Tonight, an American ship captain remains a hostage to pirates...
...in a boat with a lid on it in the waters off Somalia.
A ship with 20 American crew-members on it...
...has been hijacked off the coast of Somalia.
This vessel was en route to Mombasa.
A cargo ship that is said to be carrying food supplies into the Horn of Africa.
The latest information we have is from the Danish company...
...that owns the ship, the Maersk Alabama.
They say that their 20-man crew were all U.S. nationals.
It was flying a U.S. flag.
This is a hostage situation, it is a humanitarian situation...
...so people are stepping through this very carefully...
...not offering many details to the news media...
...as you can well imagine...
...if there is a hostage rescue situation to be had here.
A U.S. Navy warship is said to be on the way.
It is at least three hours away.
The question will be what it will be able to accomplish.
This is now the sixth hijacking in just this past week.
The American perspective on piracy was very much driven...
...by the Phillips story. In other words, it had a happy ending.
For those of us in Britain and in other parts...
...where we've had these encounters with piracy, it doesn't always end up...
...so well, and it hasn't.
We've had people killed by Somali pirates.
In that area of the world, I'd told my crew...
...it's not a matter of "if," it's "when."
We were always on the edge, or I always anticipated problems like that.
It was just the odds. We were never far away from the Somali coast at any time.
So it was just a matter of the odds. You were there for so long...
...the odds increase that something would happen.
I got an e-mail from him. I knew he was headed into Mombasa.
He had made a comment that the pirate activity had been picking up.
Piracy is something we deal with.
If you don't wanna deal with piracy, you don't wanna sail on a ship.
I think the second boat that ever went out to sea was a pirate boat...
...following the first ship that went out to sea.
What I like to say, it's the second-oldest profession...
...that we deal with in the merchant marine.
You know, my dad was in the merchant navy, as we call it...
...or the merchant marine, as they call it in the U.S.
So I grew up with an understanding of that world, you know.
And that was part of what kind of brought me to it.
It was really the merchant marine...
...in the American Revolution who was our first Navy...
...and scored the first naval victory, was a converted merchant marine ship.
So a lot of people don't realize what we do.
We are the truck drivers of the ocean, I like to say.
And piracy is just one facet of what we have to deal with all over the world.
You know, it's a workingman's job. It's a hard life.
And, you know, as it's always been through history, people who go to sea...
...that becomes their life. That's true of Richard Phillips.
American hostage Capt. Richard Phillips, is finally free after days in captivity.
Held hostage for five harrowing days by four heavily-armed pirates...
...Capt. Phillips and the U.S. Navy got their big break today.
And we're happy to say that Capt. Phillips is safe.
The captain of the Maersk Alabama has just arrived back on U.S. soil.
Richard Phillips was held by Somali pirates for five days...
...offering himself as a hostage in order to save his crew.
Navy SEALs rescued him last Sunday, killing three of the pirates.
We have been overwhelmed by the love and support and prayers...
...across our great nation and even across the world.
This is not one of our typical homecomings.
And now that Richard's back, I just ask that you give us some time...
...for us to be a family again.
Hey, Rich, welcome home.
Actually, I didn't really remember the story.
I remember they said to me, and I--
"Oh, I vaguely remember that.
But it wasn't like it was in America where everybody followed the story avidly.
And, in a way, I think that was quite a help.
Because it meant when I read the screenplay, you know...
...it gave me a sense of discovery. I didn't know what was gonna happen.
I wasn't aware of the end.
Malta has a very, very competitive rebate...
...which is a huge issue for a film like this.
A very ambitious film for the money.
And it's got a port setup that was close to perfect.
In fact, we found a home for the ship.
It was maybe a 15-minute drive out to sea from dock.
And, normally, you hear quotes of two to three hours each way...
...to get to where you're filming.
So that would've been very daunting in other circumstances.
Maersk was great from a philosophical standpoint.
But every ship that they operate is part of their business plan.
So to take a ship off-line is to take away business from themselves.
And they did a pretty thorough search of their inventory.
And they have thousands of ships...
...so it's not as easy as them just looking down a list and saying, "That one."
They found a ship that is a direct sister to the Alabama...
...that was running a relatively non-lucrative run...
...between Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and Barcelona in the Mediterranean.
So they identified that ship as a ship they could give us.
You know, a lot of times you walk into a set...
...on a soundstage and you're astounded at how real it is.
But at the end of the day, you walk off...
...and you're on a soundstage and it's a very--
The artificiality is something-- It's a line that you cross over...
...from the regular world into the artificial world.
And on board a ship, there was no artificiality to it.
I am telling him... "Okay, you wanna be a captain?
You gotta see the problems before they come up and I just saw three problems...
-...coming between here and here." - Exactly what you've said...
...is what's gotta be said at the back end of the drill.
Shooting on the Maersk Alexander, which is literally...
...an exact sister ship of the Alabama...
Well, this was fascinating, because everything was real.
There was a lot of places to conk your head.
And the decks hurt your feet after awhile because it's just hard metal plates.
