The Battle of Midway (1942) Movie Script
(Music)
A Navy patrol plane, routine patrol, only behind
every cloud may be an enemy.
(Music)
Midway Island. Not much land right and
up, but it's our outpost...your front yard.
(Music)
"Yankee Doodle"
(Men singing the Marines' Hymn)
These are the natives of Midway; Tojo has
sworn to liberate them.
The birds seem nervous. There's something in the air.
(Soft sound of an organ playing a hymn)
Something behind that sunset.
(Music)
Excitement this morning, the dawn patrol has sited
an enemy fleet. During the night flying fortresses
had landed at Midway.
An historic Council of War is held.
(mother-type): That fella's walk looks familiar. My neighbor's boy used to amble along just like that.
(Music)
(same female): Say, is that one of them flying fortresses?
(male voice): Yes ma'am, it is.
(lulling music )
Why, that's young Will Kinney. He's from my hometown,
Springfield, Ohio. He's not gonna fly that great big
bomber?
(Male voice): Yes ma'am, that's his job, he's a
skipper.
(female): Will's Dad's an engineer. Thirty-eight years
on the old Ironton Railroad.
And his mother. (Laughs). Well, she's just like the rest of us
mothers in Springfield or any other American town.
And his sister, Patricia, she's about as pretty as they come.
(Male): I'll say so.
(Female): Well, Junior Kinney.
(sound of plane taxiing)
(female) Good luck! God Bless you, son!
(Plane's engine and taking off sounds)
(Narrator): Suddenly from behind the clouds, the
Japs attack!
(sounds of canon fire and artillery)
(unknown male voices): "There go the Marines""
(plane's engine roaring)
(more cannon fire) (planes' engines)
"National Anthem plays"
narrator: Yes, this really happened.
(women singing the National Anthem)
(gun fire, cannon fire, bombing)
Meantime, our warships stopped the Jap fleet.
(loud plane's engine)
Then suddenly, the trap is sprung.
(plane takes off)
Navy planes roared from the decks of our carriers.
Army bombers, Marines...under destruction over a 300-mile
battle area.
(Cannons going off) (soaring gliders) (machine guns)
The invasion forces were hit, and hit and hit again.
(bomb)
(Music)
Men and women of America, here come your neighbor's sons.
Home from the day's work. You want to meet them.
There's Jimmy Thach. Seven meatballs on his
plane.
"How many more today, Skipper?" (Jimmy holds up 4 finger in reply)
Back at Midway, Tojo swore he'd liberate the natives.
(bird "speaking"): I see just as free as they ever were.
(Music) (Marines' Hymn)
The Battle at Midway is over. Our front yard is safe.
But a big job is still to be done. Day after day, our
control plane searches for survivors. Every tiny coral
reef. Every distant mile of sea. Search for men who
fought to the last round of ammunition and flew to
the last drop of gas, and then crashed into the sea.
Eight days. Nine days. Ten days without food or
water.
His first cigarette:
- Ohh, that first drag sure tastes good.
Eleven days. Well done, Massie Hughes.
Logan Ramsey...
Frank Fessler. That's thirteen for Frank.
(Female): Get those boys to the hospital. Please do,
quickly. Get them to clean cots and cool sheets.
Get them doctors and medicine, a nurse's soft hands.
Get them to the hospital...hurry! Please!
There was a hospital. Clean, orderly. A hundred beds.
And on its roof, the red cross plainly marked, the
symbol of mercy the enemy was bound to respect.
(church bell peals (rings))
The next morning Divine services were held beside
a bomb crater that had once been a chapel.
(bell sounds again)
"My Country, 'Tis of Thee", verse 1
At eventide, we buried our heroic dead, the last salute
from their comrades and their officers.
(sound of a rifle gun or cannon going off)
Captain Simard of the Navy.
Colonel Sherman.
Major Roosevelt.
(Music) "My country, 'Tis of Thee", verse 4
"Amen"
(Drum roll)
"Anchors Aweigh" (US Navy fight song)
(Drum roll)
"Anchors Aweigh"
(US Marines' Hymn)
(Drum roll)
"You're A Grand Old Flag" (Geo. M. Cohan)
(Cymbals clanging)
A Navy patrol plane, routine patrol, only behind
every cloud may be an enemy.
