Tiger Cruise

Tiger Cruise
Directed by	Duwayne Dunham
Produced by	Bill Borden Barry Rosenbush
Written by	Anna Sandor Bruce Graham
Starring	Hayden Panettiere Bill Pullman Mehcad Brooks Troy Evans
Music by	Steve Bramson
Country	United States
Language	English
Release date	August 6, 2004
Running time	88 min.

Tiger Cruise (released August 6, 2004) is the 54th Disney Channel Original Movie. It stars Hayden Panettiere, Bill Pullman and Jansen Panettiere, Hayden's real-life younger brother. The film's fictional events are intertwined with the real-life events of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

This is the first (and to date only) film in which both Panettiere siblings appear, although both were involved with Racing Stripes (Hayden was the human star and Jansen's voice was used for the young zebra, Stripes, at the beginning of the film).

Tiger Cruise is one of only two DCOMs to receive a TV-PG rating and a "Viewer discretion" warning due to intense and/or disturbing scenes and/or images; the other is Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior. It is also another DCOM to be "inspired by true events".

Plot

Damage Controlman 2nd Class Steven Petroskey teaches family and friends about fire-fighting capabilities aboard USS Boxer (LHD-4) as part of the ship's Tiger Cruise.

Maddie Dolan, an artistic teenager from San Diego, is on a mission to convince her father Gary Dolan, a U.S. Navy Commander (O-5) and executive officer of the USS Constellation (CV-64), to throw aside his career and come home, where she believes he belongs. In order to accomplish this, Maddie accepts her father's offer to participate in Operation Tiger, a week-long cruise for military families and their friends aboard his aircraft carrier. Along the way, she meets two other teenagers boarding the Tiger Cruise: Tina, who's fascinated by military life as well as her older sister Grace (a naval aviator under Commander Dolan), and Anthony (whose older brother is a sailor), a carefree drummer who much prefers to have nothing to do with military life.

However, two days into the cruise, the passengers, to their horror, learn of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. The ship goes into high alert, with many of the passengers going through fear and confusion, but also showing mental strength. Tina finally learns the full meaning of her sister's warnings about military life not being as glamorous as she thought it was; Anthony realizes the gravity of the situation when he fears for the safety of the people he personally knew (he lives in New York City), who had jobs in the twin towers. Maddie, while comforting passengers young and old, experiences first-hand her father's honor, courage, and commitment to his family and his will to make sacrifices for his country.

The ending shows the passengers holding up a giant American flag on the deck of Tiger Cruise as a suggestion by Maddie, impressing her father and the military officers. By the end of the cruise, Maddie tells her father to "keep doing what [he's] doing" and has accepted being a military brat, a title which she had disliked earlier.

Tiger Cruise is a fictional story inspired by actual events aboard the USS Constellation (CV-64), as well as 9/11.

Inconsistencies

When the Constellation arrives in San Diego, California, Downtown San Diego is featured in the background showing the Twin Hyatts where only the first one had been completed by September 2001, roughly around the time of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Much of the movie was shot on board USS John C. Stennis with additionally filming on board USS Nimitz (the Constellation was decommissioned before production started). The hull numbers of all three ships are visible at various times throughout the movie. Actual crew members of the Stennis were used as extras, and a few can be seen wearing Stennis ballcaps instead of the prop Constellation caps.

The shots in the beginning of the movie featuring Maddie's home was filmed at Orange Lake Country Club in Kissimmee, Florida.

Music

• My Hero Is You by Hayden Panettiere

Cast

• Hayden Panettiere as Maddie Dolan
• Bill Pullman as Cmdr. Gary Dolan
• Bianca Collins as Tina
• Nathaniel Lee, Jr. as Anthony
• Mercedes Colon as Grace
• Mehcad Brooks as Kenny
• Jansen Panettiere as Joey
• Lisa Dean Ryan as Diane
• Troy Evans as Chuck Horner
• Ty O'Neal as Danny Horner
• Chris Ellis as Capt. Anderson
• Gary Weeks as Lt. Tom Hillman
• Barbara Niven as Kate Dolan
• Jennette McCurdy as Kiley Dolan
• E. Matthew "Whiz" Buckley as Pilot Brown
• Mark Christopher Lawrence as Pop
• Ben Schenk as Tiger Kid

External links

• Tiger Cruise at the Internet Movie Database