You know, it's such a great resource to just have an actual ship.
Maersk gave us the Maersk Alexander, this sister ship of the Alabama.
So it's not like some movie set where you got some dummy prop.
If you wanna know what the engine room looks like...
...go down to the engine room.
If you wanna know what a radar looks like in the bridge...
...it's right in front of you. So a lot of the work is done for you. It's there.
Being willing to shoot in all those places, between the way Paul wants to shoot...
...and also what Barry Ackroyd is used to shooting...
...it removed an entire task from us, the actors, I think.
- Distance? -1.5 miles.
1.5 miles with a potential mothership behind, a potential piracy situation.
It's a huge ship, and there's a lot of sophisticated navigation equipment.
And, you know, a captain has to command a crew.
So there's a big skill set there.
I asked Richard how often he looks at the horizon and takes in the sea.
He says, "I haven't done that in 33 years." You know?
Because there's just so much work that he has to do.
What's interesting, the e-mail that Phillips--
He says he doesn't make it down to the engine room his first day.
He doesn't have time. Too busy.
Paul pushed us to learn and do as much research as we could.
And we came in on the day just loaded up with all of this...
All of this info.
- Check list. - Got your check list?
Dangerous cargo, if you've got it, stuff like that.
Cut. Cut.
-It's that, then you grab this. - Yeah, I grab that.
What we would have was sometimes, like, a 12-minute, 15-minute...
...16-minute, 18-minute scene that was only one way to play it...
...from the beginning and all through the 18 minutes. How do you shoot that?
Physically, you can bust it up into pieces, but Paul has this way of working...
...in which the action goes on and he captures it on two...
...or sometimes three different cameras from different perspectives.
And it rolls all the way through. One camera won't start until later.
And so the scene is already three minutes old and then it will roll...
...and it will pick up.
Start with one camera, we're gonna roll for four minutes.
Two minutes in, we're gonna open up the second camera.
When the first camera runs out, we're gonna replace the mag.
We'll reload on the fly and then come back in and shoot some more.
Twelve seconds is an eternity in a shot.
Twelve minutes is amazing. And you're like, "This is--"
You're going, "Oh, my God. He's not cutting. We're still shooting."
That's a demanding process.
But it's also one that you slowly have to disc--
You have to have faith in the discovery process to get there.
Long takes, without rehearsal often, just, "Let's do it...
...and see how it goes wrong. It can only go wrong." That's what we say.
But often there's gems in the first take that, you know...
And parts of it that you will never capture again, you know?
Yeah, in a sense, you're doing two things that are quite contradictory.
On the one hand, you're planning and thinking...
...and, you know, using that part of your brain.
And everybody is, all the actors, all the crew.
You're trying to create a framework where you can construct a film...
...which involves planning, you know?
But on the other hand, you're trying to protect the moment.
The unforeseen moment. The truthful exploration...
...of what really would happen.
The audience should feel that there was one chance and we...
And somehow, this camera got it, you know?
I mean, that's my background. My background is documentary.
And so if it happens in front of the camera, I believe it was precious, you know.
When you switch the camera on, it was a precious moment...
...and that every frame should be, possibly, in the film.
So I carry that with me right to today on everything I do.
It's very important to, all of you...
...inhabit a mindset where you understand...
...that the future is not preordained. Just because it happened like that...
When you're living through an experience, you don't know how it's gonna end up...
...and you've got to play it and perform it always with that sense in mind...
...that you don't know what the end result of this is going to be.
It's an exhilarating way to work. I think some of the things...
...that happened in the film that were not in the script...
...were completely a result of how Paul works.
And I think they made it a better film.
Anytime you have a type of filmmaking...
...that is described as your last name...
...with the word "style" after it, you're doing something right...
...because you look at the way he films...
...and there's really no other kind of filming like it.
When people try and do it--
Trying to do it is what makes you realize, "Damn, this is hard."
- Because we've gotta see where he goes. - Yeah, okay.
Because I think this is all packed with stuff. And he goes here.
- Okay. - I think that you've got to then...
-...rotate around and let Murphy go. - Okay.
- Yeah? To there. Play that. - Get his phone call.
I mean, when it works best, I think, is when you're willing the camera...
...to do the thing it is actually doing as it's doing it.
It's not behind or ahead, it's a symbiotic thing.
And you've gotta be--
You've gotta be technically adroit, but you also have to be...
...incredibly human as a technician...
...to be able to achieve that.
And I think, not just credit to Paul, of course, credit to Paul...
...credit to Barry Ackroyd.
Cameras that are contact lenses. Surely you can make a microphone that's...
We would rehearse, sometimes, for four hours in the morning...
...to get the environment correct...
...and then get the beats of the scenes worked out.
Well...
I love the way Paul works.
He distills activity down to an essential and then shoots that.
And sometimes, he'll shoot the rehearsals.
We had a joke that it wasn't bad enough...
...that you had to audition for the movie, you had to audition to stay in the movie.
- Let's do it again. Ready? Go, go, go. - From the top.
And action.
