Pearl Harbor Page #26

Synopsis: This sweeping drama, based on real historical events, follows American boyhood friends Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) as they enter World War II as pilots. Rafe is so eager to take part in the war that he departs to fight in Europe alongside England's Royal Air Force. On the home front, his girlfriend, Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale), finds comfort in the arms of Danny. The three of them reunite in Hawaii just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Genre: Action, Drama, History
Production: Touchstone
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 13 wins & 51 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.1
Metacritic:
44
Rotten Tomatoes:
25%
PG-13
Year:
2001
183 min
$197,761,540
Website
2,453 Views


EXT. TOKYO - DAY

The planes reach Tokyo, and flash across the rooftops.

INT. DANNY'S PLANE - DAY

ANTHONY:

We'll give that b*tch something to

announce.

Danny and Rafe give each other a wave, and divert toward

their separate targets. Each plane is on its own now.

EXT. TOKYO - DAY

Doolittle's plane flashes right over the Emperor's palace.

The Emperor sits in the garden, meditating.

EXT. TOKYO - VARIOUS SHOTS - DAY

Mothers walking their children see the planes flash by

overhead, and like the people at Pearl, they think they are

friendlies. A toddler points up and smiles. His mother

picks him up and hugs him happily.

JAPANESE MOTHER:

Yes! So beautiful!

INT. THE PLANES - DAY

Rafe's bombardier works his 20-cent bombsight, as Rafe holds

the plane steady, bringing it up to 200 feet.

They scan for fighter or anti-aircraft fire. There isn't

any.

RAFE:

Open bomb bay doors.

DANNY'S PLANE runs toward its target...

DOOLITTLE'S PLANE races over Tokyo...

GUNNER:

Bomb bay doors open, sir.

RAFE:

It's all yours.

The bombardier hits the first switch. The bomb falls toward

a factory.

It strikes home, right on target. The blast is shocking --

it blows debris higher than the plane.

EXT. TOKYO - THE BOMBING - VARIOUS SHOTS

The individual planes drop their bombs, four per plane, on

shipyards, factories, oil supplies, weapons facilities.

Their bombing is highly accurate.

On the ground, at the open-air market, for a brief moment

Radio Tokyo goes silent; then --

TOKYO ROSE (ON THE RADIO)

We interrupt this broadcast... Tokyo is

being bombed!

EXT. THE EMPEROR'S PALACE - DAY

The Emperor looks up at the sound of air raid sirens and

distant explosions.

EMPEROR'S ATTENDANT

Surely just a drill, Divine One.

INT. RAFE'S PLANE - DAY

NAVIGATOR:

Last bomb away.

It slams into a factory, blowing debris everywhere and

turning the factory into an inferno.

Rafe's tail gunner sees Zeros swarming in with vengeance.

GUNNER:

We got Zeros! And they're pissed off!

Rafe changes course quickly.

INT. DANNY'S PLANE - DAY

Anti-aircraft FLAK bursts in the sky in front of them; Danny

takes evasive action.

INT. RAFE'S PLANE - ABOVE TOKYO - DAY

Rafe pushes the engines to top speed and changes course

again; but the B-25's can't outrun the Zeros. Their fire

chews into the bomber's tail, hitting the gunner. Red

scrambles back to find the gunner dead.

RAFE:

Can you get 'em off us?

Red reacting to bullets coming through the rear of the

fuselage, looks at the brooms protruding from the rear of the

plane.

RED:

Whatta ya want me to do, sweep 'em!

As the bombardier, navigator, and Red jump onto the other

machine guns, Rafe looks for a way out. He dives down toward

the city. The Zeros follow.

EXT. SKIES OVER TOKYO - DAY

Rafe takes the B-25 right down among the buildings, sometimes

even having to spin the wings to get through. The Zeros

can't keep up with this...

But Rafe can't keep it up long, either; they break out into

open ground rail yards, where there's no place for him to

hide...

The Zeros come in to chew him up...

But they take fire from another B-25 -- Danny's -- coming in

to save Rafe's plane. Rafe now uses the radio.

RAFE:

Danny, get the hell out of here!

But Danny stays, mixing it up with the Zeros; with both

B-25's together, their machine guns down one Zero and damage

another. But there are too many.

Rafe sees clouds coming in, and fog.

RAFE:

Danny, run for the clouds!

The bombers race toward the clouds, and make it; the Zeros

lose them.

