Midway Test | Movies

Answer: Water

This happened in real life also, not just in the movie. This movie had many parts that closely resembled the actual battle. We see the radio operator on Midway being given instructions to send the message and he says, "There ain't nothing wrong with the water condenser, I was just over there."

Answer: His dad

Charlton Heston plays his dad, Captain Garth. Young Lt. Garth has been assigned to a fighter squadron on one of the carriers commanded by a friend of his dad, but his dad isn't his commander.
This conversation takes place on board the carrier before the battle begins.

Answer: Ensign George Gay

The PBY Catalina was a very common recon plane with floating skids, enabling it to land on water. This part of the movie is again very accurate historically. The story of Enisign George Gay is famous. He was the only survivor of his torpedo squadron and floated in the water for hours, witnessing the entire battle. We see Gay floating in the water throughout the film and finally being rescued by a PBY.
"Chili Bean" is played by Erik Estrada. We don't see him shot down in the film.
Max Leslie led dive bombers on the assault of Japanese carriers.
Jimmy Thach was a pilot who developed the Thach weave. This was a combat flight maneuver in which two planes zig zag back and forth to guard each other's tails. It helped the F4 Wildcat compete with the much faster and agile Japanese Zero. Thach did fly off the Yorktown during the battle of Midway in real life.

Answer: His hair "frizzles"

Ramos and a friend are watching planes take off from the deck of their carrier when this conversation takes place. Ramos claims to know which direction the Japanese carriers are. His friend asks where he gets his info and Ramos gestures to his hair and replies, "When it frizzles, there's Japs around!"

Answer: Robert Conrad

We can see Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi from "The Karate Kid") om the bridge of the Japanese carrier. He plays Rear Adm. Kusaka. He has several lines in the movie as well.
Tom Selleck ("Magnum P.I.") has a small role in this film, but he is in it. He plays an aide to Cpt. Simard.
Robert Wagner plays Jonathan Hart in the T.V. series "Hart to Hart". He plays Lt. Commander Blake in this film.
"Black Sheep Squadron" with "Pappy" Boyington (played by Robert Conrad) was on the air during the time period this film came out, but Conrad isn't in the film "Midway".

Answer: False

The initial waves of American carrier based planes that reach the Japanese carriers are slow, unescorted torpedo planes. They are shot to pieces by the Japanese fighters covering the fleet. We see Admiral Nagumo (played by James Shigeta) say, "They sacrifice themselves like Samurai, these Americans." The following waves of American dive bombers do all the damage.

Answer: U.S.S. Yorktown

The repair of the U.S.S. Yorktown at Pearl Harbor just before the battle of Midway is one the greatest engineering feats of the second world war. Several thousand repairman and welders descended on the ship and worked 24 hrs a day feverishly for a couple days. We see this taking place in the very beginning of the movie. The Admirals are talking about it on the docks at Pearl Harbor in the beginning of the film.
The Lexington was lost at the battle of Coral Sea a few weeks earlier and so did not take part in the battle at Midway. This is also mentioned in that part of the film.

Answer: True

Lt. Garth gets flamed by a hot shot Jap pilot as his dad had predicted, but makes it back to the carrier. Although he does crash on landing he looks like he might live.
Capt. Garth also crashes trying to land on an American aircraft carrier. After dive bombing a Japanese carrier his plane is shot up and not handling well. He crashes on the deck while landing and is killed.
Carrier operations were very dangerous back then, and still are today.

Answer: U.S.S. Yorktown

The Yorktown is hit by two separate attacks of Japanese planes. During the first attack she is damaged badly and burning. The crew of the Yorktown is very good at damage control and repair after the Coral Sea action and the repairs at Pearl Harbor. The Yorktown's crew is able to get the fires under control and get the carrier upright and able to launch aircraft again.

When the Japanese attack a second time later on, they assume it is a different carrier and report back to their fleet that they have destroyed a second American carrier.

This confusion lead the Japanese to believe that they had sunk or disabled two out of the three American carriers, when in fact they only hit the Yorktown again. We see an aide to Admiral Nagumo mistakenly tell him, "Now it's only two against one, Admiral." We see Charlton Heston being told they are short of pilots and asked to fly a dive bomber off Yorktown as they evacuate the ship.

He scores a direct hit on a Japanese carrier in the movie on that flight.

In real life, the ship was abandoned and sunk after the second wave of attacks.

Answer: Red bath robe

Commander Garth visits the code breakers at work and asks, "Geez, it smells down here. When was the last time some of your people had a bath?" Commander Rochefort replies, "Hell, I don't know. What day is it?" They break part of the Japanese code though and confirm the pending Japanese attack on Midway. With that warning confirmed, the Americans are able to deploy their carriers to Midway before the Japanese arrive.