Well, obviously, we've got speed, we've got height, we've got hoses.
Those are advantages.
Maybe we should.
- Oh, am I? - Well, maybe we could say that.
As opposed to:
- You know? - Right.
"Hey, since we're together, let's talk about those pirates that almost came on board...
...about 17 minutes ago."
Oh, yeah, those guys.
I'll just come in and say, "All right."
I spoke to Matt Damon who had made, what, three films with Paul.
I said, "What's the scoop?"
He said, "You'll rehearse it, and the first time you do a rehearsal...
...it'll be a disaster."
Hold protocol. Same protocol. We lock down, we wait for help.
And end up in Somalia, waiting for the company to bail us out. **** that.
We're not gonna get to Somalia. Take a wide berth. We gotta swing the ship out.
That.
Our job is to deliver the boxes as soon as we can.
And everybody will be talking at the same time, and--
Everybody's just trying to do what they wanna do.
Don't worry. It'll get sorted out over time and you'll get everything you need.
And that turned out to be the case.
It as Quinn-- Quinn put the notice up. That was his job.
To put the notice up about all the pirate activity in the area.
Yeah, it's all there. Can we run this one more time?
This is one more rehearsal.
We were doing a scene and it was going along well...
...and then Paul called me in the back room-- With Tom.
He said, "Chris." Here's, this is Paul.
"Chris. How do you think this scene is going?"
He's got long hair.
I said, "I think it's going quite-- It's going good."
He says, "Really?" I said, "Yeah, it'll be okay."
And he says, "Okay?" And I went, "Yeah, I know."
He said-- I mean, it's-- He said:
"Could you do more?"
I said, "Yeah, I can do more." He said, "Do that."
So that's how that scene came out.
Now, wait. I'm a u-- Okay, I'm a union guy, okay?
Twenty-five years, all right?
I'm telling you now that they're not paying me enough to fight pirates.
Nobody else knew that I was just gonna jump in there and say that.
Cory's talking. I'm going, "Hey, I'm talking now, okay?
I'm a union guy. I got my say." Right?
All the other actors are going, "Oh, Mulkey's gone crazy."
But Paul had told me to do that. He didn't tell anybody else. Except Tom.
Yeah, just the tiniest touch. What you're doing is absolutely right.
I wanna feel you're not going to slow down.
- So that's all right. -It's Quinn.
Your pace is good, Louis.
- But when you get down to about here... - Right.
...the shot's sort of dead. So then you can quicken it up.
- Okay. - A little bit. It gets us out of the shot.
We never even meet. I'm down. As soon as I see--
So let's do another thing.
In the beginning, when pulling out...
...the crew would be down with me and we would shoot that.
So that they had that footage of my role and when we would leave port.
The actual chief engineer on the Alexander...
...was this guy, Kurt.
Kurt. Tell you what to do, Kurt.
There is the man.
He's this very tall guy. Very serious.
But he would joke with us that we would do nothing, you know?
Because we-- On movie sets, there's lots of waiting around.
And so we'd be on deck somewhere drinking coffee and he'd be like:
"Another busy day of drinking coffee and doing nothing."
I would say, "What would I do in this situation?"
He'd be like, "You would do nothing. Because there's nothing to do.
It's all done."
I said, "Yeah, but we gotta-- Paul wants me to be manually doing something.
So can I pull these levers and--?"
He goes, "Yes, you've evacuated toilets so engineer will watch movie...
...and he says 'I don't know why he's doing this."'
So we're going to play even more buttons that are not real buttons now.
- Okay. - Because they need...
He needs more of all this.
I don't think it's a good idea to make it in the movie...
...just switch it off and then press something.
- Otherwise they will see that it's-- -But it's all bullshit anyway.
-It's just there. It's just movement. - Okay.
I don't think anybody-- If anybody says, "Hey, he turned that thing off.
He was pressing buttons that weren't buttons."
Then we ****** up the whole thing anyway.
You're telling him you're gonna take the engines down.
What do you say when you're taking the engines down here?
- I would take it down. Take it down. - Just down here?
You know, "What would you say to the crew if this was happening?
What would you say over the walkie?" He'd be like, "I would say nothing.
They would know what to do.
They've all been doing this for a long time."
I'd be like, "Cool, cool, right. But Paul--
It's a movie. So just speak your thoughts. Like, you know?"
"Okay, I guess I would say, 'Are you ready to do this?'
And they would say, 'Yeah, I'm ready."'
It's like, "Great. Fuck. Cool."
I had to learn the language of the crew.
These crews speak their own language. As do the military types involved in these.
And to get that language right, you have to spend time with them and talk to them.
"How would I say this? How would I say that?"
What ended up being really ideal, especially with both the Maersk ship...
...but also with the navy ships, is it really did give Paul what I think he wanted.
He's able to walk onto the ship...
...and see everything was there the way it really was on the day.
And he could ask the people who run the ship:
"What would you really do? Where would you really be standing?"
When you see the film, it's like you're really there, because you are.
Any given day, roughly say we get picked up at the hotel, like, 6 a.m...
