Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital EX,DTS
Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Showtimes
Your Location or
(U.S. Only)
Summaries
Plot Summary
- In October 1991, the sword-fishing boat Andrea Gail returns to port in Gloucester, Massachusetts with a poor catch. Boat owner Bob Brown (Michael Ironside) ridicules and taunts Captain Billy Tyne over his recent "cold streak". Bob owns both the Andrea Gail and Hannah Boden. Although Brown seems to harbor a deep-seated recognition of Billy's skills at catching fish, he nevertheless pressures Billy over the latter's recent inability to bring in larger hauls, resulting in an uneasy relationship between the two.Desperate for money, Captain Billy Tyne (George Clooney), convinces the Andrea Gail crew to join him for one more late season fishing expedition. The crew includes Robert "Bobby" Shatford (Mark Wahlberg), who is the least experienced but is also lured into making this one last trip so that he can afford a good lifestyle with his girlfriend Chris Cotter (Diane Lane).Cotter is super angry that Bobby has agreed to this trip with Billy as she wants Bobby to give up sword-fishing & go back to a land-based job. She gets nightmares of storms in the sea. She spends her time during the last fishing trip decorating an apartment she has rented as a surprise for Bobby to symbolize her commitment to him.Linda (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) is the captain of a rival sword-fishing boat & advises Billy not to venture out as there is talk of storms in the vicinity on the news. Linda and Billy maintain a friendly rivalry. She is concerned about Billy and his crew's going out in what she considers dangerous weather. Billy heads out past their usual fishing grounds, leaving a developing thunderstorm behind them. Initially unsuccessful, they head to the Flemish Cap, where their luck improves.The crew of the Andrea Gail includes Dale "Murph" Murphy (John C. Reilly) a veteran fisherman who is divorced with a son with whom he's very involved. David "Sully" Sullivan (William Fichtner) who signed on to replace crew member Douglas "Dougie" Kosco, who gave up his site after the last trip. Michael "Bugsy" Moran (John Hawkes) whose comic inability to connect with women appears to change on the eve of the trip, when he meets Irene (Rusty Schwimmer), a divorced mother at the Crow's Nest. Alfred Pierre (Allen Payne).But the crew is beset by accidents. First Bobby is bitten in the foot by a shark, but escapes. Then another crew member gets tangled in the bait wires & gets thrown overboard. He barely survives when the other crew risk their lives to rescue him. As the seas start to get rough, Andrea Gail is even hit by a 10-foot rouge wave that the crew rides out.As the Andrea Gail heads for the far reaches of the Flemish Cap, Linda is fishing near the southern tail of the Grand Banks & is headed to shore to avoid the 3 storm systems developing over the area & apparently converging towards each other. Linda calls Billy & asks him to turn back. But Billy refuses. He & his crew are all in.The Andrea Gail strikes rich in the Flemish Cap waters, but the situation worsens behind them as the storm fronts converge & kick up deadly conditions with strong winds & huge waves. After amassing thousands of pounds of fish and at the height of their fishing the ice machine breaks and the only way to sell their catch before it spoils is to hurry back to shore. After debating whether to sail through the building storm or to wait it out, the crew decide to risk the storm. However, between Andrea Gail and Gloucester there is a confluence of two powerful weather fronts and a hurricane, which the Andrea Gail crew underestimate.The worst scenario comes true & the 3 storm fronts collide, ripping the seas apart. Linda calls Billy repeatedly and begs him to turn back as his course is going to take him directly into the path of the colliding storm fronts. But Billy & his crew want to take the storms on in order to deliver the fish & cap off their good run with a hefty paycheck.As the crew of Andrea Gail battles the raging sea, and after repeated radio warnings from other ships, a strong wind breaks the ship's radio antenna just as Hurricane Grace and the northern weather front merge with each other atop them. Rookie fisherman Bobby Shatford attempts to fix it but can only watch helplessly as the antenna breaks off and disappears into the sky. Shortly after, Captain Linda Greenlaw of sister ship Hannah Boden transmits a Mayday relay for Andrea Gail. A New York Air National Guard HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopter responds, but after failing to perform a midair refueling with an HC-130 Hercules, the helicopter crew aborts the mission and ditches their aircraft. All but one of the Air National Guard crew members are rescued by a Coast Guard vessel, USCGC Tamaroa.The Andrea Gail endures various problems: with 40-foot (12 meter) waves crashing onto the deck, a broken stabilizer ramming the side of the ship, and two men thrown overboard. The ship struggles to sail through pounding waves and shrieking winds and her water pumps are unable to keep up getting the water out of the ship, while friends and family worry and wait for news. However, the storm turns its direction towards the boat, and the vessel encounters an enormous rogue wave. They attempt to drive the boat over the wave, but the wall of water crests before she can get to the top and is overturned. Billy elects to go down with his ship, the rest of the crew are trapped inside the living quarters, and only one, Bobby, manages to get out. He surfaces and watches as Andrea Gail rights herself before sinking stern-first into the depths of the Atlantic. Bobby silently says goodbye to his girlfriend and loved ones as the rapidly rising swell carries him away.There are no survivors, however, and the film ends with Captain Linda reading the eulogy at the memorial service, followed by Christina (Diane Lane) and Bobby's mother, Ethel, consoling each other on the dock and Billy's voice soliloquizing about what it means to be a sword boat captain.
Storyline
- In October 1991, a confluence of weather conditions combined to form a killer storm in the North Atlantic. Caught in the storm was the sword-fishing boat Andrea Gail. Magnificent foreshadowing and anticipation fill this true-life drama while minute details of the fishing boats, their gear and the weather are juxtaposed with the sea adventure. — Erwin van Moll