Clip It: Each day, Jon Davis looks at the world of trailers, featurettes, and clips and puts it all in perspective.
There is a lot going on in this WW2 movie. Is USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage about delivering parts of the atomic bomb to an island near Japan ? Is it about the Navy stranded in the ocean for five days? Is it about some other random romance set back home? Is it about a court martial after these events? Is it about Tom Sizemore scaring people? USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is as busy as its title.
Here's a picture of Nicolas Cage as a giant man wearing a Naval hat, pushing his head into the clouds while planes ready their attack from behind.
The trailer spends 40 seconds on USS Indianapolis mission to deliver nuclear weapon but its subsequent torpedoing wasn't part of that mission, so it can't be essential to the story. In fact, it's a two full minutes into the trailer when we finally discover the reason to see this movie: SHARKS! Bloodthirsty sharks!
Here's Nicolas Cage wrestling with a shark.
Now your life is complete. I can't tell if this is a popcorn movie or a movie that wants awards. I guess it's both. Maybe everyone wants a WW2 movie about sharks. Maybe not. But here's how I would market it if I were the distributor. Call it a Jaws prequel! Remember Quint?
Quitn's backstory is that he survived the sinking of the Indianapolis! That's what led him to become a shark hunter. And that's how he ended up tracking down Jaws. Perhaps someone in this new film is named Quint. Maybe a Navy officer changes their name to Quint before the end credits. That would blow our collective minds. Forget what you think this movie is about and focus on all the foreshadowing of the sharp toothed monster who will soon visit the unsuspecting beach in Amity Island, Massachusetts.
Is the best movie with a colon in it this year? Is this the most stunning secret prequel that's ever existed? Let me know.