...and then driven down to the port.
And that's where the hair and makeup trailers are set up.
Our individual trailers. Get dressed and eat breakfast.
You get your hair and makeup done. And then everybody's on the ship by 7 a.m.
And then there's a whole hour process to get that giant container ship out...
...of this tiny little Maltese port and out into the open sea.
Just leave it for the time being until we get out past the entrance.
The source of tension on the film...
...was just that the ocean doesn't do what you want it to do.
So that means we'd have to go out every day ready for anything.
Because we just don't know.
Interestingly, the Mediterranean was maybe a bit placid for our tastes.
Then a little wind storm would come in and it was too rough.
So Paul would be like, "When's it gonna be right?"
And I never had an answer for that.
Well, I think every day when you film is filled with unforeseen circumstances.
I think...
I think everybody found it a challenge...
...just the sheer physical attrition of shooting out in the ocean.
When you're getting battered about and you're on a small filming boat...
...and the swell, endlessly day in and day out.
I think that's-- I think...
Unless you've done that for sort of 12 weeks at a stretch...
...it's hard to know just physically how much that takes out of you.
I thought I had to be up on deck all the time looking at the horizon.
As I was explaining, it was the opposite. I actually liked being down below...
...because that's where the least amount of movement was.
And days where we had to be up on deck...
...those were times I was the most uncomfortable.
It was the rolling. Just the rolling.
There you are.
If there's sea legs to get, I never got them.
That's the most nauseous of anything you can do.
To be confined without seeing the horizon.
So many films are made in studios and dark rooms, you know what I mean?
In the same sorts of places.
So it was an adventure to be out in the sea.
Thought making a film on the water was interesting from a visual point of view.
Obviously to shoot on water is, you know, commonly held to be...
...you know, right up there in the directors' graveyards.
You know, because it's-- You are out in the middle of the ocean.
It's very hard to supply the unit.
There are a lot of safety issues.
No, I think that should do it. Three. That should do it. Yeah.
Just the three here.
In this first piece...
...we're focused on the ship, which is where? Where is the ship?
Yeah, it should be off to the left.
So I'm looking that way.
So the eyeline to the Alabama...
...is above Barry's head between the two tubes.
But what you get from it-- I think you get it in this film.
--Is a sort of authenticity. You know, it is a film made on the ocean.
It feels like it, it looks like it, because it was.
It's good though because it was making it happen.
Am I using this?
So you're focused and determined. We're riding along, Barry, okay?
Then the radio starts. It'll be Tom's voice on the radio. Okay?
You start to slow down.
You notice he slows.
You go, "What are you doing? Come on. It's this way! Go!"
You take a look at him, you go, "**** it." And off you go. Peel off.
I think what will happen is he'll get too far away to reset.
Okay. Well, we just discussed it.
One question. I'm saying that in English or Somali?
- Somali all the way. - Okay.
All right, guys. Ready?
- We're not ready. - Not ready.
No?
Okay, we're ready.
All right, so everybody line up alongside again.
You may need to help in this.
So when you feel a wave, sell that it's a bit bigger.
Because we wanna really feel like we're in chop, okay?
- I got a three. Okay? - Wait, wait, wait.
- You change it up. - Okay, fine.
- I'll go for four. - Okay.
Five.
I love them. I love them. I love them.
They always make me look nice.
Yeah, I'm sexy now.
I can advance past the gold gate.
- That's me, right? - Yes.
You have to go?
- What? - You have to go.
You don't want your licks, man?
He wants to marry us.
Six wives.
We're Somali. We can have four.
So three of you. I'm looking only for one more.
- One more. - I'm not cleaning and cooking for you.
I wanted to cast real Somalis. That was important to me.
Because I felt that it's a part of the world that's got a story to tell.
And its people have a story to tell. And I wanted young men...
...who understood that part of the world to tell it.
I have just a very tiny memory...
...of Somalia. I remember the war.
Because the war happened in Mogadishu and I was there.
So I remember the war, my mom getting us out. We took a ship to Yemen.
Where my dad was a teacher. There I went to school.
And we lived there until we won the lottery.
The visa lottery to come to America.
When I was 14. Yup.
I am Somalian. I was born in Yemen.
I came here with my brothers and sisters and my mom.
And we just started life in Minnesota.
Now, she did have family in Minnesota, which brought us there.
All of them, all four of them...
...had a powerful point of view that these young men from--
You know, from a desperate part of the world had a story to tell.
And they wanted to tell it without sentimentalizing it...
...without making excuses.
You're in heavy, heavy, heavy waves, right?
Help me sell them.
You'll get worried about your engine.
And eventually we'll say "big wave."
You lose the engine completely. Engines gone.
Restart. Restart it.
It won't work. You try.
Up with the glasses. Look at the ship.
See Phillips.
Down. Look. Okay?
We will give you a cue, Tom and I...
...for the big wave.
We'll just say, "Big wave."
One, two, three.
On three, that's when you're gonna fall.
You're gonna fall down and you're gonna lose the engine.
Big wave.
