New Mighty Mo tour pits ‘reel life’ against real life

In the climactic scene of the movie "Battleship," the 68-year-old USS Missouri returns to service in a last-ditch effort to save Earth from alien invaders. A 1,000-foot steel chain, each link weighing more than 100 pounds, drops the venerable warship’s anchor to the ocean floor to steady its position. Smoke shoots from its mammoth guns along with 1,900-pound projectiles. As the aliens respond with deadly force of their own, the formidable vessel makes a sharp port turn to avoid being hit.

For the past 13 years, the Mighty Mo, as the Missouri is affectionately known, has been moored at Pier F5 in Pearl Harbor as a floating museum called the Battleship Missouri Memorial. Its live ammunition was removed long ago, but thanks to computer-generated imagery, it’s appearing on the silver screen as the hero of Universal Pictures’ latest action-packed release.

Director Peter Berg oversaw 14 days of filming on the Missouri in October 2010 and again in October 2011. The new 50-minute Battleship, the Movie Tour takes participants to six locations aboard the vessel where scenes were shot (all except the Combat Engagement Center are accessible only on this tour).

"Visitors see how the ship’s boilers were fired up to produce steam to start the engines, just as they were in the movie," said Dean Kelley, the Battleship Missouri Memorial’s visitor experience manager. "They go inside Turret One to look at how the 16-inch guns were loaded at the command of Lt. Alex Hopper, the main character. They sit in the tactical officer’s chair in the Combat Engagement Center where the old salts in the movie show the ‘kids’ how to operate the ship."

At each stop, via 40-inch flat-screen TVs, tour groups watch footage of the scene being shot at that location followed by the scene as it appears in the movie. The guide explains how some of the eye-popping special effects were created and how the "sets" were actually used when the Missouri was deployed.

"It’s a behind-the-scenes view of the art of moviemaking coupled with the cachet of the Mighty Mo," said Kelley, whose background in lighting, directing and set design for live theater productions made him a valuable member of the team that developed the tour. "It’s reel life versus real life, and they’re equally fascinating."

For example, as Hopper enters the ship’s main passage, called "Broadway," lights dramatically flick on, section by section, all along the 300-foot-long corridor. "The effect is pretty cool, but in reality the lights don’t come on so magically," Kelley said. "Broadway is the Missouri’s longest passageway. It provides access to the ship’s vital organs, including the four Engine Rooms and the four Fire Rooms where steam was produced to generate the electricity that powered the ship."

In the movie, tension is high in the Aft Plotting Room as Petty Officer Cora Raikes, played by Grammy Award-winning vocalist Rihanna, waits for Hopper’s do-or-die command to launch the Mighty Mo’s last projectile. The scene reflects the room’s actual function as the main control center for the big guns. As such, it’s equipped with a gyroscope that monitored the ship’s movements so correct calculations could be made before the guns were fired, a wall of switches that determined which guns would be fired, and three analog computers as large as Sub-Zero refrigerators.

"The computers were designed in the 1920s, built in the 1930s and installed on the Missouri in the 1940s," Kelley said. "We’ve come a long way with technology since then, but as the movie shows, the old guns and computers get the job done!"

Clever touches play up the tour’s theme. Participants walk down a red carpet to pick up their tickets. They receive a backstage pass and can buy an optional "celebrity" photo that’s taken against a backdrop imprinted with the Battleship Missouri Memorial’s logo. Guides are dressed in a uniform similar to the one worn by Raikes in the movie.

Kelley is pleased "Battleship" provides an opportunity to compare the fictional story of the Mighty Mo defending Earth from aliens with its real-life role as a veteran of three of our nation’s conflicts (see sidebar).

"Building a ship of the Missouri’s size is mind-boggling," he said. "Ninety miles of piping, 15,000 valves, 900 electric motors — she’s so complicated, she required 153 tons of blueprints, all drawn by hand. Sure, in ‘Battleship’ her weaponry is enhanced with computer graphics, and she performs maneuvers that would’ve been impossible for her to actually do. But the Mighty Mo is grand and gallant, and it’s really exciting to see her come to life on the big screen — and to go on a tour that shows you how that was done."

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.

MIGHTY MO IN HISTORY

Agile vessel saw plenty of action, from WWII to the Gulf War

The Missouri’s story could itself be inspiration for a Hollywood script. Launched on Jan. 29, 1944, it was the last battleship built by the U.S. Navy and the last battleship to actively serve in any navy.

Today it is almost a septuagenarian but still imposing: 108 feet wide, 21 stories tall from keel to mast and 887 feet long (nearly the length of three football fields). Its nine 16-inch guns could hit targets 23 miles away with pinpoint accuracy. Fully loaded during World War II, it weighed 58,000 tons and carried a crew of 2,500 men. Despite its size, it was amazingly fast; it could reach a top speed of nearly 40 mph.

The Mighty Mo is best known as the site of the Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, which officially ended World War II. A decade later, after completing two tours of duty in the Korean War, it was decommissioned and mothballed. In 1986 it was recommissioned after completing a two-year modernization and refurbishment. Five years later it was deployed to the Persian Gulf where it launched missile attacks against Iraqi forces in Kuwait and Baghdad.

ON Dec. 7, 1991, the Missouri participated in ceremonies at Pearl Harbor commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack. That was its final mission; the following year it was decommissioned a second time. In 1995 it was removed from the Naval Vessel Register, and three years later it was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which is responsible for its care and preservation as a historic attraction.

The ship was towed to Hawaii from Bremerton, Wash., in June 1998, and opened to the public seven months later after undergoing repair and restoration work.

The Missouri Memorial Association doesn’t receive any federal funds to maintain the Mighty Mo. Tax-deductible donations to support its efforts can be mailed to 63 Cowpens St., Honolulu, HI 96818. For more information, call 455-1600, ext. 244, or email development@ussmissouri.org.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi