The film is adapted from a true story. Nicolas Cage will play Colonel Charles Butler McEvoy. The ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine torpedo in the South Pacific in July 1945, carrying two atomic bombs. About 300 of the 1,196 officers and soldiers on board sank with the ship, and the rest faced sun exposure, dehydration, salt water erosion and shark attacks while waiting for rescue. Only 317 were rescued, and McEvoy was sent to a military court and was not rehabilitated until half a century later.