Big wave on three, two, one. Wave.
Cut.
I think they've done a fantastic job of absolutely showing...
...you know, the criminality and the recklessness...
...and the violence of those men...
...but also the desperation and the humanity.
He didn't have the opportunities that, if I talk about myself, that I had.
You know, I had parents that managed to take me out of the country...
...and move me to the Western countries...
...to have my education going and be a better person.
He didn't have that. But he was stuck in that war-torn country...
...and he didn't had no school...
...or job.
But now he trying to become somebody...
...and he had to basically...
...show these people that he can do it.
You know, he was looking for the chance for quite some time, apparently...
...and he finally got it.
Now he has to prove to these people that he's the man for the job.
And, you know, he can do it.
That struggle as the situation escalates, is really what this film's about.
When you saw those guys coming in on their skiff...
...it was one of the most dramatic times I've ever been...
...of any work I've ever done, in terms of what we were shooting...
...the reality of it sort of really being what was happening.
Do you want me to shout, "Flare"?
Yeah? So I'm gonna go:
Yeah, pull back--
All right, guys, guys, guys. Stop, please.
All right? Go and sit down. Be quiet.
I'm not exactly sure of the final thing right now.
How's--? Flares?
- After the hoses, you turn... - Right.
...and then you start to straighten and you see Phillips on the bridge.
- Okay. - Fire.
Okay.
Then you start to turn to go in towards the
- Okay. - Flare.
- Now we go ladder to the ship. - Okay, deal.
No. No, it's too far.
I remember when we started it, you know, they'd get alongside the ships...
...and we had safe distances and things they couldn't do.
You know, we didn't want them to climb all the way up the ladder...
...and onto the ship in one go because, you know, there was great danger.
You know, if you fell, that would be it.
I mean, you'd be under and through the...
...you know, propeller of the huge container ship.
And they did a lot of training.
I mean, they did months of training to learn to drive those boats.
And they had phenomenal balance.
I mean, you see some of those shots where they're riding.
It looks like a sort of sea chariot...
...and the thing's bucking and roaring away.
And Barkhad in particular. He just stands there.
He's not strapped in, by the way.
He's just standing there with absolutely perfect balance.
It was incredible to watch.
Slow down. Stop.
Let's go. Come on, let's do the...
Everybody over there.
Well done, boys. Well done. Well done, lads. Good one, mate.
Some of the training we actually had was climbing and swimming and shooting.
First of all, I had to learn how to swim.
They were very game. There was no question about it.
And as we went on, they became more and more and more confident.
I remember, on the last day, we literally were screaming at them to stop.
You know, you cannot cross that safety line.
I ended up doing my own stunts and, man, Paul didn't seem to like it.
And no one seemed to like it.
And I had two fight scenes with Tom Hanks.
It was nice. It was all fun, we loved it.
Sometimes I wake up and I think:
"That was just a dream. Wake up." You know?
- Tom on the screen. - Yeah.
-"Eight hundred yards," you turn and go. - Right.
Oh, yeah. Coming up to us.
At 100 yards, we're gonna use the hoses.
- One hundred yards! - Hit the hoses.
Cap, they're making their move.
They're coming up fast, chief, I'm gonna need the hoses.
How's the pressure?
- Count it down. - They're at 800 yards.
Get ready for some hard turns.
Seven hundred yards.
Six hundred yards.
Four hundred.
That's gunfire.
All right, cut.
They look pretty terrifying out there, don%they?
We're pretty much picking up from them seeing Phillips...
...and Muse pointing it out, and gunfire, gunfire.
Shots fired. Shots fired.
In my book I write that I would ask him in the lifeboat:
"Where did you get that ladder?" It was another of the ironies.
Had it been longer, the seas would've washed it away.
Had it been shorter, it wouldn't have been able to fit.
You wouldn't have been able to reach the fishplate to hook it on.
I think what you could do is...
it was actually a struggle to put the ladder on top of the ship.
We tried it really numerous times...
...but at one point we all just did our all to do it...
...and we accomplished it, and I was thrilled.
I actually felt like I was actually a pirate at that point.
I told you they were.
I cannot believe it.
You know, I kept them apart when we shot the film.
They actually never met each other, never saw each other...
...never laid eyes on each other...
...until the moment when those four guys came through the door on the bridge.
- Action. - And action.
Gunfire, door.
It was hairy, you know.
We knew it was fake and all that kind of stuff...
...but still, the environmental atmosphere Paul created was worth its weight in gold.
We were into it, because this is a freaky situation. Guys with AK-47s...
...taking over our ship, raiding the bridge, we haven't met them.
The visceral aspect of that first take, you remember what it's like...
...when the hair stands up on the back of your head...
...because guys are coming in and truly assaulting you.
The set was crackling with anticipation, in a good way.
Okay.
Then there was a moment when Barkhad came face-to-face with Tom...
...he looks at him and says, "Look at me."
- Look at me. - Sure.
I'm the captain now.
And I remember you could feel-- I could see it in Tom's eyes, go, "Wow."
