Roland Emmerich’s ‘Midway’ Trailer Contains Enough Explosions To Make Michael Bay Weep

Lionsgate hired Roland Emmerich, best known for heavy-handed disaster movies like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, to helm a WWII picture. The studio knew exactly what they were going to receive, and this Midway trailer reveals Emmerich did not stray from his usual formula. He appears to toss in enough explosives to make Michael Bay crush a La Croix can with envy, and the movie includes in plenty of dialogue (“today, we prove the American Navy isn’t a joke”) that will satisfy folks who are looking for counterprogramming on a November release date when Oscar movies will also start to surface.

The film zeroes in on the June 1942 Battle of Midway, where U.S. soldiers and pilots attempt to sway the war’s course following the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Nick Jonas plays a sailor and Ed Skrein a pilot while Patrick Wilson steps in as Edwin Layton, an intelligence officer and U.S. Navy rear admiral who says stuff like “Washington is wrong” while trying to prove that the next target is indeed the Midway Atoll. Wilson is proven correct, as the trailer shows, and Emmerich’s audience catches a preview all the crash-boom visuals and sounds that one would expect.

Midway‘s cast includes Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Darren Criss, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, and Alexander Ludwig. The movie arrives on November 8, and here’s a smoke-filled poster.