Movie · 2013 · Action, Drama, Thriller · 2h 14m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 7.6/10 (890.5K ratings)
Out here survival is everything.
Overview
The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.6/10
IMDb: 7.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.78/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Metacritic: 82
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Paul Greengrass
Production
Columbia Pictures, Michael De Luca Productions, Scott Rudin Productions, Trigger Street Productions
Cast
Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, Michael Chernus, David Warshofsky, Corey Johnson, Chris Mulkey, Yul Vazquez, Max Martini, Catherine Keener, Omar Berdouni, Mohamed Ali, Issak Farah Samatar, Thomas Grube, Mark Holden, San Shella, Terence Anderson, Marc Anwar
Where to watch
AMC, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A tense, propulsive hostage thriller with unusually strong procedural detail and a career-level Tom Hanks performance. It works both as survival cinema and as a grim look at global inequality, pressure, and command under duress.
Best for
Viewers who want high-anxiety, real-time suspense
Fans of grounded disaster or hostage thrillers
People interested in true-story dramas with strong performances
Audiences who like procedural realism and moral complexity
Skip if
You want a light or escapist action movie
You prefer broad villainy over morally layered conflict
You are sensitive to prolonged stress and captivity scenarios
You want a film that stays focused on one perspective only
Overview
Captain Phillips is built like a pressure cooker: lean, controlled, and relentlessly tense. Paul Greengrass turns a real-world hijacking into a nerve-fraying survival film, but the movie’s intelligence comes from how it keeps widening the frame beyond simple hero-versus-villain mechanics. The ship, the lifeboat, and the Navy response all feel like parts of one vast system grinding people down.
Worth noting
Tom Hanks gives one of his most impressive performances, especially in the final stretch, where shock, exhaustion, and professionalism all register at once. Barkhad Abdi is equally vital, bringing volatility and desperation without flattening the character into a stereotype. That balance is what gives the film its force: it understands that every side of the standoff is trapped by circumstance.
Bottom line
The result is less a conventional action movie than a grim, human-scale thriller about control, labor, and the cost of survival. It is gripping from start to finish, and it lingers because it never lets the audience forget how fragile order really is.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Daryl (4.5★) · 969 likes
I am baffled as to why an Oscar nomination has eluded Tom Hanks for his portrayal of Captain Phillips.
This does not sit well with me. Hanks was remarkable.
Rida (4★) · 945 likes
There is a moment early on in Captain Phillips when the American captain and Somali pirate leader look out through their binoculars at the same time and end up staring right at each other. Captain Phillips immediately recoils, looking visibly shaken. But the pirate continues to stare.
A while later, when the pirates take over the ship, the pirate leader tells Phillips: look at me. Look at me. I'm the captain now.
And that's when you realize that the central… more
davidehrlich (4.5★) · 885 likes
A macro-economic horror story in the guise of an exceptionally harrowing hostage thriller, Paul Greengrass’ “Captain Phillips” dramatizes a 2009 incident in which a small band of Somali pirates hijacked an American cargo ship, a siege that has since become emblematic of the recent rise in similar armed attacks. Anchored by a compellingly candid titular performance by Tom Hanks (his best on-screen work since “Catch Me if You Can”), Greengrass’ latest recreation of recent history’s most vividly violent events is… more A macro-economic horror story in the guise of an exceptionally harrowing hostage thriller, Paul Greengrass’ “Captain Phillips” dramatizes a 2009 incident in which a small band of Somali pirates hijacked an American cargo ship, a siege that has since become emblematic of the recent rise in similar armed attacks. Anchored by a compellingly candid titular performance by Tom Hanks (his best on-screen work since “Catch Me if You Can”), Greengrass’ latest recreation of recent history’s most vividly violent events is… more
Matt Singer (4.5★) · 727 likes
Amazing. And what a contrast with those summer blockbusters that offer "thrills" where computer avatars punch each other through buildings while untold thousands die just outside of every frame. Here, there's only maybe 20 characters, but every single life matters. Every single one is important. And Hanks' performance in the last scene is stunning. Kind of blown away.
Adi Cohen (3.5★) · 526 likes
When will people learn that traveling with Tom Hanks is the worst idea ever.