Trivia

Kevin Dobson's character Ensign George Gay, was the sole survivor of Torpedo Squadron 8. Gay wrote a book about his experiences (Sole Survivor) and was an advisor on this film.

During the real Battle of Midway, Toshirô Mifune was in Manchuria, training to be a fighter pilot.

Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Cliff Robertson, Robert Webber, screenwriter Donald S. Sanford and director Jack Smight were all war veterans.

Most dogfight sequences come from 1942 newsreels, with considerable cropping to adapt the image to the Panavision framing.

Scenes of Lieutenant Colonel James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle's Tokyo raid at the beginning are from Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). Robert Mitchum played pilot Bob Gray in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) and Admiral William Halsey in this movie.

Robert Mitchum: was the first of the cameos to be signed for the film.