The Finest Hours: Hollywood Discovers the Coast Guard

The Coast Guard has never gotten much attention or respect from Hollywood, but a new trailer for Disney's The Finest Hours (due in theaters January 29, 2016) suggests that someone has finally figured out that sea rescues just might make an exciting movie.

%embed1%

The Finest Hours stars Chris Pine (Star Trek, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) and features Eric Bana and Ben Foster from Lone Survivor in a movie based on a real-life 1952 rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod that took place after a pair of oil tankers were destroyed during a blizzard.

The only Coast Guard-themed movie anyone might remember would be Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher's 2006 flick The Guardian, but, then again, anyone's who's seen it might prefer to forget it. The Guard keeps a list of movies on its website, but many of the films on that sparse list have (at best) marginal Coast Guard connections: who thinks of the Coast Guard when they hear about Top Gun, Bad Boys II or Man of Steel?

On February 18, 1952, Coasties from Lifeboat Station Chatham on the south coast of Cape Cod took a 36' wooden life boat out to rescue men from the SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton in the midst of a blizzard. 70 men were saved in what's been called the greatest small-boast rescue in Coast Guard history.

Aside from the actors' struggles with New England accents, this trailer looks pretty awesome. After years of watching the other branches get all the glory, Coasties may finally get their Hollywood moment.