I improvised that. We just had to make it our own.
But we still stayed on the script.
It was a big call because you're asking a young man...
...who's not acted professionally...
...to go head-to-head with a two-time Academy Award winner.
It was gonna be one of those moments...
...where you were gonna find out whether the film could work.
So obviously I was quite keyed up, I think. Be honest to say.
And it is my favorite scene of the movie.
I really love that scene, you know.
It was the same scene we did all the audition in.
It felt like a very powerful, real moment.
But also a moment when you knew he, Barkhad, was gonna be able to do it.
It was a very, very exciting moment.
They come in, they do the thing, they hold something...
...and it's all moving really fast and all of a sudden you hear--
Cut.
And right after it you hear, "Hey."
Tom Hanks is out there glad-handing the pirates like:
"Welcome to the neighborhood, guys."
Welcome. Welcome to the movie, guys. Welcome to the movie.
It's a pleasure to finally be working with you guys.
-It's a pleasure. - Fantastic.
Finally a pleasure.
Everybody's going, "I thought we were gonna keep this tense.
But, okay, we're making a movie, let's have fun."
After the scene finished, you know, that's when I told Tom, like:
"I can't believe I'm doing this with the Forrest Gump guy."
They were very quick in getting up on the ship.
Originally, it was just the two guys on the ship...
...and they were shooting up at me as I was shooting flares at them...
...even while they were on the ship.
So they got very quick from the main deck and up to the bridge...
...before we could back off and surrender the bridge.
So they never broke in.
They did just get to the bridge, fired two shots, leveled the AK-47...
...and the one guy walked in and he basically said...
...very similar to what the movie said:
"Relax, captain. Just business, just business.
No Al Qaeda, just business. Relax, captain, just business."
And that's pretty much what he said.
And similar to the movie when they--
They were actually high-fiving each other...
...when they found out we were an American ship.
They were just high-fiving each other.
They thought they were in for a big payday.
So am I gonna say, "American ship"?
- No, you're gonna say, "Who's ship--?" - Right. "Where you from?"
When he says "American," you tell them this is an American ship.
- Okay. - See what I mean? So they know.
Then they react. Then you have a conversation about it.
Okay.
Besides fantastic, we can feel what you think about it being an American ship.
Yes! Yes!
It wasn't till I really started the story that I understood...
...that so much of global trade actually goes down the shipping lanes.
You know, they're like the sort of freeways of the world...
...down which, ceaselessly, 365 days a year, these ships...
...these huge container ships go one after the other, sort of herds of them.
And they're basically carrying the goods of the world.
And that's what makes it interesting from my point of view...
...because, of course, they go also past, you know, the badlands of the world...
...the forgotten places, the places that are excluded from...
...you know, from the global trading order.
How are the boxes?
Yeah, good.
A hundred and sixty-six tons of freshwater...
...250 measured tons of heavy fuel bunkered.
So here we are in Salalah.
Travel down the coalition corridor to Djibouti.
Then we exit the shipping lane south of Socotra.
Then we're on our own along the coast through the Somali Basin...
...all the way down to Mombasa.
In those area you get endemic piracy.
You know, young men coming out in these tiny skiffs to attack these ships...
...because they represent easy pickings.
Every year, $1 trillion worth of goods is shipped through these waters...
...off the coast of Somalia.
That's a massive part of the global economy.
And as long as Somalia is a failed state...
...that those $1 trillion worth of goods are gonna be in some form of jeopardy.
We deal with piracy in the Philippines, Sulu Sea, Vietnam...
...Malacca Strait historically is a piracy area.
Sri Lanka, east-west coast of Africa...
...east-west coast of South America, it's there.
There's different modus operandi the pirates use.
Sometimes they're after the ship, sometimes the crew.
Indeed, today, Nigeria is worse than Somalia ever was...
...and people don't realize that. It's just something we deal with.
It's organized crime. It's international organized crime, is what it is.
You know, and the people who are really benefitting from it...
...are, you know, Sing and Mogadishu or Kenya or Nigeria or wherever...
...you know, the organizers of it, as a business.
There are four main pirate bosses in Somalia...
...and they have their crews and operations going at all times.
But these things cost money.
It costs money for them to get weapons, it costs to train these guys...
...how to use the equipment, even though it's rudimentary equipment.
And these operations are all financed by mostly people of Somali descent...
...but they're all over the world. They're in London, they're in Canada.
The FBI’s followed this all over the planet.
The screenplay felt, to me, like it illuminated...
...you know, the giant wheels that are driving our world.
You know, here are these sort of cargo ships taking trade round the world...
...you know, and here are these young kids...
...who take their skiffs out to rob it, so it's a crime story...
...but from the sort of far-flung frontiers of the globalizing world, if you like.
I went round to Tom's place...
...and we sat down and I gave him a bit of a speech around that...
...and he looked at me a bit quizzically and he said:
"Yeah, I suppose so," he said.
"But kind of feels like it's the story about a guy who's in peril on the sea."
And I thought, "Yeah, no, that is absolutely right."
