Directed by:
Michael Bay

Starring:
Ben Affleck as Captain Rafe McCawley
Josh Hartnett as Captain Danny Walker
Kate Beckinsale as Lieutenant Evelyn Stewart
Cuba Gooding Jr. as Petty Officer Doris "Dorie" Miller
Alec Baldwin as Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle
Jon Voight as President Franklin Delano "FDR" Roosevelt
William Lee Scott as Billy
Greg Zola as Anthony
Ewen Bremner as Red Winkle
James King as Betty

• During the making of this movie, a number of real, unintentional airplane-crashes occurred. A Japanese Val dive-bomber (a replica originally built for Tora, Tora, Tora) struck a palm-tree with a wing and made a 360-degree roll before hitting the ground. Miraculously the pilot survived, but the plane was destroyed. The Messerschmitt (a Spanish Buchon, even used in the movie Battle of Britain) that Rafe is seen dogfighting, was severely damaged in a landing accident, and one of the three Zeros (restored from wrecks of real Japanese planes) got damaged in a landing too. - Olav Westerman

• The real aircraft used in the movie included nine Japanese planes; three Val replicas, three Kate replicas and three Zeros. For the Battle of Britain scenes one Messerschmitt, four Spitfires and a Hurricane (not flown) were used. The American types included four P-40 fighters and a couple of B-25 bombers. The Stearman biplane in the opening scenes was too modern for the 1923 period. - Olav Westerman

• A few mockups were used to show planes destroyed on the ground. The majority of the flying aircraft were computer-animated. - Olav Westerman

• The Spitfire mockup that was used in the Battle of Britain-scenes, was so badly constructed that, when the director wanted to have it moved, it cracked up and the undercarriage got damaged. They had to patch it up on site to be able to continue the filming. As comparision, several of the mockup planes in "Tora, Tora, Tora" and "Battle of Britain" even had running engines installed. Talk about quality... - Olav Westerman

• Matt Damon makes an uncredited cameo shooting a rifle during the attack. - becka

• Alec Baldwin tells Ben Affleck character that he reminds him of himself 15 years ago Ben went on to reprise Alec's role of Jack Ryan in the Sum of All Fears nearly fifteen years after Alec first played him in The Hunt for Red October. - becka

• The Japanese are shown flipping a calendar from the 6th to the 7th of December on the morning of the attack. This is done for American audiences who are familiar with the date of the attack being 7 December 1941. Clocks aboard the Japanese ships were kept on Tokyo time, so for them the attack actually took place the morning of 8 December. The Japanese version of the film shows the calendar flipping from the 7th to the 8th. (Source: imdb.com) - D

• The live scenes with sailors swimming in the harbour in front of burning wrecks, were filmed in the same big pool in Mexico as was used for the movie "Titanic". - Olav Westerman