Independent Films, Film Profiles

Tiger Cruise

Tiger Cruise (August 6, 2004) is the 53rd Disney Channel Original Movie. It stars Hayden Panettiere, Bill Pullman, and Hayden's real-life brother Jansen Panettiere (this was the Panettiere siblings' first film together - their second film together was Racing Stripes where Hayden starred and Jansen's voice was used for the young stripes). The film's fictional events are intertwined with the real-life events of the September 11, 2001 attacks.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 learn to their horror 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 the safety of the people he personally knew, who had jobs in the twin towers. Maddie, while comforting passengers young and old, experiences first-hand her father's courage, honor, 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.