It’s not really summer without a tense action movie on the big screen, and judging by the dearth of box office successes over the past few months, viewers might be out of luck. All the American audience wanted was a big-budget action flick, something with bombs and explosions and justice—a country-defending hero striding in slow motion, stern-jawed authority figures conspiring in suits, and maybe some sharks.
Nicolas Cage has heard our call—and delivered. In USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, directed by Mario Van Peebles, America's favorite unhinged actor brings his wild-eyed style to Captain Charles B. McVay III. In 1945, McVay's ship was brought down by a Japanese submarine after delivering atomic bomb components to Titian Island; 900 survivors were stranded in the Pacific Ocean for five days. After 584 of the men died, McVay was court-martialed and tried by a US military tribunal. What happened with USS Indianapolis was the worst naval disaster in history, but in the first trailer for its film adaptation viewers can preview a catastrophe of a merrier sort: an enraged Nic Cage vs. the odds. And, of course, sharks.
