Captain Phillips (film)

In 2009, Richard Phillips takes command of MV Maersk Alabama, an unarmed container vessel from the Port of Salalah in Oman, with orders to sail through the Guardafui Channel to Mombasa, Kenya. Meanwhile, pirates, including a skinny young man named Muse, are ordered to go back to sea. Muse chooses a crew for his skiff, including Bilal, an eager teenager, and Elmi, who offers to steer, and the aggressive Najee. Wary of pirate activity off the coast of the Horn of Africa, Phillips and First Officer Shane Murphy order strict security precautions on the vessel and carry out a practice drill.

During the drill, the captain notices that the vessel is being followed by Somali pirates in two skiffs, and Phillips calls for help. Knowing that the pirates are listening to radio traffic, he pretends to call a warship, requesting immediate air support. One skiff, piloted by rival Asad, turns around in response, and the other – crewed by four heavily armed pirates led by Abduwali Muse – loses engine power trying to steer through Maersk Alabama's wake. Later that night, over an argument, Muse grabs a wrench, and bludgeons Asad over the head, impressing Najee and shocking Bilal.

The next day, Muse's skiff, now fitted with two outboard engines, returns with the same four pirates aboard. Despite the efforts of Phillips and his crew, the pirates secure their ladder to the ship. As they board, Phillips tells the crew to hide in the engine room, just before the pirates storm the bridge and hold Phillips and the other crew members at gunpoint. Phillips offers Muse the $30,000 in the ship's safe, but Muse's orders are to ransom the ship and crew in exchange for millions of dollars of insurance money from the shipping company. While they search the ship, Phillips sees Shane and indirectly notes to him that the youngest pirate Bilal does not have sandals. Shane tells the crew to line the engine room hallway with broken glass. Chief Engineer Mike Perry deactivates the power to the ship, plunging the lower decks into darkness. Bilal cuts his feet when they reach the engine room, and Muse continues to search alone.

The crew members ambush Muse, badly cutting his hand and holding him at knifepoint, and arrange to release him and the other pirates into a lifeboat. However, Muse's right-hand man Nour Najee refuses to board the lifeboat with Muse unless Phillips goes with them. Once all are on the lifeboat, Muse motions for Najee to strike Phillips in the back, forcing him into the vessel before the pirates launch the boat with all five of them on board. As it hits the water, Najee strikes his head and Muse loses balance.

As the lifeboat heads for Somalia, tensions flare between the pirates as they run low on the plant-based amphetamine khat that they have been eating, and they lose contact with their mother ship. In cramped quarters, Muse bangs his injured hand and noticing the first aid kit, Phillips treats Bilal's wounded foot, but Najee yells at him to stop before the wound is fully bandaged. The pirates deny Phillips water and fresh air but Bilal, hands him water, a move disapproved by Najee. Conditions on the lifeboat worsen. Bilal cannot feel his foot, and Elmi smashes a window for air. Muse says that he stole $6 million from a Greek ship last year, when Phillips wonders why he is not rich, Najee loses his temper and begins to question Muse's leadership when they are intercepted by the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Bainbridge. Bainbridge's captain Frank Castellano is ordered to prevent the pirates from reaching the Somali coast by any means.

When two boats arrive at the lifeboat with supplies, the Navy officers demand to see Phillips. When he emerges at gunpoint, he shouts that he is at "Seat 15", indicating the place where the pirates are holding him inside. The boats leave after an impatient Najee fires his gun, to the dismay of his fellow pirates. Even when additional ships arrive, a desperate Muse asserts that he has come too far and will not surrender. The negotiators are unable to change his mind, and a team from DEVGRU parachutes in to intervene, while Phillips attempts to escape from the lifeboat before being quickly recaptured and beaten and choked by Najee and pistol-whipped by Muse.

While three DEVGRU marksmen get into positions, Castellano and DEVGRU continue to try to find a peaceful solution, eventually taking the lifeboat under tow. Muse agrees to board Bainbridge, where he is told that his clan elders are arriving to negotiate Phillips's ransom. In the lifeboat, Phillips begins to write a letter to his family, as Bilal pleads for him to stop due to Najee's paranoia. Najee spots Phillips writing the letter and snatches it, accusing it of being a Navy trick. A provoked Phillips wrestles and overpowers Najee with relative ease and punches him in the stomach and tries to choke him. Though Phillips has the upper hand, Elmi urges the hesitant Bilal to strike Phillips in the back with his AK-47.

After a brief struggle, the three pirates get a hold of Phillips and the enraged Najee beats Phillips further and orders his fellow pirates to tie up and blindfold Phillips, who says his final goodbyes to his family over the audio. Najee berates Bilal and Elmi for their protests, stating that they've been tricked by the Navy and that Phillips was the source of their misfortune. As Elmi looks on helplessly and Bilal lowers his head, and Najee prepares to shoot Phillips, Bainbridge's crew stops the tow, causing Najee to lose balance, spoiling his aim and making Phillips swing back out of range. This gives the marksmen three clear shots, by which they simultaneously shoot all three pirates: Elmi is hit in the face and makes a guttural sound, Bilal is hit in the neck and makes a choking noise and Najee is hit in the spinal cord. All three slump down, blood splattering Phillips.

Phillips takes off the blindfold to see Najee's dead cold eyes and Elmi fallen dead and the dying Bilal gasping for breath. A despondent Muse is arrested and taken into custody for piracy where he is told his crew are dead. Navy SEALS rescue Phillips from the lifeboat and his injuries are treated. Although in shock and disoriented, he thanks the rescue team for saving his life.

Capt. Phillips was held captive in the lifeboat by pirates for five days.

In a New York Post article, some of the crew members of the Maersk Alabama accused the film of being inaccurate in facts and the portrayal of Phillips, claiming that Phillips was not as heroic as the film depicts him.[65] Mike Perry, the chief engineer of the Maersk Alabama, also asserted in a CNN interview that the film does not tell the true story.[66]

The film's director Paul Greengrass publicly stated that he "stands behind the authenticity of Captain Phillips", despite complaints of inaccuracy with how the film portrays the events surrounding the hijacking, and "at the end of the day, it is easy to make anonymous accusations against a film. But the facts are clear. Captain Phillips's ship was attacked, and the ship and the crew and its cargo made it safely to port with no injuries or loss of life. That's the story we told, and it's an accurate one."[67] Phillips's first mate Shane Murphy stated in an interview with Vulture published on October 13, 2013 that he was satisfied with how the movie portrayed both Phillips and himself, and stated that he was only disappointed that the film didn't show footage of the crews' families at home or the President's comments on the hijacking.[68]

The visual blog Information is Beautiful estimated that, while taking creative license into account, the film was 81.4% accurate when compared to real-life events and called it "pretty accurate".[69]

• A Hijacking
• Pirates of the 20th Century
• Survival film
• List of films featuring the United States Navy SEALs
• List of films featuring drones

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• Official website
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• Captain Phillips at IMDb