Greyhound Trivia | 40 facts about the movie

«Greyhound» is a 2020 American war film directed by Aaron Schneider. The film is based on the 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester

Let’s find out more about the movie!

1. Greyhound is a 2020 American war film.
2. It was directed by Aaron Schneider and starring Tom Hanks.
3. Tom Hanks also wrote the screenplay.
4. The film is based on the 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester.
5. Also stars Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan, and Elisabeth Shue.
6. The film follows a commander in the US Navy on his assignment commanding a multi-national escort destroyer group of four defending an Allied convoy of thirty-seven merchant and troop ships. They come under attack by German U-boats in early 1942 during the Battle of the Atlantic, only a few months after the United States officially entered World War II.
7. Greyhound was initially scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on June 12, 2020, by Sony Pictures Releasing, but was eventually canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic after previously being delayed indefinitely.
8. The distribution rights were then sold to Apple TV+.
9. Apple released the film digitally on July 10, 2020.
10. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the action sequences and effective use of its 90-minute runtime.
11. At the 93rd Academy Awards, the film earned a nomination for Best Sound.
12. A sequel is in production.
13. When the Captain refers to “Huff-Duff,” he is referring to high-frequency direction-finding. This was a key method of how Allied naval forces detected and tracked German U-Boats: the Kriegsmarine’s U-boat fleet maintained a high amount of radio traffic with its shore command and with each other for their Wolfpack tactics against Allied shipping. Huff-Duff allowed Allied naval ships to detect those radio transmissions and determine the location of those transmitting ships to attack them.
14. Filming locations include the U.S.S. Kidd in Baton Rouge, LA and HMCS Montréal of the Royal Canadian Navy.
15. The movie shows the U-Boat passing close to the Greyhound to be under her cannon and immune to fire, however, in reality when this naval tactic was performed, the Captain would order hard rudder to cause the boat to list thereby bringing the cannon down to bear. This is a centuries-old practiced counter maneuver. (This maneuver is demonstrated in many an old pirate or naval battle movie.)
16. The real convoy HX 25 sailed from Halifax on March 5, 1940, and arrived Liverpool on March 20, 1940. It consisted of 25 merchant ships (4 of which were not present at the start of the convoy), one ocean escort, and 4 and 6 convoy escorts (depending on the date). These ships became stragglers and one of those came under aerial attack. Otherwise there were no attacks or losses to the convoy.
17. One of the ships seen in the movie is a digital recreation of HMCS Sackville. The last remaining Canadian corvette, it is permanently docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
18. Some of the filming of this movie was done aboard Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) “Montreal” in the North Atlantic in January 2018 with a film crew of 9 and 10 cameras.
19. To prepare for the film, director Aaron Schneider put together a website of all Naval-related information in use at the time depicted in the film. He effectively created a database for the cast and crew.
20. USS Keeling (call-sign: Greyhound) is a fictitious boat and call-sign, however the hull number of DD548, (seen clearly after the 3 destroyers depart the convoy) was a canceled Fletcher class destroyer. The first Fletcher class destroyer was commissioned 4th June 1942.
21. Based on the novel “The Good Shepherd” by C.S. Forester
22. It was originally a theatrical release, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead switched to an APPLE TV+ Original Movie.
23. Captain Krause refers to his upcoming training in the Caribbean with the quip, “Rum and coca-cola.” This refers to a popular song of the day by the The Andrews Sisters.
24. The escort call-signed Eagle has a radio operator with an English accent. A blink and you’ll miss it shot reveals the ship to be a Polish Grom-class destroyer, implying the radio operator is an Englishman translating for the Polish crew.
25. A doodle can be seen with the accompanying text ‘Kilroy was here’. This is a symbol that became popular during this time, where it was custom for American serviceman to draw it wherever they were stationed.
26. Apple allegedly paid $70 million to acquire the film from Sony.
27. The plot was based on the The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester (Cecil Louis Troughton Smith). He is best known for the Horatio Hornblower 18th century British seafaring novels. Eight of them were made into a televised movie series, and The African Queen and Hunting the Bismarck, were turned into major motion pictures.
28. Apple said that this had the biggest debut on their Apple TV+ platform when it was first released.
29. The U-boats are seen firing forward deck guns that are positioned closer to the bow indicating the class of U-Boat would be Type IX, however, the conning tower shape/design is that of a Type IA which had the deck gun mounted closer to the tower.
30. Thomas Kretschmann, the voice of the u-boat Grey Wolf, plays submarine skipper Wassner in the film U-571.
31. Notice that the other two escort ships working in close proximity with “Greyhound” are “Dicky” (Canadian) and “Harry” (British). Tom Hanks is the captain of the title ship, thus “Tom, Dick and Harry.”
32. “The Good Shepherd” movie based on the novel of the same name was the last project intended for Humphrey Bogart before he passed away. The movie could actually be seen as a prequel to “The Caine Mutiny” – Captain Queeg mentions “The way those subs ganged up on us, I thought they had it in for me, personally”. The overbearing stress of escort service may be one of the triggers for his breakdown.
33. The word “conn” or “con” comes from “conduct” as in “The captain has the conduct of the ship” and “The U-boat’s conning tower”.
34. The prayer that Tom Hanks’ character, Commander Ernest Krause, prays at the beginning of his day is Martin Luther’s morning prayer: “I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I pray that you would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you. For into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.”
35. The film boasts 14 executive producers.
36. The name U-boat comes from the German Unterseeboot (“undersea boat”) .
37. The name XO comes from “Executive (or ‘X-ecutive’) Officer”.
38. In both Greyhound and Finch, both Apple TV movies, Tom Hanks’ character eats peaches. This could be a reference to the Rockford Peaches, the team Hanks managed in A League of their Own.
39. Towards the end of the film when Greyhound and her fellow escorts are redirected to Northern Ireland the film makers adhere to the current UK media convention of alternating the use of Londonderry and Derry when referring to the city. The two names are used by the two main communities in Northern Ireland, Irish Nationalists and British Unionists.
40. Pre-production photography took place in January 2018 at sea aboard HMCS Montréal, a frigate of the Royal Canadian Navy.