EXT. SKIES - BROKEN CLOUDS - DAY

Rafe and Danny keep broken contact through the clouds, and

settle in for the long run to China.

INT. RAFE'S COCKPIT - DAY

RAFE:

We burned a lot of fuel back there.

Flash them and ask about their supply.

INT. DANNY'S PLANE - DAY

Anthony reads the Morse code.

ANTHONY:

"How's your fuel?"

Danny looks across to Rafe and shakes his head.

INT. ROOSEVELT'S RESIDENCE - HYDE PARK, NY - DAY

Roosevelt is at his desk when General Marshall enters.

GENERAL MARSHALL

We have bombed Tokyo, Mr. President.

Radio Tokyo interrupted it's own

broadcast to make the announcement.

ROOSEVELT:

Have the planes made it to China?

GENERAL MARSHALL

There've been some complications, Sir.

The Chinese didn't receive our request

for homing beacons until is was too late

to get them set. And the planes had to

take off so early they may lack fuel to

make the mainland anyway.

ROOSEVELT:

So those brave men are flying blind and

running out of fuel.

GENERAL MARSHALL

The Chinese are sending out search

parties to try to find the crews before

the Jap patrols do, if any of the planes

make it.

ROOSEVELT:

God help them.

EXT. SEA OF JAPAN - DUSK

They've climbed above the clouds; the fliers are exhausted.

The sun is beginning to set. Rafe stares at it...

INT. HOSPITAL - PEARL HARBOR - DUSK

The place is white again -- the white of bandages and casts.

Everyone is busy, and even the wounded are looking out for

each other; a man with his arms in an airplane splint holds a

spoon and feeds a badly burned buddy. Evelyn and her

overworked nurses are looking after the critical cases. But

as she covers the windows with blackout curtains, she stops

for just a moment to stare at the sun's last rays.

EXT. SKIES OVER PACIFIC - NIGHT

Colonel Doolittle can make out mountains below them.

DOOLITTLE:

We'll fly till we run out of fuel, then

bail out.

Just then his engines start to sputter.

DOOLITTLE:

Chute!

He puts the plane on auto-pilot and the men move to the

hatches. Three guys go out; it's just Doolittle and his

copilot left.

DOOLITTLE:

Nobody else is gonna make it either. If

I live through this, they're gonna put me

in Leavenworth Prison.

They jump.

INT. DANNY'S PLANE - NIGHT

Coma moves up to Danny.

COMA:

We're running out of fuel. And I can't

find the beacon.

Danny gestures across to Rafe that he hears nothing in his

radio phones. Rafe gestures the same thing back.

They look down and the entire ground is covered with clouds.

RAFE:

I don't know if we're over sea or land.

Drop flares and try to spot something.

EXT. SKIES OVER PACIFIC - NIGHT

They drop flares; they disappear into the cloud cover and

tell them nothing.

EXT. SKIES - RAFE AND DANNY'S PLANE - NIGHT

Danny's engines are sputtering; his gunner pours the last

drops of gas into the tanks.

DANNY:

Flash Rafe. We're gonna bail.

Red sees Anthony signal.

RED:

They've gotta jump.

RAFE:

Not unless we know he's over land!

Rafe yells at Danny, as if he could hear --

RAFE:

You are not bailing out into water!

RAFE'S NAVIGATOR

Coastline below!

Through a break in the clouds they spot a rocky shoreline.

RAFE:

We've got coast! Signal him to climb and

jump.

Red signals; Danny's plane signals back.

RED:

They don't have fuel to make altitude.

He's gonna set it down in the water.

Rafe looks over at Danny, who is gesturing; he gives up on

the hand signals and grabs the flasher; Red reads the Morse

code...

Rate this script:4.5 / 4 votes

Randall Wallace

Randall Wallace is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and songwriter who came to prominence by writing the screenplay for the 1995 film Braveheart. more…

All Randall Wallace scripts | Randall Wallace Scripts

0 fans

Submitted by shilobe on March 28, 2017

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Pearl Harbor" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 9 Jan. 2025. <https://www.scripts.com/script/pearl_harbor_1109>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    Pearl Harbor

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.


    Quiz

    Are you a screenwriting master?

    »
    Who played the character "Indiana Jones" in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"?
    A Sean Connery
    B Harrison Ford
    C Bruce Willis
    D Tom Hanks