In April of 2009, a band of pirates headed by a diminutive 18-year-old attacked and held hostage for 5 days, the American cargo ship M V Maersk Alabama. This was around 240 miles off of the Somali coast, and was big news, especially because apparently no American ship had been attacked by pirates for well over a century prior to the incident.
So, anyway, the attack happened, and the captain lived to tell the tale, and make big bucks off of it. And, he got Tom Hanks to play him. If that isn't a real sweet deal in exchange for having to play jump-rope with life and death, w....