Why did I get in a lifeboat? Well, actually, I started in the--
I started in the rescue boat, which wasn't covered in the movie...
...because of the sequence of it.
Basically, it was really a time of success, I felt...
...because we were actually getting the pirates off the ship.
The deal was I would get the pirates off the ship.
They had no idea how to run the equipment.
How to put the boat in the water. How to run the davit, how to lower it.
I did. And I just said, "I'll help you get off the ship."
Once we're off, they could no longer get back on...
...because they had lost their boat and their ladder when they boarded our ship.
My crew, my ship and my cargo are all free, I just had to that point--
I just had to worry about me.
When we were shooting stuff in the lifeboat...
...you know, that's a small little space to be in.
It was very evocative.
Tom, when he jumps out of the ship and tries to get away...
...we shot that in the tank in Malta.
So we shot one day on land.
You're talking about multiple lives. You gotta worry about stunts.
You gotta worry about the actors, you gotta worry about underwater cameras.
You gotta worry about the fact...
...that the sun is gonna come up in about 45 minutes and you haven't finished.
And you have to look calm and go, "Oh, it'll be fine"...
...even though you can see on a tank when dawn comes up.
You can just see the little horizon line started creeping in.
"Hold that back."
You know, it's a boot shape so they're in the high space.
Well, that meant all the camera positions were in the very confined spaces.
You know, high seat backs.
You know, where Tom is kept more towards the back of the lifeboat.
So we're behind him.
Between seats.
You know, trying to hold things off bungees, off little handrails...
...we were just trying to wedge ourselves in there.
You know, push the camera and struggle-- Every part of it was a struggle.
Action.
Tom did his own stunts.
Seeing him doing it and then firing gun shots at him.
It was really amazing experience.
I had told Shane over the radio, you know:
"if you see a splash that's me coming out the back door. Come get me."
But they pretty much watched me.
The normal routine was two guys on the aft door. Aft hatch.
One guy up forward, by the forward hatch and one up on the coxswain area...
...which was above everybody. The leader was usually there.
And all of a sudden during the night...
...one guy got up from the stern, the pirate went up and he lied down.
I was pretending I was asleep and just watching him.
And he lied down and pretty soon I could hear what was two guys snoring.
The forward end of the boat, I'm watching the leader and he's sort of nodding...
...and dozing his head as if he's at a bad movie. And I'm thinking I can get by him...
...so I just concentrate on this one guy who still had an AK-47.
And all of a sudden he got up and went out on the aft end of the lifeboat.
And he actually put his gun down.
I don't know any real refined way to say it...
...he's one of these guys uses two hands when he goes.
So he's peeing and I'm never gonna get a better chance than this.
So I sort of move my feet to make sure I wouldn't fall down, my legs weren't asleep.
And I just got up, took two strides out, got out the hatch, pushed him...
...had to push him twice and he went into the water screaming.
There was a second where I could've grabbed the gun.
And maybe the story would've been different.
But at that time I didn't know how to use an AK-47.
The first sensation I had once I dove in was, "This is so cool."
The pirates were jumping in to go to the bathroom...
...and to jump in the water and get cool it was so hot, they wouldn't allow me to.
Then, "I gotta get out of here," the third was I lost my glasses.
And then I just swam underwater as far as I could go in one breath.
Came up, took another breath, swam underwater as far as I could go.
Turned around, look at the boat.
Unfortunately, during that time it was a full moon...
...and the clouds just parted and it was almost as bright as day.
I mean, when I was underwater it was almost like a swimming pool.
...with a green tint to it. And you could see three or four feet down.
They were able to see me by the light and they started coming after me.
There were reprisals, yes.
They were very upset that I didn't follow proper etiquette for a hostage, I guess.
They beat me, they hit me with the butts of their rifles and their AK-47s...
...slapped, punched me in the head.
They're yelling and cursing and scream-- The leader was very upset.
He was screaming at them, they were screaming at me.
They tied me up so tight even today I have some scars and numbness today.
And that started a different atmosphere in the boat.
The massive amount of resources that the U.S put towards rescuing one man.
It's really astounding.
There were between 60 and 80 SEALs...
...who jumped out of the that plane into the Indian Ocean.
And they deployed on all the three ships that were there.
Who is this?
The negotiator. I'm the one that's authorized to negotiate with you.
There was a whole operation behind the scenes at Somalia...
...using some covert sources to find out the names of the individual pirates.
Now, you are Abduwali Muse, right? From Jariban, Puntland?
From the clans of the Hawiye and the Daarood?
Your friends are Adan Bilala...
...Walid Elmi and Nour Najee.
But you are Muse. You're in command. Is that correct?
That was an absolutely critical moment because they suddenly were made.
These were guys who were giving bullshit names.
They were, you know, didn't make it clear who they were, they were just in charge.
And all of a sudden their names are broadcast over the water.
And that was a huge "oh, shit" moment for them.
And I think it was critical in getting Muse, the lead pirate, to get off the lifeboat.
Which was the beginning of the end for their whole operation.
