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Wake Island

 Wake Island
type
TVTItem
 Wake Island
label
Wake Island
 Wake Island
page
WakeIsland
 Wake Island
comment
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Wake Island is a 1942 war film directed by John Farrow, starring Brian Donlevy, Macdonald Carey, Robert Preston, Albert Dekker, and William Bendix. It is a dramatization of the siege of Wake Island in December of 1941, made less than six months after the end of the Real Life battle.Major Geoffrey Caton (Donlevy) of the United States Marine Corps bids farewell to his wife and daughter in Hawaii and heads off to command the Marine garrison at Wake Island, a tiny atoll at the far western edge of the American naval posts in the Pacific Ocean. He clashes with McCloskey (Dekker), the head of the civilian construction crew on Wake, who bristles at the idea that he should follow military orders. Among the Marines already on Wake are Privates Randall (Bendix) and Doyle (Preston), two goofy cut-ups who are always getting into trouble. Randall is due to leave the island and the Marine Corps with the next clipper ship, whereupon he will marry his girlfriend Myrtle.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Barely a week after Caton's arrival, the United States enters World War II with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Wake Island—alone, exposed, over a thousand miles from the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii that probably can't help anyway after Pearl Harbor, manned by a garrison of only 400 Marines and a squadron of only eight airplanes—is mortally threatened. Caton and his men manage to shock the world by repulsing a Japanese landing on December 12. However, Caton is well aware that it is only a matter of time before the Japanese will come again, in overwhelming force.
 Wake Island
fetched
2021-09-15T06:24:28Z
 Wake Island
parsed
2021-09-15T06:24:28Z
 Wake Island
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Wake Island / int_1c21e3fb
type
The Place
 Wake Island / int_1c21e3fb
comment
The Place: Wake Island, a tiny, isolated atoll in the west-central Pacific. Flat and sandy and exceedingly unsuited for defending against infantry amphibious landings.
 Wake Island / int_1c21e3fb
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1.0
 Wake Island / int_1c21e3fb
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 Wake Island
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Wake Island / int_1c21e3fb
 Wake Island / int_1c79ae8c
type
Those Two Guys
 Wake Island / int_1c79ae8c
comment
Those Two Guys: Randall and Doyle, always goofing around together, sharing the same tent, sharing the same foxhole, usually getting into trouble together.
 Wake Island / int_1c79ae8c
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1.0
 Wake Island / int_1c79ae8c
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 Wake Island
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Wake Island / int_1c79ae8c
 Wake Island / int_1f52ab08
type
Unreveal Angle
 Wake Island / int_1f52ab08
comment
Unreveal Angle: The framed photo of Randall's fiancée Myrtle. Doyle looks and cringes. He then turns the photo upside down. When Randall protests, Doyle says it looks better that way.
 Wake Island / int_1f52ab08
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1.0
 Wake Island / int_1f52ab08
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 Wake Island
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Wake Island / int_1f52ab08
 Wake Island / int_3931557e
type
Storming the Beaches
 Wake Island / int_3931557e
comment
Storming the Beaches: A villainous example, as the Japanese attempt this twice and succeed the second time.
 Wake Island / int_3931557e
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1.0
 Wake Island / int_3931557e
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 Wake Island
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Wake Island / int_3931557e
 Wake Island / int_3e9403d8
type
Fighter-Launching Sequence
 Wake Island / int_3e9403d8
comment
Fighter-Launching Sequence: We see the precious few fighter planes on Wake Island take off to meet the Japanese.
 Wake Island / int_3e9403d8
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 Wake Island / int_3e9403d8
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Wake Island / int_3e9403d8
 Wake Island / int_4856ac40
type
Stock Footage
 Wake Island / int_4856ac40
comment
Stock Footage: Footage of the Real Life envoy Kurusu arriving in Washington; stock footage of naval ships firing guns.
 Wake Island / int_4856ac40
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Wake Island / int_4856ac40
 Wake Island / int_4e3d253b
type
Downer Ending
 Wake Island / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: The Japanese succeed in taking Wake Island, and wipe out the entire American garrison in the process.
 Wake Island / int_4e3d253b
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 Wake Island / int_4e3d253b
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Wake Island / int_4e3d253b
 Wake Island / int_52989fee
type
Narrator
 Wake Island / int_52989fee
comment
Narrator: Briefly at the beginning, where a narrator explains what and where Wake Island is, and at the end, where the narrator returns to promise revenge.