(Music)
Midway Island. Not much land right and
up, but it's our outpost...your front yard.
(Music)
"Yankee Doodle"
(Men singing the Marines' Hymn)
These are the natives of Midway; Tojo has
sworn to liberate them.
The birds seem nervous. There's something in the air.
(Soft sound of an organ playing a hymn)
Something behind that sunset.
(Music)
Excitement this morning, the dawn patrol has sited
an enemy fleet. During the night flying fortresses
had landed at Midway.
An historic Council of War is held.
(mother-type): That fella's walk looks familiar. My neighbor's boy used to amble along just like that.
(Music)
(same female): Say, is that one of them flying fortresses?
(male voice): Yes ma'am, it is.
(lulling music )
Why, that's young Will Kinney. He's from my hometown,
Springfield, Ohio. He's not gonna fly that great big
bomber?
(Male voice): Yes ma'am, that's his job, he's a
skipper.
(female): Will's Dad's an engineer. Thirty-eight years
on the old Ironton Railroad.
And his mother. (Laughs). Well, she's just like the rest of us
mothers in Springfield or any other American town.
And his sister, Patricia, she's about as pretty as they come.
(Male): I'll say so.
(Female): Well, Junior Kinney.
(sound of plane taxiing)
(female) Good luck! God Bless you, son!
(Plane's engine and taking off sounds)
(Narrator): Suddenly from behind the clouds, the
Japs attack!
(sounds of canon fire and artillery)
(unknown male voices): "There go the Marines""
(plane's engine roaring)
(more cannon fire) (planes' engines)
"National Anthem plays"
narrator: Yes, this really happened.
(women singing the National Anthem)
(gun fire, cannon fire, bombing)
Meantime, our warships stopped the Jap fleet.
(loud plane's engine)
Then suddenly, the trap is sprung.
(plane takes off)
Navy planes roared from the decks of our carriers.
Army bombers, Marines...under destruction over a 300-mile
battle area.
(Cannons going off) (soaring gliders) (machine guns)
The invasion forces were hit, and hit and hit again.
(bomb)
(Music)
Men and women of America, here come your neighbor's sons.
Home from the day's work. You want to meet them.
There's Jimmy Thach. Seven meatballs on his
plane.
"How many more today, Skipper?" (Jimmy holds up 4 finger in reply)
Back at Midway, Tojo swore he'd liberate the natives.
(bird "speaking"): I see just as free as they ever were.
(Music) (Marines' Hymn)
The Battle at Midway is over. Our front yard is safe.
But a big job is still to be done. Day after day, our
control plane searches for survivors. Every tiny coral
reef. Every distant mile of sea. Search for men who
fought to the last round of ammunition and flew to
the last drop of gas, and then crashed into the sea.
Eight days. Nine days. Ten days without food or
water.
His first cigarette:
- Ohh, that first drag sure tastes good.
Eleven days. Well done, Massie Hughes.
Logan Ramsey...
Frank Fessler. That's thirteen for Frank.
(Female): Get those boys to the hospital. Please do,
quickly. Get them to clean cots and cool sheets.
Get them doctors and medicine, a nurse's soft hands.
Get them to the hospital...hurry! Please!
There was a hospital. Clean, orderly. A hundred beds.
And on its roof, the red cross plainly marked, the
symbol of mercy the enemy was bound to respect.
(church bell peals (rings))
The next morning Divine services were held beside
a bomb crater that had once been a chapel.
(bell sounds again)
"My Country, 'Tis of Thee", verse 1
At eventide, we buried our heroic dead, the last salute
from their comrades and their officers.
(sound of a rifle gun or cannon going off)
Captain Simard of the Navy.
Colonel Sherman.
Major Roosevelt.
(Music) "My country, 'Tis of Thee", verse 4
"Amen"
(Drum roll)
"Anchors Aweigh" (US Navy fight song)
(Drum roll)
"Anchors Aweigh"
(US Marines' Hymn)
(Drum roll)
"You're A Grand Old Flag" (Geo. M. Cohan)
(Cymbals clanging)