begins covertly writing a letter to his family in despair...which only makes thing much more unstable when Najee catches him and flips out on him, resulting in Phillips getting hogtied and scared out of his remaining wits during the final shouting match (very nearly getting himself shot right then and there).

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Phillips is made into a more heroic figure by offering his life when his 2nd mate is going to be shot. He then ends up letting himself be a hostage in exchange for the pirates leaving the ship. In reality, Phillips never offered his life and was more the subject of a botched hostage exchange than letting himself become one, which he himself admits in interviews. Additionally, some of Phillips' former crew feel he was responsible for the hijacking because he ignored suggestions to steer the ship farther from the coast, but Phillips countered that they would have been just as unsafe 600 miles away as they were at 300.

* AmateurCast: None of the Somali actors had ever acted before.

''Captain Phillips'' is an American drama film released in October 2013 about the RealLife ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Alabama_hijacking Maersk Alabama]]'' hostage situation, in which Somali pirates boarded and seized a freighter. It was directed by Creator/PaulGreengrass. Creator/TomHanks stars as the eponymous Captain Richard Phillips.

* WhamLine: For Muse [[spoiler: at the end of the film: "Captain Phillips has been rescued. Your friends are dead."]]

->'''Muse''': Look at me.\\
'''Captain Richard Phillips''': Sure.\\
'''Muse''': Look at me.\\
'''Captain Richard Phillips''': Sure.\\
'''Muse''': I'm the captain now.\\

* PunchClockVillain: Most of the pirates are only doing their job and don't have any other way to make money.

* RecycledPremise: Captain TomHanks [[Film/{{Apollo 13}} gets trapped in a lifeboat after disaster strikes his ship]]. All the more fascinating because both events really happened.

* TelevisionGeography: As anyone who lives in Vermont will tell you, there is no four-lane highway anywhere in the state, and to get off at the Burlington International Airport, one would get off at exit 12, not exit 28C (which does not exist), if they were to take the interstate at all; it would be faster to go through the bordering town of Williston. Vermont has strict rules about highway signs, and the ones shown on the interstate do not comply, and are very clear Massachusetts signs if you are from the area. The airport in Burlington is also much smaller than the one depicted in the film.