History Film / Midway2019

* RefugeInAudacity: The Doolittle Raid. Not only did no one anticipate a carrier strike against the Japanese Home Islands, the idea of using ''land based bombers'' to do it completely defied all tactical doctrine of the time. It caught the Japanese completely by surprise, and though only light damage was inflicted, greatly affected morale on both sides.

** The Battle of the Coral Sea is this for both sides, with neither able to claim a decisive victory. Japan won the tactical battle, sinking ''Lexington'' and badly damaging ''Yorktown'' for the loss of the light carrier ''Shōhō'' and damage to the big ''Shōkaku''. However despite their losses, the Americans managed to stall the Japanese offensive and prevent an invasion of Port Moresby and Tulagi that risked cutting supply lines to Australia. More significantly, the damage done to ''Shōkaku'' and the crippling of both her and the ''Zuikaku'''s air groups during the battle resulted in their inability to deploy for the Midway operation, robbing the Japanese of their two most modern carriers and nearly 40% of their striking power.

** Largely downplayed, the movie takes pains to show the thought process and motivations of the Imperial Japanese side of the conflict, with some talk of honor and valor not entirely different from the American side. That said, it makes a point of depicting the atrocities committed against the Chinese civilians in response to the Doolittle Raid. Overall, there seems to be a distinction between the more honourable Imperial Japanese Navy officers (though even they are shown to commit war crimes) portrayed as the [[OnlySaneMan OnlySaneMen]] dragged into a war they don't want to fight, compared to the more militaristic and brutal Imperial Japanese Army itching to punish civilians in retaliation for American attacks. TruthInTelevision; while Yamamoto did plan the attack on Pearl Harbor, before the war he consistently opposed the Army's actions in invading Manchuria, the rest of China, and also leading Japan into allying with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

* AllForNothing: Subverted by the torpedo attacks at Midway. [[spoiler:Torpedo Six loses all but three planes, with Lindsey among the dead. Torpedo Eight is virtually wiped out, with only a single pilot, George Gay, surviving the onslaught. And while not depicted, Torpedo Three from ''Yorktown'' met with similar results. Despite the appalling casualties, not ''one'' American torpedo found its mark, meaning their sacrifice amounted to nothing...for their own attacks. The subversions is that while the torpedo planes failed to inflict damage on the carriers, their assault drew off the Japanese fighters and allowed [=McClusky=] and the dive bombers to catch the carriers completely by surprise and unprotected by the fighter screens]].

*** The Japanese [=D3A=] "Val" dive bombers, which were used extensively at Pearl Harbor and Midway, including causing severe damage to ''Yorktown'' in the first wave of ''Hiryū'''s counterattack. They briefly appear for a few seconds during the Pearl Harbor attack scene (the fixed landing gear gives them away), but they never appear afterward.
*** However more egregious is lack of the American [=F4F=] Wildcat fighters. As much as the devastating blow to the Japanese fleet, Midway was important as a turning point for the Navy's fighter pilots, as it was the first opportunity for John Thach of Fighting Squadron 3 to use what would become the Thach Weave in a major combat with the Japanese.

** Layton’s warning that an attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Carrier Group is imminent is dismissed by Admiral Kimmel. However, Layton blames himself for not being assertive enough about it and assumes he’ll be replaced. The very levelheaded Nimitz recognizes how valuable he is and simply assures him to never be afraid to speak up.
** Yamamoto is this to the Army High Command. He knows that the United States has a much larger industrial capacity, and that Japan cannot possibly hope to win a long-drawn-out war against the Americans. However, the Army commanders dismiss America as a threat, believing that Americans are lazy and undisciplined.