The Final Countdown (film)

The Final Countdown is a 1980 alternate history science fiction film about a modern aircraft carrier that travels through time to a day before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Produced by Peter Vincent Douglas and directed by Don Taylor, the film stars Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, James Farentino, Katharine Ross and Charles Durning. This was Taylors final film.

After a Grumman E2 Hawkeye discovers the Japanese fleet poised to attack Pearl Harbor, they eventually realize that they have been transported back in time to December 6, one day before the infamous attack. Captain Yelland has to decide whether to destroy the Japanese fleet and alter the course of history, or to stand by and allow history to proceed as normal. After some intense debates on board, the Captain settles the dispute by going by the book to defend America past, present, and future if attacked, and otherwise, to obey the orders of the thencurrent commanderinchief, Franklin D. Roosevelt.The civilians and the Zero pilot are kept isolated, but while being questioned, the Japanese pilot grabs a weapon, kills his guards and holds the other survivors, the CAG, and Lasky as hostages, threatening to kill them unless he is given access to a radio so he can warn his commanding officers about the Nimitz which is far more powerful than anything in the Japanese fleet. When Captain Yelland and the crew agree with the Zero pilots demand, he gets suspicious and when he orders the hostages to walk from the interrogation room to Yellands import cabin, he suddenly grabs Laurel at gunpoint, threatening to kill her first if they attempt to trick him. The crisis is defused only after the CAG reveals enough of what he knows of history to distract the pilot long enough for Marines to kill him, but this also reveals the truth to the yacht survivors. The senator demands and is granted access to a radio to warn Pearl Harbor about the imminent attack, but when he identifies himself as aboard the USS Nimitz, the radio operator assumes it is a hoax, as Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was then still on active duty in the U.S. Navy. Meanwhile, Laurel and Commander Owens become attracted to each other. ........

Source: Wikipedia