FAQ

Just back in Gloucester (Massachusetts) with a not-so-great catch, Billy Tyne (George Clooney), captain of the swordfishing boat Andrea Gail, decides to take the boat out once more before the season ends in October. Along with his five man crew—Bobby Shatford (Mark Wahlberg), David "Sully" Sullivan (William Fichtner), Dale "Murph" Murphy (John C. Reilly), Mike "Bugsy" Moran (John Hawkes), and Alfred Pierre (Allen Payne)—Billy decides this time go out further than the Grand Banks, all the way to the Flemish Cap, not knowing that there is a perfect storm brewing around them.

The movie is based on The Perfect Storm (1997), a creative nonfiction book by American author Sebastian Junger. It was adapted for the film by screenwriter William Wittliff. Linda Greenlaw has also written a book, The Hungry Ocean (2000), that details a typical month in her career as the world's only female swordfish boat captain.

The "Perfect Storm" was the name given to a real 1991 nor'easter that evolved into a hurricane off the Atlantic coast of Canada. As the movie explains it, the perfect storm was due to four weather patterns coming together: (1) Hurricane Grace moving north off the Atlantic seaboard, (2) a low south of Sable Island, (3) a cold front swooping down from Canada, and (4) the warm Gulf Stream. When these four elements met, the cold front spawned an extratropical cyclone east of Nova Scotia that intermingled with the remnants of Hurricane Grace and ultimately evolved into a hurricane itself.

Gloucester, Massachusetts is a port city located on Cape Ann, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) up the coast from Boston. The town took its name from the city of Gloucester in southwest England. Gloucester can be seen on the following map of Massachusetts.

The Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap are located in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Newfoundland, Canada. The waters of Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap are noted as excellent fishing waters due to the underlying shallow plateau and the mixing of the cold Labrador Current with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

According to the novel, Bobby and Christina (Diane Lane) got into a fight about him heading out again on the Andrea Gail. The next morning, she opens her eyes, squints up at him, and notices that one of Bobby's eyes is the color of an overripe plum. "Did I do that?" she asks. In the movie, Chris asks Bobby the same question, but no explanation is given for how he got the shiner. Most viewers conclude that they either got into an argument and she punched him or they had a rough time in bed.

In the movie, Murph and Sully didn't like each other before Sully even joined their crew. When Billy goes to recruit Sully, he immediately asks, "Did Murphy keep his site?" During an argument, Sully implies that he slept with Murph's wife, which lead to a fight. This would be a likely cause of their antagonistic relationship. It's unclear whether Sully actually had an affair with Murphy's wife or whether he was just implying it in order to upset Murph. It's possible Sully also hooked up with Murph's wife after they had separated. In any of the three scenarios, it's understandable that it would lead to tension between them.

In the book, it was Bobby and Bugsy who were fighting, not Murph and Sully.

Shark meat is considered by some to be very tasty, but the Andrea Gail was probably not set up to process shark. Sharks have no urinary tract; their urine accumulates in the blood and is then secreted through the skin. Storing a shark would have contaminated the rest of their catch.

It's a traditional Maritime Hymn called "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" (aka "The Navy Hymn" or "For Those In Peril on the Sea"), written in 1860 by Reverend William Whiting. It is now the official hymn of the US Naval Academy and is traditionally sung at funerals for sailors.