Synopsis

In 1960, a group of teenage students joins the Ocean Academy, a floating school led by demanding skipper Christopher Sheldon. Their yearlong voyage aboard the brigantine Albatross brings discipline, friendship, romance, and dangerous lessons in responsibility. Near the end of the journey, a sudden white squall overturns the ship, forcing the survivors to face loss, guilt, and the consequences of their skipper's decisions.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was inspired by the real 1961 sinking of the school ship Albatross. Six of the nineteen people aboard died, while the survivors spent two days in lifeboats before being rescued.

• Screenwriter Todd Robinson developed the story after hearing about the disaster from Chuck Gieg, one of the surviving students. Gieg later worked with Robinson during the screenplay's development and served as a production consultant.

• The real Albatross was represented on screen by the Eye of the Wind, a 110-foot topsail schooner built in Germany.

• The production spent about four months filming aboard the schooner in the Caribbean. Locations included St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Grenada, with additional work completed in South Africa, the United States, and Malta.

• The climactic storm was filmed in Malta using a full-size ship mock-up inside a three-million-gallon water tank. The effects setup included powerful wind machines designed to create winds of roughly 600 miles per hour.

• Jeff Bridges had previously served in the United States Coast Guard, giving him practical familiarity with boats and nautical routines.

• The Danish schoolgirls were originally written as French characters. The change was made after Danish actress Camilla Overbye Roos was cast but could not speak French; she helped locate other Danish performers for the production.

• The real Tod Johnstone, one of the Albatross survivors, appears in the film as his own father.

• Maurice Jarre was initially associated with the score, but the finished music was composed by Jeff Rona, with Hans Zimmer serving as producer of the score. Sting's "Valparaiso" plays over the end credits.