The interesting thing of understanding that side of the story...
...was the pressure that the Navy captain, Commander Castellano, was under.
He had to keep the situation cool...
...and keep the pirates from shooting Captain Phillips.
At the same time he had to prevent them from getting to Somalia.
And the only thing he had to prevent them was his massive warship.
He could've blown it out of the water any time.
When you juxtapose that lifeboat and that Burke-class destroyer...
...you're like, "This is just ridiculous."
We wanna resolve this thing peacefully.
Let's find a way out of this together before someone gets hurt.
They made 30-foot waves to push them back.
They launched a helicopter to blow the lifeboat back with the rotor wash.
All of those things agitated the pirates.
And then he had to send his people with food and water...
...and talk and try to calm them down.
So he was really given an impossible task.
And he managed it phenomenally.
So ultimately, it's gonna be out of his hands.
Because if by X time it's not done, the SEALs are coming in.
These guys have been doing this night after night...
...in Afghanistan and Iraq for years.
So they really kind of had it down and it's a very dramatic thing for us...
...and for SEAL Team 6, it was a fairly easy operation, in a sense.
Alpha team green. One green, two red.
Give me a distance.
Two twenty. Still 129 out.
As some of them said to me, it was wasn't what part of the body you want us to hit.
It's where on the head do you want us to hit?
- Sir, the pirates have just issued a threat. - What's the translation?
"If he moves again, shoot him."
Execute.
Careful, sir.
When we got on board the ship that was the sister ship to the Bainbridge...
...we shot a scene that was sort of reminiscent of the book...
...and it all made sense.
But then we said, "Well, what did you do with him when you first got him?"
The captain said, "He was such a mess...
...first thing we did was took him to the infirmary."
Captain Phillips, please come in.
Have a seat.
You know, and this is to Paul's credit.
It wasn't on the schedule, it wasn't in the script.
They hadn't gone down to see what their infirmary looked like...
...for lighting or camera positions or whatnot.
And we worked with the actual infirmary crew, the people who would do that.
And they just showed us what they would do.
And we said, "Well, let's shoot this and see what happens."
I'm Chief O'Brien. I'll be your corpsman today.
Can you please tell me what's going on?
Can you talk?
She was a real Naval corpsman.
And there's no way to explain to somebody how to make a movie...
...if they've never made a movie before.
And everybody in that room, particularly her...
...they were flustered the first time we did it.
And it was-- We-- She-- They literally went, "Stop, stop, stop.
I'm not sure what I'm saying."
So we stopped.
And we said, "Look, that's perfectly all right, don't worry about anything.
This happens all the time. We're gonna do it again.
And you can't do anything wrong." That's really what we said.
I need you to look at me. I need you to calm down...
...and I need you to breath. Deep breaths
There you go. Very good.
Awesome. Now I want you to relax your arm.
This is only a film.
If you're in those real circumstances...
...you know, the thing that she is trained for...
...is a lot more important than the film, you know.
It's saving lives and that's-- You know, we're just making a film.
So she-- When it came to it...
...she just put everything she knew in front of the camera. It was incredible.
--Make sure you're breathing.
- Okay. - What happened to your head?
Captain, can you tell me what happened to your head?
They“.-
It's okay. Take your time.
There's a 2-centimeter laceration on the left eyebrow.
It's okay. It's all right.
- Okay. Okay. - I want you to look at me and breathe.
- Understand? - Yeah.
Okay, all right
He's got a 4-centimeter gap. Little laceration there on the left temple.
- Got it. - Okay. Very good.
All right. You're doing great, okay?
Did all this blood come from your eyebrow and your head?
What?
Did the blood come from your eyebrow and your head?
- All of this. - Well, no, not all of it.
- Okay. - That's not mine.
Okay, all right, all right. Look at me.
- Okay, we're gonna lay you down, okay? - Okay.
- All right. - Yeah.
You know, this movie begins with a woman, Catherine Keener...
...who says, "Are we gonna be okay?"
It's gonna be okay, right?
Oh, yeah.
And it ends with a woman, that corpsman, saying, "it's all right.
You're okay, you're going to be okay."
Which is this accidental profound, you know, journey from one thing to the other.
Captain, you're safe now, okay?
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
- You're okay. - Thank you.
You're welcome.
So the emotion in the film, I think, you know, again, you hope that it's there.
But until you actually see it put together...
...and its effect on an audience, you don't know.
So that was a, you know, surprise in a good way.
No matter who you talk to about piracy...
...whether the Navy, the Navy SEALS, the shipping people...
...they all know that the answer to this is not on the water.
It's not more patrols, it's not more SEALs.
It's the conditions on the ground in Somalia have to change for this to end.
Although this is a very exciting film and it, you know...
You've got to, if you make any film...
...make it worthwhile the audience pay to come and see it.
There's always a bit of you that remembers that it's the real world...
...and, you know, other people were not so lucky.
And that was something that Richard Phillips...
...I remember him saying to me the first time I met him, you know?
There are people out there who didn't get back.
And, you know, you always have to bear that in mind.