 Wake Island / int_52989fee
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 Wake Island / int_52989fee
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Wake Island / int_52989fee
 Wake Island / int_56515a39
type
Artistic License – History
 Wake Island / int_56515a39
comment
Artistic License – History All the names were changed. The Real Life commander of the Marine garrison was USMC Major James Devereaux. The naval officer in charge of Wake was Commander Winfield Cunningham, while in the movie he's Commander Roberts. In real life the person corresponding to Maj. Caton, Devereux, had been at Wake since August, while the overall commanding officer, Cunningham, was the one who arrived just 10 days before the outbreak of war. In the movie Commander Roberts, CO on Wake, is killed in the first Japanese raid, leaving Caton to lead the garrison. In real life Commander Cunningham led the entire defense of Wake Island from beginning to end. Most significantly, the entire garrison fights to the last man against the Japanese. In Real Life Commander Cunningham surrendered the garrison after 1500 Japanese marines succeeded in landing and it became clear that further resistance was useless. The sailors and Maries captured on Wake suffered terribly in nearly four years of captivity but most of them survived the war. The same was not true of 98 civilian workers held on Wake by the Japanese to work as slave labor; they were all massacred in 1943 when the Japanese commander on Wake feared the Americans were going to retake the island.note In Real Life the United States instead left the Japanese garrison to starve, and they remained there until the end of the war.
 Wake Island / int_56515a39
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 Wake Island / int_56515a39
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Wake Island / int_56515a39
 Wake Island / int_9843be73
type
As You Know
 Wake Island / int_9843be73
comment
As You Know...: McCloskey helpfully says "You're a soldier and I'm a civilian!"to Caton, while refusing to follow Navy or Marine orders.
 Wake Island / int_9843be73
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 Wake Island / int_9843be73
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Wake Island / int_9843be73
 Wake Island / int_a8559a9f
type
RealLife
 Wake Island / int_a8559a9f
comment
Most significantly, the entire garrison fights to the last man against the Japanese. In Real Life Commander Cunningham surrendered the garrison after 1500 Japanese marines succeeded in landing and it became clear that further resistance was useless. The sailors and Maries captured on Wake suffered terribly in nearly four years of captivity but most of them survived the war. The same was not true of 98 civilian workers held on Wake by the Japanese to work as slave labor; they were all massacred in 1943 when the Japanese commander on Wake feared the Americans were going to retake the island.note In Real Life the United States instead left the Japanese garrison to starve, and they remained there until the end of the war.
 Wake Island / int_a8559a9f
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 Wake Island / int_a8559a9f
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Wake Island / int_a8559a9f
 Wake Island / int_b5b4c0cf
type
The End
 Wake Island / int_b5b4c0cf
comment
The End: The narrator returns at the end to insist that "this is not the end" and promise "revenge" for Wake.
 Wake Island / int_b5b4c0cf
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Wake Island / int_b5b4c0cf
 Wake Island / int_b5c562be
type
Face Framed in Shadow
 Wake Island / int_b5c562be
comment
Face Framed in Shadow: How Caton is framed as he tells Lt. Cameron of the death of his wife, killed during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
 Wake Island / int_b5c562be
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 Wake Island / int_b5c562be
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Wake Island / int_b5c562be
 Wake Island / int_c8a8c595
type
Retirony
 Wake Island / int_c8a8c595
comment
Retirony: Randall is due to ship out and leave the Navy on Dec. 8, 1941, the day the war starts. (Wake Island is so far west it's on the other side of the International Date Line.) He is in the process of dictating a telegram to his fiancée when the telegrapher receives the alert about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
 Wake Island / int_c8a8c595
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 Wake Island / int_c8a8c595
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Wake Island / int_c8a8c595
 Wake Island / int_dd45df38
type
Unfortunate Names
 Wake Island / int_dd45df38
comment
Unfortunate Names: A Marine corporal on Wake is named "Goebbels". Randall and Doyle love to infuriate him by shouting "Sieg heil!" behind his back.
 Wake Island / int_dd45df38
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 Wake Island / int_dd45df38
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Wake Island / int_dd45df38
 Wake Island / int_f7cee9b
type
Last Stand
 Wake Island / int_f7cee9b
comment
Last Stand: The garrison on Wake fights to the last man when the Japanese make their second attack. Caton leaves his command post and mans a foxhole, where he's killed along with McCloskey.
 Wake Island / int_f7cee9b
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Wake Island / int_f7cee9b
 Wake Island / int_fdeed2aa
type
Old-School Dogfight
 Wake Island / int_fdeed2aa
comment
Old-School Dogfight: There are dogfights between the four American fighter planes and the waves of Japanese attacking them. The last American pilot is machine-gunned in the air by a Zero as he's parachuting to ground.
 Wake Island / int_fdeed2aa
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Wake Island / int_fdeed2aa
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Wake Island

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Wake Island
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Storming the Beaches / int_536df7d3
 Wake Island
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The Place / int_536df7d3